Shepherd, Susan (2003). Answering Teachers' Questions "at the ESL" (English as a Second Language) Conference, Badu Island, 15-18 May 2000. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v31 n1 p73-76. In 2000 a program of English as a Second Language inservice provision was initiated by the Thursday Island State High School in response to teacher and community concerns about low literacy rates in Torres Strait, as measured by the National Languages and Literacy Institute of Australia Bandscales and other related difficulties. In mid-May of that year an English as a Second Language conference was held on Badu Island and was attended by teachers from throughout Torres Strait. During the conference, Susan Shepherd (Education Adviser English Language Acquisition at Thursday Island State High School) conducted a question-and-answer session dealing with some of the most commonly asked questions: What is English as a Second Language teaching? What is an English as a Second Language learner? What is an English as a Second Language school? Why is the students' English not improving in my school? Can we have learning support teachers? Why shouldn't the children's home language be banned… [Direct]

David, Mette Morrison (2003). Report on the Demographics and Language Groups of Thursday Island State High School Students at the State ESL (English as a Second Language) Conference, Brisbane, December 2001. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v31 n1 p71-72. This report was originally delivered to the State English as a Second Language Conference held in Brisbane in December 2001. It was part of a team presentation made to a plenary session by representatives from Torres Strait (Terry McCarthy, Mette Morrison David, Judy Christian Ketchell, Raba Jobi, Keith Fisher, Kay Ahmat and Susan Shepherd). Its aim was to inform Queensland English as a Second Language teachers about the language situation at Thursday Island State High School shortly after the appointment of an Education Advisor English Language Acquisition. The report deals with the linguistic background of the students, the teaching of languages other than English and the urgent need for appropriate professional development in English as a Second Language or English as a Foreign Language insights and methodologies…. [Direct]

Garrett, Lisa (2003). Teaching Grammar in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Context. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v31 n1 p35-40. This paper is based on my recent experiences as a classroom teacher in Coconut Island State School on Poruma (Coconut Island), a Torres Strait primary school, and discusses best practice in explicitly instructing Islander students in Standard Australian English grammar. I argue for a variety of approaches, informed by a careful consideration of the students' cultural understandings and their language needs. These are crucial for determining which grammatical approach is most effective in ensuring effective independent second language acquisition in Standard Australian English…. [Direct]

Shnukal, Anna (2003). Report on the Torres Strait Creole Project, Thursday Island State High School. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v31 n1 p61-76. This is a slightly abbreviated version of part of a report commissioned at the end of 1995 by the Queensland Department of Education, Peninsula Region, and carried out with the help of teachers at Thursday Island State High School. It analyses some formal language differences between written Standard Australian English and spoken Torres Strait Creole (the language of most of the students) as a basis for workshop writers to develop material in a form suitable for teachers. Looked at objectively, most of the students' errors in written English occur as a result of transference from their first language, or in areas of grammatical complexity which pose problems for all English as a Second Language learners. Certain common spelling errors seem also to be a result of transference from the Creole. The report has been fairly widely circulated and is sometimes quoted inaccurately; hence the decision to publish the formal linguistic section here. Some of the material in the report – on the… [Direct]

Harrison, Neil (2003). Grounded Theory or Grounded Data?: The Production of Power and Knowledge in Ethnographic Research. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v32 n1 p101-106. This paper concerns my own reflections on ethnographic research with Indigenous students studying at university. I began the research by using the methodology of interpretive ethnography to discover what constitutes success for Indigenous students studying at university. But after some unflattering critiques of my initial interpretation of the data, I returned to the drawing board to reflect on the methods that I had used to organise and structure the data in my interpretation. This led me to the critical ethnographers who helped me to look back on my initial positioning to see things that I could not see before. The paper consists of critical reflections on how power and knowledge are produced through the ethnographer's methodology to suggest that knowledge is not just found in the field or in the data but is also negotiated and produced through the relation between the participant and ethnographer. It is this relation that governs how the data are collected and what the… [Direct]

Rose, David (2003). Scaffolding Academic Reading and Writing at the Koori Centre. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v32 p41-50. This paper describes a "scaffolding" methodology for teaching academic literacy that has achieved outstanding success with Indigenous adults returning to formal study at the Koori Centre, University of Sydney. The paper begins by outlining the background to the Koori Centre program and the literacy needs of Indigenous students. We then describe the methodology, including the approach to teaching academic reading, making notes from reading, and writing new texts using these notes. These are key skills required for academic study, which Koori Centre students need to learn. The paper concludes by describing some of the results for students' literacy development and changing approaches to teaching in the Koori Centre…. [Direct]

