By

Lyn Anderson and Clare Stehbens

Nulloo Yumbah

Central Queensland University

And

Associate Professor Jeannie Herbert

School of Australian Indigenous Studies

James Cook University

Presented as part of the symposium

To

AARE-NZARE Joint Conference

Melbourne

Australia

December 1999

In examining the factors that could have implications for the participation of Indigenous Australian students in education, it can been seen that there is a growing recognition for the need to broaden the focus of formal schooling to consider the implication of community within that.

Aboriginal students belong to communities that are diverse and complex. On the whole the formation of many Aboriginal communities are a consequence of colonial dispossession and dispersal. Regardless as to whether these communities are located in metropolitan, rural or remote locations they all in some way exist within a paradox. That is, while Aboriginal communities are constructed within a western social, economic and political framework, the ethos of these communities is a reflection of Aboriginal culture and values.

Therefore, in examining the participation of Aboriginal children in formal education it is imperative to understand the social and economic factors that determine the way in which they participate. More importantly it is essential for schools to embrace the cultural values that Aboriginal children bring with them into the educational setting.

Aboriginal young people are confronted daily with responsibilities such as playing a lead role in caring for younger children in the household, engaging in cultural activities and participating in community activities. Furthermore, Aboriginal students are more likely to be related to or know of someone who is incarcerated, who has diabetes or heart disease, who has died at an age well below the average mortality age for other Australians adults, who is unemployed or who has not completed formal schooling. These social, economic and health factors have the potential to further compound those factors which may interrupt Aboriginal students’ progression through school.

Recent statistics show that:

• 37% of Aboriginal young people live in single parent households compared with 12.6% of non-Aboriginal young people;
• the typical size of these households is 4.6 persons in comparison to 2.6 of non-Aboriginal households; and
• in one third (36%) of these homes, the family members are joined by other extended family members in comparison to 1.5% to non-Aboriginal homes. (NBEET, April 1995)

While these statistics are obviously generalised, Aboriginal students participating in the research project, "Keeping Our Kids at School", commented that the following are the major social and economic reasons for their friends dropping out of school. They are:

• family problems;
• teenage pregnancy;
• no lunch;
• too tired from being up all night; and the
• inability to supply materials that are required for particular classes.

Obviously students do not drop out of school for these reasons alone. It is a culmination of these factors combined with other issues with which they are faced in the school situation that eventually cause students to drop out or be forced out.

While the school and the prevailing youth pop culture strongly influence the socialisation of students, it is the culture of the student’s community which for the most part determines the way in which a student actually participates in formal schooling. Each Aboriginal student entering school brings with him or her, a culture that reflects the community within which he or she participates. However, it has been too easy for schools to disregard the cultural influences that impact on Aboriginal students.

However, when problems arise with Aboriginal students it is quite easy for schools to disassociate from their responsibility and transfer this to the community. It is too often assumed that the lack of parental or community involvement indicates that parents lack interest in their child’s schooling. Hence, attributing the students’ problems to parents and community. This process not only perpetuates the marginalisation of Aboriginal parents and communities from the school environment it also pathologises Aboriginal cultures and lifestyles as negative influencing factors.

One Aboriginal Education Worker recalled a situation at her school whereby a student was continually misbehaving and constantly in trouble with teachers. This student was fair-skinned with blonde and blue eyes. On finding out that the student had one Aboriginal parent, the teacher was said to have commented, "oh so that is why he always misbehaves".

The research indicated that on the whole schools do very little to acknowledge or respond to the cultural and community context from which Aboriginal students come. One Aboriginal public servant commented:

Teachers themselves commented that while they may have intentions of trying to understand where Aboriginal students are coming from, they know little about the circumstances of their Aboriginal students outside of the school. One teacher from a school that has approximately 50% Aboriginal enrolments said:

This was a common response from teachers within that school. The concern here is that with such a high enrolment of Aboriginal students very little was done by teachers to outreach to the Aboriginal community as a means to include the culture and values of that community within the teaching and learning environment.

In situations where teachers do make an effort to be involved in the local Aboriginal community to try to understand the students cultural and community backgrounds the teacher is held in high regard. For example, there were very positive comments from students about a particular teacher who the students saw as having an understanding about them and their communities:

Schools stated that they often made a concerted effort to reach out to the community by utilising the Indigenous Education Worker, the ASSPA committee, mailing out to parents written correspondence such as school notices, holding parent-teacher nights and social gatherings. The schools’ assumption is that in doing these things they have exhausted all possible avenues available to outreach. Ironically schools are still saying that the participation by Aboriginal parents and community is very low. A senior staff member of one school commented upon the sort of approach he takes in communicating to parents. His comments in this regard are as follows:

Despite these efforts, most school personnel involved in the research expressed that it was very difficult to get parental or community involvement in school activities, particularly in those activities associated with having input into the schools directions for Aboriginal students.

