CONFERENCE PAPER No. 42

Engaging Aboriginal students in the middle years: case studies from rural

urban and remote contexts

Presented by

Di Russell

Engaging Aboriginal students in the middle years: case studies from rural urban and remote contextsDr Di Russell

IntroductionThis paper consists of three discrete case studies of South Australian Aboriginal students in very different contexts. The first case study discusses how the teachers and schools supported the four unexpected stayers who participated in my PhD research to remain at school and become successful at senior secondary level. The second case study relates to secondary education on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands and how schools and Anangu Education Services staff support these students to achieve outcomes equivalent to their non-remote peers. The final case study describes how four upper primary students found renewed focus on school by participating in a website design competition as an extra curricula activity. All three case studies illustrate different ways in which schools blurred the traditional curriculum boundaries and sharpened the focus of the students on learning.

Aboriginal students can succeedWhen I began planning my research in 1993 I felt strongly that identifying reasons for the relatively poor retention and attainment of Aboriginal students was rather negative and tended to lead to deficit models of providing support to the students. In addition, according to Ainley et al. (1991, 72), there was not enough information on how school factors such as curriculum, school organisation, and the intervening variables such as early secondary school experiences, achievement and attitude toward school life affect decisions made by students about staying or leaving. There was even less knowledge about how these school factors and various important home, ability and personality factors are interrelated (Poole 1983, 152), particularly in relation to individual Aboriginal students. Therefore, I decided to focus my thesis on those factors which supported Aboriginal students to stay at school and succeed.

I worked with ten Aboriginal students in the north and west of South Australia, country school students who were deemed to be more disadvantaged than their metropolitan peers. All ten students had made a successful transition to senior secondary schooling in comparison to the vast majority of their peers who had dropped out of school. There were 7 students undertaking Stage 1 of the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE), as well as 3 students undertaking Stage 2 of the SACE. I ensured anonymity by using pseudonyms for the names of the student participants and by using general descriptions for their schools and communities.

Expected, possible and unexpected stayersThe categorization of the students into three groups - the expected stayers, the possible stayers and the unexpected stayers - revealed significant patterns. The expected stayers in this study had much more in common with each other than the possible stayers. All:

o were girls;o had good literacy skills, positive self-concepts, positive academic self-

concepts, were intrinsically motivated and did homework regularly;o were described as being determined and persistent and said they

were confident, or were able to encourage or push themselves;o saw a strong relationship between school and work, had chosen a

possible career and had benefited from the work experience organised by the school;

o had been part of a special group of Aboriginal students in Years 8-10 and three of the four had a special like-minded friend.

The possible stayers had less in common with each other than the expected stayers but still significantly more than with any of the unexpected stayers. The unexpected stayers were quite different from each other and each required quite different kinds of support from their teachers and their schools.

Unexpected stayersThese three students have been categorised as unexpected stayers because early in their secondary school career few would have anticipated them to still be at school in Years 11 and 12, but they were. When I talk about these students as individuals I do so in the present tense because that is how the students were encapsulated at the time of their participation in my research.

TobyToby is a Year 12 student at an 8-12 school in a regional centre. There are between 300 and 400 students at his school, and 10-20 per cent of these are Aboriginal. The majority of the Aboriginal students are in Years 8 to 10 but this year there is a significant group of Aboriginal boys in Year 11. Toby has four brothers. He and his three younger brothers live at home with their mother. Toby's father died when he was quite young and Toby cannot remember much about him. His mother has remained single since then. One of Toby's brothers is only a year behind him at school, and the youngest two are still at primary school. Toby's older brother stayed at school and completed Year 12. He even repeated Year 12 so that he could get better marks but has still been unable to find employment as an artist, which is what he really wants to do. At present he works as an assistant to a tradesperson and paints in his spare time, supplementing his income by selling the occasional painting. Toby's mother has worked most of her adult life, except when the boys were young. She left school in Year 11 and went straight into a job as a shop assistant. She has also worked as a cleaner, an Aboriginal Education worker (AEW) and is now back cleaning.