Patten, Herb; Ryan, Robin (2001). Research and Reconciliation. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v29 n1 p36-42. When the Australian government's Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation terminated at the end of 2000, a people's foundation took up the work. A knowledge of Australian Aboriginal history would foster the respect necessary for reconciliation. Research can help by implementing emerging canons in which Aboriginal perspectives provide the framework for conducting research and Aboriginal people do the research themselves. (TD)…

Auld, Glenn (2002). What Can We Say about 112,000 Taps on a Ndjebbana Touch Screen?. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v30 n1 p1-7. In a remote Aboriginal Australian (Kunibidji) community, three touch-screen computers containing 96 Ndjebbana-language talking books were made available to children in informal settings. The computers' popularity is explained by the touch screens' form and the talking books' intertextual and hybrid nature. The Kunibidji are transforming their culture by including new digital technologies that represent their social practice. (Contains 37 references.) (Author/SV)…

Shnukal, Anna (2002). Some Language-Related Observations for Teachers in Torres Strait and Cape York Peninsula Schools. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v30 n1 p8-24. Imposition of English in Torres Strait and Cape York Peninsula (Australia) schools led to the development of Torres Strait Creole (TSC), now widely spoken. Common formal errors that TSC-speaking students make in written English are described and related to linguistic transfer. Cultural vocabulary, core cultural values reflected in TSC, and the linguistic importance of spatial ordering are discussed. (Contains 26 references and a regional educational timeline.) (SV)…

Appleyard, Susan (2002). Educational Issues Facing Aboriginal Families in Rural Australia: A Case Study. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v30 n1 p25-42. A case study of Aboriginal education in Geraldton, Western Australia, looked at the cycle of low educational attainment, unemployment, and poverty; national and state programs to support Aboriginal students and parent involvement; and community attitudes toward existing programs and proposed improvement strategies. A 1-year plan is detailed for community involvement in development of culturally relevant, "withdrawal" (pullout) classes for Aboriginal students. (Contains 40 references and interview questions.) (SV)…

Dwyer, Stuart (2002). Benefits of Community Involvement at the School Level. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v30 n2 p1-7. In Northern Territory (Australia), a small, remote, rural school serving Aboriginal students increased parent and community involvement, resulting in improved student achievement. Community members helped to develop culturally relevant, bilingual materials, drawing on financial support from the national Aboriginal Student Support and Parental Awareness (ASSPA) program, and helped plan and deliver integrated curriculum units. (SV)…

Leonard, Simon (2002). Children's History: Implications of Childhood Beliefs for Teachers of Aboriginal Students. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v30 n2 p20-24. An Australian researcher exploring the underlying assumptions held by non-Aboriginal educators involved in Aboriginal education reexamined his first childhood history book, "Australia from the Beginning" (Pownall, 1980). Although a liberal and sympathetic treatment, the book reflected non-Aboriginal assumptions about assimilation as "success" and the necessity of non-Aboriginal intervention in Aboriginal lives, assumptions that the researcher still held in his first teaching position. (SV)…

Harrison, Neil (2004). Self-Recognition and Well-Being: Speaking Aboriginal English in Healthy Classrooms. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v33 p7-13. This paper applies the findings of doctoral research undertaken in the Northern Territory. It draws on extended interviews with nine Indigenous students studying at university to produce four findings for classroom learning and teaching, one of which highlights the need to recognise Aboriginal English as a focal point of the curriculum for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. I take the position that this recognition in schools depends to a significant degree on universities training their preservice teachers to recognise Aboriginal English as necessary to Aboriginal student learning and therefore as a legitimate dialect of the classroom, and this in turn requires universities to recognise the importance of Aboriginal English in their own curricula. Towards the end of the paper, I draw on some literature to suggest ways in which Aboriginal English could be incorporated into the classroom…. [Direct]

