(2012). Connecting Indigenous Stories with Geology: Inquiry-Based Learning in a Middle Years Classroom. Teaching Science, v58 n2 p41-46 Jun. One way to integrate indigenous perspectives in junior science is through links between indigenous stories of the local area and science concepts. Using local indigenous stories about landforms, a teacher of Year 8 students designed a unit on geology that catered for the diverse student population in his class. This paper reports on the inquiry-based approach structured around the requirements of the Australian Curriculum, highlighting the learning and engagement of students during the unit. (Contains 1 figure and 6 photos.)… [Direct]
(2012). Welcome to the Outback: The Paradoxes of Living and Teaching in Remote Western Australian Schools. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, v22 n3 p117-134. Teaching in remote schools can prove to be a challenging experience. Twenty three teachers from remote schools, located in Western Australia, were interviewed about their teaching and living experiences in isolated communities. The interview questions were designed to elicit information regarding three areas: demographic information; reasons for applying for a position in an isolated school and living in a remote community; and, professional factors impacting on the respondents. Interviews were conducted during a residential professional development session and involved twenty-three teachers with wide ranging ages and teaching experience. These teachers identified a number of affective factors including what attracted them to teach in remote communities, what they liked and disliked about their lifestyle and why they decided to stay in the community in which they lived and taught. Professional factors identified included teaching and learning issues; curriculum and assessment;… [Direct]
(2012). Assets for Employment in Aboriginal Community-Based Human Services Agencies. Adult Education Quarterly: A Journal of Research and Theory, v62 n3 p287-303 Aug. The purpose of the present study was to explore the prior educational and employment experiences of staff members in urban Aboriginal human services agencies. A total of 44 individuals employed by one of three community sites within one Canadian inner city generated 85 unique responses to the question: "What were your employment and education experiences before you got this job?" Multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis of independent grouping of the responses by 16 participants revealed five underlying themes: formal education, helping others, holder of cultural knowledge, life experiences, and on-the-job training. These results were compared and contrasted with the available literature. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)… [Direct]
(2009). Australian Indigenous Students: Addressing Equity Issues in Assessment. Teaching Education, v20 n1 p77-93 Mar. This article provides the background and context to the important issue of assessment and equity in relation to Indigenous students in Australia. Questions about the validity and fairness of assessment are raised and ways forward are suggested by attending to assessment questions in relation to equity and culture-fair assessment. Patterns of under-achievement by Indigenous students are reflected in national benchmark data and international testing programmes like the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study and the Program for International Student Assessment. The argument developed views equity, in relation to assessment, as more of a sociocultural issue than a technical matter. It highlights how teachers need to distinguish the "funds of knowledge" that Indigenous students draw on and how teachers need to adopt culturally responsive pedagogy to open up the curriculum and assessment practice to allow for different ways of knowing and being. (Contains 1 table… [Direct]
(2011). An Overview of Undergraduate Training in Cultural Competency and Cross-Cultural Psychiatry. Education Research and Perspectives, v38 n2 p57-68 Dec. Multiculturalism is a familiar concept in many developed countries. While cultural competency training is part of most medical curricula, training in cultural psychiatry at the undergraduate level is typically minimal. It is important that medical graduates are both culturally competent and able to respond to the mental health needs of patients from diverse cultures. This paper provides an overview of the teaching of cultural competency and cultural psychiatry to medical students, and discusses aspects of cultural psychiatry that could be included in medical courses. It was concluded that there needs to be more attention given to teaching of cultural psychiatry in the undergraduate curriculum. The challenge for medical curricula is in the provision of cultural psychiatry content to ensure that students are able effectively to communicate, assess and treat patients from different cultural backgrounds by the time they graduate and begin their professional careers…. [PDF]
