(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]
(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]
(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]
(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]
(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]
(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]
(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)…
(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)…
(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)…
(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)…
(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)…
(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)…
(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]
(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]
(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]