Toby has had behaviour problems right through school. Most of these seem to have been inappropriate responses to students and teachers for what he has perceived as racist comments or behaviour. It appears that the school administration have been particularly understanding and forgiving about these because they have allowed him to stay at school when most students over the age of compulsion who had behaved like Toby would have been excluded. Toby has reacted to comments that he really should leave school by becoming more determined that he will be the one who decides when he

leaves. In order to facilitate this he has learned, with the support of his teachers and his mother, how to ‘fix things up’ when they go wrong.

Toby has friends among his non-Aboriginal peers and, apart from associating with other Aboriginal students at break times, has not really associated with other Aboriginal students in class. This is just as well because there are now very few in his year level. As a result Toby has developed a very independent learning style. In Year 12 Toby has continued to have success in those subjects where he has a good relationship with the teachers but has done little or nothing in other subjects. Toby wants to fulfil the requirements of the SACE so may return to school for another year.

BretBret is a Year 11 student at an 8-12 school in a regional centre. There are more than 600 students at Bret's school and less than five per cent of them are Aboriginal. The retention rate of Aboriginal students is rather low so the majority of the Aboriginal students are in the early years of high school. The percentage of Aboriginal students at the school varies quite considerably from year to year, and even during the year, as there is a high transiency of Aboriginal families in and out of the town.

The town's reputation for being extremely racist has spread widely in educational circles. However, according to one of Bret's cousins who is also a student at Bret's school, the inter-racial strife between groups of Aboriginal people in the town is far worse than the racism of non-Aboriginal towards Aboriginal. These problems have permeated the school and in the relatively recent past there have been some serious incidents.

Bret lives with his mother and members of his extended family just out of town. The family community has its own bus and uses that to take all the children to school, and those who have left school to TAFE. Bret's grandfather is active in ATSIC and one aunt is training to become the director of a local Aboriginal organisation.

Bret is often described as being very 'different' from other students, someone who 'moves to the beat of his own drum'. As a Year 8 student at secondary school, it is unlikely that anyone would have foreseen him staying at school and achieving success at post compulsory level because he had a great deal of difficulty sitting still and concentrating on any task. In fact, that is still true to some extent. However, in Year 9 he discovered Music and, later, Drama along with some very encouraging teachers who supported him in his artistic endeavours by individual instruction and flexible teaching styles. As a result, with the support and encouragement of his immediate and extended family, his life at school changed. Currently, the school curriculum is flexible enough to allow Bret to undertake studies at three year levels (Years 10, 11 and 12), concentrating on the performing arts.

Although Bret is not achieving academic success in traditional curriculum areas, he is making a real impact on his school. His personality, his musical talent and his positive focus have helped raise the status of Aboriginal

students in the school among the staff, and among both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.

GinaGina is a Year 11 student at an 8-12 school in a regional centre. There are between 400 and 600 students in the school and less than 5 per cent are Aboriginal. Gina lives with her non-Aboriginal mother and her younger brother. She was born here but has spent several years, at different times, in other parts of the country. Before she came back to live with her mother Gina spent time living with a grandmother interstate, an aunt in the same town, and with church friends. Some of these moves have occurred as a result of Gina's extreme behaviour problems.

There are several factors in Gina's background that suggest she would not have been expected to stay at school into the post compulsory years. For example, changing schools often, particularly between different states, usually means missing out on basic skills development, and Gina says she missed out on Year 7 all together; violent behaviour also means missing schools due to suspensions; and moving between different family members does not provide a very stable background for learning at school. Despite these 'negative' factors, Gina has made a successful transition to senior secondary schooling. She is strong in her Aboriginal identity and has become a leader among the Aboriginal students at her school, even though she is not related to any of the local Aboriginal people. Her cultural heritage comes from her father who lives interstate with the rest of her Aboriginal relatives. Gina has good literacy skills and is achieving academic success in at least some curriculum areas. She has plans to complete Year 12 and go on to further study, even though she is now pregnant.

Unexpected stayers - summaryAll three unexpected stayers, Toby, Bret and Gina, had had problems at school. Toby was fortunate that he had not been excluded from school because of his behaviour; Bret was so hyperactive most teachers despaired that they would be able to teach him anything; and Gina had had a very unsettling home background as well as a history of being violent at school.

