A1 EDC460

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GRYGLICKI_SOPHIA 20451633 WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES EDUCATORS MAY FACE IN ENGAGING FIRST NATION STUDENTS IN LITERACY AND NUMERACY EDUCATION, AND HOW CAN THEY BE ADDRESSED? EDC460- LITERACY AND NUMERACY FOR FIRST NATION PEOPLE A1

INTRODUCTION- CHALLENGES CURRENT EDUCATORS FACE IN ENGAGING FIRST NATION STUDENTS IN LITERACY AND NUMERACY A complex issue arises concerning indigenous education in Australia in regard to the education systems requirement of First Nations peoples to assimilate to the dominant white culture, without recognizing their sovereignty or the consequences of colonisation on their way of life. Negative socio-political factors, health concerns, language, and cultural differences, as well as educational challenges contribute to lower literacy and numeracy rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) students compared to non ATSI students. Educators can address this by integrating indigenous learning methods into their classrooms. This can be achieved through culturally responsive pedagogical approaches, including the Eight Aboriginal ways of learning, two-way dialectal pedagogy and mathematics as story telling pedagogy. Therefore, this report aims to address the challenges current educators face in engaging first Nation students in literacy and numeracy learning, and the pedagogical approaches that underpin their success. FACTORS EFFECTING LITERACY AND NUMERACY FOR ABORIGINAL AND TORRES SRTAIT ISLANDER STUDENTS The disadvantage of Indigenous learners began with colonising their traditional land, which led to the disposition of land, racial discrimination, and the utilisation of education in order to assimilate ATSI students into the dominant culture. While many programs have been implemented in recent years with the hope to assist ATSI students, such as ‘closing the gap’, the lack of cultural connection to the syllabus/curriculum depicts a concerning academic achievement gap (Higgins, 2020), which in many cases is due to a lack of mental stimulation or engagement in education. Our national anthem begins with “Australians all let us rejoice for we are young and free” this, according to Grant (2016), is the Australian dream and possibly the dream for every Australian.

however, an indigenous child is more likely to end up in jail than to finish high school; and only 5% of the Australian classroom literature shows any form of cultural, gender or ethnic diversity (Adam, 2019). So how can an Australian nation 'all let us rejoice' when only certain values and ideologies are ingrained in its culture? The way education in Australia is performed or enacted silences the views and opinions of those from diverse backgrounds. It is a result of educators and the intended curriculum addressing students based on their school participation and performance without considering underlying social factors or backgrounds (Gowlett & Niesche, 2017, p. 365). Due to this neglect, students are led to believe that in order to succeed in school, they must assimilate to these dominant ways of thinking, resulting in marginalisation and differentiation between those who 'fit in' and those who do not. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students Standard Australian English is not their first, or sometimes second or third language. Many ATSI students may grow up in their home and community speaking multiple traditional dialects (Queensland Department of Education, 2018). Due to colonisation, relocation, and the laws against traditional dialect a pidgin language coined Aboriginal English (AE) has been widely utilised across communities as a form of communication (Malcom, 1995, in Department of Education, 2012, p. 25). For many this may be there first exposure to standard Australia English and should therefore be identified as EAL/D learners. Unfortunately, many of these students remain unidentified as EAL/D learners in the classroom for various reasons such their family/ community does not view themselves as language learners, or educators have not identified them as language learners. As a result, instead of identifying ATSI students as EAL/D learners and valuing their foundational languages, many educators associate the use of Aboriginal English with low status (Webb & Williams, 2018, p.111). These students are then marginalised and are precluded the help and assistance they need. With this in mind it is no surprise then that despite improvement over the past few years, ATSI students continue to achieve lower results than non-indigenous students in standardised testing

