Challenges and Rights: Indigenous Education in Australian Sociology

This literature review examines the educational experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia, highlighting disparities and challenges. It explores the historical context, cultural biases, and systemic inequalities that impact educational outcomes, including discussions on the closing the gap initiative. The review analyzes various research articles and studies, emphasizing the importance of cultural knowledge, social work interventions, and the recognition of education as a fundamental right. The assignment addresses issues such as racism, lack of resources, and the need for culturally responsive practices to improve educational opportunities, health outcomes, and social justice for indigenous communities. The review also points out the importance of educational programs that consider unique geographical, linguistic, and economic factors to ensure academic success and community development. Furthermore, it investigates the factors that hinder educational attainment and the ongoing need for effective strategies to eliminate discrimination and secure educational rights for Aboriginal people.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
SOCIOLOGY
Name of the student
Name of the university
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The aboriginal and the Torres Strait islander people residing in Australia experiences a
educational trajectory that tends to differ from the non-indigenous Australians. Being the
heterogeneous group with a wide and diverse social norms, cultural practices and the
expectations, the efforts regarding the improvement of the educational plight are generally faced
with a wide range of the degree of the difficulty and challenges (Bell, 1998). This assignment
highlights over the issue and the challenges regarding indigenous education and also the primary
necessary education for the aboriginal children which has become one of the increasingly
essential priority policy in Australia among the social workers (Pattnaik, 2005). This furthermore
includes the demonstration of the Australia together with their commitment for ensuring of the
better access to the education for all the children, adolescents of the aboriginal community
residing in Australia (Macklem, 1997). One of the important measure of the social works in this
regard together with the help of the government of the country and the united Nations is the
formation and the initiative towards the strategy of the closing the gap initiative. This is because
essential and quality range of the education among the children results in improvement outcomes
of the aboriginal community.
The literature review of the assignment aims to focus over the status of the educational
rights of the aboriginal community people residing in Australia. According to Zubrick and
Silburn (2006) , the author provides the perspective regarding education as the fundamental right
and the practice of the inequality in the opportunities of education and also the outcomes of the
Indigenous people. The author furthermore attempts to trace the rise and he development of the
understanding of the causes of the educational inequality irrespective of the fundamental right in
case of the aboriginal Australians (Beresford et al. 2012). The article begins with the brief
overview regarding education as the greatest and most important engine for the personal

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development. The author highlighted the fact that there has been some of the tactic acceptance
regarding the non achievements of the status and the standards of education by aboriginal
children and the adolescents. There lies a need for the acknowledgement of the commitment of
the individual and the success for the aboriginals since these have affected more than three of the
generation of the aboriginal young people and the children who tends to have very limited access
towards the employment, lifelong learning and the economic opportunities. Gair, Miles and
Thomson (2005) in their article described an action project of the research that has been
undertaken in the country of Australia for confronting the social work curriculum regarding the
need for the basic rights and the necessities of the indigenous population residing in Australia
(Schwab,2018). The authors of the article projected the scenario where irrespective of the
undertaking of the various measures and the strategies, several of the indigenous students within
the country are devoid of the proper studies and the educational rights. The author within the
context of the article refer to some of the common experiences of the invisibility of people
within the curriculum of the social work. The article furthermore highlights over the
discrimination related to the cultural biasedness, power ,gender in the connection and relation to
the indigenous peoples. In the article by Harms et al. (2011) the authors explains over the right
of education of the aboriginal and the indigenous people in Australia. The authors furthermore
explained the scenario of social workers working with the aboriginal communities for addressing
the socio economic advantages and addressing the challenges of health that are experienced by
the aboriginal people in Australia. The need or the requirements for the practices that are
culturally responsive has been well recognized as one of the historic barrier towards effective
practices of the social workers and the persistence of knowledge. The article describes the
important knowledge that is required for the social workers for possessing for working with the

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aboriginal people and fighting for the fundamental right of the aboriginal people. Some of the
major areas of the target that the social workers must need to focus includes the cultural
knowledge, the impact of the social work intervention and the history of the indigenous and
Torres Strait islander people. The authors of the article explained three of the major factors that
possess as barriers towards the implementation of the fundamental rights of education among the
aboriginal. These are the racism, lack of the extensive resources of the teaching materials, factors
related to knowledge and skills and the attitudinal factors. Durey (2010) in their research study
highlighted the issue and the challenge of the aboriginal individuals residing in Australia
regarding the unequal mortality rates among the aboriginal and the non-aboriginal individuals.
The paper discusses the education of the health professionals and the students in Australia who
belong from the aboriginal origin in a culturally respectful; scenario that is free from racism with
improved level of practice and lessening of the disparities among both the cultures (Battiste et al.
2015). Disparities in the mortality and the morbidity rates among the aboriginal and the Torres
Strait Islander people are mainly due to the illiteracy and the lack of proper education of the
community people. The authors of the article highlighted education as one of the essential
targeting the relation among education and health of the community people in Australia. Carr-
Stewart (2001) in his article illustrated over the intent and the expectations of education as one of
the essential treaty right by original signatories and the current divergent understandings. The
article focused over the demand of the first nations regarding the fulfillment of the education
right of the treaty for all individuals in the globe. Education has been one of the major and
essential tool for the propagation and bringing change to the world and also for the society.
Pattnaik (2005) in the article argued regarding the need for designing some of the educational
programs that addresses the unique geographical, linguistic, cultural affiliations and economic