However, each of them also had very personal characteristics that were able to be used positively. Toby was independent and determined, and single minded about him being the one to decide when he left school. Bret was musically talented and very likeable, looked up to by younger Aboriginal students among whom he was a leader. Gina had good literacy skills and made friends so easily she became a leader and teacher for the other Aboriginal students at her school.

Each school catered for these unique students in different ways. At Toby's school the administration and teaching staff facilitated him apologising time and again so that he could stay at school. In the process he gradually learned skills in relating positively to people. The curriculum at Bret's school was flexible enough for him to be able to concentrate on the performance arts, both Music and Drama, and do so at different year levels and in multi-level classes especially for Aboriginal students. Then, at Gina's school there was a special class for students who, it was anticipated, would have difficulty coping with the SACE.

In addition, at each school there were some teachers who built up good relationships with these students, supported them in their Aboriginal identities and provided flexibility and support within their classes to enable the students to succeed. These three students identified specific examples of ‘good teaching practice’ as having been important to them. For example, individual teachers had been willing to negotiate with students, provided students with help without having to be asked for it, used a variety of teaching strategies and developed special teaching strategies where necessary. These teachers had also explained work requirements clearly, facilitated opportunities for students to demonstrate their skills, built on what the students already knew and applied gentle pressure.

Finally, all students had support and encouragement from home, both for their work at school and their Aboriginal identity. It is unlikely that without any one of these supports the three unexpected stayers would have stayed at school beyond the compulsory years of schooling, let alone achieved success.

Secondary education on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara LandsContextThe Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (often referred to as the Pit, AP or APY Lands, or simply the Lands) cover a significant portion of the far north west corner of South Australia, an area approximately 150 kilometres north-south and 500 kilometres east-west. Aboriginal people who live on the Lands refer to themselves as Anangu. The Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Education Committee (PYEC) controls preschool and school education on the Lands and has contracted the Minister of Education to provide these services. Anangu Education Services (AES) is the special administrative support unit within the South Australian Department of Education and Childrens Services (DECS) with specific responsibility for education in Anangu schools. Anangu Education Services (AES) encompasses:

o an Adelaide office which has management, administrative and curriculum development functions;

o an Ernabella office which supports management and administration of schools and provides more face-to-face curriculum support to school staff;

o 9 Anangu schools on the AP Lands;o the Wiltja project based at Woodville High School in Adelaide; ando the Wiltja Hostel based at Northfield in Adelaide.

On the Lands:

o Many families are highly mobile, both on and off the Lands. Consequently, a large number of students experience broken schooling as they do not necessarily attend school when living temporarily in another community.

o Right from a young age most children are left to decide for themselves whether or not they want to attend school.

o Most students have the majority of their formal education in English, a language largely foreign to them.

This means that by the time students reach secondary school age the range of formal educational skills and abilities among any group of students can be greater than that among similar aged students in mainstream schools. Also, the vast majority of Anangu only speak English at school or in the community when they are interacting with non-Anangu workers. In addition, all nine communities are small (two up to 500 people and the rest 250 or significantly less). Therefore, there are only small numbers of secondary aged students in each community. Only six of the nine communities have designated secondary teachers. In most of these schools the one secondary teacher for each group of junior secondary students may be required to teach six or seven of the eight areas of curriculum (a language other than English is not taught) to students in years 8, 9 and 10. These factors complicate the provision of secondary education for Anangu students.

Wiltja is not an appropriate schooling option for all secondary students on the Lands. Firstly, there simply is not the room. Secondly, some students cannot bear to be away from home for a whole term as they miss their family far too much. Sometimes it is the parents who miss their children, even if it is for more pragmatic reasons such as being able to look after the younger ones. Also, there are those students who may cope well at Woodville High School but not at the hostel and students for whom the opposite is the case. Often this inability to cope relates to having young people from different communities living and working so closely together. Then there are the constant interruptions when they have to go home for funerals or, in the case of adolescent boys, for initiation.

