(2012). K-2 "Make It Count" Students' Views of Mathematics. Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA) (35th, Singapore, Jul 2-6, 2012). Data from an attitude survey administered to students in grades K-2 from four schools participating in the "Make it Count" project are reported in this paper. Few differences were found in the attitudes and beliefs of the Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants. The relevance of these findings for students' longer term mathematics performance is also considered…. [PDF]
(2012). Developing Mathematical Resilience among Aboriginal Students. Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA) (35th, Singapore, Jul 2-6, 2012). The processes of mathematisation, the use of mathematical models and representations of real world contexts, and contextualisation, the embedding of mathematical ideas into a meaningful context, are key aspects of students' mathematical learning. We present a conceptual framework for thinking about mathematising and contextualising developed as part of the "Make it Count," a national project that seeks to develop an evidence base of practices that improve Indigenous students' learning in mathematics. We suggest that an intentional focus on mathematisation and contextualisation helps to make mathematics meaningful, particularly for Indigenous students. In particular we suggest that such a focus has the potential to enhance the mathematical resilience of Aboriginal students…. [PDF]
(2012). Positive Educational Responses to Indigenous Student Mobility. International Journal of Educational Research, v54 p50-59. Engaging positively with the mobility of Indigenous students has been the centre of a 5-year action research project in Queensland, Australia. Drawing on responses developed for other marginalised mobile populations, and with consideration for the extent of mobility amongst many Indigenous people in Australia, this paper focuses on the professional development of teachers to understand the needs of highly mobile Indigenous students. The paper outlines the introduction of a key support role within the school, a Mobility Support Teacher (MST). The role and the programme are reviewed in the context of a recent renewed commitment to "needs based funding" in schools in Australia. Taking a critical view of the funding arrangements for Australian schools, it is argued that mobile Indigenous students, as an underserved population, require significant ongoing support. (Contains 2 figures.)… [Direct]
(2012). \Next Time, Just Remember the Story\: Unlearning Empire in Silko's \Ceremony\. Studies in American Indian Literatures, v24 n1 p1-14 Spr. In this article, the author discusses the unlearning empire in Leslie Marmon Silko's novel titled \Ceremony.\ \Ceremony' has received a wealth of critical attention. A number of scholars have identified the novel's treatment of education as a colonizing force used by the white American power structure to coerce assimilation of American Indians. Silko's work emphasizes the importance of preserving the wisdom of the past while meeting the changes of the contemporary world. Her characterizations of Josiah, Betonie, and Aunt Susie all offer profound lessons in the valuable role that cultural memory can play in unlearning empire. By including the lessons of American Indians in the reconsideration of American educational history and identity, \Ceremony\ challenges Western hegemonic claims to knowledge and allows for the possibility of a new future in education. (Contains 5 notes.)… [Direct]
(2009). Bunuba-Walmajarri: Land, Language and Culture. Babel, v43 n2 p20-27 Feb. Many educators in Australian schools are becoming aware of the need to address the imbalance in the content of humanities or integrated studies curriculum in relation to indigenous perspectives within primary and secondary schools. Over the past few years, attempts have been made by various state and national educational bodies to create programmes and curriculum documentation to focus on this area. This paper accounts the journey that Wesley College has taken to address this imbalance in the curriculum through collaboration with Australia's indigenous people from the Bunuba and Walmajarri tribes of the Kimberley region…. [Direct]
(2013). Understanding Australian Aboriginal Tertiary Student Needs. International Journal of Higher Education, v2 n4 p52-64. Drawing from a study of the experiences of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander university students, this paper presents an overview of the specific needs of these students as they enter and progress through their tertiary education. Extracts from a set of case studies developed from both staff and student interviews and an online survey are used to illustrate what we have categorised as the emotional, motivational, financial, study, literacy, and transitional needs of this particular cohort of students. Our findings, supported strongly by other current research, point to the need for a whole-of-university approach to enhancing the educational and subsequent employment opportunities for Aboriginal students. This includes acknowledging cultural and familial responsibilities, recognising and accommodating Aboriginal knowledge, and ensuring equitable experiences of university life…. [PDF]
(2013). "I Really Want to Save Our Language": Facing the Challenge of Revitalising and Maintaining Southern Sami Language through Schooling. International Education Studies, v6 n3 p228-239. This article is based on a study of Southern Sami language learning in Norway. There are around 600-1000 Southern Sami living widely dispersed over a large territorial area in Norway. As an indigenous people, they have a right to instruction in their own language. The Southern Sami language however is in danger of extinction. The purpose of this article is to explore how Southern Sami language learning is organised and implemented in school and, whether this training contributes to revitalising and maintaining the language. Data is collected in the contexts of the main Southern Sami language learning schools through qualitative interviews with pupils, teachers, headmasters, and parents. A sociocultural theoretical framework is used to analyse the data. The findings show that Southern Sami language learning in school offers very limited access to a Southern Sami language community due to the small number of pupils and teachers, lack of learning materials and most importantly the… [PDF]
