hearing loss and the criminal justice system - Australian Indigenous ...

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Senate Inquiry March 2010_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________relatives and the community in general, Indigenous educators and through reading’ (Malin,1990, p. 253). Most Indigenous teachers come already equipped with this culturalknowledge, insight and involvement.One important strategy to create success for Indigenousstudents is to have more Indigenous teachers. For this to occur,schools need to be places in which Indigenous teachers arecomfortable to work ‐ see the section on cross‐culturalcommunication for a discussion of this.In their studies, which were conducted in Western Australia,Partington, Richer, Godfrey, Harslett and Harrison (1999) and Harslett (1998), looked at thesuccessful teaching of Indigenous students. They focused on relationship and culture asbeing important in Indigenous education. In their conclusions, they describe what theyterm a ‘relationship‐based pedagogy’ with high expectations of students.Aspects of a relationship‐based pedagogy include: respect afforded to Indigenous students’ cultural expectations such as autonomy; teachers developing relationships with students; and involving families in schooling to activate the students’ sense that school is part oftheir network of social obligation.Important components of relationship focussed pedagogy include awareness of; Indigenoushistory, the students’ home backgrounds and of the students’ sense of autonomy andshame.In their research, Partington et al. (1999) and Harslett (1998) identified key aspects ofrelationship‐based, student‐centred pedagogy: this pedagogy understands, empathiseswith, and is sensitive towards students. While this approach is important for all students, itis especially important for Indigenous students’ success to have positive relationships withpeers and teachers. Teachers can build these by rejecting the habit of thinking of theirIndigenous students as having individual or culturally based deficits, and recognisingindividual and cultural strengths.Over the past thirty years, I have worked withIndigenous children in the Northern Territory, as ateacher and psychologist. Over that time, myobservations and research have supported what hasbeen found in the South Australian and WesternAustralian studies. In spite of this consistent evidencebase, I do not see school systems getting better at‘relationship focused education’. Indeed, the trend isoften towards more curriculum focussed education.There are risks that the current national focus onIn spite of this consistentevidence, I do not see schoolsystems getting better at‘relationship focusededucation’. Indeed the trend isoften to more curriculumfocussed education.testing and a single national curriculum will detract from the capacity of teachers to developthe relationship focussed education from which Indigenous students would benefit._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________30 Phoenix Consulting
Senate Inquiry March 2010_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________I remember the comments of a teacher when I was asked to review a high schoolIndigenous program. The teacher commented that ‘as the school day became more andmore filled with ‘content’ that had to be covered, the capacity of teachers to developrelationships with students diminished’. She said that when teachers had less capacity todevelop relationships, this impacted on all students to some extent, but it had the mostimpact on Indigenous students.She said that when teachers had less capacity to develop relationships, this impacted onall students to some extent, but it had the most impact on Indigenous students.RECOMMENDATIONS1. There is a need for pre‐service and post‐service training around relationshipfocussed pedagogy to be provided to those teachers who work with Indigenousstudents.2. Part of the accountability of schools should include regular measurement of thesatisfaction of students with the relationship teachers have with them. Positiverelationships will help attendance and educational engagement. Measurement ofthis key factor will help to select teachers who have the capacity to work withIndigenous students in ways that will achieve the best outcomes.It is critical that positiverelationships are combinedwith high expectations.It is critical that positive relationships are combined with highexpectations. Positive social relationships cannot be at theexpense of high educational expectations. The research isclear that both positive relationships and high expectationsare needed (Sarra, 2010).The importance of relationships pervades all areas of Indigenous life, including education.Coombs (1983) wrote: ‘Who a person is, in an Indigenous cultural context, is a nexus ofrelationships, a set of bounded expectations, obligations and human connections’ (Coombs,1983, p. 257). This is the reality that practitioners and programs must address if successfuleducational outcomes are to be achieved for Indigenous students. This is also highlighted ina report that evaluated what ‘worked’ in Indigenous education around Australia (McRae,2000).McRae (2000) described and evaluated eighty‐three Commonwealth Government fundedprojects designed to quickly improve Indigenous children’s achievement at school. Thereport gives an overview of the approaches and experiences of a wide variety of educatorsof ‘what works’ with Indigenous students. As with other researchers, their work stressedthe importance of culture and relationships. They identified common key strategies asimportant in improving Indigenous children’s school performance. These are describedbelow._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________31 Phoenix Consulting
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