Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
Reconciliation and Social Justice Library
5.1 Several aspects of general teacher training continue to have an adverse impact on the education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and the maintenance of their first language. As discussed in Chapter 2, language and cultural issues are closely related. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communication and social interaction styles are usually not comprehended by teachers without appropriate training and consequently such teachers cannot be effective in teaching ATSI students. Susan Kaldor and Ian Malcolm outline some of the sociolinguistic patterns of Aboriginal speech which teachers need to be aware of:
Aboriginal children, even those who speak only English, are heirs to traditional patterns of speech use of great subtlety and complexity. In Aboriginal society all aspects of speech use are carefully controlled, with the controls extending to who may speak to whom, about what topics, when, in whose presence and in what way. Speech restraints may be associated with kinship relationships, name taboos (associated with deceased persons) and with traditionally restrained subject matter. Speech behaviour may also be affected by a different understanding of group relationships. For example, it may be unacceptable for a child to walk across a conversing group or for an addresser not to be at the same (physical) level as the addressee, while it may be quite acceptable for an addressee not to respond to a question or for an audience to be inattentive while being addressed.
Aboriginal children are much more likely to talk freely when they have the initiative and when they are free to contribute speech without being singled out. In their play, they are often highly verbal and in certain settings will tell stories to one another for hours on end. They are, however, highly sensitive to 'shame' which may be occasioned by being made unduly prominent in the presence of their peers. They also may take time to adapt to unfamiliar addressees and conventions of speech use. 91
5.2 While many schools now offer suitable language programs some children coming to school with an ATSI language are still being taught only in English. Children are rejected by this lack of acceptance of their language and because some teachers still denigrate ATSI language whether it is a traditional language, a creole or Aboriginal English. Many children speaking Aboriginal English are told they (and therefore their parents and friends) are not talking properly and yet the differences from the "proper way" of Standard Australian English are not always clearly evident to them.
5.3 The initial rejection experienced by a student when their language is not recognised nor their home culture respected has serious long term effects. Teachers need to be trained to recognise Aboriginal English as a separate dialect from Standard Australian English. In-service training should be provided to enable them to teach Standard Australian English as a second dialect. This includes the provision of appropriate teaching materials.
5.4 The committee believes these inadequacies have a disproportionately large negative effect on both the attitudes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their parents to schooling and on the students' subsequent success in gaining adequate Western skills through education. As students' work is often assessed largely on written material a lack of awareness by teachers may produce very inaccurate results for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
5.5 Many of these problems are deficiencies within the education system or within particular schools and should not all be laid at the feet of teachers; particularly those fresh from pre-service training. Nonetheless the committee believes basic teacher training should adequately prepare teachers for the range of students they are likely to teach and the range of conditions they may teach under.
5.6 Most preservice teacher training does not provide adequate preparation for the possibility of teaching Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander children. As the House of Representatives Select Committee on Aboriginal Education in 1985 noted:
Teachers selected to serve in schools with significant Aboriginal enrolment are often not adequately prepared for the experience or supported in the school. The school staffing policies in many States means that young and inexperienced teachers are often posted to remote, traditional Aboriginal communities and to rural schools with high Aboriginal enrolments to the detriment of the students of Aboriginal communities and of the teachers themselves. 92
5.7 Adequate preservice training is essential as new teachers continue to be posted to remote schools and there is a high turnover. 93 It must remembered that the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people live in urban areas and the committee believes that few teachers in their first three years of teaching will teach in schools having no ATSI students.
5.8 The Select Committee said:
pre-service courses should ensure that all new teachers have a general background in Aboriginal culture, the history of Aboriginal people and their place in modern Australian society. The purpose of these courses should be to ensure that all teachers are aware of the special educational needs of Aboriginal students and have adequate understanding of the context in which the needs arise. Such courses should not be regarded as specialist qualifications in Aboriginal education. They also should not be regarded as special elective units on Aboriginal education, but should be seen as an integrated part of the teacher training program for all teachers to prepare them to teach in a multi-cultural Australia. 94
and went on to recommend that:
all teachers should be adequately prepared by pre-service training to appreciate the special needs of Aboriginal students. This should include general background in Aboriginal culture, the history of Aboriginal people and their place in modern Australian society. This presentation should aim to ensure that future teachers are trained to function sensitively and knowledgeably in cross-cultural situations. 95
5.9 The Select Committee pointed out that as well as better preservice training there should be more specialised induction training given to teachers before they are posted to more traditional communities. The need for better in-service teacher training programs was also stressed. The report canvassed the idea that teachers in isolated ATSI communities should be treated as requiring specialist training. The present committee supports this view. One specialist skill which is necessary for teachers in communities where the vernacular is not English is that of teaching English as a second language.
