This paper is a meditation on the idea of South-South dialogue, beginning with the South-South Dialogues: Situated Perspectives in Decolonial Epistemologies symposium held at the University of Queensland in 2015. I interrogate the concept of South-South dialogue, apposing it to the Cartesian ‘I think’, and then question the plausibility of the concept. On the basis of a Gadamerian conception of understanding, I suggest that what passes for South-South dialogue is in fact more likely to be North-South or even North-North dialogue. This is buttressed by an examination of Valentin Mudimbe's Parables and Fables. I go on to suggest, however, that by staying within the realm of the concept, in what could be called a Cartesian paradigm, Mudimbe misses the important role that South-South dialogue can play. Drawing on the work of Sara Motta, Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions and the concept of hunhu, I claim that the promise of South-South dialogue is the creation of spaces in which humanity is fostered.

In the journal article Did DI do it? The impact of a programme designed to improve literacy for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in remote schools, Guenther and Osborne (2020) compare schoolwide NAPLAN reading scale scores for 25 Very Remote Indigenous schools implementing Direct Instruction through the Flexible Literacy for Remote Primary Schools Program (‘Flexible Literacy’ or ‘the program’) with those for 118 Very Remote Indigenous schools not involved with the program, to assert the program has not improved literacy outcomes. Good to Great Schools Australia (GGSA) undertook an analysis of the same school data for Reading, Writing, Spelling and Grammar and Punctuation scores. Our findings contradict theirs. In all areas, schools participating in the program show significant growth compared with all Australian and all Very Remote Indigenous schools. In Reading, schools involved in the program from 2015 to 2017 averaged 124% growth, while the average growth for comparable ages was 19 and 34% for Australian and Very Remote Indigenous schools, respectively. In Grammar and Punctuation schools involved in the program in the same period grew 180%, whilst growth for Australian schools was 15%, and for Very Remote Indigenous schools, 28%. These contrasting results illustrate the importance of evaluating growth to assess the impact of educational programs, rather than achievement alone, particularly in the case of Very Remote Indigenous schools where achievement levels are far below Australian grade levels. Guenther and Osborne's comparison of achievement across schools rather than measuring growth within schools obscures real gains and is misleading.

From the early 1900s, education in the Torres Strait was dominated by protectionism and segregation. In 1964 on Thursday Island the segregated state school system was abolished: “coloured children” could attend the high top from 1964 and thus secondary schooling became available to all as far as year 10. Since then there have been considerable changes. This paper describes and analyses some of these within a framework of relational justice and social access. Themes discussed include written texts about the people of Torres Strait and about education in Torres Strait; the growth of Torres Strait Islander voice in educational research; educational governance, facilities and staffing; teaching in Torres Strait classrooms; curriculum and vlanguage; preparing teachers to teach in Torres Strait; supporting teachers in Torres Strait; school-community relationships; and some recent initiatives.

The question of what is humanity and how it is expressed has endless and dynamic answers. My paper is an attempt to construct and explain the answer based on the insights Indigenous humanity expressed in the continent called North America. The four fundamental insights are organised around the concept of creation as ecology, the insights of embodied spirits, the implicate order, and transformation. These complementary insights inform the depth of Indigenous worldview. These insights are replicated and revealed in structure and meaning of Indigenous languages, ceremonies and stories. These cognitive insights suggest a starting point for reflecting about whatever is most significant in Indigenous humanities in curriculum.

This narrative reflection emerged during a time of personally reconnecting with Mi'kmaq First Nation culture and heritage while working in the mainstream roles of counsellor educator and educationalist in Australia. The essay expresses turning points along a path of increasing political and social discomfort with the status quo in counsellor education. Paradoxically, and in parallel fashion, as Indigenous empowerment increased the issues that arise also became more difficult. Staying with these questions long enough to see through the fog seemed important. Disconcerting questions arose related to identity, prejudice, and healing in a field where helping is purported to be the chief focus of our work. The essay examines “Aboriginal Australian” constructs of counsellor education as expressions of liberal humanist colonialism. Pathways towards an Indigenous aesthetic are suggested based in a post-colonial model of culturally-grounded and locally-grown expressions that honour Indigenous ways of knowing. A new paradigm for counsellor education is suggested that listens to recent articulations of global Indigenous epistemology, ontology, and cosmology.

Fortunately, many recent researchers who apply sociological or anthropological inquiry methods have studied Aboriginal communities outside of the classroom as well as inside it, and have taken account of the constellation of causes and modifying influences on Aboriginal learning styles (Harris 1977, Christie 1986, Davidson 1977). Indeed it is possible to observe a continuing recognition in Australian educational literature that influences outside of the classroom or school are amongst the most important and crucial aspects of Aboriginal learners successfully participating in education (Watts 1982, Berndt 1968a,1968b, Bell 1970, Grey 1974).

