Attitudes to School Experience: A Report from a Seminar of Aboriginal Students

Abstract

On 25th September, a day long seminar was held at Maitland in South Australia as part of the Action Research Project for Secondary Education of Aboriginal Students. This project is being carried out within the Research & Planning Branch of the Education Department of South Australia.

The participants in the seminar were 27 past and present Aboriginal high school students, and the 10 current students were all senior students. Questionnaires were administered and answered individually by all students. Later in the day a discussion of some of the information collated from the questionnaires took place. After the meeting, the questionnaires were more thoroughly analysed, and the following report was written.

The questionnaires are reproduced in the Appendix following the report.

There were two main reasons for calling the meeting: firstly so that Aboriginals could give their views about school, and secondly so that the school and the Action Research Project could use the information given by the Aboriginals to effect changes. Three questionnaires were administered during the day. Part I was put on the overhead projector, and the students filled in answer sheets. Part II and Part III were on sheets which were filled in by individuals.