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such as NAPLAN. This achievement gap, according to the Australian Government (2020) is a result of a range of health, family, and community factors. This refers to students’ socio-economic situation, language barriers, cultural biases, teacher expectations, government policies and cultural obligations to name a few. Furthermore, the intergenerational distrust of government institutions and reluctance to access services such as health and education has led to common health issues such as Ottis Media (a common ear infection in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students) (Webb & Williams, 2018, p. 109). Health issues such as this negatively impacts speech and language development, auditory processing, listening skills, the ability to follow verbal instructions, and school performance in reading and math (Duchesne & McMaugh, 2019). It also effects school attendance and in turn academic achievement, especially academic indicators such as NAPLAN. INDIGENOUS WAYS OF LEARNING In spite of government policies aimed at improving the educational outcome for ATSI students’, mainstream education has failed to make education meaningful for all students. Therefore, in order to facilitate change, educators must reframe from deficit thinking that values western knowledge over indigenous knowledge systems. The Eight Aboriginal ways of learning is a pedagogical framework that allows educators to embed Indigenous perspectives into their classrooms, in other words, learning through culture rather than about it (Cooper, 2018). Indigenous knowledge systems and learning processes can be better understood through the eight interconnected pedagogies of story sharing, learning maps, non-verbal, symbols and images, land links, non-linear, deconstruct reconstruct and community links. (8 Ways, n.d). Overall, Indigenous learning can be viewed as "holistic, nonlinear, visual, kinaesthetic, social and contextualised" which is evidenced by the pedagogies (Drozdowski, 2012, p.1). For example, in ATSI communities, storytelling takes the form of yarning, which is a way of sharing information and learning about the world.

Learning from original stories in the classroom allows students to connect home life with school life (Yunkaporta, 2009, p. 4). The eight ways pedagogy was developed by Aboriginal people in Aboriginal communities from Indigenous research, but it incorporates western teaching methods and Aboriginal knowledge systems in an effort to find common ground between mainstream education and Indigenous learning (Yunkaporta, 2009, p. 1). Yunkaporta (2009) contends that "all eight ways of learning can be found in western and other cultures", thus allowing educators to include Indigenous learning methods in their classroom practice (p. 9). EFFECTIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR FIRST NATION LITERACY AND NUMERACY LEARNERS For ATSI students whose first language is Aboriginal English, school creates many challenges. ATSI Students use their language more than a means of communication; it also reflects their culture, their identity, and their sense of self-esteem (ABC Indigenous, 2017). Many common phrases have a different or deeper meaning than the western definition. An effective way to combat this is to implement AE through a two-way bidialectal approach, which facilitates students' movement from one dialect to two (Malcom et al., 1999). According to research, using Aboriginal English as a bridge to Standard Australian English (SAE) has been found to be more effective, as it reinforces students' cultural and linguistic identities, allowing them to successfully participate in mainstream education (Malcom et al., 1999). The goal of this approach is to make sure that the students feel accepted, valued, and supported to use AE in their classrooms in order to enhance their speaking, reading, and writing skills (Harrison, 2012, 121). By utilising students existing knowledge to link AE to SAE, educators can use explicit teaching strategies to model the differences between their use.

However, Harrison (2012) stated that to ensure the success of this approach, local ATSI people in the classroom or Aboriginal education workers working alongside non-ATSI teachers are needed in order to assist them in successfully integrating Indigenous culture and language into their lessons (p. 128). However, there is another powerful teaching strategy - storytelling - that is valued both in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and in mainstream education, as it allows students to bring their lives experiences into the classroom, to share their knowledge, and to add their own perspective to the classroom (Yunkaporta, 2009, p. 8). As a means of engaging ATSI students in all areas of the curriculum, including numeracy, storytelling is an effective means of connecting prior knowledge and culture with the new knowledge being taught. For example, students are encouraged to share their own personal stories and experiences whenever a lesson is introduced, in order to build deeper knowledge through discussion (8 Ways, n.d). This classroom pedagogy Allows all students including those with ATSI backgrounds to connect personally with the learning material. A good example of this is Matthews (2012), Maths as Story Telling instructional pedagogy, which is grounded in the belief that "to create meaningful relationships between people and mathematics, we must see mathematics as a social construct or a cultural expression" (p.105). Throughout this pedagogy, students are encouraged to use their own language and creativity in order to develop mathematical ideas and concepts (Matthews, 2012). The Maths as Story Telling method involves students acting out a maths story in order to learn about symbols and abstract concepts, then creating their own symbols to represent the story and linking them to concrete materials. Students then share their symbols before connecting the story to