General comments in this regard included:

However, there was a general understanding of and even empathy by school personnel for the experiences that Aboriginal parents and community members may have been confronted with during their own schooling. This they believed had an effect on the parent’s willingness to become engaged in their child’s schooling. One Aboriginal community person explained it as follows:

Goals 1, 3 and 6 of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy Review (1995) explicitly state the need for Aboriginal communities to participate in education decision making across all levels. The assumption inherent within this policy is that communities are collective and structured in such ways that the community voice is consultative and representative. However, the research has indicated that community input into the decision-making areas of school is superficial and even tokenistic to some extent. While schools have acknowledged that communities are not necessarily all encompassing they do not attempt to seek other means of interacting. The perception is that:

• Aboriginal communities are fragmented and therefore very hard to consult with; and
• that generally parents are uninterested in providing input.

This perception seemed to encourage schools to consult only with those Aboriginal people who have had an ongoing association with the school. These usually were the Indigenous Education Workers and their close associates. The dilemma in this regard is that since these people are within the employ of the school the principal may in fact influence or even determine the processes for acquiring and content of community input.

For example in one school, the Indigenous Education Worker was the chair of the ASSPA committee as well as the Aboriginal representative on the school’s Aboriginal Education Policy Committee. Thus as one community worker commented:

Such a comment is not intended to devalue the contributions of Indigenous Education Workers to the Aboriginal students and their parents and care givers. Instead in most instances the Indigenous Education Worker is a vital link between the school and the Aboriginal community as well as a strong and supportive advocate for Aboriginal students within the school. A student described the importance of the role of the Indigenous Education Worker as follows:

Furthermore, Indigenous Education Workers are often in an ambivalent position. They are trying to work with two groups who for the most part have very different value systems. Those Indigenous Education Workers interviewed as part of the research claimed that they have tried to cater to the needs of the community in terms of building the relationship with the school. A community education worker describing her frustration at the lack of widespread community support for the educational needs of their children stated:

Another way in which the school links to the community is through various welfare agencies whereby students are referred to agencies that may help them return to school. While this is often seen as a positive move, the use of these organisations is once again a band-aid measure. One Aboriginal agency worker commented that the problems associated with Aboriginal student participation in formal schooling are much more entrenched within the social welfare cycle:

Another community worker commented:

However, another community member commented that:

This, he believes, is inherent within the mainstream system wherein,

In essence he argues, "suspensions of Aboriginal kids doesn’t deal with the problems.... it may in fact make it worse".

Most parents who participated in the research asserted that they would be more involved in their child’s schooling if they could feel more comfortable in the school. Further to this, all of the parents who were interviewed as part of the research expressed that they wanted their children to participate and succeed in school. Within this they had particular expectations of the outcomes that education should be producing for their children. These expectations included skills to proceed to the next stage of their education, to prepare them for the workforce and for mainstream living skills but at the same to affirm and respect their children’s culture and identity.

One Aboriginal community worker commented that parental support and encouragement was very important to students’ success in school:

Furthermore, there was general acknowledgment that all Aboriginal parents wanted their children to participate and succeed in school. Comments in relation to this were:

The last comment raises issues about the powerlessness of parents and caregivers to engage effectively in their children’s education. Given that even today the participation and retention rates for Aboriginal students in formal schooling are well below the average of all students, the educational success for Aboriginal parents and caregivers is even more limited. This consequently leads to problems faced by parents in actually being able to challenge curriculum and pedagogy and in articulating their aspirations for their children. For the most part parents or community members are reticent in engaging in schools because of feeling excluded by the language used and the environment promoted by the school.

One community worker commented on this in relation to her communications with a young mother who said. "I won’t come to the meetings, because I don’t know how meetings are run, I’m frightened of making a fool of myself".

The community worker further added that:

However there are much more serious consequences for parents and community limited participation in the decision-making processes of the school. For example, the school behaviour management policies of those schools included in the research have had very little input from Aboriginal parents and the Aboriginal community. Yet it is this policy that most impacts on Aboriginal student’s participation, retention and success.

There have however been efforts by schools to include input from Aboriginal parents and communities in policy development and implementation. However, these efforts are once again restricted by what the schools define as appropriate communication. Furthermore they hold misinformed assumptions that all Aboriginal parents and caregivers are literate and may actually want to physically go to the school.

One community worker suggests:

One way to overcome this problem in the first instance is as another community worker suggests:

Another community member commented that:

This suggestion is obviously only one small step towards establishing a relationship between the school and Aboriginal communities.

For schools to build upon this tentative relationship they must reach out to Aboriginal communities in ways which foster principles of respect, reciprocity, responsibility and relevance (Kirkness and Barnhardt, 1991). These four principles foster the empowerment of Aboriginal communities to engage with schools on an even balance of power. With schools already having the premise of equity and equality they are halfway there in terms of being able refocus their ways of outreaching to communities to encompass the ways in which Aboriginal communities operate and exist.