One of the many fascinating problems raised in recent issues of the Australian Journal of Indigenous Education (AJIE) is that of Indigenous autonomy in education. Although opinions differed about the extent to which Indigenous people currently exercise educational autonomy in various situations, there was wide agreement that there ought to be Indigenous control or ‘ownership’ of all knowledge relating to Indigenous life and culture, past and present. Sister Anne Gardner, then Principal of Murrupurtyanuwu Catholic School in NT, explained (1996: 20) how she decided to ‘let go, to move away from the dominant role as Principal’, in order that Indigenous persons could take control. She had been helped to this conclusion by reading Paulo Freire, Martin Buber and Hedley Beare, and, within the NT itself, ‘people of that educational calibre, such as Beth Graham, Sr Teresa Ward, Fran Murray, Stephen Harris, all pleading with us to allow education to be owned by Aboriginal people’. Sr Gardner held that ‘Aboriginal people never act as “leader”, a view shared by her designated Indigenous successor, Teresita Puruntayemeri, then Principal-in-Training of Murrupurtyanuwu Catholic School, who wrote (1996: 24-25) that ‘for a Tiwi peron it is too difficult to stand alone in leadership’. One way to share the burdens of leadership is, she suggests, to ‘perform different dances in the Milmaka ring, sometimes in pairs or in a group’.

This paper will explore some of the pedagogical, social and political issues surrounding a 1991 decision to dose an urban school servicing Aboriginal students in the Northern Territory. In order to contextualise the discussion, a brief description of recent State and Federal government policy documents will be provided, along with a description of the school. This will be followed by an analysis of the decision and subsequent events. Some comparisons will be made with similar events and other court cases in Australia and overseas. This discussion highlights the conflict between the Federal government's policy of self-determination and the Territory government's assimilationist practices as well as the discourses used to override the parents' aspirations to keep the school open.

“Aboriginal Studies is essentially a study of the cultures and history of the indigenous peoples of Australia. Such studies also involve those issues which are of contemporary or historic interest to Aboriginal society and consequently to the total Australian community”.

The idea of two-way education has great appeal because it holds out the promise that schools can achieve something that historically they have found extremely difficult; encompassing Aboriginal cultural maintenance while providing needed white knowledge. However, it will be argued here that while two-way theories are part of the current widely adopted rhetoric of educational change they are not practical curriculum alternatives for Aboriginalising Central Australian schools because they do not make sense in terms of real interaction between the cultures. For this reason, attractive as these two-way theories are, they are also hazardous. Their danger lies both in that they build up expectations for outcomes of Aboriginal schools and they associate these outcomes with Aboriginalisation, a process which will not be assisted by unworkable theories.

Since the mid-1950’s, educational literature has reflected a deep concern for the relatively poor academic performance of children from particular ethnic minority groups. In the United States, for example, attention has focused on the low achievements of many Negro, Spanish and Indian children, and in Australia there is an increasing concern with the educational achievements of numbers of Aborigines. The data collected to date suggest that a child’s ethnic group membership makes an important contribution to his success in school. More specifically, the data raise the very broad issue of educability of children from some socio-economic and sub-cultural groups.

In most instances educability has been closely linked with teacher performance, suggesting that teachers play an important role in determining their pupil’s behaviours and achievements. It is this possible link between teacher behaviour and student achievement which has provided the impetus for much of the educational research focusing on the influence of the teacher. This area of research, however, is not characterized by a large number of conclusive studies. Nevertheless, some encouraging trends can be noted to indicate a possible relationship between the teacher variable and student achievements and behaviours.

Jo Lampert's (1996) research discussed in her article Indigenous Australian perspectives in teaching at the University of Queensland speaks volumes about the challenges of attempting to make university curricula inclusive of Indigenous Australian perspectives. She documents the often ambivalent attitudes of academics towards opening up the curriculum to Indigenous Australians. The research discussed here seeks to add to our understanding of this process, focussing this time on the response of students to the introduction of Australian Indigenous perspectives into a single unit within a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching program. The impetus to reflect on the process came with the shock of reading student papers, written at the end of the unit, and finding that effective communication about the educational needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples did not seem to have taken place, making a closer analysis of the teaching/learning process imperative. This investigation will address questions abouthowuniversities can communicate effectively about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This paper reviews the research work of Dr Stephen Harris in his 1990 book entitled Two-Way Schooling: Education and Cultural Survival. It is not possible to review the book in its entirety in great detail, so an overall view will be taken and the following key questions will be answered:

• who is doing the talking?

