The Secondary Mathematics Program at St Therese’s School, Bathurst Island, N.T.

Extract

At St Therese’s Girls’ School we have initiated a transition from a post-primary program to a secondary program. Part of this change has been a re-thinking and reorganization of the mathematics program.

There are 40 students in the secondary section. In the past they were taught in three different classes – Grades 8, 9 and 10. One teacher taught each class and the secondary section was organized like a primary school. Now the secondary section is organized along different lines, but it is not the purpose of this paper to explain the organization of the secondary section. The purpose of this paper is to explain the philosophy, approach, and some of the content of the secondary mathematics program.

It would seem that in the past the philosophy behind most post-primary programs prompted teachers to engage their classes in one of two activities. Either the class would spend the bulk of its day engaged in some sort of manual study, or else the teacher would engage the class in studies that were aimed at catching up with the Aboriginal students’ non-Aboriginal counterparts. The philosophy behind both approaches saw the Aboriginal students as inferior.

The philosophy behind both the mathematics program at St Therese’s, and the secondary program in general, is based on what I believe to be a far more truthful reality. I believe that it is not acceptable to infer that Aboriginal students are inferior and to organize their schooling around either manual studies or alternatively academic studies aimed at catching up to their European-Australian counterparts.