Another Country: Non-Aboriginal Tertiary Students' Perceptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Abstract

Even though Aboriginal people are from Australia it does not mean they speak the English language (non-Aboriginal tertiary student).Jo Lampert's (1996) research discussed in her articleIndigenous Australian perspectives in teaching at the University of Queenslandspeaks volumes about the challenges of attempting to make university curricula inclusive of Indigenous Australian perspectives. She documents the often ambivalent attitudes of academics towards opening up the curriculum to Indigenous Australians. The research discussed here seeks to add to our understanding of this process, focussing this time on the response of students to the introduction of Australian Indigenous perspectives into a single unit within a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching program. The impetus to reflect on the process came with the shock of reading student papers, written at the end of the unit, and finding that effective communication about the educational needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples did not seem to have taken place, making a closer analysis of the teaching/learning process imperative. This investigation will address questions abouthowuniversities can communicate effectively about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Student Teachers' Resistance to Exploring Racism: Reflections on 'doing' border pedagogy

“…It is, rather, a response that other teacher educators, working with similar groups of white teacher education students, have noted, both in Australia (Ryan, 1997) and elsewhere (McIntyre, 1997;Rosenberg, 1997). White defensiveness is, moreover, something that is increasingly becoming part of the Australian political landscape of the 1990s as non-Anglo minorities and Indigenous people are: … scripted as the majority who have control of the key organs-governmental, bureaucratic, institutional and media-of power [and] white, mainstream Anglo-Australians are now to be seen as marginalised, persecuted and silenced majority.…”

Relationships with the School: Listening to the Voices of a Remote Aboriginal Community

“…Many conservative non-Aboriginal Australians believe they have done their best for Aboriginal people, but think Aboriginal people lack drive and initiative (Howson, 2000), resist being educated (Folds, 1987;Cowlishaw, 1989) and are centuries behind Western culture (Christie, 1995, Ryan, 1997Gool and Patton, 1998 (Harris, 1990;Keefe, 1992;O'Shane and Bickford, 1991;Jordan, 1992).…”

“…But unfortunately 'racial abuse and vilification from teachers, negative comments about families, prejudicial treatment' (Grey, Hunter and Schwab, 1998:18;O'Shane and Bickford, 1991;Malin, 1997;Ryan, 1997;Gool and Patton, 1998) and 'systemic and institutional racism' (Katu Kalpha, 2000:50;Groome, 1995;Gool and Patton, 1998) still exist. Therefore problematic relations between the school and community are largely predictable, yet a good 'relationship between school and the community is vital to the success of schooling' (Folds, 1987: 99) and exemplar schools, such as Strelley, Murrupurtyanuwu and Yirrkala Schools reveal that this two way exchange can be achieved successfully (Jordan, 1992;Buckley, 1996;Gardiner, 1996;Puruntayemeri, 1996).…”