(2011). Putting "Maori" in the Mainstream: Student Teachers' Reflections of a Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, v36 n12 p33-45 Dec. This paper reports on student teachers' experiences of an education program that was explicitly designed to be grounded in both Kaupapa Maori and mainstream pedagogy. This program started from the Kaupapa Maori view to be Maori as Maori. This was then supported by mainstream epistemology of New Zealand focused good teaching practice. A Kaupapa Maori approach was taken in this qualitative study that used participant driven spiral discourse. The paper suggests that this combined Kaupapa Maori and mainstream approach allowed these student teachers to find their place in education. Conclusions suggest that a culturally relevant pedagogy modeled as good teaching practice was needed for these student teachers to develop an understanding of not only how learning occurs but also how their teaching relates to learning. (Contains 1 figure and 2 footnotes.)… [PDF]
(2011). Revitalization of Indigenous Culture in Child Care Centre. Qualitative Report, v16 n2 p464-481 Mar. In this study, I address contemporary ways of looking after children and care giving roles women play in today's Aboriginal community in Brisbane, Australia. Data were collected through participant observation and interviews during field work in a family care centre managed by Indigenous women with the staff and their clients. My main contribution is in describing how various activities of the centre, such as parental programmes, women's gatherings, and rites of passage reflect the traditional models of child care and women's position in the family environment and how these models are perpetuated again in the modern urban environment. Furthermore, I present the implications for the contemporary Aboriginal community's understanding of their current culture as dynamic and open to change. (Contains 4 footnotes.)… [PDF]
(2012). Culturally Responsive Instruction Leaves No Child Behind: The Story of Juan, a Pacific Island Special Needs Student. International Journal of Multicultural Education, v14 n1. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the use of retelling as a culturally responsive literacy strategy for Juan, a Pacific Island (Chamorro) special needs student on the island of Guam. Data were collected from the following sources: (1) participant-observation (2) fieldnotes (3) audiotaped recordings of students' oral retellings (4) audiotaped interviews with students (5) audiotaped interviews with classroom teacher, and (6) samples of students' written retellings. Results of the study suggest that retelling helps to bridge the dissonance between home and the school. Retelling, congruent with the Chamorro tradition of storytelling, is a natural way of learning for Chamorro students. Moreover, retelling in a small group setting is compatible with "inafa'maolek," a core value of Chamorro culture that means helping each other in an agreeable fashion. Based on Juan's productive academic performance and appropriate behavior during the retelling sessions, the… [PDF]
(2012). "Koladeras", Literacy Educators of the Cape Verdean Diaspora: A Cape Verdean African Centered Call and Response Methodology. Community Literacy Journal, v6 n2 p97-113. "Koladeras" are women who use call and response in impromptu songs that may contain proverbs, stories about the community, their life experiences, and who and what they see in their world from their own perspective. Via qualitative methods of (auto)ethnography, personal and life story narratives, and interviews, I look at how "koladeras'" as literacy educators of multiple generations of Cape Verdeans. I identify African centered koladera literacies and discuss how have been passed down and taken different forms from generation to generation and next and argue for inclusion of these literacies in academia. More specifically, I argue that "koladeras" are literacy educators who have taught generations of Cape Verdeans how African centered Cape Verdean literacies challenge narrow, racist, classist, and sexist notions of literacy…. [Direct]
(2013). Healthy Buddies[TM] Reduces Body Mass Index Z-Score and Waist Circumference in Aboriginal Children Living in Remote Coastal Communities. Journal of School Health, v83 n9 p605-613 Sep. Background: Aboriginal children are at increased risk for obesity and type 2 diabetes. Healthy Buddies [TM]-First Nations (HB) is a curriculum-based, peer-led program promoting healthy eating, physical activity, and self-esteem. Methods: Although originally designed as a pilot pre-/post-analysis of 3 remote Aboriginal schools that requested and received HB training, one school did not implement the program and was used as a control group. Outcomes included changes in body mass index z-score (zBMI), waist circumference (WC), blood pressure (BP), self-esteem, health behavior, and knowledge over 1 school year in kindergarten to grade 12 children. Results: There was a significant decrease in zBMI (1.10 to 1.04, p=0.028) and WC (77.1 to 75.0 cm, p less than 0.0001) in the HB group (N=118) compared with an increase in zBMI (1.14 to 1.23, p=0.046) and a minimal WC change in the control group (N=61). Prevalence of elevated BP did not change in the HB group, but increased from 16.7% to 31.7%… [Direct]
