Sociology 1 Essay: Indigenous Education and Colonial Impact

This sociology essay examines the historical and contemporary landscape of Indigenous education in Australia. It begins by exploring the colonial foundations of education, detailing the early establishment of schools by the Anglican Church and the subsequent development of educational structures. The essay highlights the impact of these early models, including the influence of religious and moral instruction, and the challenges in funding and coordinating education across the expanding colony. It then delves into the principles of decolonization, focusing on the need to remove racism from educational structures and the importance of incorporating Indigenous perspectives and methodologies. The essay discusses the role of Indigenous teachers and the significance of creating space for the articulation of Aboriginal knowledge and practice, emphasizing the need to address the historical imbalance of power in educational discourse. The essay concludes by summarizing the evolution of the Australian education system and the ongoing efforts to integrate Indigenous students into society while acknowledging and respecting their cultural heritage. The essay references key academic sources to support its arguments.

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Sociology 1
Introduction
Recent politics, evaluation and educational developments in Australia have been
contributing to the renewed emphasis of indigenous school students on their academic
achievements, especially when compared to the wider population of students.
Body
Colonial foundations of education
The first Australian educational period was dominated by a convicted society's social and
ethical needs which began to form a free minority in 1810. Conversion and moral restraint are
problems as an exiled adult society. The Anglican Church, therefore, provided Reverend Richard
Johnson, the first colonial chaplain schoolmaster. His educational efforts included sermons and
lectures in the Bible, literature from the first flood and a range of moral and biblical texts. He
also supervised the first hut schools, one in 1789 in Sydney and two years afterward in
Parramatta (Vass, 2012).
No practical model was available outside of the United Kingdom to fund or coordinate
religion. Glebes (400 acres for ministerial support and 200 for a schoolmaster) have therefore
been developed in each center for growth. Earlier, in the sense of an effort to extend to Australia
the hegemony of Anglicans in England by depriving it of a tenth of all surveyed land, the Church
and School Corporation established under Thomas Hobbes Scott in 1825 was formalized in that
agreement. The problem with the model was that most lands were either uncertain or, if settled,
unregulated, leaving the finances behind population growth and education demand.

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By 1814 13 elementary schools in the broad arc of the Moreton Bay north to Hobart
south were funded completely or partly by the state. Early on, boarding and girls' schools were
founded by the spread of settlement (and by danger to a male, bordering society). While the
number of students was limited, private and individual training was the preferred form. More
than 3,000 children (26% of the population in the colony) increased the number of students, and
various methods were used in this area. Crook's Academy, for example, has taken UK charitable
approaches, such as the tracking system from Lancastria.
When we try to decolonize the damage done, the two principles that can be applied are
as follows (Guenther, McRae-Williams, Osborne & Williams, 2017).
principles
Remove Racism from the structure
Take the inherent racism in any colonial structure as a given. "Racism' takes place when people
can disadvantage other people with the power to influence the lives of peoples.' Is our
complicity, therefore, jeopardizing our capacity to restrict acts of racist harm? America argues
that theoreticians of non-Indian American races tend to legitimize racism against Indians by
focusing on white covert racism, resulting in color blindness of certain forms against indigenous
peoples. She argues similarly concerning the Australian context. Aboriginal or Torres Strait
Islanders are the majority and suffer from color blindness and prejudice.
Using more Indigenous people as teachers
Non-indigenous scientists can not adopt indigenous methodology or claim to be working
from the indigenous point of view. They can, however, take positions that are respectful of the
objectives and needs of the indigenous peoples. For example, Osborne (future), by privileging

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Anangu voices in educational dialogue, attempted to 'stage standpoint dialogue' through their talk
about diverse histories, cultural, linguistic and colonial interactions but also a common Anangu
identity, law, and cultural collective. It can be argued that "Insiders," which are part of the group
investigated, are in a better position than "outsiders" to undertake meaningful research.
Conclusion
The primary and secondary education in Australia has thus acceded to a threefold format:
Catholic, low-paid, private grammar schools, Catholic and Protestant (such as St. Ignatius and
Trinity of Sydney or Brisbane grammar schools), and a growing state structure eventually
expanded into rural villages. Now, the aboriginals have to mix in society for education. "Non-
Indians will do it with us because they don't even know how to replicate this colonial history.
And it enters your consciousness, it enters your blood, and from then on, we will continue to
have a correct relationship. The issue with discourse in the past is that much of it is based on
white researchers' words, so it is very hard to grasp the Aboriginal viewpoints so build the space
for the open and accommodating articulation of Aboriginal knowledge and practice.

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References
Guenther, J., McRae-Williams, E., Osborne, S., & Williams, E. (2017). Decolonizing colonial
education researchers in ‘near remote’ parts of Australia. The Relationality Of Race In
Education Research, 108-119.
Vass, G. (2012). ‘So, What is Wrong with Indigenous Education?’ Perspective, Position, and
Power Beyond a Deficit Discourse. The Australian Journal Of Indigenous Education, 41(2),
85-96.