Bronwyn Ewing PhD YuMi Deadly Centre Faculty of Education Queensland University of Technology

Queensland University of Technology

CRICOS No. 00213J

Families Supporting Schooling A Project for Independent Schools Part of the Low SES / Literacy and Numeracy National Partnerships

Initiatives

Bronwyn Ewing PhDYuMi Deadly CentreFaculty of Education

Queensland University of Technology

CRICOS No. 00213Ja university for the worldrealR


Standpoint theory: need to be aware of own cultural and individual standpoint and they are implicated in the research work we conduct in communities (cf. Karen Martin, 2007; Aileen Moreton-Robinson 2000; Martin Nakata, 2007).

Bron Ewing: I am the youngest child of Peter Henry Grenville Ewing and Daphne Jean Roberts. I was born and raised in Sydney, Eora country in NSW, Australia. My father is a direct descendant of the Ewing clan from Galway, Ireland and before then the MacEwan clan from Glasgow, Scotland. My mother is from England. I identify as from the Ewing clan of Ireland with ancestral ties with Scotland and England. I am Irish-Catholic, female, mother, grandmother, an education researcher who works with parents transitioning with their children into formal schooling and, the teaching and learning of mathematics with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples from the Early Years prior-to-school to Vocational and Education training contexts.


¹Indigenous refers to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia. Even though Indigenous is a homogenising term, that is, one people one culture, the meaning of the word in the context of this presentation is the opposite. We recognise and respect that Indigenous people of Australia consists ofMany First Nations each with their own unique culture and histories (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Social Justice Commissioner, 2008).

• Pervading view: Indigenous¹ people are often referred to as victims of their own circumstances, consequently reproducing their isolation and exclusion from education (Sanderson & Thomson, 2003);

• Blame is placed on Indigenous people for their circumstances, when the focus needs to be on ways to improve the effectiveness of the education that students receive (Sarra, 2009);

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are less likely than those in urban areas to have completed Year 12; Improvements have been recorded however, differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students have remained unchanged since 2001;

• Indigenous students continue to be the most educationally disadvantaged group performing on national testing two years below their non-Indigenous counterparts (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008);

• Early exit from school has been found to be associated with long term unemployment, “early involvement in the juvenile justice system, and very poor health” (Sanderson et al., 2003, p. 96).


• Early childhood education policy has primarily focused on the role of the Early Childhood educator in children’s learning of mathematics (see for example DEEWR, 2008; DETA, 2007), however, parents play a critical role in their children’s learning and development through language (Cannon, et al., 2008; McTurk et al., 2008);

• Language determines how we come to know and to be in the world:– It is what binds communities, parents and children together, that is, the adults

which the children will one day become repeat the processes with the next generation of children (Zeegers, Muir & Lin, 2003);

• Parents make decisions about:– the objects in a child’s environment;– the settings in which their children play; and– what knowledge to teach.


Review of Australian Directions in Indigenous Education 2005-2008 (MCEECDYA, 2009):

Recommendation 2: Schools to establish parent forums, serviced by currently employed Indigenous staff. Schools, in consultation with parents, must define a set of principles and guidelines for how these staff members should limit their participation in parent forums to matters which cannot otherwise be pursued directly by them in the workplace.

Recommendation 3: All jurisdiction to investigate how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander para-professionals could:

– Concentrate their work with individual students, their teachers and parents on how school studies actually work;

– Assist in negotiating each student’s Personalised Learning Plan; and– Continually emphasise why it is necessary for each student to attend

regularly and do all the work consistently.


• The extent to which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and community conceptualise their role in their children’s learning prior to and at entry into formal schooling;

• The extent to which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents want their children to access quality education so that they can gain the knowledge, skills and capacity to succeed in education, employment and in their present and future lives;

• How a Westernised education system accords with Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning systems and acknowledges the influence of parents, extended family, Elders and Community;

• How a Westernised education can bring about successful outcomes when it does not recognize Indigenous knowledge systems, cultures and home languages;

• How a mainstream education curriculum written to English conventions provides Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children with the knowledge and skills to participate in daily social life, if it does not recognize their cultural identity;

• How “both ways” education can work in an intercultural space i.e., the meeting of two distinct cultures’ through processes and interactions which retain the integrity and difference of both cultures and which may involve a blending of elements of both cultures but never the domination of one over another (Taylor, 2003, p. 45).


Community:a culture that is orientated primarily towards the needs of the group. This cultural orientation perceives that the whole community must be strong in order to adequately meets the needs of the individual. (Priest, 2005, p. 12)

Contextualising to culture:that which already exists, that is, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community, cultural context and home languages (including the sky, the sea, the land and spiritual values) and “Indigenous knowledge systems” (see Martin Nakata (2007, p. 2) .

High-context cultures:are characterized by a holistic (top-down) approach to information processing in which meaning is “extracted” from the environment and the situation. Low-context cultures use a linear, sequential building block (bottom-up) approach to information processing in which meaning is constructed (Ezeife , 2002, p. 185).

The effect of this process would be that students have incentive to learn for understanding because they can find meaning and links to their own cultures, their home languages and in the symbols used in their Communities.


Action Research


Designing

Collecting data

analysing dataCommunicating outcomes

Taking action


Evaluation – assessing the value and quality of Families Supporting Schooling Project

Examining existing practices:

– Start with general questions: How are we going? What are we doing? What’s working? What’s not? How do we know?

– Asking problem-posing and problem-solving questions: How could we improve things?

– Asking what the Community needs

– Repeatedly asking “opening up” questions: why are we doing this?

– Start with immediate problem/s

– Reveal existing assumptions and intentions

– Develop new and improved evaluative criteria





Questionnaire for First Round Workshop 30th November – 1st December 2009

1. What awareness do you have about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents might approach teaching their children prior to formal schooling?

2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and communities share the aspirations of Indigenous communities around Australia, that is, they are keen for their children to receive a good education. Please comment on

the extent to which you are aware of such aspirations?

3. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and communities draw on their knowledges of parenting and education (see Karen Martin, 2008). Please comment on the extent to which you engage with the parents and

communities to learn about such knowledges to assist you with teaching their children.

4. Please circle on the scale below the extent to which you are aware that parents might communicate with their children in home language/s other than English.

unaware 1 2 3 4 5 aware

5. Please comment on the extent to which you perceive the importance of parents teaching reading, early numeracy, early science, music, art and drama prior to formal schooling and how this is recognised when their children commence

school.

6. Please comment on how you accommodate different groups in your community.

Documents

Bronwyn Ewing PhD YuMi Deadly Centre Faculty of Education Queensland University of Technology