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Foundation for Indigenous Health and Education

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Foundation for Indigenous Health and Education

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Bridging The Gap Website

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The Bridging the Gap Foundation aims to improve and advance the lives of Indigenous Australians.

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Article by Elizabeth McKinley - Professor of Indigenous Education, University of Melbourne

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In this series we'll explore how to improve schools in Australia. Some of the most prominent experts in the sector tackle key questions, including why we are not seeing much progress; whether we are assessing children in the most effective way; why parents need to listen to what the evidence tells us, and much more.
Much attention in Australian Indigenous education is paid to the " achievement gap" and not nearly enough is paid to the "opportunity to learn gap" - this refers to the subject content students are exposed to in school.

Debates focusing on the achievement gap, where in 2014 only 59% of Indigenous students complete Year 12 or equivalent compared with 85% of their non-Indigenous counterparts, tend to place an emphasis on contextual factors such as the role of poverty or socioeconomic status as an explanation of lower educational achievement.

In the wider public, this can spiral quickly into blaming students and families, or gives schools and teachers permission to find some comfort in the status quo.

Stop focusing on 'the problem'

Focusing on the opportunity to learn gap removes the emphasis from locating "the problem" in the person (or family or culture), and turns our attention to the accummulated differences in access to key educational resources. These include:

quality teachers that can adapt to context

personalised academic programs and guidance systems

high quality curriculum opportunities, such as being supported to become proficient in rigorous curriculum content (for example, advanced mathematics)

high quality educational materials, such as up-to-date technologies and good connectivity

good informational sources that support learning at school and home.

These inequalities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students have compounded over the years and, as such, many have been denied access to quality education. You could argue that this is a form of institutionally sanctioned discrimination.

What is 'opportunity to learn'?

Students' ability to learn a subject is based on whether, and for how long, they are exposed to it in school - as well as the adequacy and effectiveness of their engagement in the learning process.

OECD research has shown that the opportunity to learn is connected with student achievement in multiple ways. It is a complex idea that involves both school systems and classrooms.

At the systems level, opportunity to learn plays out through whether students are able to attend school and what is available in the way of curriculum, teaching staff stability, teaching quality, tracking practices, and school resources.

At the classroom level, it involves resources and teaching practices. The educational resources at both of these levels have failed to help Indigenous students improve their knowledge and skills, contributing to poor educational outcomes.

Many Indigenous students, even those who are achieving some success, do not have adequate support to engage with a rigorous curriculum.

What impact can this have on learning?

Research carried out in New Zealand secondary schools has shown that, in relation to literacy, Māori (Indigenous) and ethnic minority students are exposed to different and a narrower range of texts.

An implication of this is that they are only able to complete a narrow part of the assessed curriculum compared to their peers in other schools.

The quality of the texts students read were lower, with students being given shorter texts and ones targeted at youth rather than adult readers.

As a result, students were found to be diverted into a low track curriculum with limited exposure to the content necessary to enter higher education. Teaching approaches were observed to be highly structured and teacher directed.

Some districts and schools in California have gone further and proposed standards and measures around opportunity to learn to ascertain true outcomes for students.

Examples of measures include whether or not students have access to qualified teachers, access to advanced classes and the amount of time spent with the subject matter, and whether the teachers have the knowledge and training to be effective in the context they are teaching.

These sorts of measures would give governments a truer picture of the distribution of resources in education and enable them to make decisions that are more equitable.

Students would benefit from a more equitable distribution of resources and there would be greater transparency in learning progress against performance standards.

Something needs to change

It is not enough to wring our hands when successive OECD reports and National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) results emerge showing Australian Indigenous students have made little, or very uneven, progress.

Something needs to change.

We need to understand there are opportunity costs associated with poor educational outcomes for Australian Indigenous students.

The greatest cost is borne by students through low achievement. But they are also by the school in the provision of remedial interventions, retention rates, repeated years, special education, and disciplinary problems that are often tied to school failure.

Society further bears the cost of students dropping out, incarceration, and low productivity in the workforce.

In the case of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, it is a cost borne by successive generations - and hence the community as a whole.

Opportunity to learn is not the panacea of what is not working in Australian Indigenous education. Achievement gap data is a poor guide for policy to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education.

We need more comprehensive data that scrutinises schools and their practices, including what occurs in the classrooms.

One key data strategy to bring about change is to use it to create a culture of inquiry in our schools. We must have a willingness to ask questions and not be afraid of the answers.

Where is our school at with Indigenous students? Why are we there? And what needs to change to improve achievement? Continuous monitoring must also become part of the school culture to evaluate if the changes are appropriate and contributing to raising achievement.

Data also helps to build dissatisfaction with current practices when they are manifested in low expectations, low-level curricula, and low-level instructional strategies.

It will also help a good school leader bring their staff, students and community together to create a platform for a shared vision and plan. We need to ensure everyone gets plenty of opportunities to be involved with the data collection, analysis and use, and then change will be inevitable.

* Elizabeth McKinley explores this theme further in a new book called Educating Australia: Challenges for the Decade Ahead.