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factors of each of the indigenous child and the community. As per the reports of the United
Nations, more than 300 million indigenous individual inhabits in more than 70 of the countries
through out the globe and the fact from the perspective of the Darwinism has led towards the
disappearance of many of the aboriginal communities with the prompting concern regarding the
non protection of the rights of the indigenous community. The article furthermore highlighted
education as one of the essential human right that is the key towards the survival and the
prosperity of the group of the indigenous people, the preservation of the values related to cultures
and the elimination of the discrimination and the realization of the social justices (Asch and
Macklem, 1991). The author explains education as one of the ray of hope for the discriminated
and the marginalized aboriginal inhabitants of the land. The article furthermore explained the
factors preventing the community people and the children from their gaining of their academic
success. Regarding the context of the right of the education for the aboriginal and Torres Strait
islander people, Cherubini et al. (2010) in his article described with the context of the closing the
gap strategy that has been taken by the UN ad the government of Australia. The article argues
with the explanation regarding the crisis that is relevant to the publicly funded education of the
students of the aboriginal status in Ontario. The article presents the details regarding the crisis
and the analysis of the policy statements that is released by the ministry of education for
addressing the crisis of the aboriginal from barring from their fundament rights. With the
widening of the void, the article presents the scenario where irrespective of the implementation
of the policy related to the closing the gap, the improvement of the opportunities of the
aboriginal to avail the educational facilities has not improved and the aboriginal students are still
being discriminated. Arguing the fact regarding the educational rights attainment of the
indigenous people in Australia, Harding (2006) in his article explained the understanding of the

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discourses regarding the issues of the aboriginal which has been the first step towards the
situational of the aboriginal policy matters with the contemporary social and the political context.
The author in the article used the critical discourse analysis regarding the examination of the
aboriginal and the non aboriginals (St. Denis, 2011). Some of the broader features that has been
explained in the article includes the elucidation of enjoying the rights of the aboriginals together
with the continuation of the discrimination practices towards them which are holding the
community back to flourish and reach towards success.
The gap of the literature review lies on the fact that irrespective of the various measures
and the identification of the need to prevent the practices of the discrimination towards the
aboriginal community, these individual are still facing the same issues (Harms et al. 2011). The
authors of the above discussion did not mention any of the remedies or further effective plan
which would permanently remove the barrier for the aboriginal people towards availing their
fundamental rights of education so that they reach towards academic success and do better for
the development of their community.

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References
Asch, M., & Macklem, P. (1991). Aboriginal rights and Canadian sovereignty: an essay on R. v.
Sparrow. Alta. L. Rev., 29, 498.
Battiste, M., Bell, L., Findlay, I. M., Findlay, L., & Henderson, J. S. Y. (2005). Thinking place:
Animating the Indigenous humanities in education. The Australian Journal of Indigenous
Education, 34, 7-19.
Bell, C. (1998). New directions in the law of aboriginal rights. Can. B. Rev., 77, 36.
Beresford, Q., Partington, G., & Gower, G. (2012). Reform and resistance in Aboriginal
education. Reform and Resistance in Aboriginal Education, 498.
Carr-Stewart, S. (2001). A treaty right to education. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue
canadienne de l'education, 125-143.
Cherubini, L., Hodson, J., Manley-Casimir, M., & Muir, C. (2010). " Closing the Gap" at the
Peril of Widening the Void: Implications of the Ontario Ministry of Education's Policy
for Aboriginal Education. Canadian Journal of Education, 33(2), 329-355.
Durey, A. (2010). Reducing racism in Aboriginal health care in Australia: where does cultural
education fit?. Australian and New Zealand journal of public health, 34, S87-S92.
Gair, S., Miles, D., & Thomson, J. (2005). Reconciling indigenous and non-indigenous
knowledges in social work education: Action and legitimacy. Journal of social work
education, 41(2), 179-190.

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Harding, R. (2006). Historical representations of Aboriginal people in the Canadian news media.
Discourse & Society, 17(2), 205-235.
Harms, L., Middleton, J., Whyte, J., Anderson, I., Clarke, A., Sloan, J., ... & Smith, M. (2011).
Social work with Aboriginal clients: Perspectives on educational preparation and
practice. Australian Social Work, 64(2), 156-168.
Macklem, P. (1997). Aboriginal rights and state obligations. Alta. L. Rev., 36, 97.
Pattnaik, J. (2005). Protecting educational rights of the Aboriginal and Indigenous child: Global
challenges and efforts: An introduction. Childhood Education, 81(6), 314-318.
Schwab, R. (2018). Educational'failure'and educational'success' in an Aboriginal community.
Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), The
Australian National University.
St. Denis, V. (2011). Silencing Aboriginal curricular content and perspectives through
multiculturalism:“There are other children here”. Review of education, pedagogy, and
cultural studies, 33(4), 306-317.
Zubrick, S., & Silburn, S. (2006). Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health survey: improving
the Educational experiences of Aboriginal children and Young people. Telethon Institute
for Child Health Research and Curtin University of Technology.