When Wiltja began some communities saw this as the only viable secondary option for their children. Whether this attitude came from parents or from the schools is not clear. However, in the communities where this was seen to be the case, the programs being offered to secondary aged students at their local schools bore little resemblance to mainstream secondary programs. This meant that those students who had been to Wiltja felt that there was nothing more their local school could offer them and they left school for good if they could not cope at Wiltja, even if they were still under the age of compulsion. This was still the case in 1996 when I went to work on the Lands more than ten years after PYEC had said they wanted a ‘proper’ secondary education for their students. At that time only Indulkana was offering a secondary program for their students.

Things have changed a lot since 1996. Secondary or Middle School trained teachers have replaced most of the largely Primary or Junior Primary trained teachers who had often been given responsibility for the education of the secondary aged students, mainly for their skills in teaching literacy. Using the AES junior secondary materials and/or mainstream curriculum materials that have been adapted by the use of ESL (English as a second language) methodologies and the addition of local cultural content, teachers now provide a ‘proper’ secondary curriculum for secondary aged students in their local schools and teach literacy at the same time.

The main day-to-day support for the secondary teachers and the students in the secondary classes comes from their principals. However, very few principals on the Lands have had much experience with secondary

education. Nor are they necessarily experts in ESL methodologies, resource based learning, organising the school library or computer networks, particularly when it comes to how these can best be used in the secondary classroom. For this reason there are several specialist support staff based in Ernabella.

For four years, from mid 1997 to the end of 2001, I was Assistant Principal Secondary for the lands and charged with the responsibility of working with principals, teachers and community members to support the development of secondary education across the Lands. What follows describes two different aspects of secondary education on the Lands and how I worked to address the challenges.

Demystifying languageThere are often differences in the ways specific language is used in different areas of the curriculum. Anangu students need to be explicitly taught these subtleties. They then learn something of what is often referred to as ‘secret English’. PYEC are very keen for us to teach students this ‘secret English’ but this is difficult to do if, due to language demands, topics are not covered at any depth because the teacher is trying to cover the whole breadth of the curriculum.

Science is a good example of the need for explicit teaching of language to demystify ‘secret English’. Feasey (1998: 32) identifies four elements of the scientifically literate person:

1. An understanding of key ideas and facts and an ability to apply such concepts in a range of contexts.

2. An understanding of why evidence is collected and an ability to challenge the reliability and validity of such evidence.

3. A healthy scepticism and willingness to challenge science and the evidence it offers.

4. An understanding of and ability to communicate in Science.

These kinds of knowledge are highly valued in the Science curriculum and “those students who can access this privileged knowledge are more likely to experience success during their formal schooling” (Torr and Harman 1997: 223). However, although Anangu have a good understanding of the natural world around them, concepts of ‘facts’, ‘theories’ and ‘evidence’ have no place in their traditional knowledge of the world.

In addition, language in Science can be a source of considerable confusion for learners (Kirkwood 1998: 76), particularly those from an ESL background like Anangu. There are lots of terms used in everyday life that have different meanings in a science context. In addition, the same word can also have very different meanings in different fields of science. For example, ‘cell’ in biology refers to the building blocks of living things whereas in Physics it refers to a source of electricity. The most likely context for the use of the word ‘cell’ by Anangu would be a room in a prison.

The cultural use of different forms of language can also pose problems for indigenous students such as Anangu. For example, young Anangu children are expected to learn by observing and copying. They are not expected to

ask questions of their elders. Therefore, it is more difficult to encourage such students to ask questions at school, one of the main ways Science education uses for engaging students in learning about their world.

In order to address these cultural and language issues in Science, teachers and Anangu Education Workers (AEWs) must be explicit about non-Anangu values, concepts and ways of doing things without inferring that either the Anangu or non-Anangu (Western) way is better than the other. Teachers and AEWs must also assist students to develop the skills for self determination in both Anangu and non-Anangu contexts. In the process Anangu students will learn a lot about Western society that non-Anangu take for granted.

In one sense Science educators of Anangu and other ESL speakers English have to present ideas as simply as possible, using many of the strategies that are used for younger learners. However, it is important to remember the age and interests of the learners and their future Science learning. The context of the learning experiences cannot be ‘childish’ if we are working with adolescents and there are certain forms of language that students of Science need to understand regardless of their abilities to communicate in and understand English.