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Stop focusing on 'the problem' in Indigenous education, and start looking at learning opportunities

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In this series we'll explore how to improve schools in Australia. Some of the most prominent experts in the sector tackle key questions, including why we are not seeing much progress; whether we are assessing children in the most effective way; why parents need to listen to what the evidence tells us, and much more.

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Article by Marnee Shay & Jo Lampert.

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This year marked the tenth year of the Australian government reporting on targets made to close the educational gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students. The report card showed some slow gains, but overall it was another national wake-up call. New policy approaches are needed to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous peoples.

One aspect of education that has been overlooked in Indigenous education policy over the past decade is the growth of "flexischools" around the country.

Read more: Flexischools have a lot to teach mainstream schools

Flexischools support young people who have been excluded (formally through expulsion or otherwise) from mainstream education to re-engage with education. With the recent reminder there's still a long way to go in improving educational outcomes for Indigenous young people, it's timely to look at what's happening in flexischools. We need to consider what role they play in closing the educational gap and why they have been overlooked.

Why look for gaps?

Policy approaches to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education in Australia remain focused on the "closing the gap" rhetoric from the government. To some, this means Indigenous education policy is framed around measuring educational success against non-Indigenous metrics.

The logic of much of this policy is flawed from the outset. Classroom education research has identified a wide range of factors outside schools that have impacts on educational outcomes.

Social, cultural and economic capital (or lack thereof) means Indigenous students are expected to overcome hundreds of years of entrenched systemic racism and disadvantage, attributed to colonisation, with limited changes to the schooling system.

AAP/Mick Tsikas

There is a need to look more closely and critically at aspects of Indigenous education that have been relatively ignored. This may help answer crucial questions about how to improve the system.

Flexischools and Indigenous young people

The term flexischools describes a myriad of educational programs or school sites operating outside mainstream education. There are two defined types of flexischools. One focuses on changing the young person to meet the needs of system. The other involves changing the system to meet the needs of the young person, in the short or long term.

The flexischools at the heart of this article are aimed at changing educational provision to meet the needs of young people. These sites appear to be engaging very high numbers of Indigenous young people.

Recent estimates indicate about 35% of students attending flexischools are Indigenous. This is high when considering Indigenous students represented 5.6% of all school students in 2017.

What we know and what we need to know

Policymakers could look at this large proportion of Indigenous flexischool students to help understand why they are pushed out of mainstream schooling, what they want to get out of education and, potentially, "what works".

There have been limited studies on Indigenous students in flexischools. One small study found evidence of high numbers of both Indigenous students and staff working in them.

A recent study on the voices of Indigenous staff reported Indigenous people are choosing flexischools as a desirable place to work in education because of the focus on relationships.

Read more: Stop focusing on 'the problem' in Indigenous education, and start looking at learning opportunities

There is no national published data on exactly how many Indigenous young people are enrolled in flexischools. There is no published data on whether flexischools participate in NAPLAN testing. There is no published data on the number of year 12 completions. There are no large-scale studies that investigate the short-term and long-term outcomes for Indigenous students.

Author provided, Author provided

The general absence of flexischools in policy aimed at closing the gap is problematic because significant numbers of Indigenous young people attend them. But transparency and accountability are very limited in a number of ways.

The lack of data for flexischools skews closing the gap data, because the same data are not being collected for the large proportion of Indigenous students in flexischools. This means we don't have a full picture of where all Indigenous young people are in terms of literacy and numeracy.

We need to understand how flexischools ensure Indigenous people are in positions of leadership when there are high numbers of Indigenous young people in these schools. Having Indigenous leadership and governance is vital for accountability to the growing numbers of Indigenous peoples and communities interacting with these schools.

Having Indigenous teachers and leaders in schools is important because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students "cannot be what they cannot see".

We need to understand why the work being done in flexischools isn't being done by mainstream schools. The latter receive additional funding for Indigenous students, yet some Indigenous students are still being pushed out of the mainstream.

Lessons to be learned

While more research may be needed on the academic outcomes of students who attend flexischools, research is finding they are successful in attracting, welcoming and supporting youth who, voluntarily or under duress, have left mainstream schools.

Flexibility, a focus on relationships and an inquiry-led curriculum seem more conducive to keeping young Indigenous and non-Indigenous people engaged. Flexischools generally focus on acceptance rather than discipline, and social justice over regimented learning.

Read more: Infographic: Are we making progress on Indigenous education?

If flexischools are doing Indigenous education better than mainstream schools, we should invest in researching how they work. We should also ask them to track outcomes the same way mainstream schools do. We need more accurate (and inclusive) data when looking at whether the educational gap is closing to give us the whole picture.

In the long term, though, we should aspire for there to be no need for flexischools. We should aim for all schools in Australia to provide high-quality education to all Australian students, including Indigenous young people.

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How flexischools could help close the gap in Indigenous education

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This year marked the tenth year of the Australian government reporting on targets made to close the educational gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students. The report card showed some slow gains, but overall it was another national wake-up call. New policy approaches are needed to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous peoples.

