Transcript On Reconciling Indigenous and Western Forms of Education

Indigenous knowledge, pedagogy and education
have even more intrinsic paradoxes and dilemmas
(than in my introduction to the presentation)• Increasing concern, if not opposition, from
Indigenous peoples, to anthropological research.
• Research needs to be more responsive to the
community and involve members fully in the
process, from beginning to end.
• Can ‘engaged anthropology’ be objective?
Additional paradoxes and dilemmas…
• Possible conflict between national needs,
employment needs, and preoccupations of local
people.
• Development of suitable staffing and governance.
• Difficulties in providing relevant, attractive
comprehensible curricula over diverse, perhaps
remote, cultural and linguistic regions.
Additional paradoxes and dilemmas…
•How secular, how religious?
•The provision of skilled and motivated
resource teachers, linguists, librarians and
information technology specialists.
Key Arguments
• Traditional socialisation and pedagogy can make a
major contribution to Indigenous Education content
and methodology
• Indigenous education, indeed all education, can
benefit from incorporating elements of Indigenous
knowledge and pedagogy
• Social education and cultural studies, particularly,
should be multi-disciplinary.
Can you see any problems with purely historical or
geographical approaches?
Why and How?
Indigenous knowledge [IK]… is a unique
formulation of knowledge coming from a
range of sources rooted in local cultures, a
dynamic and ever changing pastiche of past
‘tradition’ and present invention, with a view
to the future (Sillitoe, P. in Sillitoe, Bicker and
Pottier, 2002).
Has been largely ignored and is a key factor in
lack of Indigenous educational participation
and success.
Some Background Information
•2009- 550,000 Indigenous Australians, approx.
2.5% of 21 million. Up from 260,000 in 1992 Census. Why?
•Reflects high birthrate, increased willingness to identify
as Indigenous, plus eligibility for benefits
•70% in provincial, rural or remote areasoften poorer facilities than in capitals
•The most disadvantaged of Australians
•Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander culture is complex and diversefrom isolated to inner city communities.
Health and Education
Poor health, eg middle-ear infection,
listlessness, poor attendance
Effects on education•Only 33% complete secondary
education (80% for total population)
•2.2% university graduates (13% overall)
•Western education often seen as
alienating and irrelevant
(conversely aspects valued…)
Melanesia
Overall population nearly 8 million,
PNG 6 million approximately.
Young, diverse culturally, linguisticallyeg 820 Indigenous languages in PNG.
Patchy provision of education, poorly
resourced, yet relatively successful…
Melanesia
• Dependent on aid, eg $300 million+ pa
from Australia.
• Solomon Islands intervention, Bougainville,
AIDS, drugs, corruption; fear of ‘failed states’.
The State of Remote Indigenous Australian
Communities- “A national disgrace, a disaster”
• Mal Brough’s response to the Little Children are
Sacred Inquiry, June 2007. In response to high levels
of child sexual abuse the Report recommended
control of drugs and alcohol, and stated that:
‘Education is the key to helping children and
communities nurture safe, well-adjusted families…at
school they are safe…and can confide in their
teachers’
• NB. Issues of ownership, appropriation, knowledge, pedagogy,
power, governance, are crucial.
Another paradox- Can one take over decision-making and then
expect to build long-term responsibility and care? History tells
us, no!
Melanesia
• Many dysfunctional communities, particularly in fringe
settlements, with poor records in education. Issues: funding,
staffing, equity.
• In remote subsistence communities, there is likely to be no
access to western/national schooling.
• Change is desperately needed, especially to counter the sense
of ‘otherness’, appropriation, anger, powerlessness, lack of
inclusiveness, sense and reality of citizenship.
‘Mi rubbish man tru’ is a common sentiment.
…
•Contextual- observation, participation in
relevant contexts
•Person-Oriented- positive personal
relationships, trust, even body-language,
are important
•Elements have been put into practice, eg.
KODE schools in Victoria, community education
elsewhere, urban and rural. Primary Connections
http://www.science.org.au/primaryconnections/additional.htm
Some relevant, recommended
pedagogical approaches
• Substantial involvement of Indigenous
parents, teachers
• Combines well with modern ‘best
practice’ constructivist, inquiry, childcentred approaches
• Cooperative group work
Some relevant, recommended
pedagogical approaches
• Visual images, role-play, narratives
• Symbols, diagrams, computer
models
• Excursions, photography, sketching
Some relevant, recommended
pedagogical approaches…
• Maps, pathways
• Experiential, relevant culturally
• Positive, affirming role models
• Wider assessment approaches, including self and
peer
• Lots of oral English practice, reinforcement,
enrichment
Fieldwork…
• Participant observation in communities and
schools, mostly NSW, Victoria and NT
• Traditional Culture- Song, site, skin, ceremony
• Traditional education- largely oral, storytelling
• Informal, except for initiation, when they were
‘Broken, tamed, into the burba.’ ‘We grow them up in
the ashes.’
• Spirituality permeated all life
• Education closely adapted to economy
• Relationships, kinship, central to learning
Indigenous Pedagogy should be reflected in…
• National and State policy, structure particularly re
preschool and primary education
• School form, structure, leadership
• Indigenous involvement, community leadership,
school council, appointments
• Nature of teaching team- their mix, training,
experiences, pd support
• Curriculum- content / knowledge and pedagogy
Indigenous Teacher,
Yipirinya School, Alice Springs
• ‘In my experience, most mainstream
schools don’t cater for a diverse range
of students, preferring to teach in a
mainly white, middle class fashion.
Students who come from a different
culture or background are expected to
assimilate, or else face a difficult
learning situation which could lead to
eventual ‘dropping out’ of school.’
Indigenous Teacher,
Yipirinya School, Alice Springs
• ‘I would go so far as to say
that to expect one style of
teaching to work for a
diverse range of students is
unequal, unjust and could be
deemed as racist.’
The Detractors
• Eg Roger Sandall’s, The Culture Cult. Affirming culture allows
‘primitive’, tribal, feudal, undemocratic and sexist values to
flourish. Keith Windshuttle has similar views.
• Will sow the seeds of the destruction of civil life, ‘of the creative
marvel that is civilisation’.
• Culture theory is ‘particularistic, chauvinistic, primitivistic’.
• Small homelands, outstations, are not viable economically.
• Any relation to 2007 Federal Government ‘take-over’ of remote
Indigenous communities? Discuss
The Rebuttal
• Historical evidence- integration is preferable to assimilation
(which failed in the 1940s and 1950s)
• It’s what most Indigenous leaders and communities say they
want.
• Anthropological and educational research indicates the
relevance and need for Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy
• Culture need not equate to divisive, regressive; it can equate to
democratic, progressive, inclusive, peaceful
• Anthropologists, other social scientists and teachers, are almost
never complete cultural and ethical relativists
Conclusion
• The ‘culture’ subject, anthropology, has much to
contribute to education programs, particularly
regarding appropriate content and learning styles for
multicultural Australia, and for other nations.
• In Australian education: “…Aboriginal pedagogy
should be embraced by all teachers and indeed all
students would benefit from this. In terms of
reconciliation this is only one part, but it is certainly
an essential one.” (Yipirinya Teacher, Alice Springs,
Northern Territory)
Discuss
It is often said that Indigenous students
need a ‘white’ anthropologyto understand how the dominant
culture and society work.