5.10 The recommendations of this 1985 Report have not been fully implemented and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education continues to lag behind that of the wider Australian community. This applies to ATSI children in major urban centres as well as in rural and remote schools.
5.11 Despite a number of improvements in the delivery of education services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, education outcomes continue to fall well below the average for all students. School attendance levels and the number of years schooling completed remain unacceptably low. Competencies gained in the 3Rs are inadequate to ensure the degree of independence within the wider Australian society sought by ATSI students and their parents 96 .
5.12 Where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students do succeed it is often at some cost to their ATSI identity. In the worst cases ATSI students lose part of their ATSI identity and self-esteem but also fail to gain sufficient Western skills from the education process to escape dependency on the Western system. The committee believes that the provision of a basic education is an essential human right that should be available to all children and young people in Australia. As a further human right, education should be available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in a way which reinforces rather than suppresses or contradicts their unique cultural identity. This includes an understanding and respect for their home language.
5.13 The committee recognises that many demands are made for subjects to be incorporated into basic teacher training. However, the lack of success of the current system and the significant negative impact inadequate training has on teacher effectiveness leads the committee to repeat the recommendation of the Select Committee on teacher training but with an additional emphasis on Aboriginal English.
5.14 The committee recommends that:
the Minister for Higher Education and Employment Services in cooperation with the relevant state and territory ministers ensure that:
all teachers are adequately prepared by pre-service training to
appreciate the special needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. This should include a general background in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, the history of ATSI people and their place in modern Australian society. This preparation should ensure that future teachers are trained to function sensitively and knowledgeably in cross-cultural situations and are aware of the socio linguistic differences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students including these speaking Aboriginal English; (Recommendation 12)
more specialised training is provided to teachers before they are posted to more traditional communities. This should be followed up with in-service training to provide further specialist skills development while working in communities and other remote schools; (Recommendation 13)
teachers in remote community schools where the vernacular is other than English should have prior training in teaching English as a second language. Where teachers with specialist training in English as a second language are not available, departments should develop and implement appropriate in-service training. In-service training is needed for teaching assistants as well. (Recommendation 14)
5.15 The committee acknowledges that there are many highly skilled non-ATSI teachers with specialised teaching skills and well-developed cross cultural awareness who are involved in the teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. However, throughout the inquiry the committee heard of education system deficiencies and of teacher training inadequacies affecting the teaching of ATSI students in a wide variety of educational settings.
5.16 Cross cultural awareness is essential for those non-ATSI teachers teaching in community schools or in schools attended by students from more traditional ATSI communities. Education departments advised the committee that they provided cross cultural awareness programs for teachers being posted to such schools, if time permitted. It appears that in many cases teachers do not have adequate notice of their posting to undertake these courses.
5.17 Developing cross cultural awareness would help to avoid the hidden 67 curriculum in most non-ATSI teaching. The hidden curriculum is that which is imparted to students through the school experience, although it may not be deliberately taught. It includes values, priorities, attitudes and what is regarded as normal. Where teachers are unaware of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander rules and values their behaviour tells children that the rules are not important and can be broken 97. This can also apply to the values attached to language and the traditions supported by that language. A teacher's attitude to language would be crucial where the language transmission gap in a community is occurring in the generation currently at school. Stephen Harris recommends that teachers in traditional communities:
need to make it clear over time that what the children are learning about Western culture they are learning because it is needed for surviving in the Western domain, not because it is intrinsically better or more valuable. 98 .
5.18 In strong language areas, students come to school with an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language as their first language. Teachers of these students need to be trained in teaching English as a second language (ESL) and should preferably be fluent in the students' language. Ideally the teachers would be bicultural being proficient in both European and ATSI cultures. Unfortunately the number of ATSI teachers remains grossly inadequate.