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from The Conversation Website

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Authors

Reviewer

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Tony Dreise does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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Northern Territory has the highest proportion of Indigenous school students. Neda Vanovac/AAP

In this series, we'll discuss whether progress is being made on Indigenous education, looking at various areas including policy, scholarships, school leadership, literacy and much more.

Various sources/The Conversation, CC BY-ND

* Read more articles in this series.
We produce knowledge-based, ethical journalism. Please donate and help us thrive. Tax deductible.

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Infographic: Are we making progress on Indigenous education?

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Tony Dreise does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. View all partners Republish this article Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under Creative Commons license.

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Some interesting answers

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Action Plan

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About Narragunnawali

Reconciliation Australia's Narragunnawali program supports all schools and early learning services in Australia to foster a higher level of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and contributions.

Narragunnawali (pronounced narra-gunna-wally) is a word from the language of the Ngunnawal people, Traditional Owners of the land on which Reconciliation Australia's Canberra office is located, meaning alive, wellbeing, coming together and peace.

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Reconciliation Australia's Narragunnawali program supports all schools and early learning services in Australia to foster a higher level of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and contributions. Narragunnawali (pronounced narra-gunna-wally) is a word from the language of the Ngunnawal people, Traditional Owners of the land on which Reconciliation Australia's Canberra office is located, meaning alive, wellbeing, coming together and peace.

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Early Intervention initiative from the NSW Govt.

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Facebook page

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deadly stories. 6.2K likes. deadly stories celebrates the achievements and successes of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders as well as sharing good news, community events &...

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Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships

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Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships

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QLD Govt Webpage

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Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships (Queensland Government)

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Reparations Scheme project completion

The Reparations Scheme closed on the 28 September 2018. A transitional period was required to finalise existing claims. Those claims have now been finalised and the Scheme will officially close on 1 February 2019.

The department will no longer be responding to enquiries regarding reparations payments.

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Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships (Queensland Government)

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The Reparations Scheme closed on the 28 September 2018. A transitional period was required to finalise existing claims. Those claims have now been finalised and the Scheme will officially close on 1 February 2019. The department will no longer be responding to enquiries regarding reparations payments.

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Teaching Resource

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Teacher Resource

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Teaching resources

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In this section, you will find resources to support teachers. This includes Australian curriculum linked learning sequences, professional learning resources and additional resources that you may like to consider using in your classroom. You can also view the curriculum mapping for each resource and find out how to share your comments and suggestions with us.

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Indigenous Education Update is a window into the work ACER undertakes in research and development in Indigenous education.

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Indigenous Education Update is a window into the work ACER undertakes in research and development in Indigenous education.

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Resilience and ATSI students

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The study, a joint project by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), reviews the literature and uses a strength-based analysis of information from Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) to examine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's abilities and knowledge at 4-6 years of age.

'There is a continual message of gaps, failures and 'lack',' said co-author of the paper, ACER Principal Research Fellow Dr Michele Lonsdale. 'We need a more positive approach.'

The authors believe that school readiness is as much about schools recognising the existing capabilities and knowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have when they arrive at school as it is about supporting children and families to become ready for formal learning.

The study confirms that family support, strong cultural identity, good health, positive self-identity and engaging in shared activities such as storytelling are likely to lead to resilience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. Furthermore, responses of LSIC parents and carers show the critical importance of family and connections to land and culture in developing children who are resilient.

The authors make the point that resilience is critical for successful transitions from home to school, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who possess the resilience attributes of social competence, autonomy, mastery, optimism andproblem-solving skills are better able to adapt and learn.

But while LSIC shows strong and rich interactions between children and their parents and carers, and shows the importance of cultural knowledge and identity in the development of resilience, the paper's authors note that these factors are not currently being reflected in testing and checklists used to measure children's wellbeing and school readiness.

The authors therefore call for the use of a strengths-based approach to supportchildren as they make the transition from home to school. Among other things, such an approach would involve:

Recognising and valuing the factors that contribute to building resilient young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, namely: shared activities, family support, strong cultural identity, health and positive self-identity.
Developing appropriate assessments that reflect a strengths-based approach, in which children can experience success, show what they can do, learn from what they cannot yet do, grow in confidence and look forward to the next challenge that is presented.
Developing resources and activities that reinforce and build upon the knowledge, understandings and skills that already exist in children.

'Some of the strengths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children identified in the literature include being independent from an early age, having well-developed visual-spatial and motor skills, and having the capacity to self-judge and to take risks,' said Dr Lonsdale. ■

Read the full report:
Starting School: A strengths-based approach towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, by Stephanie Armstrong, Sarah Buckley, Michele Lonsdale, Gina Milgate, Laura Bennetts Kneebone, Louise Cook, and Fiona Skelton (2012).

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Call for strengths-based approach to school readiness for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids

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The study, a joint project by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), reviews the literature and uses a strength-based analysis of information from Footprints in Time: The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC) to examine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children's abilities and knowledge at 4-6 years of age.

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Indigenous knowledge

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Indigenous knowledge and environmental management - CSIRO

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems and approaches to land and sea management.

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A NSW Gov early intervention initiative