The policy under examination is the ‘Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians’, written to ‘close the gap’ in all Australian schools (MCEETYA, 2008 p. 15). The policy outlines the need to address students who are either living with a disability, from a lower socioeconomic household or of Indigenous of Torres Straight Island decent. It is evident that students who are in this group are not achieving the same academic scores as their counterparts, thus requiring reformation to the way schools address these minorities. Further, the policy then goes on to outline different ways of addressing each of these minority groups. Firstly, the crux of addressing Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island students is by that teachers are …show more content…
When considering a teacher’s position in regards to this policy, it is firstly important to consider how a teacher is positioned in a broader sense through government agencies, the educational system and public opinion. For many years, schools have been oriented towards developing students to be ready for the workforce, replicating the previous generation’s culture and consumerist nature to ensure the economy continues operating in the same manner (Hinchey 2004, p. 69). Accordingly, it can be contended that policies addressing disadvantaged minorities will always be driven by the incentive of moulding more individuals to contribute productively in a uniform way to society. In comparison, this policy is still necessary as Indigenous and impoverished students have inferior access to education than those with ‘high incomes and power’ in Australia (Webster & Ryan 2014, p. 99). In this way, education has always been a means of segregating students into groups based on ‘economic factors (public and private schools), religious affiliation, age, sex, 'intelligence', exam performance’ and the like, thus ingraining societies hierarchical structure into students from a young age (Seddon 2001, p. 309). Accordingly, schools ‘can and must’ be the catalyst to creating ‘more just, more equitable and more peaceful societies’ (Keddie 2011, p. 150). For …show more content…
I agree with the policy’s overall contention, aimed at ‘Improving educational outcomes for Indigenous youth and disadvantaged young Australians, especially those from low socioeconomic backgrounds’ as I am a strong believer in equal opportunities for all people (MCEETYA, 2008 p. 15). I do however struggle with the fundamental idea that all students are set the same outcome, and expected to be able to showcase the same academic knowledge, regardless of the individuals’ background. This method of education falls short as students from different backgrounds have different interests, and require different content for their life after study; which is not considered when designing and implementing nation wide standards of education. In this way, subjects are not designed to cater for students with these specified academic diminutions, preventing students from utilising their best assets; whether that be their prior knowledge from their ethnic background, or student’s with disabilities best style of learning, thus revealing the limited efforts educations’ governing bodies have taken to help cater and address these students sloping grades. Furthermore, the idea that schools are to ‘close the gap’ between Indigenous Australians and Caucasian Australian assumes the position that Indigenous Australian’s way of life is inferior to the
What is the connection between official education policies and key events in Aboriginal Australian history? How have Aboriginal people responded to these policies?
In the article by Erica Neeganagwedgin she examines aboriginal education from pre contact, through the Residential Schools and concludes with contemporary issues in education, focusing on women in multiple sections. Neegangagwedgin argues how colonial education curriculum in Canadian schools are marginalizing and oppressing aboriginal students by rarely including their history, heritages and cultural antecedents therefore creating a ‘denial of the selfhood of aboriginal students” (p.28). She starts by comparing the pedagogy differences between Aboriginals and Eurocentric students the stem of differing worldviews which have created this problem as Canada denies to recognize the Aboriginal worldview as legitimate. Bringing light to the idea that
The plan focused on three areas which were engagement, connections and attendance. The plan was to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a voice and cultural context that addressed the cultural gap of non-Indigenous educators and administrators (Hogarth, 2015). The limitation of the three targeted areas focused on engagement, connection and attendance but neglected the other categories of education. The plan focused only on the three domains and ignored the other areas hence causing the quality of literacy and numeracy to decrease in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. As a result, the government introduced a policy called Closing the gap in 2007. This policy was introduced to improve the quality of literacy and numeracy of Indigenous and non-indigenous students within a decade (ACARA, 2016). The three targeted areas to closing the gap was directed to improving the young Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander educational outcomes. Australia’s statistics showed that in 2009 there were 129,953 indigenous students enrolled in schools comparing to the 2 million non-indigenous students enrolled in school. These statistics show a great difference in enrolments. Since the introduction of the ‘closing the gap’ policy the number of Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander students in schools
The 'Stronger Futures' policy is a multifaceted social policy of the Australian government concerning the aboriginal population of the Northern Territory. The legislation was based upon the little children are
Though the film mentioned the impact that residential schools had and still has on the aboriginal people, I felt that this issue needed to be stressed further because the legacy of the schools is still extremely prominent in aboriginal communities today. The film refers to the fact that residential schools harmed the aboriginal people because they were not able to learn their culture, which has resulted in the formation of internalized oppression within in the group. “The...