(2013). Multimodal Literacy Practices in the Indigenous S√°mi Classroom: Children Navigating in a Complex Multilingual Setting. Journal of Language, Identity, and Education, v12 n4 p230-247. This article explores multimodal literacy practices in a transforming multilingual context of an indigenous and endangered S√°mi language classroom. Looking at literacy practices as embedded in a complex and shifting terrain of language ideologies, language norms, and individual experiences and attitudes, we examined how multilingual S√°mi children navigate and appropriate meaning-making resources available for them while designing their own picture books. We adopted a discourse ethnographic approach to analyse these multimodal picture books and found three different but interrelated orientations to the making of the books, each organising and valuing multimodal resources in his or her own way. We conclude with a discussion of the value of repetition and creativity in multimodal literacy practices in a changing multilingual minority language context…. [Direct]
(2013). From Conversation to Oral Composition: Supporting Indigenous Students' Language for Literacy. Babel, v48 n1 p20-29. The development of oral language and specifically increased control over literate discourse is critical to students' ability to create and comprehend texts in the early years of schooling and beyond. For students with home languages that differ from the forms of language used in school, the development of oral language through carefully designed teacher-student interactions has particular importance in assisting students to access literacy skills and to display the knowledge required for learning in educational settings. This paper reports a study of two teachers providing an early literacy intervention to two Indigenous students and the techniques used in conversational interactions to scaffold oral language and to compose texts for writing. The conversations are closely analysed to reveal patterns in teacher talk that support students' appropriation of literate discourse. The findings indicate that careful attention to students' utterances and the contingent scaffolding of language… [Direct] [Direct]
(2013). Young Australian Indigenous Students' Effective Engagement in Mathematics: The Role of Language, Patterns, and Structure. Mathematics Education Research Journal, v25 n1 p151-171 Mar. This paper explores the outcomes of the first year of the implementation of a mathematics program ("Representations, oral language and engagement in Mathematics": RoleM) which is framed upon research relating to effectively supporting young Indigenous students' learning. The sample comprised 230 Indigenous students (average age 5.76 years) from 15 schools located across Queensland. The pre-test and post-test results from purposely developed language and mathematics tests indicate that young Indigenous Australian students are very capable learners of mathematics. The results of a multiple regression analysis denoted that their ability to ascertain the structure of patterns and to understand mathematical language were both strong predictors of their success in mathematics, with the latter making the larger contribution…. [Direct]
(2010). An Experiment in Method. Australian Journal of Adult Learning, v50 n3 p597-608 Nov. A one week's school for training in the work of Co-operatives for Aborigines was held at "Tranby" by the Australian Board of Missions in February this year, organized by the Rev. Alfred Clint. It was the third successive year in which such a school was held. As in former years it consisted of two courses for two groups–one for aborigines, the other for European teachers, administrators and missionaries working in aboriginal settlements. The main part of the course dealt with the principles and practices of native Co-ops and experiences with them in the Pacific, Australia and elsewhere. The author had been asked to give one lecture to the European group in 1960, on "modern techniques in adult education", and feeling this was quite inappropriate, had applied the method described in this article to an aspect of their work. This had resulted in her being asked to take three sessions and try the same method with the aborigine group at the school, as well as one… [PDF]
(2010). Localising Neoliberalism: Indigenist Brokerage in the New Zealand University. Globalisation, Societies and Education, v8 n4 p527-542 Nov. The examination of indigenist interests in the New Zealand university is framed by a theoretical understanding of indigeneity as a strategy in regulating social organisation and resource management in neoliberal global capitalism. Three stages of the brokerage of indigenist interests are identified. These are: the production and representation of indigenous knowledge; the use of Treaty of Waitangi partnership and principles to connect the tribe and the university; and the use of specific policies and practices to put the Treaty principles into operation. Studies of the penetration of Treaty compliance into everyday university operations, exemplified in the analysis of indigenous knowledge discourse and university policy documents, are used to demonstrate the brokerage of indigenist interests and the tensions that result from that brokerage. (Contains 1 note.)… [Direct]