Indigenous knowledge, pedagogy and education have even more intrinsic paradoxes and dilemmas

(than in my introduction to the presentation)-

• Increasing concern, if not opposition, from Indigenous peoples, to anthropological research.

• Research needs to be more responsive to the community and involve members fully in the process, from beginning to end.

• Can ‘engaged anthropology’ be objective?

Additional paradoxes and dilemmas…

• Possible conflict between national needs, employment needs, and preoccupations of local people.

• Development of suitable staffing and governance.

• Difficulties in providing relevant, attractive comprehensible curricula over diverse, perhaps remote, cultural and linguistic regions.

Additional paradoxes and dilemmas…

•How secular, how religious?

•The provision of skilled and motivated resource teachers, linguists, librarians and information technology specialists.

Key Arguments

• Traditional socialisation and pedagogy can make a major contribution to Indigenous Education content and methodology

• Indigenous education, indeed all education, can benefit from incorporating elements of Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy

• Social education and cultural studies, particularly, should be multi-disciplinary.

Can you see any problems with purely historical or

geographical approaches?

Why and How?

Indigenous knowledge [IK]… is a uniqueformulation of knowledge coming from arange of sources rooted in local cultures, adynamic and ever changing pastiche of past‘tradition’ and present invention, with a viewto the future (Sillitoe, P. in Sillitoe, Bicker and

Pottier, 2002). Has been largely ignored and is a key factor inlack of Indigenous educational participationand success.

Some Background Information

•2009- 550,000 Indigenous Australians, approx.

2.5% of 21 million. Up from 260,000 in 1992 Census. Why?

•Reflects high birthrate, increased willingness to identify

as Indigenous, plus eligibility for benefits

•70% in provincial, rural or remote areas-

often poorer facilities than in capitals

•The most disadvantaged of Australians

•Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander culture is complex and diverse-

from isolated to inner city communities.

Health and Education

Poor health, eg middle-ear infection, listlessness, poor attendance

Effects on education-•Only 33% complete secondary education (80% for total population)

•2.2% university graduates (13% overall)

•Western education often seen as alienating and irrelevant (conversely aspects valued…)

Melanesia

Overall population nearly 8 million,

PNG 6 million approximately.

Young, diverse culturally, linguistically-

eg 820 Indigenous languages in PNG.

Patchy provision of education, poorly

resourced, yet relatively successful…

Melanesia

• Dependent on aid, eg $300 million+ pa

from Australia.

• Solomon Islands intervention, Bougainville,

AIDS, drugs, corruption; fear of ‘failed states’.

The State of Remote Indigenous Australian Communities- “A national disgrace, a disaster”

• Mal Brough’s response to the Little Children are Sacred Inquiry, June 2007. In response to high levels of child sexual abuse the Report recommended control of drugs and alcohol, and stated that:

‘Education is the key to helping children and communities nurture safe, well-adjusted families…at school they are safe…and can confide in their teachers’

• NB. Issues of ownership, appropriation, knowledge, pedagogy, power, governance, are crucial.

Another paradox- Can one take over decision-making and then expect to build long-term responsibility and care? History tells us, no!

Melanesia

• Many dysfunctional communities, particularly in fringe settlements, with poor records in education. Issues: funding, staffing, equity.

• In remote subsistence communities, there is likely to be no access to western/national schooling.

• Change is desperately needed, especially to counter the sense

of ‘otherness’, appropriation, anger, powerlessness, lack of inclusiveness, sense and reality of citizenship.

‘Mi rubbish man tru’ is a common sentiment.

…•Contextual- observation, participation in relevant contexts

•Person-Oriented- positive personal relationships, trust, even body-language, are important •Elements have been put into practice, eg. KODE schools in Victoria, community education elsewhere, urban and rural. Primary Connectionshttp://www.science.org.au/primaryconnections/additional.htm

Some relevant, recommended pedagogical approaches

• Substantial involvement of Indigenous parents, teachers

• Combines well with modern ‘best practice’ constructivist, inquiry, child-centred approaches

• Cooperative group work

Some relevant, recommended pedagogical approaches

• Visual images, role-play, narratives

• Symbols, diagrams, computer models

• Excursions, photography, sketching

Some relevant, recommended pedagogical approaches…

• Maps, pathways

• Experiential, relevant culturally

• Positive, affirming role models

• Wider assessment approaches, including self and peer

• Lots of oral English practice, reinforcement, enrichment

Fieldwork…

• Participant observation in communities and schools, mostly NSW, Victoria and NT

• Traditional Culture- Song, site, skin, ceremony

• Traditional education- largely oral, storytelling• Informal, except for initiation, when they were ‘Broken,

tamed, into the burba.’ ‘We grow them up in the ashes.’• Spirituality permeated all life• Education closely adapted to economy• Relationships, kinship, central to learning

Indigenous Pedagogy should be reflected in…

• National and State policy, structure particularly re preschool and primary education

• School form, structure, leadership

• Indigenous involvement, community leadership, school council, appointments

• Nature of teaching team- their mix, training, experiences, pd support

• Curriculum- content / knowledge and pedagogy

Indigenous Teacher, Yipirinya School, Alice Springs

• ‘In my experience, most mainstream schools don’t cater for a diverse range of students, preferring to teach in a mainly white, middle class fashion. Students who come from a different culture or background are expected to assimilate, or else face a difficult learning situation which could lead to eventual ‘dropping out’ of school.’

Indigenous Teacher, Yipirinya School, Alice Springs

• ‘I would go so far as to say that to expect one style of teaching to work for a diverse range of students is unequal, unjust and could be deemed as racist.’

The Detractors

• Eg Roger Sandall’s, The Culture Cult. Affirming culture allows ‘primitive’, tribal, feudal, undemocratic and sexist values to flourish. Keith Windshuttle has similar views.

• Will sow the seeds of the destruction of civil life, ‘of the creative marvel that is civilisation’.

• Culture theory is ‘particularistic, chauvinistic, primitivistic’.

• Small homelands, outstations, are not viable economically.

• Any relation to 2007 Federal Government ‘take-over’ of remote Indigenous communities? Discuss

The Rebuttal

• Historical evidence- integration is preferable to assimilation (which failed in the 1940s and 1950s)

• It’s what most Indigenous leaders and communities say they want.

• Anthropological and educational research indicates the relevance and need for Indigenous knowledge and pedagogy

• Culture need not equate to divisive, regressive; it can equate to democratic, progressive, inclusive, peaceful

• Anthropologists, other social scientists and teachers, are almost never complete cultural and ethical relativists

Conclusion

• The ‘culture’ subject, anthropology, has much to contribute to education programs, particularly regarding appropriate content and learning styles for multicultural Australia, and for other nations.

• In Australian education: “…Aboriginal pedagogy should be embraced by all teachers and indeed all students would benefit from this. In terms of reconciliation this is only one part, but it is certainly an essential one.” (Yipirinya Teacher, Alice Springs, Northern Territory)

Discuss

It is often said that Indigenous students need a ‘white’ anthropology-

to understand how the dominant culture and society work.