The only way to address this anomaly for is to explicitly teach questioning skills and the language and grammar of Science in appropriate contexts. Therefore, every Science lesson also becomes a lesson in literacy and Science teachers also become teachers of English. If Science teachers view responsibility for such literacy practices as resting with the English teacher they will put minimal writing and reading demands on their students in the Science context (Green 1998) and deny indigenous students future success in Science studies and access to skills for self determination. The same applies to any other specialist curriculum area.

Using themes across the curriculumI spent some of my time assisting secondary teachers to use the SACSA (SA Curriculum Standards and Assessment) Framework for programming. In all cases we found that, if teachers wanted to explore topics in depth so that students had opportunities to achieve outcomes at Standards 4 and 5, it was a good idea to program across several curriculum areas using a single theme.

This approach to programming at junior secondary level, particularly with ESL students, has several advantages for the teachers and for the students. With one (or at most two) themes, teachers can focus their hunt for resources. Experience indicated that it was possible to cover most areas of the curriculum with a wide range of themes. Themes I know were used successfully included families, recycling, weather and space. The junior secondary materials provided a lot of resources as a starting point and I taught teachers how to involve their students in choosing and developing the themes. This meant there were plenty of learning activities that were culturally relevant and/or of interest to the students so that they wanted to engage in them. The concept maps of the themes were then placed on the wall(s) of the classrooms so that students could see how each learning activity fitted into the theme(s).

I strongly believe that it is important to ground all student learning, particularly that for students from an ESL background, in concrete activities. These can provide secondary students in particular with opportunities to learn the associated language and skills to construct their own knowledge. Concrete activities also allow students of widely ranging abilities to work at their own level. This is important in multi-year level classes. We found that when doing this kind of programming it was a good idea to work with another person so that different teachers could use their experience and specific curriculum expertise to come up with ideas for activities that would address the key ideas and outcomes expected of students at different standard levels. For this reason I often worked with individual secondary teachers, particularly in the initial stages of their planning.

A major advantage of using themes across the curriculum with ESL students is that they are not overloaded with different sets of English language in each curriculum area. Instead, they need to learn only a core set of new English language that is then reinforced in a variety of contexts across the curriculum.

Signs of encouragementAlthough there are still problems such as attendance and the provision of appropriate facilities for a full secondary education to be addressed, the structures and personnel that are currently in place to support secondary education on the Lands are continuing to prove successful. More secondary aged students are staying longer at school because they are finding the work at school to be interesting and relevant.

Wiltja is no longer seen as the only option for students wanting to access secondary education. Also, students who have a later opportunity to go to Wiltja are better prepared for the transition to mainstream schooling. In addition, students who are required to leave Wiltja for any reason do have a viable secondary education program to return to so there is no longer any valid reason for them to suddenly leave school.

Also, a significant number of students began staying at school beyond the age of compulsion so it was necessary for schools to provide an appropriate curriculum for them so that they would have the opportunity to complete their SACE in their home schools. This created further challenges for individual schools and Anangu Education Services, including me. That is another success story that is still continuing (see Appendix II for a glimpse of how this was achieved).

Using technology to affirm identity at upper primary levelContextIn Port Augusta 17% of the general population and 25% of the school age population are Aboriginal. They represent 17 different traditional groups. However, Aboriginal students are not evenly distributed across the seven schools in the town with primary aged students. Half the students at Flinders View Primary School, where I was principal for two years after leaving the Lands, are Aboriginal. There was very little overt racism among the students but many of the parents, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, were racist. This meant there was always the potential for racial conflict, including inter-racial conflict, to erupt in the school. The School Counsellor and the Aboriginal Education Teacher (AET) worked together on many

programs to address behaviour issues in the school, including those to combat racism.

Website competitionThen, in 2003, I became aware that the Multicultural Communities Council of SA Mix Web Design Competition was on “Taking racism out of the mix”. I immediately saw this as an ideal opportunity to engage a group of upper primary Aboriginal students in a challenging learning activity to enhance what was already being done in the school in this area, especially as we could use the bank of radio networked lap top computers the school had just purchased. Rather than describe the development of the project myself, here is a description in the students’ own words.