Norman, Heidi (2004). Exploring Effective Teaching Strategies: Simulation Case Studies and Indigenous Studies at the University Level. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v33 p15-21. This paper explores teaching strategies for communicating complex issues and ideas to a diverse group of students, with different educational and vocational interests, that encourage them to develop critical thinking, and explores pedagogies appropriate to the multidisciplinary field of Aboriginal studies. These issues will be investigated through discussion of a successful simulation case study, including the setting up, resourcing, conducting and debriefing. The simulated case study was an assessed component of the new elective subject, "Reconciliation Studies", offered at the University of Technology Sydney. In 2003 students participated in a role-play based on events in relation to the development of the Hindmarsh Island Bridge. Students were assigned roles as stakeholders where they researched and then role-played, through their assigned characters, the multilayered and complex dimensions of this recent dispute. Students were required to reflect critically on the… [Direct]

Mackinlay, Elizabeth; Seldon, Camille; Thatcher, Kristy (2004). Understanding Social and Legal Justice Issues for Aboriginal Women within the Context of an Indigenous Australian Studies Classroom: A Problem-Based Learning Approach. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v33 p23-30. Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach in which students encounter a problem and systematically set about finding ways to understand the problem through dialogue and research. PBL is an active process where students take responsibility for their learning by asking their own questions about the problem and in this paper we explore the potential of PBL as a "location of possibility" (hooks, 1994, p. 207) for an engaged, dialogic, reflective and critical classroom. Our discussion centres on a course called ABTS2010 "Aboriginal Women", taught by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland where PBL is used frequently, and a specific PBL package entitled "Kina v R" aimed at exploring social and legal justice issues for Indigenous Australian women. From both a historical and contemporary perspective, we consider the types of understandings made possible about justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait… [Direct]

Massie, Robyn; McPherson, Bradley; Smaldino, Joseph; Theodoros, Deborah (2004). Sound-Field Amplification: Enhancing the Classroom Listening Environment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v33 p47-53. Sound-field amplification is an educational tool that allows control of the acoustic environment in a classroom. Teachers wear small microphones that transmit sound to a receiver system attached to loudspeakers around the classroom. The goal of sound-field amplification is to amplify the teacher's voice by a few decibels, and to provide uniform amplification throughout the classroom without making speech too loud for normal hearing children. This report discusses the major findings of a study which investigated the effects of sound-field amplification intervention on the communication naturally occurring in the classrooms of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The audiological findings of the sample population of children are presented, as well as details of the classroom acoustic environment. Sixty-seven percent of the children began the field trials with a slight hearing loss. The results confirmed the extremely noisy and reverberant conditions in which teachers and… [Direct]

Kuokkanen, Rauna (2005). Lahi and Attaldat: The Philosophy of the Gift and Sami Education. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p20-32. This article explores the Sami philosophy of the gift as a basis for a transformative pedagogical framework. Grounded on the Sami land-based worldview, this philosophy calls for the recognition and reciprocation of gifts, whether gifts of the land, interpersonal gifts or giftedness of an individual. In particular, the article considers two Sami concepts, that of "lahi" and "attaldat" and explains how they can serve as a framework for a Sami pedagogy that takes into account the central role of the Sami worldview in contemporary education while simultaneously critically analysing the colonial structures that continue to impact Sami society and education…. [Direct]

Michell, Herman (2005). Nehithawak of Reindeer Lake, Canada: Worldview, Epistemology and Relationships with the Natural World. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p33-43. The purpose of this exploratory article is to illustrate the worldview, epistemology and relationship with the natural world from a Nehithawak (Woodlands Cree) perspective. The contents of the article represent a personal narrative of an educator of Woodlands Cree cultural heritage from the Reindeer Lake area of northern Canada. A brief history of the Woodlands Cree is shared in order to provide a context for my perspectives as "an insider" of this way of life. This is followed by an attempt to articulate fundamental key concepts in relation to traditional Woodlands Cree education, worldview, epistemology, language, values and practices as they are informed by relationships with the land, plants and animals. The text is highly subjective and culturally contextualised. (Contains 1 table.)… [Direct]

Estrada, Vivian M. Jimenez (2005). The Tree of Life as a Research Methodology. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p44-52. This paper is grounded on the premise that research, as a colonising practice, needs constant reconceptualisation and rethinking. I propose a methodology based on some of the values, visions and stories from my own Maya Indigenous culture and knowledge in addition to other Indigenous cultures across the world. I argue that researchers need to constantly acknowledge and change the negative impacts of ignoring multiple ways of knowing by engaging in respectful methods of knowledge collection and production. This paper contributes to the work Indigenous scholars have done in the area of research methodologies and knowledge production. First, a general overview of the values and concepts embedded in the "Ceiba" or the "Tree of Life" is presented; then, a discussion of what respectful research practices entail follows; finally, it concludes with a reflection on how the "Ceiba" is a small example of how researchers can adapt their research methodology to the… [Direct]

