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Developments in Indigenous Education (1970 to Date)

The development of Indigenous education in Australia has been marked by a number of momentous developments. Specific education reforms and legislations since the 1970s paved way for the growth of Indigenous education both at the state and national levels. Consequently, learners on the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander extraction have progressively been affected by such developments. This paper discusses ten such developments from 1973 to the final one in 2019.

Release of the Report of the Interim Committee of the Australian Schools Commission (The Karmel Report)

Date: 1973

State or National: National

Resulting Classroom Practice

The implementation of the recommendations of the Karmel report led to the adoption of a number of priority expenditure areas for the Australian classroom. These included the expenditure on general recurrent resources, general buildings, primary and secondary school libraries, disadvantaged schools, special education, teacher development and special projects and innovations (Booth and Ainscow, 2011). Some recommendations equalised resources available to all students, some targeted particular disadvantaged groups while others were simply for improving overall quality of education. Following the report for instance, recurrent grants for wealthiest schools were halted and the resources channelled to help learning in disadvantaged schools.

Impact on Indigenous students

The major way in which this policy impacted indigenous students was through the resources channelled to disadvantaged schools. For the first time, Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander children could receive funds in their schools to acquire books, have libraries within their schools and help in improving the quality of education that they got.

Formation of the Aboriginal Consultative Group (ACG)

Date: 1975

State or National: National

Resulting Classroom Practice

The report that was released by this consultative group was the “Education for Aborigines: Report to the Schools Commission”. The report identified four areas that directly impacted the prevailing classroom practice. The areas were administrators, professionals, children and the excluded (Fogarty et al, 2018). Consequently, more Aboriginal teachers were trained and the Torres Strait Island schools were upgraded with technology education to Aboriginal students made a priority.

Impact on Indigenous Students

This report had one of the most lasting impacts on the Indigenous students. First, the report led to an acknowledgement of the lack of sufficient Aboriginal teachers and teacher aides with whom the children from Indigenous backgrounds could identify. Local initiatives were encouraged among the Aboriginal and Torres Island Strait children. These efforts included the Aboriginal Secondary Grants Scheme evaluation. The report also made a call for the introduction of Aboriginal studies both for the trained teachers and within the Australian classroom (Fogarty et al. 2018).

ACG Report to Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission

Date: 1976

State or National: National

Resulting Classroom Practice

Following the ACG Report titled “Aboriginal access to technical and further education”, a number of findings were made by the commission which included among other things, the gaping limitations that inhibited the use of TAFE institutions by the Aboriginal people. Consequently, such technical and vocational institutions were mandated to have contact and communication programmes that could meet the needs of the Aboriginal people. Such included the cultural awareness of the Aboriginal people and inclusion of their people through strategic placement both for the students and the teachers (Ford et al. 2014).

Impacts on Indigenous Students

Following this realization, more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children were accepted into the tertiary education programmes through the TAFE institutions. The report also made the stakeholders aware of the fact that many Indigenous peoples were left out through exclusive instructional and communication practices within the technical institutions. It therefore brought them closer to inclusivity through the cultural awareness and the need to reform the communication and contact needs (Ford et al. 2014).

Formation of the National Aboriginal Education Committee

Date: 1977

State or National: National

Resulting Classroom Practice

Following the establishment of the NAEC, it became clear that Aboriginal education in Australia had taken on a new, dramatic phase. This committee spearheaded the formation of State and Territory Aboriginal Education Consultative Committees that not only impacted the integration of Aboriginal students within the Australian school system but also redefined the agenda for the form and content of education within the classroom for the Aboriginal student (Booth and Ainscow, 2011).

Impacts on Indigenous Students

The appointment of Indigenous leadership to the NAEC served as points of inspiration to the Indigenous students as they could finally have those to look up to in the education circles. The interest of the Indigenous learner was taken into consideration, and the territorial consultative committees served to address the specific needs of the Aboriginal students depending on the territory within which they were located. This gave the Indigenous learners a head-start in acquiring some level of parity with their majority White colleagues.

The Education and Employment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teachers

Date:1979

State or National: National

Resulting Classroom Practice

Having established that one of the critical barriers to the acquisition of education by the Aboriginal children across the commonwealth was the insufficiency in the number of Aboriginal teachers and teacher aides, the NAEC made efforts to correct this. Consequently, a number of Aboriginal teachers were trained and employed in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander territories to bridge the element of cultural awareness and ease of contact (Ford et al. 2014). Communication thus became easier for those who found this possible.

Impacts on Indigenous Students

The efforts made towards ensuring that the Aboriginal classroom had enough Aboriginal teachers improved contact and communication for the Aboriginal children. As a result then, more Aboriginal children could stay in school for there were more people that they could identify with as the teachers who were also acutely aware of their cultural differences. Training more Aboriginal teachers also fostered inclusivity as this made it possible that even in a class where the Aboriginal population was not the majority, an Aboriginal teacher could still lead the instruction. In many ways then, this fostered integration.

