The power of education to impact change cannot be overstated. For many, education is the means through which dreams and aspirations are realised. For others, though, education is something to be endured for little or no gain. The legacy of colonisation has undermined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' access to their cultures, identities, histories, and languages. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have not had access to a complete, relevant, and responsive education. Being an institution of the dominant or mainstream culture, Australian education systems reflect the v
... Show more
The power of education to impact change cannot be overstated. For many, education is the means through which dreams and aspirations are realised. For others, though, education is something to be endured for little or no gain. The legacy of colonisation has undermined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students' access to their cultures, identities, histories, and languages. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have not had access to a complete, relevant, and responsive education. Being an institution of the dominant or mainstream culture, Australian education systems reflect the values, norms and world views of that culture. Consequently, inequitable education outcomes have often been viewed as deficiencies or failures on the part of the student, rather than a failure of our systems.
This project emphasises that ultimately it is the responsibility of teachers, school leaders and whole-school communities to meet the learning and wellbeing needs and support the aspirations of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and indeed all students. Central to this project is the identification of the processes teachers and school leaders can undertake to critically understand, continually develop, and effectively exercise their cultural responsiveness. This project also aims to provide teachers and school leaders with guidance on the contextualisation, critical reflection and use of relevant resources and tools to help them improve or enhance their pedagogical practice in culturally responsive and sustainable ways.
A further focus of this project work is to increase the understanding of cultural safety in Australian schools. Such an understanding will enable schools to develop supportive teaching and learning environments that are conducive to meeting the learning needs and aspirations of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, teachers, and ancillary staff along with the needs and aspirations of families and communities.
The 10 recommendations presented are the direct result of an extensive national consultation process: (1) Provide teachers and school leaders with self-reflection tools to support them to increase their awareness of the assumptions underlying their personal identity in culture; (2) Formalise and strengthen the commitment to building the cultural responsiveness of the education workforce by developing an intercultural development continuum that supplements the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (Teacher Standards) and the Australian Professional Standard for Principals (Principal Standard); (3) Develop a capability framework to provide teachers and school leaders with insight into the forms of support, experiences and reflection that are associated with different levels of intercultural learning; (4) Collaborate on the curation of professional development offerings and resources (both currently used and previously successful) into a central hub, to provide schools and teachers a validated source of appropriate quality professional development programs and resources categorised by learning need; (5) Collaborate on the co-design of a new national overarching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Strategy; (6) Collaborate with higher education providers and teacher registration bodies to strengthen requirements of initial teacher education (ITE) programs to focus on culturally responsive practice and leadership; (7) Work with higher education providers and teacher registration bodies to examine current practicum approaches within ITE with a focus on their efficacy in supporting the development of culturally responsive practice across different contexts for beginning teachers, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pre-service teachers; (8) Work with teacher registration bodies, employing authorities, education unions and higher education providers to explore approaches to increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers and school leaders; (9) Conduct a detailed examination of the current state of staff turnover across schools of all types and jurisdictions, but particularly in remote and very remote contexts; (10) Collaborate with wider education sector stakeholders to co-design stronger metrics and data collection/reporting processes to capture and assess good practice pertaining to 'Cultural Responsiveness, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education' and related foci such as 'Reconciliation in Education'.
Edited excerpts from publication.
Show less