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algebraic concepts. Allowing students to draw on prior experiences and their cultural background, creating an engaging and relevant learning experience. CONCLUSION In conclusion, several factors have been discussed that affect the literacy and numeracy learning for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (AITSL) learners. Education is greatly influenced by dominant western culture and therefore in turn dismisses the traditional languages and cultures of indigenous ways. In this environment ATSI learners, feel marginalised, confused, and unsuccessful as they battle with language barriers, health issues, and low expectations. NAPLAN results have shown considerable gaps in academic achievement between indigenous and no indigenous learners. Therefore, this report has identified concerning issues and underlying factors, and presented educative pedagogical frameworks that according to research improve the chances of academic achievement and student participation. Indigenous culture is traditionally based on oral, kinaesthetic, informed, and holistic learning. For educators to assimilate the intended curriculum must be implemented in a way that supports and addresses the needs of both cultures.

References Adam, H.J. (2019). Five tips to make school bookshelves more diverse and five books to get you started. The Conversation . Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/five- tips-to-make-school-bookshelves-more-diverse-and-five-books-to-get-you- started-110718 Australian Government. (2020). Closing the Gap report. Literacy and numeracy. Literacy and Numeracy | Closing The Gap (niaa.gov.au) Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A. (2018).Educational psychology for learning and teaching(6thed.). Cengage Learning Australia Cooper, M. (2014). Eight Ways Indigenous Pedagogies. Exploring learning through aand Indigenous Pedagogy. [Video]. 8 Ways Aboriginal Pedagogy (visumation.com.au) Drozdowski, V. (2012).The eight-way framework of Aboriginal Pedagogy[pdf].https://vickidrozdowski.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/individual- investigation-of-a-learning-theory-aboriginal-pedagogy.pdf Gowlett, C. & Niesche, R. (2017). Learner diversity and school practices. In B. Gobby & R. Walker. (eds). Powers of curriculum: Sociological perspectives on education. (pp. 353- 372). Grant, S. [The Ethics Centre]. (2016, January 19). IQ2 Racism debate: Stan Grant [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/uEOssW1rw0I Harrison, N. (2012).Teaching and learning in aboriginal education. ProQuest EbookCentral http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/curtin/detail.action?docID=1986009# Higgens, I. (2020). Closing the Gap report shows only two targets on track as PM pushes for Indigenous-led refresh https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-12/closing-the- gap-report-2019-indigenous-outcomes-not-on-track/11949712?nw=0

Malcolm, I., Haig, Y., Konigsberg, P., Rochecouste, J., Collard, G., Hill, A., & Cahill, R.(1999). Towards more user-friendly education for speakers of Aboriginal English.Perth, Australia: Edith Cowan University. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? referer=https://www.google.com/ &httpsredir=1&article=8176&context=ecuworks Matthews, C. (2012). Maths as storytelling: Maths is beautiful. In K. Price (Ed),Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander education: An introduction for the teaching profession(pp.94-112). Cambridge University Press. https://www-cambridge- org.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/core/books/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander- education/2D91D901B17AFE70BA8E7778F5B7EF3D Queensland Department of Education. (2018). My language Matters. [YoutTube]. My Language Matters - YouTube WA Department of Education. (2012). What is Aboriginal English ?, Development of Dialects in Australia, Language and Identity taken from Tracks to Two-Way Learning: Understanding Language and Dialect. https://myresources.education.wa.edu.au/programs/tracks-to-two-way-learning Webb, G.L., & Williams, C.J. (2017). Factors affecting language and literacy development inAustralian Aboriginal children: Considering dialect, culture and health.Journal ofEarly Childhood Research, 16(1) 104-116 Yunkaporta, T. (2009). Aboriginal pedagogies at the cultural interface [Doctor of EducationPhD thesis, James Cook University]. https://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/10974/4/04Bookchapter.pdf

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