“The teachers were asked by Dr Russell to find four students to participate in a web site building competition on racism. Two students from each of the year 7 classes were selected. That is how we came to produce this website. The principal also asked her husband who was on leave to work with us. We met three times a week for two fifty minute lessons. At our first meeting Mr Russell explained what the competition was about and started to teach us how to code web pages in HTML using Notepad. We also brainstormed what we thought racism was all about and ways to try and stop it. We filled two whiteboards with ideas. One of the ideas we had was to visit Aboriginal groups and people in Port Augusta who could answer our questions. We also asked students and other people in the school. We split the jobs by doing separate web pages. We rang up ATSIC, Pika Wiya, Bungala, Aboriginal Women’s Centre to book a visit. When we visited places we all took notes and turns in asking the questions we made up. We also took photos of the places and people with a digital camera. We collected the information in our note books and then put it on our web pages. Mr Russell taught us how to take the photos off the camera and put them on the web page. We learnt to crop and resize photos. He also showed us how to change text, colours, make boxes and link pages. We used Textease, Paint Shop Pro, Kidpix, Windows Movie Maker and Notepad. We looked at the racismnoway website and did some of the activities to help us think about the topic. We couldn't do everything we started. We asked a lot of people about the unemployment numbers but they haven't answered yet.”

The two Year 6/7 teachers decided to target Aboriginal girls for the project because they knew these students generally had lesser access to computers at home. The aim was to skill the girls so that they could then teach their peers some of the skills they had learned. The girls were selected on the basis of the following criteria:

o leadership potentialo technological competenceo persistenceo ability to accept new challenges.

Compatability was also a consideration, although of lesser importance, as learning to work together and accepting each others different skills, abilities

and personalities was to be one of the challenges to be worked on by the group. In fact, the four girls had to work through some identity issues themselves as one of them was very fair and her Aboriginal heritage was from Victoria and unfamiliar to the others in the group.

As they all engaged in their research and learning they accepted that the issue of racism affected them all and was something they needed to come to terms with. Talking to members of the community in Port Augusta helped them to do this. Tracey’s story illustrates this. It is not her own story; it is more an amalgam of information gained from the people the girls interviewed that she has reinterpreted to make it sound more personal.

“Hi, my name is Tracey. I didn’t know much about racism until I met a friend. She told me all about racism and how she experienced racism. For example, she was being teased because of the colour of her skin and her culture. That’s when I learned about racism and that there are many different ways that people can be racist.

Because she is an Aboriginal she thought that she was meant to be called names and be treated this way. She knew she needed to stop these people but she wanted somebody to help her do it. So she came to me and explained everything.

She was very upset and needed my help. I gave her some advice. These are some examples of my advice:

o Go to cultural awareness.o Go to NAIDOC Week.o You could just get to know your culture more.

So she went to all of those cultural places. After a couple of weeks she felt like a new person. Now she has gained all of her self esteem back. She said to me that she could take on the world.

So, if you are being harassed, teased or [treated] in any way that you think is racism, go to someone for help. Or you can go to those cultural places. Maybe you will feel like a new person too.”

It was interesting that when the girls attended a workshop in Adelaide for preliminary finalists, accompanied by my husband and a parent and grandparent, they were the only group of Indigenous or multi-cultural students. This was surprising given the topic they were basing their website on. Therefore, it was good that they had ‘family’ with them. It was also good for the ‘family’ to see the girls working comfortably in a ‘foreign’ environment.

The website the girls created is still available on the Multicultural Communities Council of SA Mix Web Design Competition website (see references below).

OutcomesNot only did the girls have the satisfaction of winning a prize for the high quality of their website; they also gained a lot of kudos in the school and produced a resource that teachers and other students could use when

looking at ways to deal with racism. Their success was also recognised in the media, especially when the local member of State Parliament came to present their prize to them at a school assembly.

In addition to spending many hours at school and a significant number of hours out of school to the website project, all four of the managed to keep up to date with all their class work. They became much more motivated to succeed in all aspects of school as a result of their success in this culturally relevant extra-curricula activity. Their enthusiasm for school rubbed off on other students. Interestingly, other students were not particularly jealous of their selection or of their success.

