(1999). Educating for Uncertainty in a Changing World: Issues within an Australian Remote Indigenous Context. Comparative Education, v35 n2 p225-34 Jun. In response to overseas economic competition and changing technologies, Australia's national vocational education and training system was recently restructured, with emphases on competency-based training and industry participation. This national training system has had little relevance for geographically remote Aboriginal communities. Issues of control, access, equity, funding, and culturally appropriate practices are discussed. Contains 24 references. (SV)…
(1983). Education despite the Law. Educational Perspectives, v22 n2 p4-11 Sum. Surveys the history and influence of native and non-Anglo ethnic groups who contribute to Australia's cultural diversity. Focuses on the struggle to preserve the Aboriginal language and asserts that legislation is needed to expedite pro-bilingual education policies. Describes several efforts made to promote cultural pluralism in Australia. (KH)…
(2000). SIAST Education Equity Program Annual Monitoring Report Summary, 1999-2000. This annual report for 1999-2000 monitors the Education Equity Program for the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST). The program assures potential students access to adult and postsecondary educational opportunities such that the proportions of targeted equity groups to the total student body are the same as in the working age population of Saskatchewan. SIAST offers the program to students in all areas: certificate and diploma, basic education, extension, and apprenticeship programs. The program's long-term goal is to achieve a representative student body. In order to achieve this goal, a percentage of seats are allocated for some underrepresented student groups. The participation goals are based on the Saskatchewan work force, while the long-term goals are based on the percentage of designated group persons in the working age population as of June, 1996. The percentages are as follows: (1) persons of Aboriginal ancestry, 12%; (2) persons with… [PDF]
(2003). Culturally Framing Aboriginal Literacy and Learning. Canadian Journal of Native Education, v27 n1 p7-15. More than just the development of reading and writing skills, Aboriginal literacy is a wholistic concept, with spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional aspects, involving relationships between self, community, nation, and creation. Models are presented for incorporating traditional Aboriginal knowledge and methodologies into Aboriginal learning to counteract the assimilation process that continues to be detrimental to Native societies. (TD)…
(2002). Teaching Tradition Teaches Us. Canadian Journal of Native Education, v26 n1 p11-29. Presented in a poetic format, the challenges of revitalizing traditional Indigenous healing and teaching strategies in an Aboriginal counseling program within a Eurocentric university are highlighted from a Native perspective. Contradictions that have arisen in bringing tradition into a modern university context provide lessons from which to learn. An appendix presents the counseling program brochure. Contains 20 notes and 38 references. (TD)…
(2001). Building a Sustainable Approach to Working in a Diverse Community: A Country Areas Program (CAP) District Initiative, Including Walgett Public School, St. Joseph's Primary School Walgett, Personnel from the Walgett Community of Schools and Members of the Walgett Community. Education in Rural Australia, v11 n2 p50-54. An Australian cultural diversity training program for rural teachers is described. The goal is to train local Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal personnel to deliver diversity workshops to new teachers and establish school-community collaborative approaches to supporting Aboriginal students within their own cultural setting. Anticipated outcomes, indicators of success, actions, future directions, and principles of diversity education are described. (TD)…
(1994). Language, Power, and Pedagogy: Whose School Is It?. Peabody Journal of Education, v69 n2 p71-93 Win. A collaborative research/school improvement project between a university, Alaskan village, and school district caused conflicts about power and ideology. The article chronicles project planning meetings, noting that the school district eventually instituted Yup'ik as a language of instruction. (SM)…
(1998). Indigenous Legal Translators: Challenges of a University Program for the Maya of Guatemala. Cultural Survival Quarterly, v22 n1 p53-56 Spr. Guatemala is overhauling its justice system to be more congruent with its indigenous reality. A Rafael Landivar University program trains indigenous legal translators not only in legal and linguistic aspects, but also in strengthening indigenous identity and student commitment to the community. Challenges and future plans are described. A former student, now professor, discusses the program in a sidebar. (TD)…
(2000). Q'epethet ye Mestiyexw, A Gathering of the People. Canadian Journal of Native Education, v24 n1 p1-5. A 4-week program in Vancouver (British Columbia) used traditional and academic formats to connect Aboriginal communities throughout British Columbia with each other and with Maori participants from New Zealand. A conference, a symposium and graduate courses covered the role of Aboriginal art, politics of transforming education, revitalization of Aboriginal societies, research ethics and methodology, and managing Aboriginal schools. (TD)…