(2013). Language Planning and Student Experiences: Intention, Rhetoric and Implementation. Multilingual Matters This book is a timely comparison of the divergent worlds of policy implementation and policy ambition, the messy, often contradictory here-and-now reality of languages in schools and the sharp-edged, shiny, future-oriented representation of languages in policy. Two deep rooted tendencies in Australian political and social life, multiculturalism and Asian regionalism, are represented as key phases in the country's experimentation with language education planning. Presenting data from a five year ethnographic study combined with a 40 year span of policy analysis, this volume is a rare book length treatment of the chasm between imagined policy and its experienced delivery, and will provide insights that policymakers around the world can draw on. The following are appended: (1) Q-Statements, Italian; and (2) Q-Statements, Japanese…. [Direct]
(2013). Healing Ourselves: Culture and Behavioral Health at Tribal Colleges and Universities. Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education, v25 n2 Oct. For over 40 years, tribal colleges and universities have devised innovative programs to address behavioral and tribal health. Cheryl Crazy Bull, president and CEO of the American Indian College Fund, looks back at the progress made and details current strategies and initiatives…. [Direct]
(2013). Exchanges between Two Rivers: Possibilities for Teaching Writing in the Northwest Territories. Canadian Journal of Education, v36 n2 p119-143. My action research investigation into place-conscious writing practices invited experienced Non-Aboriginal teachers from the Northwest Territories to think through writing practices that might engage Northern students, many of whom are Indigenous. In this paper, I will focus on what the teachers had to say about the influences of aspects of Indigenous oral traditions on their writing pedagogies. I will consider the possibility that multiliteracies might provide a more dynamic conception of literacy that invites student engagement through multimodal connections and opens up spaces for Indigenous ways of knowing and being in approaches to teaching writing…. [PDF] [Direct]
(2012). The Minnesota Maple Series: Community-Generated Knowledge Delivered through an Extension Website. Journal of Extension, v50 n4 Article 4IAW6 Aug. Extension continuously seeks novel and effective approaches to outreach and education. The recent retirement of a longtime content specialist catalyzed members of University of Minnesota Extension's Forestry team to reflect on our instructional capacity (internal and external) and educational design in the realm of maple syrup production. We responded by developing an educational maple blog series that incorporated faculty and community expertise through a participatory, peer-to-peer approach. The blog series expanded and strengthened the state's maple knowledge network, met contributors' and users' content needs and expectations, influenced maple practices, and retained program flexibility for adaptation…. [PDF]
(2011). Is There a Crisis in International Learning? The "Three Freedoms" Paradox. Cambridge Journal of Education, v41 n1 p67-83. This paper explores creative responses to global educational, financial and ethical crises. The focus is the potential intersection between academic, Internet and media freedoms. At base, it asks whether there are rights (of definition, use and control) associated with each of these. For instance, is unfettered access to the Internet a human right or is it analogous to a public utility? Does it matter to the polity if media freedoms are filtered and curtailed? And is academic freedom influenced, concerned or affected by either (or both) of the above? In an environment in which formerly ranked certainties no longer hold sway, new forms of international learning and global university behaviours are essential. I argue that exploring and defining an ethical curriculum is where the process begins; invoking it in terms of international research is where it travels; and changing the world inside and outside the campus is the ultimate destination. (Contains 1 note.)… [Direct]
(2010). Amalgamation, Expansion, Quality Assurance and Innovations: A Case Study on a Key University in China. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Arizona State University. The Chinese higher education reform policies since 1993 have been pursued in a centralized, top-down manner, which some theorists characterize as "centralized decentralization" or governmental "steering at distance." This case-study dissertation has two purposes. First, is to evaluate the implementation or the "situated practices" of national higher education reform policies (the amalgamation, expansion, and quality assurance policies). Second, is to elaborate on the locally-grounded innovative ideas and practices at a key university in a large metropolitan city in China. The methodological approach used is phenomenological interviews, a vehicle that elicits "local knowledge" and accords the status of expertise to the interview participants. The purpose is to map out the different experiences and meanings different social groups derive from the centralized policies and to generate new ideas for the policy actions. The findings suggest that… [Direct]
(2012). Digital Opportunities within the Aboriginal Teacher Education Program: A Study of Preservice Teachers' Attitudes and Proficiency in Technology Integration. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, v58 n2 p263-285 Sum. This article explores changes that occurred in preservice teachers' thinking about the use of educational technology in a post-secondary, Aboriginal, elementary teacher education program. The research explores relationships associated with changes in preservice teachers' attitudes and perceived proficiency with technology integration. Quantitative results indicate significant increases in several attitude constructs as well as overall computer proficiency over the course of the project. Supplemental qualitative analysis reveals participants' perception of technology integration as a contributing factor in this positive change. The findings from this study represent a research effort to better prepare teachers to meet the educational needs of Aboriginal students in a 21st century context…. [Direct]
(2011). Yup'ik Cosmology to School Mathematics: The Power of Symmetry and Proportional Measuring. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education, v42 n2 p157-183 May. This article shows how Yup'ik cosmology, epistemology, and everyday practice have implications for the teaching of school mathematics. Math in a Cultural Context (MCC) has a long-term collaborative relationship with Yup'ik elders and experienced Yup'ik teachers. Because of this long-term ethnographically-oriented relationship, the authors–both insiders and an outsider–have been able to understand the mathematical implications of everyday Yup'ik practice. As the article demonstrates, body proportional measuring and symmetry/splitting are two generative solution strategies used by Yup'ik elders in solving everyday problems. We argue that proportional measuring coupled with symmetry/splitting can provide school mathematics with an alternative pathway to the teaching of some aspects of geometry and rational number reasoning…. [Direct] [Direct]