National Aboriginal Education Committee

Date: 1985b

Resulting Classroom Practice

The 1980s saw a shift in the priorities for the education of the Aboriginal children. More emphasis was put on the content and the manner in which this content could be integrated into the Australian education system. The policy shift resulted in the realization by NAEC that only a few White teachers and the available Aboriginal teachers were teaching culturally appropriate content (Maxwell et al. 2018). The guidelines released in 1985 called for a continual review and evaluation of the quality, accuracy and appropriateness of the content, materials and learning resources that the educators were making use of within the classroom

Impact on Indigenous students

Earlier on, Aboriginal Studies had been established as one of the core areas on the Australian curriculum. However, this was not deemed as the most effective manner of integrating the Indigenous learners within the framework of the Australian curriculum. The embracing of a more holistic strategy was instrumental in helping integrate the Indigenous learners within the curriculum.

TAFE initiative to increase the number of Aboriginal Teachers

Date: 1985

State or National: State

Resulting Classroom Practice

Having tapped a number of Indigenous people for the sake of improving the low participation rates and inequity of access, the resulting factor was that elderly Indigenous people were sponsored to get an education from tertiary institutions with the intention of getting their numbers up in the Australian classroom. This factor often led to the reversing of roles within the universities and tertiary institutions when the learners turned up to weigh in with their own experiences (Maxwell et al. 2018). This situation of reversed roles in the tertiary classroom was good both for the teachers and the learners as it was easier and more enjoyable learning from each other.

Impact on Indigenous Students

The opening up of scholarship opportunities for Indigenous learners was instrumental for NSW in helping place a number of students to colleges and other institutions of higher learning. As a result of this, these students returned and formed part of the teaching staff that was responsible for disseminating culturally sensitive education. Over time, this initiative by TAFE NSW in collaboration with the Commonwealth Government Aboriginal participation scheme became a tool for inclusivity and expanded participation rates for many Indigenous learners in this territory.

National Inquiry into Racist Violence Report

Date: 1991

State or National: National

Resulting Classroom Practice

One of the sweeping recommendations of this report was a criminalization of racist violence. For the Australian classroom then, this meant that a policy shift was initiated for the retraining of schoolteachers in anti-racist and cross-cultural approaches to learning. More efforts were made towards identifying what constituted racist violence in schools and within the classroom with the intention of prosecuting such criminalised practices or teaches tolerance (Pratt et al. 2018). There was also an emphasis for the schools to adopt and support initiatives for cultural diversity.

Impact on Indigenous Students

One of the Impacts of tis report was its guarantee for the safety of Indigenous students who had suffered acts of racist violence even within the confines of the Australian school system. These students were now sure that they could go to school and learn without the risk of getting exposed to racist violence (Pratt et al. 2018). Coupled with the need to have diversity practices introduced in the same schools, the learners felt more and more safe.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Action Plan

Date: 2011

State or National: National

Resulting Classroom Practice

The action plan utilised six domains to change the trends within the Indigenous classroom. The first domain was on readiness for school where all the indigenous children who were ready for school were expected to be in the classroom. The other domains were engagement and connections, attendance, literacy and numeracy, leadership, quality teaching and workforce development and path-ways to post-school options (Lowe et al. 2019). The action plan therefore touched on the core issues that affected the participation of Indigenous populations in education by this time. Improved attendance through attendance monitoring and even the inclusion of literacy and numeracy skills pointed at better classroom management practices.

 Impact on Indigenous Students

This action plan increased the participation of Indigenous learners in education and helped develop their all-round personalities. Attendance monitoring and follow-ups meant that drop-outs were nipped in the bud. The focus on even the aspects of leadership and pathways to post-school options gave the Indigenous learners the confidence of facing the education system with the assurance that their post-education prospects were clearer (Lowe et al. 2019).

Remote School Attendance Strategy (RSAS)

Date: 2019

State or National: National

Resulting Classroom Practice

The RSAS operational framework 2019 establishes a national framework for the operation and management of RSAS in remote communities. RSAS employs local people to integrate families, schools, and communities to design local solutions to improve school attendance (Rosnon et al. 2019). RSAS places emphasis on the role of the family in ensuring that the student attends and returns to school thus fulfilling their potential and accessing more opportunities. The RSAS also teams up with communities, recognizing that each community is characterised by uniqueness and developing community-specific strategies to help improve school attendance.

Impact on Indigenous Students

A great number of Indigenous students live and learn from remote areas. This means that they are much more affected by the issues of attendance. The RSAS helps the communities in these remote areas to build capacity, strengthen relationships, improve trust and cooperation between the families and schools to ultimately make sure that the Indigenous students attend school (Rosnon et al. 2019).

In conclusion, it is clear that the drive for reform and increased participation in education among the Indigenous people has seen tremendous growth both at the state and national levels since 1970s. The introduction of laws, legislations, education committees and regional commissions to further the inclusion of Indigenous people into the system has been of great help and often aided in the march toward education equity in Australia.