(2003). Developing Curriculum Materials for Endangered Language Education: Lessons from the Field. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, v6 n5 p332-348. With the gloomy prospect of massive language extinction over the next 100 years, efforts by applied linguists, educational anthropologists, and multilingual educators to reverse the trends in language loss are increasing. Education in minority languages seems to be a key to maintaining endangered languages and cultures. One often cited challenge to effective minority language education in multilingual settings is the difficulty of developing curriculum and instructional material in many languages. In this paper, current efforts in minority language education are described and patterns analysed. Minority language communities themselves are a major source of what is necessary–but rarely sufficient–educationally. Endangered language communities cannot go it alone. The author suggests several key collaborations between the minority communities and outside organisations and agencies. In addition, a generalised curriculum development resource is suggested as facilitative of… [Direct]
(1999). The Australian Press and Education: A Survey of National and Global Perspectives. The news media are often the main source of public information about education. This paper analyzes press coverage of selected issues in contemporary Australian education. From December 28, 1998, to February 17, 1999, daily educational reporting was surveyed in "The Australian" (a paper roughly equivalent to "USA Today") and in 18 state-based newspapers, including 12 dailies published in major cities, 2 small-town newspapers, and 2 less frequent publications from Aboriginal communities. During the period, 295 articles on education were reviewed, including 158 on private and public pre-K-12 education, 102 on higher education, and 35 on other education-related topics. Following a review of recent trends in Australian education, this paper discusses press coverage of controversial issues and other educational topics. These include: (1) government funding of private schools and related questions about the function and quality of public versus private education; (2)…
(1994). Defining the Enemy: Adult Education in Social Action. This book examines the powerful and motivating kinds of learning that take place when one is in the presence of enemies, such as oppressive employers, bigots, racists, or polluters. It is intended for people interested in education for social action, community development, and political change. The book looks at this kind of learning in aboriginal adult education, trade union training, feminist adult education, peace education, and environmental education. It critically reviews some currently fashionable adult education theories, concluding that a number are simply too nice, too unfocused, too inward looking, or too mechanical to help people who are engaged in social action. It canvasses the ideas of a number of adult educators who have confronted and helped their learners confront exploitation, imposition, and injustice. It proposes some processes that adult educators might use to help people learn how to identify, define, and then deal with their enemies. The argument is developed… [Direct]
(1998). Toward a Redefinition of Formal and Informal Learning: Education and the Aboriginal People. NALL Working Paper. The Western paradigm of education regards schools as the essential institutionalized cultural settings in which formal learning can take place and as the only socially valid settings in which learners can get a formal education. Knowledge is commodified and may be exchanged for currency in the form of jobs or licenses. Learning that occurs outside this institutionalized educational system is judged by the dominant culture to be invalid for certification or professional recognition, is labeled informal, and is associated with the unschooled. This dichotomization of education into formal and informal learning serves to maintain unequal relations of power in education as well as the control, marginalization, and exploitation of minority groups in society. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Canada Natives had their own highly successful systems of education. The Elders are the most knowledgeable people in Aboriginal societies, yet their learning has been through informal practices and… [PDF]
(2001). Australian Vocational Education and Training Statistics, 2001: In Detail. This publication provides detailed statistical information about publicly funded vocational education and training activity in Australia in 2001, including students, providers, and programs. All tables provide cross-tabulations for the whole population and by sex. Twenty-two tables are provided for Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory, and Australian Capital Territory. The tables show clients by age group, geographic region of client address, and geographic region of training provider location; aboriginal/Torres Strait Islanders clients by sex and by geographic region of client address; clients by country of birth, language spoken at home, employment category, disability, highest school level completed, highest prior educational level, major qualification by schooling status, client load by major qualification, number of subjects enrolled, proportion of subjects successfully completed, and major…
(1993). Multicultural Education as Undertheorised Romanticism: An Australian Perspective. Multicultural Teaching to Combat Racism in School and Community, v11 n3 p5-7 Sum. Outlines components of a theory of multicultural society; and argues that the critical weakness of multicultural education in Australia is that it derives from undertheorized, conceptually inadequate, and confused understandings. Current approaches fail to address fundamental issues of difference in existing social relations. (SLD)…