The inequality in Australian education can be attributed to a history of low expectations and discrimination placed on Indigenous people by the government and society. Aboriginal children were denied the right to education until the 1970s due to the discrimitory views of the government and society. The Indigenous population were the sub-standard race of humanity with little to no chance of succeeding in life and these attitudes affected the educational choices offered to them (Ray & Poonwassie, 1992). As the superior race, the Anglo-Celtic Australians, considered themselves both intellectually and socio-culturally more advanced than their inferior Aboriginal neighbours (Foley, 2013). As a consequence of these racially and culturally motivated preconceptions, children of Aboriginal descent were considered unskilled outside of their own and were deemed incapable of excelling in ‘civilised’ white society (Foley, 2013). As a result, the Australian Government, in an effort to civilise and nurture politeness within the Aboriginal people, constructed “structured” (p 139) education training institutions in 1814. However, these problems only provided sufficient schooling for menial work: Aboriginal male children were prepared for agricultural employment, while girls were trained for domesticated services (Foley, 2013). Thus, as a direct consequence of low expectation for life success, Aboriginal children were offered minimal schooling ‘consistent with the perception about the limitations inherent in their race and their expected station in life at the lowest rung of white society’ (Beresford & Partington, 2003, p43). According to Foley (2013) this combination of low expectations and poor academic grounding meant that Indigenous children we...
The education of Aboriginal people is a challenge that has been a concern for many years and is still an issue. However, it remains the best way young people can climb out of poverty. With the colonialization and the oppression of Aboriginals, there have been many lasting side effects that continue to be affecting the Aboriginal youth today. “While retention and graduation rates have improved among urban Aboriginal population, an educational gap still remains between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in urban settings” (Donovan, 127). Many suffer from a diminished self-worth, as they do not feel valued and feel inferior to their classmates. In this essay I am going to outline the reasons Aboriginals are struggling, discuss what is being done
In modern democratic society school curriculum has become a prioritised concern for many citizens. It is a key factor in the shaping of future generations and the development of society. Decades have lapsed and numerous attempts have been made to produce a national curriculum for Australia. In 2008 it was announced that the Rudd government in collaboration with State and Territories would produce a plan to move towards a national curriculum (Brady & Kennedy, 2010). To date this has been realised in the deliverance of the Australian Curriculum v1.2 which will be examined in this paper.
The development of a national curriculum for Australia is not a new endeavour (Marsh, 2010). The ideal is that national curriculum across Australia would mean that students are provided with a quality education that helps to shape the lives of the nations citizens and continue developing the productivity and quality of life within Australia. The Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA] have the task of developing and implementing a nationwide curriculum. ACARA (n.d.-c) claims have addressed needs of young Australians while considering that changing ways in learning and challenges will continue to shape students education in the future. A look at what the Australian Curriculum is, its purpose, structure and scope, learning theories and teaching processes and whether the curriculum has the capacity to meet the needs of 21st century learners will show that the initial construction of a national curriculum appears to be successful. However, the effectiveness of the Australian Curriculum will only be able to be evaluated in the future after implementation across the country.
To what extent have the views of the Indigenous population impacted on the educational outcomes for Australian aboriginal teenagers.