Antone, Eileen M. (2005). The Seed Is the Law. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p53-60. Since humanities arise from a specific place and from the people of that place, this article will focus on Peacemaker's revolutionary teachings about the seed of law. Long before the people from across the ocean arrived here on Turtle Island (North America) there was much warfare happening. According to John Mohawk (2001, para. 1), an Iroquoian social historian, "[t]he people had been at war for so long that some were born knowing they had enemies [but] not knowing why they had enemies". Peacemaker planted the seeds of peace which resulted in the Kayenla'kowa, the Great Law of Peace (n. d.), which is the basis of the Hotinoshni Confederacy. With the burial of the weapons of war under the Great Tree of Peace the Hotinoshni were able to develop their rituals and ceremonies to reflect their relationship with creation. This peaceful confederacy was disrupted shortly after the Europeans arrived with their violent imperialistic ways of life. The 1996 Royal Commission on… [Direct]

Christie, Michael (2005). Aboriginal Knowledge Traditions in Digital Environments. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p61-66. According to Manovich (2001), the database and the narrative are natural enemies, each competing for the same territory of human culture. Aboriginal knowledge traditions depend upon narrative through storytelling and other shared performances. The database objectifies and commodifies distillations of such performances and absorbs them into data structures according to a priori assumptions of metadata; that is the data which describes the data to aid a search. In a conventional library for example, the metadata which helps you find a book may be title, author or topic. It is misleading and dangerous to say that these databases contain knowledge, because we lose sight of the embedded, situated, collaborative and performative nature of knowledge. For the assemblages of digital artefacts we find in an archive or database to be useful in the intergenerational transmission of living knowledge traditions, we need to rethink knowledge as performance and data as artefacts of prior knowledge… [Direct]

Bowers, Randolph (2005). Shieldwolf and the Shadow: Entering the Place of Transformation. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p79-85. This paper speaks from a poetic voice and briefly discusses the untamed nature of metaphor and narrative. Then the story is shared. The tale relates to how healing of identity, after eons of racism, sexism, homophobia and other forms of social isolation and internalised sorrow, requires deep abiding patience. Situated in transpersonal or spiritual space, the story suggests how Indigenous narrative crosses thresholds between reality and fiction. These are united in an "ontopoetics" of soul, a uniquely postmodern Indigenous sensibility that is also nothing terribly new. The story of Shieldwolf and the Shadow is a contemporary Indigenous tale of the place where transformation is undertaken, without fear, and with every intention that life itself will change beyond our reckoning. It may be possible that past bloodlines can be cleansed and our future restored to justice and peace–at least in some personal and contingent way. What we see in contemporary story is a potential for… [Direct]

Graham, James (2005). He apiti hono, he tatai hono: That Which Is Joined Remains an Unbroken Line–Using "Whakapapa" (Genealogy) as the Basis for an Indigenous Research Framework. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p86-95. This paper explores the notion of "whakapapa" as providing a legitimate research framework for engaging in research with Maori communities. By exploring the tradition and meaning of "whakapapa", the paper will legitimate how "whakapapa" and an understanding of "whakapapa" can be used by Maori researchers working among Maori communities. Therefore, emphasis is placed on a research methodology framed by "whakapapa" that not only authenticates Maori epistemology in comparison with Western traditions, but that also supports the notion of a "whakapapa" research methodology being transplanted across the Indigenous world; Indigenous peoples researching among their Indigenous communities. Consequently, Indigenous identity is strengthened as is the contribution of the concept of "whakapapa" to Indigenous research paradigms worldwide…. [Direct]

McConaghy, Cathryn (2005). Bringing Knowledge to Truth: The Joke and Australian (In)Humanities. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p132-142. In the formulation of new humanities–knowledge, truth and social action brought together in the defence of what makes us human in this place and time–there is also the need to identify the obstacles to honouring our humanity. This paper continues the task of critically examining contemporary forms of inhumanity, in this instance as perpetuated by a liberal Australian government against its citizens and others. Liberalism, by nature, enables the co-existence of contradictory practices that both protect and deny human rights and dignities. In psychoanalytic terms, the defence of liberties and its repressed other, the denial of them, are both present in such states. Because of their links with both the conscious and the unconscious, an analysis of jokes provides insights into these contradictory processes. The paper explores how both the humanities and the inhumanities are manifest variously in the joking behaviours of social groups…. [Direct]

