Learning Vs Education; Leading Learning in Anangu Schools

Paper presented by Sam Osborne Senior Research Fellow UniSA/CRC REP Remote Education Systems IRN Forum UniSA Whyalla September 27th 2012

Where do Anangu live?

*note – the term Anangu is also used by Pintupi/Luritja communities, for example, which spreads further to the North and West of this map. Source: Ara Irititja archive website http://www.irititja.com/the_archive/audience.html

The deficit discourse: Fear APY school attendance rates falling (ABC News 2011) Parents ‘part of’ truancy problem (The Australian 2012a) Language skills poor in 40% of APY children (The Australian 2012b) Gonski: “more investment needed in remote education” (the Review of funding for Schooling – Final Report 2011)

Source: How young Indigenous Australians are faring Dusseldorp Skills Forum 2009

Source: Are we making education count in remote Australian communities or just counting education? Guenther 2012

Five challenges:

The flexibility challenge Principals are caught between the fish bowl and the toilet bowl

The challenge of making a difference in the classroom Altruism gives way to cynicism: “But I thought education was the key?”

The challenge of meaningful measurement Small and diverse communities – how do we ‘really know?’

The power and pedagogy challenge How do teachers take account of the ‘culture and codes of power? (Delpit 1993)

The challenge of ‘really knowing’ Significant differences in values, ways of knowing and being between the teachers/school and Anangu

So what do Anangu say about all of this?

Andy Tjilari – Ernabella, Fregon struggled, resisted the feeling of being different, runs away His parents force him into two schools, but ultimately, his autonomy is respected. ‘Couldn’t learn in school’. Recalls in intricate detail the processes of learning from his father

Runs away from Hermannsburg school and avoids detection. Confidence in the Anangu domain, lacks confidence in school

Nganinytja Ilyatjari – Angatja, Ernabella, Amata

Has a wider range of ‘teachers’ than Andy Intricate knowledge of living from the land, environmental and ecological knowledge, medicines, seasons, healing (ngangkari) knowledge Ernabella mission documents cite her as an outstanding example of ‘success’

Sheila – Angus Downs, Imanpa

Attends school at Ernabella, Areyonga and Hermannsburg

Doesn’t learn literacy/numeracy skills

‘Really Learns’ through working at Angus Downs Station

As a young teen, receives weekly liturgical readings in Western Aranda and teaches herself to read

What does this mean for remote educators today?

An enduring values system Strongly held, though perhaps less visible in current context

Capacity to Aspire and Imagine futures Appadurai (2004), Nakata (2007), Lingard et al (2003), Hayes et al (2006)

Education is a vehicle that builds identity and provides hope (see Leadbeater 2012) - it has the capacity to transform lives, rather than constrain them (Appadurai 2004).

Three educational failures: Attendance – poor, (all) missed critical early years English Literacy and Numeracy - fail to achieve benchmarks: : “I couldn’t read or write”, “I taught myself to read after I left school” Retention – highly ‘at risk’/disengaged (except Nganinytja)

So what did they “achieve?” Andy: • Founded the Fregon church and subsequent community in

the 1960s • Sigmund Freud Award (2011 World Congress for

Psychotherapy) • 2009 Mark Sheldon Prize awarded by the Royal Australian

and New Zealand College of Psychiatry (RANZCP) • 2009 Dr Margaret Tobin Award for excellence in the

provision of mental health services to those most in need

Nganinytja: Described in Hilliard (1968): • Reliable historian (p.81) • Ground-breaking early childhood educator (p.165-166) • Skilled craft worker (p.171) • First Anangu to have been to Adelaide from Ernabella (p.178) • Pioneer (p.188) • Founded tourism business at Angatja • First Anangu woman to invite a (white) sister to assist in giving birth in 1951

(p.138) • Breaks Anangu tradition and commits to raising a severely disabled child • Key founder of NPY Women’s Council

Sheila: • Instrumental in founding the Imanpa community • Instrumental in founding Nyangatjatjara College • ATSIC representative (Southern NT region) for 13

years • Ongoing director positions

What am I asking remote educators to do about all of this?

• Understand another ‘reality’ exists in the Anangu context • Learning is bigger than the education focus on generic

data re: attendance, retention, NAPLAN • Expect values/disciplines rather than despair their

apparent absence • Recognise intergenerational knowledge assets of the

students • Foster high order thinking in the curriculum and in

personal approach to teaching

17

References I have provided some copies of my full conference paper (still under peer review). This can be accessed to view references utilized in this presentation with the exception of: Guenther, J. (2012) Are we making education count in remote Australian communities or just counting education? Conference paper for presentation at AEU conference, Alice Springs 26th October 2012 and NARU conference, Darwin 31st October 2012

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27