These children were now being seen as a group in which society had obligations to provide “normalisation” (Bowe, 2007, p.45) and would lead to a revolutionary law being introduced in America. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed in 1975, of which Australia became a signatory. (AIHW, 2004). This Act mandated “that all school-age children with disabilities must receive a free appropriate public education” (Bowe, 2007, p. 101) “in the least restrictive environment” (Bowe, 2007, p. 5). For the first time in a century, Australia no longer segregated these children into an isolated “special facility” (Allen & Cowdery, 2012, p. 8). State governments established special education units within mainstream schools (AIHW, 2004). This is referred to as Integrated education and is described by Talay-Ongan & Cooke (2005), as an environment “where children with similar disabilities in special classes share the normal school environment, and utilise some classes (e.g., art or physical education) or the playground that all children enjoy.” In 1992, the Disability Discrimination Act was introduced in Australia which specifically covered the topic of Education and in 2005 a set of supplementary standards was passed which specifies the support schools are required to provide to students with a
The Australian Curriculum has been a 'long time coming', but its great that it is almost here now. The Australian Curriculum has been designed with some relation to Tyler and Skillbeck's models. It is suspected that theorists such as Piaget were also considered during the development. The Australian Curriculum relates to Piaget's stages of progression, with curriculum being designed for specific levels of maturation and development. With students of this generation, it was incredibly important that an updated, curriculum was to be designed so that it could facilitate the needs of the 21st century learners. This new generation of learners seem to be almost born with basic computer skills, so the ICT program has been completely redeveloped. The curriculum has also expanded to make way for Asian studies which will help students as they move into their careers. The Australian Curriculum has been developed to cover a broad range of topics, concerns and values that will be discussed throughout this paper.
Schools are the basic foundation of knowledge, which is imparted to children. They give a chance for children to gain knowledge in various fields such as humanity, literature, history, mathematics and science. By obtaining knowledge, they are in a better position to know the world around them. A school is a society where faith and other values are developed. Schools also play an important role in a democratic social set up. Students of today are the citizens of tomorrow. Schools are the backbone of a society, where children interact with other children and develop certain social skills. Education in schools opens doors to various opportunities that would not be possible if it had not been for the knowledge one gained at school. However, in the articles, “Idiot Nation” by Michael Moore and “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto, the authors express their concerns about the degrading quality of education. There are many problems the education system is facing today, and several of them are having negative effects on the quality of the education that the students are receiving which are highlighted aptly by the effective use of rhetorical strategies by Moore and Gatto.
“Social Justice in Education” by R. W. Connell discusses the role of education in society and the implications that social justice issues have on education. Connell begins by establishing that education and social justice can be examined separately yet they are inescapably linked through the social medium of their implementation. “Education concerns schools, colleges and universities, whose business is to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Social justice is about income, employment, pensions or physical assets like housing.”(Connell, 1993) Three points validating the equal importance of social justice and the education system to people of all delineations are: 1.) in Western society public schools are key forums of social interaction and comprise some of the largest social institutions 2.) educational institutions are highly economic bodies and have become “major public assets” (Connell, 1993) 3.) teaching becomes a vehicle by which society is ultimately determined and has a great influence over society’s morality. Connell describes the meaning of justice in education as being “a question of fairness in distribution… equality.”(Connell, 1993) “Justice cannot be achieved by distributing the same… standard good to… all social classes.”(Connell, 1993) By stating this, Connell summarizes that in the attempt to achieve equality, unequal means must be employed.
In Australia, teachers must be familiar with the many federal and state laws, regulations, and frameworks, which apply to inclusive education. At a national level, the following Acts and Standards protect students: the Commonwealth (Cwlth) Anti-Discrimination Act 2004; Cwlth Disability Discrimination Act 1992; Racial Discrimination Act 1975; Cwlth Sex Discrimination Act 1984; Human Rights Commission Act 1986; Australia’s ratific...