Overall, the individual gains made by the girls were quite outstanding. For example, later that year Tracey was confronted with her first major racial conflict. Tracey had a fight with a non-aboriginal student in her class over some name calling that caught her at a weak moment. Before we had a chance to intervene, the other student had run home and got her mother who had come to the school, bypassed the office, and stormed into the classroom and started verbally abusing Tracey. This was both unpleasant and upsetting for Tracey. I was called and took the parent away while Tracey’s friends consoled her. While I was with the parent, as it was the end of the school day, Tracey went home, found the other student and they sorted out the problem together. Tracey used the knowledge and skills she had acquired while working on the website project to ensure that there would be no ongoing racism. She had not needed a mediator.

Blurring the boundaries and sharpening the focusAll three case studies illustrate how curriculum boundaries can be blurred so that the focus on learning can be sharpened, particularly when seeking to engage Indigenous students. Challenging but culturally relevant learning activities are essential. Learning activities can be made more relevant for Indigenous students if they are engaged in deciding what they will focus on, how they can present their findings and when tasks need to be completed by. It is also important for teachers to be able to answer the why questions if they are not immediately obvious, even if they are not asked.

Dealing with racism is essential if Indigenous students are to feel comfortable at school and want to stay and succeed. Tracey’s story on the website reinforces what the students who participated in my research said about racism and identity. They had not encountered much racism in primary school but it hit them as soon as they went to high school. What helped them most in dealing with this racism was being confident of who they were because a strong identity provides a solid base on which to deal with racism. In addition to family members, specialist support staff in schools can also play a significant role in this search for identity which is common to all adolescents but more complex for Indigenous students.

What happens at school, particularly at middle school level, can have a significant impact on whether or not Aboriginal students choose to stay at school and work to succeed. Relationships between students and teachers, and the relevance of educational programs are vitally important. So are the school structures that support Aboriginal students to continue to explore their Indigenous identity and develop pride in it. More details about specific things that have proven to work are included in Appendix I. The complete

set of case studies from my research and a summary of the outcomes can be found on the web (see references below).

Websites of interesthttp://www.apapdc.edu.au/daretolead/ (general reference re supporting Aboriginal students)http://www.multiwebsa.org.au/Flinders_View/noracism/index.htm (to access the website the four Aboriginal girls created for the competition)http://www.pipalya.com/rlt/ascs/toc.htm (for an e-version of my book Aboriginal students can succeed: Case studies of ten successful Aboriginal students.)

APPENDIX IImplications of overall findings from Aboriginal Students can Succeed for schools and individual teachers The following implications have been drawn out of a thorough analysis of the case studies of all ten students who participated in my research.

1. The importance of a supportive group of studentsMany Aboriginal students, particularly in their junior secondary years, benefit from having a support group of other Aboriginal students to help them to stay at school and to achieve. This presents a challenge for schools - to recognise early in their junior secondary schooling those Aboriginal students who work well together and then to keep them together as much as possible and for as long as possible. These are not necessarily close friendship groups or ability groups but groups of Aboriginal students who have positive attitudes towards school and learning. The groups should not be too big but big enough so that if one or two students do drop out there is still a core left to continue.

2. The right teachers for Aboriginal studentsThe data suggest that the quality of teaching is more important for the unexpected and possible stayers than for the expected stayers. Fanshawe’s (1976) description of an effective teacher of adolescent Aboriginal students remains as relevant today as it was then.

[T]he teacher who will effectively facilitate the growth of adolescent Aboriginals is likely to be warm, encouraging, demanding, stimulating, responsible and systematic; …he will have a positive attitude to his Aboriginal students, valuing them as people, respecting their culture, being free from racial prejudice, and being confident in their ability to achieve demanding but realistic goals set for them; …he will be knowledgeable not only about the subjects he teaches, but also about Aboriginals, Aboriginal adolescents and Aboriginal culture; …he will be a clever strategist, fitting his wide range of instructional techniques to differences in the learning styles of his students; and…he will play with proficiency the role of facilitating the learning of Aboriginal students, being an innovator, and work in harmony with the Aboriginal community and the co-workers in his educating team (Fanshawe 1976: 19-20).

This means that, wherever possible, Aboriginal students should be taught by the best junior secondary teachers in the school. This will maximise their chances for engaging in learning, succeeding and staying at school.

