Indigenous-Education-Review_DRAFT

Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory
Bruce Wilson
instruction should be principally face‐to‐face, though it can be supplemented online to a limited
extent;
each school should be funded to appoint a coordinator with time release to support candidates;
essential school support arrangements should be documented by the Department, including time
allocations for study, physical arrangements to support study (e.g. a location in the school and IT
access) and support responsibilities of school staff;
requirements of candidates should be clearly stated including expectations about attendance,
completion of work requirements and participation in school activities;
candidates should be study the same pre‐service education programs as all pre‐service teachers;
assessment and supervision arrangements and standards for completion should be the same as
for other pre‐service teachers; and
additional coaching and advisory support (effectively a case management approach) should be
provided through the Department, the school and the tertiary institution to ensure that potential
difficulties for Indigenous candidates are managed and resolved.
Most critically, the department will have to demonstrate strong support for the program, maintain
funding over an extended period and guarantee that graduates will have access to positions in schools.
Initiatives will also be required to encourage school graduates and possibly Indigenous people from
other areas of the workforce to undertake teacher training. The current MIT Cadetships program is
aimed at this potential source, but there are at present only six recipients. The MIT Scholarships also
seek five‐year Indigenous residents of the Northern Territory. Data about this program vary. Nutton et
al, writing in 2012, suggest that there have been 92 recipients and 41 graduates since 2007 (Ibid.: 40).
DoE data refer to 26 current recipients and only 22 present and past employees from this source
(internal DoE document). The Menzies report points out the exceptionally wide range of different and
overlapping approaches to increasing Indigenous teacher numbers (only a few of which have been
touched on here). The review would support a simplification, leading preferably to a single high profile
program aimed at school leavers, university graduates and Indigenous members of the general
workforce, with the intention of attracting them into the teaching profession and supporting them in
their study and induction into teaching.
DRAFT
The fundamental issue about the current arrangements for developing Indigenous teachers is quality.
While there are clearly outstanding Indigenous teachers in schools, there was consistent feedback to
the review about the unsatisfactory quality of some graduates. A common view was that there was such
a commitment to increasing Indigenous teacher numbers that in some cases standards had been
lowered and assessment processes bypassed or distorted to ensure graduations. To the extent that this
is true it is a destructive approach: it puts less capable teachers in classrooms, damages the reputation
of Indigenous teachers in general and eventually puts the new teacher in an impossible position.
Assistant Teachers
The review is concerned that the position of ATs (and some other Indigenous and non‐Indigenous
employees) is anomalous in a number of respects. They are employed under two quite different
models: the formal department arrangement or school council employment contracts. Expectations
seem to be lower for Indigenous staff: the poor attendance rate noted above is one example. Many ATs
have been engaged in an apparently endless cycle of training, which in many cases has produced little
change in their qualifications or circumstances. Their roles vary dramatically from co‐teachers in some
schools to low‐level administrative tasks in others. The Department’s statement of the responsibilities
of teachers (DoE, 2013C) makes no reference to the role of teachers in working with assistant teachers.
This suggests that there are no clearly stated expectations of teachers in respect of their working
relationships with local staff.
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