Henderson, James Youngblood (2005). Insights on First Nations Humanities. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v34 p143-151. The question of what is humanity and how it is expressed has endless and dynamic answers. My paper is an attempt to construct and explain the answer based on the insights Indigenous humanity expressed in the continent called North America. The four fundamental insights are organised around the concept of creation as ecology, the insights of embodied spirits, the implicate order, and transformation. These complementary insights inform the depth of Indigenous worldview. These insights are replicated and revealed in structure and meaning of Indigenous languages, ceremonies and stories. These cognitive insights suggest a starting point for reflecting about whatever is most significant in Indigenous humanities in curriculum…. [Direct]

Anna Shnukal (2003). A Bibliography of Torres Strait Education. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, v31 n1 p77-80. This non-selective bibliography is limited to published material and is part of the Bibliography of Torres Strait to be found on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit's website at [website omitted]. Torres Strait Islander authors are marked with an asterisk…. [Direct]

Berryman, M.; Ford, T.; indivi; Nevin, A.; Spadoni, M.; Younis, A. (2015). Exploring Diverse Educational Landscapes: A Relational and Responsive Lens. Online Submission, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Multicultural Education (New Orleans, LA, Oct 1-4, 2015). Our goal in this session is to open up new pathways for addressing the seemingly immutable educational disparities, often brought about by historical power imbalances and traditional transmission pedagogies in classrooms and schools that continue to value and perpetuate a view of knowledge and learning maintained by the dominant group. We share culturally response-able processes for coming to grips with what it is we do not know…. [PDF]

Boon, Helen; Laffin, Gail; Lewthwaite, Brian Ellis; Webber, Tammi (2017). Quality Teaching Practices as Reported by Aboriginal Parents, Students and Their Teachers: Comparisons and Contrasts. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, v42 n12 Article 5 p80-97 Dec. This paper summarizes the findings from the first phase of a three-part project which, overall, investigates what Aboriginal students perceive as the qualities and actions of effective teachers and subsequently seeks to determine the impact of the enactment of these identified qualities on educational outcomes. This first phase of the research was centered on gathering accounts of quality teachers and teaching practice from students, parents and their teachers from phenomenologically aligned interviews. Similar and contrasting themes among these three groups are presented, with the intention of exposing potential mismatch in perception of the construct of "quality" teaching. Finally, we present implications of this research in light of the more recent development of professional standards for Australian teachers that seek to define and evaluate high quality teaching…. [PDF]

Berryman, Mere; Glynn, Ted; Woller, Paul (2017). Supervising Research in Maori Cultural Contexts: A Decolonizing, Relational Response. Higher Education Research and Development, v36 n7 p1355-1368. We have collaborated for 25 years as indigenous Maori and non-Maori researchers undertaking research with Maori families, their schools and communities. We have endeavored to meet our responsibilities to the Maori people (indigenous inhabitants of New Zealand) and communities with whom we have researched, as well as meet the requirements and responsibilities of our academic institutions. In this paper, we reflect on the implications of these responsibilities for our work as supervisors of master's and doctoral students (Maori and non-Maori) who seek to draw on decolonizing methodologies as they undertake research in Maori cultural contexts. We draw on the experiences and interactions we have had with four different postgraduate students whose research on improving educational outcomes for Maori students has required them to engage and participate in Maori cultural contexts…. [Direct]

Bang, Megan; Marin, Ananda (2018). "Look It, This Is How You Know:" Family Forest Walks as a Context for Knowledge-Building about the Natural World. Cognition and Instruction, v36 n2 p89-118. This case study focuses on a Native American family's experience on a walk in an urban forest preserve. Drawing on interaction analysis traditions, we analyze video data and transcript data to characterize how learning unfolds in place, in this case an urban forest. We build on this analysis, as well as the work of Indigenous scholars, to theoretically develop "walking," "reading," and "storying land" as a methodology for making sense of physical and biological worlds…. [Direct] [Direct]