Conference Papers
Session E 3.3. Positive learning environments: examples from both ways education
1. Margaret James, Ken Langford-Smith, Benedict Stevens & Jungula Kriss: Making Traditional Indigenous Culture Relevant in Education Today: Yipirinya School + ‘The Honey Ant Readers’.
Yipirinya School is an independent school in Alice Springs. It was founded by Indigenous elders and is controlled by an Indigenous council. It caters for Indigenous students from the town camps and outstations of Alice Springs – some of the most disadvantaged students in Australia.Yipirinya was established as a two-way school. It teaches literacy and numeracy following the NT curriculum, but it also teaches four Indigenous languages. This paper/presentation illustrates how the school integrates traditional Indigenous culture into the modern curriculum through: Its language and culture program, and associated cultural excursions; Its use of Indigenous material and method in its ‘Honey Ant Readers’ learn-to-read program; Its use of the Indigenous kinship system in promoting behaviour management and the well-being of students. In these 3 areas in particular but also in its whole ethos, the school draws on the acquired wisdom of the old in its nurture of the young.
Author bio: Margaret James M.Ed (TESOL, QUT), Grad Cert (TESOL, QUT), Choral conducting (Qld Con; Griffith), Montessori Dip TEAL, (MCI), BA (Psychology, Linguistics, Rhodes).Margaret James has been involved in Indigenous education in Central Australia for 7 years, at Yipirinya School, as well as at Tertiary institutions. Her passion for, and expertise in, early literacy, language acquisition, EAL, singing and Aboriginal English - inspired the development of 'The Honey Ant Readers' - a unique reading program for Indigenous EAL learners, written in collaboration with Yipirinya school elders and community, in the ‘language of the playground’. In collaboration with NTDET Margaret has gone on to develop the ‘Honey Ant Readers’ ebooks and her compendium of songs, rhymes and jingles to teach SAE phonemes for NTDET, have been recorded for use in NT schools.
Ken Langford-Smith, BA (Sydney), MA (UWA) has had over 40 years teaching experience in Australia and overseas, including 23 years as a School Principal. His last 9 years have been as Principal of Yipirinya School in Alice Springs. Yipirinya School is one of the few genuinely independent Aboriginal schools in Australia, founded and controlled by an Indigenous Council. It caters for the Indigenous children from the town camps and outstations of Alice Springs, some of the most disadvantaged students in Australia, and has a two-way, bilingual, bicultural approach to education.
Jungala Kriss was born at Narwietooma Station, NT (Warlpiri Country). He spent his earliest years in the bush and then attended school in Melbourne. Since leaving school he has worked in the tourism industry and as an artist. He now runs his own company, Jungala Enterprises Pty Ltd, based in Alice Springs, and specialises as an Artist, Cultural Consultant and Tour Guide. Jungala is the elected Warlpiri representative on Yipirinya School Council and Vice-President of the Committee.
2. Jane Oldfield: Traversing the Chasm – Cultural and generational confluence in teaching science
How do we support and include entry of young and older Indigenous students into the sciences? This perennial issue for educational institutions across Australia has been met with lamentations in regards to the apparent failure of our Indigenous students to engage successfully with the quintessential elements of Western thought. However, a number of Northern Territory tertiary educators at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education have adopted a significantly different approach in teacher education with considerable success. The approach usurps the traditional positioning of Indigenous students as the ‘other’ in reference to an anglo ‘norm’ and places Indigenous knowledge and pedagogies at the centre of science studies. It uses narrative (important in external representation; organizational principle and cognitive processes), explicit instruction, collaborative and inquiry learning (from the Academy of Sciences Primary Connections), Indigenous cultural and linguistic knowledge to link elders with youth and allow the transmission of both traditional Indigenous knowledge and the construction of western scientific conceptual understandings and so insure the cultural safety, the maintenance of a strong Indigenous identity and western scientific understandings for current and subsequent generations. In addition, it allows for a confluence of diverse cognitive understandings which both enriches Australia’s intellectual milieu and conforms to Batchelor Institute’s philosophy of both-ways education.
Author bio: Janine Oldfield is a non-Indigenous Bachelor of Education lecturer at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Desert People’s Centre, Alice Springs Northern Territory. She has been in Indigenous Education for the past 11 years (and at Batchelor for the past 10) and Indigenous teacher education for the past six. She specialises in teaching adults, teaching science and ESL methodologies. She has had extensive experience in Australia and overseas in various roles including lecturing, academic research, project management and participation for non-government organisations in developing contexts as well as ESL and science teaching. Through marriage, she is related to Luritja, Arrente and Alyawarra communities in the centre and sees the centralisation of Indigenous discourses as the key to the educational inclusion and participation for Indigenous people of all ages.
3. Michaela Wilkes and Claire Kilgariff: ‘My Self-Esteem has grown’: Enabling Indigenous students for success in their studies
Academic enabling and support programs in Australian Higher Education institutions have been developed with the aim of increasing Indigenous participation and capacity in undergraduate degree studies. However, the focus in these programs has typically been on academic skills deficits the Indigenous students bring to the process, and low rates of student retention and completion are often the result. This presentation reports on a new bridging program, Preparation for Tertiary Success (PTS) at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education in the Northern Territory. The PTS program is designed to enhance the human, social and identity capital of the participants by acknowledging the assets they bring in the form of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and skills. PTS is based on a ‘both-ways’ philosophy which combines Indigenous traditions of knowledge and Western disciplinary positions. The teaching and learning focus is on assisting students to become lifelong learners – developing their strengths in coping with change, resilience, learning relationships, meaning making, critical curiosity and creativity. A further focus has been on giving students the tools to recognise and engage with the different types of knowledge, and the processes that can be used to acquire this knowledge and use it meaningfully. Initial results indicate students are more able to cope with the challenges and opportunities they face as Indigenous learners and the way they engage with Western academic knowledge and skills. Success and completion rates in units have also increased. Participatory action research is now being undertaken in collaboration with students to better inform the teaching and learning process of the program.
Author bio: Michaela Wilkes is currently Senior Lecturer in the Preparation for Tertiary Success Program at Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education. She has worked in the fields of academic preparation/enabling, education, applied linguistics, linguistics and cross-cultural studies throughout her career. The majority of this time has been spent in higher education in Australia and Asia (Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Cambodia). Michaela’s MA (Applied Linguistics) focused on the discourse of ‘race’ during the time of the Wik native title case. She has worked extensively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in education and community settings. She began working at the Centre for Australian Languages and Linguistics at Batchelor Institute in 2006, lecturing in the BA (Language and Linguistics). Since 2009, she has been working in tertiary preparation, enabling and learning support in the Institute. Claire Kilgariff is currently Head of the Faculty of Education, Arts and Social Science at Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education.