3. Training and development for teachersGiven that teacher relationships with Aboriginal students appear to be so crucial to the students’ retention and attainment, all schools need to continually inservice staff on how to:

o Be accepting, tolerant and understanding of Aboriginal students’ ‘difference’.

o Be sensitive to cultural issues relating to Aboriginal students.o Recognise the subtleties of covert racism.o Deal with racism in the classroom and in the school yard.o Support students to use existing school structures to deal with

racism.o Recognise that identity crises which Aboriginal students may

experience during adolescence are likely to be more complex than those which non-Aboriginal students may experience.

o Use the curriculum to make Aboriginal students feel included.o Ensure Aboriginal students participate in classroom learning

activities in meaningful ways.o Build positive working relationships with Aboriginal students.

4. Practical things teachers can do and ways to behave to help Aboriginal students stay at school and succeed:

o Take an interest in the students as individuals.o Have high but realistic expectations of Aboriginal students and

support them to achieve these.o Utilise small group activities where the students can interact

with each other. This can strengthen the group and facilitate both collaborative and competitive learning.

o Facilitate and support Aboriginal students’ desires to work with other Aboriginal students by allowing them to work alongside their Aboriginal peers when group work is not appropriate.

o Provide assistance, reassurance and encouragement to the group and to individual Aboriginal students without them having to ask for it.

o Encourage students to make cultural input or look at topics from alternative perspectives.

o Recognise and foster any special potential and/or goal orientation of individual Aboriginal students or groups of students.

o Consult Aboriginal students about incorporating Aboriginal perspectives in the curriculum.

o Facilitate Aboriginal students’ opportunities to learn about Aboriginal issues.

o Utilise a career focus that includes specific opportunities for Aboriginal people. Aboriginal students need to be shown that there are real opportunities for them, both in the mainstream and in specific roles where their Aboriginality is important,

especially in their local communities. Otherwise Aboriginal students will look no further than “the relationship between their social and cultural status and their [expected] potential for success after leaving school” (LeCompte & Priessle 1992: 841).

o Make full use of the school and/or district AEWs and AERTs in planning units of work and in curriculum activities.

o Actively support Aboriginal students’ participation in any special activities organised by AEWs and/or AERTs.

o Volunteer to work in the school’s Homework Centre and/or make yourself available for additional assistance outside normal class time.

o Utilise a variety of teaching / learning strategies.o Make positive contact with the students’ parents early in the

school year.o Facilitate the moves of enthusiastic Aboriginal students to

resist negative influences from their peers.

APPENDIX IISenior secondary education on the LandsThis required further cooperation and the involvement of an off-Lands education provider, the Open Access College based in Adelaide. I spent a significant amount of time inducting Open Access College staff to issues on the Lands so that they could more easily modify their courses to make them inclusive of Anangu students. In turn, some of them supported secondary teachers on the Lands to develop local Community Studies courses.

In 1999 a two day Secondary Forum was run on the Lands to examine secondary education issues that needed attention. One of the points that Anangu members of that forum made very strongly was that there should be a vocational education focus for all secondary students. This issue is being addressed by the appointment of a Vocational Education Project Officer based in Adelaide. This teacher liaises with community organizations and accesses vocational education resources and programs that could be relevant for our students. Now secondary students across the Lands are undertaking VET (Vocational Education and Training) courses as part of their regular study at school. Some of the courses that have been run include: seed collecting and plant propagation, gardening, basic motor maintenance, art and craft, and woodwork (run by TAFE staff) and radio broadcasting (run by 5UV). All of these are appropriate in relation to opportunities on the Lands. Unfortunately, because of the limited nature of TAFE staffing across the Lands, not all sites can access all courses and the costs to various schools are different. Those now at secondary school have seen some of their peers complete their senior secondary education (the SACE) and want to do the same themselves. The numbers we are talking about are still small but they are persisting. Those who do stay at school beyond the age of compulsion are receiving a more challenging education that will provide them with the skills that they need to function well in their own communities and/or outside them if they wish. That is the purpose of teaching Anangu secondary students the secrets of the ‘whitefella’ world; they will then be in a position to make real choices instead of having them made for them by default.

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