Educational Leadership: towards creating real opportunities for an engaged Aboriginal Australia
Jill Gientzotis has just completed updating all the Indigenous topics in our A-Z Resources, adding new material, links and resources and including a new area on Indigenous Policy and its relationship with vocational education and training. This Thinkpiece links together and highlights the areas Jill has written about in the A-Z .
Jill is an independent researcher and consultant in vocational education and training, Indigenous policy and organisational development. The majority of her work is with Non-Government Organisations in remote and isolated Aboriginal communities.
Aboriginal communities across Australia are very diverse. Understanding identity, cultures, knowledge and values requires not just a national overview, but an attempt to work together with local communities. In the sparsely inhabited areas that cover most of Australia, Indigenous people often constitute the majority of the population.
In these remote areas, Indigenous people usually live in discreet Indigenous communities with population of less than 3000. These communities are inhabited predominantly by Indigenous people and run by community councils. These communities may be on legally recognised Indigenous land, or may be the subject of native title claims. In many remote areas, tiny outstation or satellite settlements have been established by people returning to live on, or care for their ancestral lands.1 The first language of the community is generally not English.
A few discrete communities, like La Perouse in Sydney, are based in metropolitan and rural areas. The majority of Indigenous people live in heavily settled areas, where they form a small minority of the total population. Many Aboriginal people when they migrate to urban centres follow their family and relatives who have gone before them.2 Aboriginal English and English are often the languages in daily use.
Policy in Australia today is being driven by a complex network of responses to a series of state, territory and federal reports regarding child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities, including a NSW report. Policy is also focusing upon the future with the recent Federal Parliament’s Apology to Australia’s Aboriginal people laying the groundwork for moving forward.
Education systems, teachers and policy makers within it, can show support for Aboriginal learners and students by creating learning environments full of meaning and engagement. Schools and TAFE can be the centre of communities for both children and their parents. Vocational education and training can be the centre of enterprise employment and training. All education and training should challenge students and encourage excellence.
In all policy debates, education and training form a key strategic input whether through vocational education and training, non-formal education, schools and universities. Educational programs must reflect the different needs, resources and skills of these differing communities. Educational programs empower people to create informed lives of their own choosing and to work together to intervene in community and governance activities so that their goals and that of their community may be realized.
The Australian community needs to take responsibility for the education of everyone regarding the wealth and diversity of Aboriginal Culture in its contemporary manifestation, to understand the history of Aboriginal people, and to promote pride and direction. Teaching non-Aboriginal Australians about Aboriginal people, their history and culture will foster partnerships that work together, side by side, rather than out of step with each other.
A responsive, truthful and integrated curriculum is always a challenge and not just in vocational education and training delivery, especially on communities where a language other than English is the spoken language and English is only encountered in school or in business dealings. Bi-lingualism may need to be fostered in some training programs and supported within the curriculum. Language and literacy must always be considered in any learning program contextualized to the students needs.
It is difficult to imagine how Aboriginal people can apply what they have learnt within a curriculum which assumes daily engagement within another culture and environment which is often accessed by Aboriginal people in ways distorted by cultural difference, disadvantage, poverty, discrimination and isolation. Training Packages, unfortunately, still have a long way to go if they are to be relevant to the needs of many Aboriginal communities, enterprises and employers. It is important that curriculum can bridge this gap, and that RTOs and training institutions are offered the flexibility to foster learning in diverse environments.
Properly trained and supported staff is critical. Teachers may need training in Aboriginal culture (preferably of the community in which they will be teaching) as well as skills to enhance teaching in a cross cultural context. Aboriginal teachers and educators need to be encouraged and supported and there needs to be more of them. Ongoing professional development and support underpins effective teaching as well as attracting and retaining the right staff.
Aboriginal people should be able to aspire to the same opportunities as other Australians. They must be supported with skills for capacity building and governance. The outcome must be engaged, healthy and safe Aboriginal communities where people have the education and skills to make choices about their own future and that of their people. Each teacher and every training program has a role to play in reaching this goal.
See also
Updated resources:
- Indigenous Learning
- Indigenous Learning – Capacity Building and Governance
- Indigenous Learning – Enterprise, employment and training
- Indigenous Learning – Identities, cultures, knowledge and values
- Indigenous Learning – Language and Literacy
- Indigenous Learning – Indigenous Partnerships
- Indigenous Learning – Indigenous Policies
- Indigenous Learning – Professional Development
- Indigenous Learning – Training Packages
- Indigenous Learning – VET delivery
References