• what kind of Indigenous subjects are being constructed?

• how is the construction ofworld view achieved?

• are there any alternatives?

The teaching of mathematics to Aboriginal children poses many difficulties for teachers. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal teachers agree that many Aboriginal children are not making adequate progress in their development of mathematical understanding. The teaching of mathematics in Aboriginal communities is discussed in the Northern Territory Infants Curriculum (1974 : 119–123). After reviewing the outcomes of a desirable mathematics course the curriculum writers conclude that “many Aboriginal children do not manifest many of these outcomes at a level comparable with that obtained by European children”.

John Gay and Michael Cole have written a very valuable book, The New Mathematics and an Old Culture, which examines the teaching of mathematics in a cross-cultural situation. They state that

‘What is my story? Like you, I have many’, wrote feminist academic Sara Ahmed (Ahmed, 2010, p. 1). She asks, what is yours, what is mine? and begins her story at a table. ‘Around the table a family gathers’, she says, ‘Always we are seated in the same place. . .as if we are trying to secure more than our place’ (Ahmed, 2010, p. 1). In this paper, I draw upon Ahmed's work on willfulness and diversity work in higher education to explore the gendered stories of pathways through university shared with me by Indigenous Australian students. In the stories told in this paper, the table becomes the university space and the family becomes the students. The stories become more than securing place; they are stories which talk of willful resilience, resistance and persistence within that place called higher education. Grounded in my doctoral work with seven female Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, this paper specifically focuses on the gendered nature of such willfulness to consider the ways in which Indigenous Australian students negotiate pathways and success through university within/against Western colonial and patriarchal institutions.

This paper critiques a 2008 Queensland Studies Authority (QSA) assessment initiative known as Queensland Comparable Assessment Tasks, or QCATs. The rhetoric is that these centrally devised assessment tasks will provide information about how well students can apply what they know, understand and can do in different contexts (QSA, 2009). The QCATs are described as “authentic, performance based assessment” that involves a “meaningful problem”, “emphasises critical thinking and reasoning” and “provides students with every opportunity to do their best work” (QSA, 2009). From my viewpoint as a teacher, I detail my professional concerns with implementing the 2008 middle primary English QCAT in one case study Torres Strait Islander community. Specifically I ask “QCATs: Comparable with what?” and “QCATs: Whose authentic assessment?” I predict the possible collateral effects of implementing this English assessment in this remote Indigenous community, concluding, rather than being an example of quality assessment, colloquially speaking, it is nothing more than a “dog”.

This article describes an intervention strategy, initiated under the New Zealand Government's tribal partnership scheme, which promotes a culture-based/place-based approach to education in mainstream schools and early childhood centres in one tribal region. Through place-based education children are immersed in local heritage, including language and culture, landscapes, opportunities and experiences. The strategy is a tribal response to the overwhelming evidence of Māori underachievement in education in the tribal catchment. A case study is presented of a place-based/culture-based initiative called the Ngāti Kahungunu Cultural Standards Project (NKCSP). It is argued that the development of cultural standards offers an opportunity by which teachers and others within the education sector can develop and incorporate practice that reflects, promotes and values the student's culture. The core assumption underpinning the project is that cultural knowledge contributes to Māori student success in education.

Some Indigenous students are at risk of academic failure and science teachers have a role in salvaging these equally able students. This article firstly elucidates the research entailed in Indigenous science education in Australia and beyond. Secondly, it reviews the cultural and language barriers when learning science, faced by middle and senior year students of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent. Finally, it outlines the effective strategies that science teachers could adopt to better engage these students in learning school science. In summary, the article will highlight the need for teachers to realise the importance of crossing borders from teachers' school science culture to students' culture. This holds implications for teaching practice and teacher identity in today's classroom.

This article reports on what happened when a Rumaki pūtaiao kaiako (Science) teacher at a New Zealand high school trialled the use of creative narratives with her Year-10 students as a way of developing their understanding of the human digestive system. These students were members of the school's Māori immersion unit, and creative narratives were in part utilised as a bridge between science discourse and the cultural knowledges these students brought to their learning. In this case study, students developed ‘Tomato Pip’ narratives through four versions, which told the story of a tomato pip travelling through the human digestive system. Word-count data based on these versions and from a summative test were analysed and correlations found between test scores and three categories of word-count total (total words, total science words and total discrete science words). A discourse analysis of one student's narratives identified two distinct voices in these texts: the personal narrator and the emerging biologist. Questionnaire and focus-group data indicated that the use of creative narratives was both motivational to these students and effective as a bridge into science discourse mastery. It is argued that the findings have implications for disciplinary literacy theory, Indigenous education and science instruction.