In the following pages we present extracts from the report prepared for the Department of Adult Education, University of Sydney, by Dr A.J. More, Ph.D. The author is Associate Professor, and the Supervisor of the Native Indian Teacher Education Program in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He is in Australia during 1977–78 on Sabbatical Leave.

2.2 … In early 1975, 23 Aborigines were appointed to teacher aide positions throughout the state and an 11 week training programme was an integral part of the employment of the new recruits.

In 1977, 60 Aborigines filled such positions in the state. Of these 34 were enrolled in the basic training programme and 36 in an inservice programme at the University.

A three day seminar for Aboriginal secondary students was held in early April. This was the first time that such a program has been attempted by the Education Department. Valuable assistance was given by a number of other government departments.

All Aboriginal students in years 9 to 12 who attend Adelaide metropolitan high schools were invited to attend. A few representatives from selected country schools were also invited. Between 180 and 200 students attended each day. They were supervised in groups of eight to ten by Aboriginal teacher aides and other volunteers from the Aboriginal community.

(Mrs Yvonne Bolton was appointed in 1977 to the position of Aboriginal liaison teacher, State Department of Education, New South Wales. Among Mrs Bolton’s responsibilities are – planning and helping teachers to implement programs that will be of benefit to Aboriginal pupils; liaising with Aboriginal communities.

Mrs Bolton did her own teacher training in Sydney, 1957-59, and during her period as a classroom teacher taught infants’ classes and moderately mentally retarded children.

She is a member of the Adult Aboriginal Education Advisory Committee.)

While it is important that Australian teachers are made aware of their failures in teaching many Aboriginals to master literacy (Salmond, 1977; Duncan, 1974) there is a danger of developing a general expectancy that children of Aboriginal descent will be poor performers at school. Resnick and Robinson (1974) emphasize the influence of parent and teacher expectations on the expectations of the children themselves. Teachers’ expectations are particularly important for Aboriginals learning academic skills at school. It is the teacher who can grade learning tasks to ensure the child gains success through his own personal effort, a fundamental experience if low expectations are to be raised (Gurin and Gurin, 1972).

The purpose of this paper is to examine data from the ACER Literacy and Numeracy study of Australian 10 and 14 year olds in 1975, as it relates to the Aboriginals in the sample. On the basis of this evidence it should be possible to draw some conclusions about the successes and failures of Aboriginal pupils in reading and numeracy.

(One of the recommendations of the Schools Commission Aboriginal Consultative Group was that each department set up a Consultative Committee. Various of the State Departments have moved in this direction. Queensland was the first state to establish such a committee, and that committee has now presented personally to the Director General of Education in Queensland, its first report. We reproduce the Summary of Advice given by the Consultative Committee to the Director General, together with a list of members of the committee and its terms of reference. We know this will be of great interest to similar groups in other states and also to teachers and others concerned with the education of Aboriginal children. Ed.)

Mrs Fitzpatrick reports on a project funded under the Schools Commission Innovations Program. She is with the South Australian State Association of School Welfare Clubs, and was assisted in the co-ordination and supervision of the project by Mrs B. Tothill of the Northern Suburbs Association of School Welfare Clubs.

As this project involved providing experiences for a small number of people, over only a short period of time, it would seem to be presumptuous to draw conclusions on the subject of “Cross-Cultural Involvement”. The following report, therefore, is descriptive rather than assumptive. I have included comments on the scheme by people who were involved either deeply or peripherally and have tried to record facts only. This has been difficult in a scheme where emotions and affections played a big part, especially as in re-reading letters and reports written soon after the project took place, I find that most people saw it at that time as an enormous success.

One of the benefits provided for in the Aboriginal Secondary Grants Scheme is funding for students to take part in school excursions. For students in remote areas, this provision is very necessary and important. Teachers very willingly plan and supervise excursions each year and the effort that they put in is commendable. However, not all excursions are eventually seen by teachers, students or parents as successful. It would appear therefore that some evaluation of excursions is warranted.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Consultative Committee to the Director General of Education has presented its first report, as a result of its meetings and investigations during 1977.

But, are these same values held by non-tribal Aboriginals in contemporary Australia? Certainly conventional wisdom suggests that they are (Eckermann, 1973, p.470). Similarly, there is widespread acceptance of non-Aboriginal Australians as individualistic, future oriented, preferring ‘doing’ to ‘being’, and placing emphasis on mastery over nature (Binnion, 1976, p.34). Is this so?

(This paper was presented by Mrs Doreen Jones, Aboriginal teacher aide, at the Wilcannia Nyngan Conference, February 1977.)

I think I was lucky to have been chosen for the teacher aide job in Wilcannia. Before I found out I had the job, I was told the other lady had got it. I was down hearted in a way but thought to myself, “Oh well, it doesn’t matter, I wouldn’t have been able to do the job anyway.” (I found out differently.) Before I knew where I was, I was on the bus for Sydney for training for the job.

The training in Sydney has helped me a great deal. (I am willing to help the teachers with the Aboriginal children in every way I can.) I will never forget my first morning at school. Believe me, I was really very very nervous and I just didn’t know what to do or what I was in for.

On my arrival, I was standing on the opposite side of the office when I noticed one of the lady teachers getting out of her car; she came towards me and gave me a nice big smile (I won’t forget it) and said, “Good morning, how are you this morning?” I answered, and thought to myself, “It’s not as bad as I’m thinking it’s going to be.” Believe me, this teacher made me feel really welcome on my first day.

(Mr Glennon provides a description of a project, funded by the Schools Commission, which will commence in 1978…Ed.)

I have now completed three years as Aboriginal Remedial and Supportive Teacher at Cleveland St. Boys High School. I have come to the decision that while my present role is worthwhile, the numbers of students at the school whom I do not reach are an alarming and significant proportion. These children are the ‘chronic truants’ some of whom have spent as little as two days in an entire year at school. These children invariably (I shall cite specific cases later) end up before the Childrens Court at Yasmar and thence are sent to institutions. The charges levelled at these boys range from truancy, through petty crimes to breaking and entry, and assault and robbery. In ninety per cent of the cases that I have been associated with the offences were committed during school hours.

As the cases over a period of time have been so consistent and cover boys of all academic calibre, there can be no doubt that an alternative curriculum must be developed for these children.

Students receiving benefits under the Aboriginal Secondary Grants Scheme are visited by Education Officers of the Commonwealth Department of Education two or three times each year. It has become clear to the Education Officers that many Aboriginal secondary students in our region:

• i) had not sought or been provided with sufficient information or experiences with which they could form sound vocational judgments;

• ii) had not made a clear vocational choice during their school career.

Teachers of Aboriginal children have very special responsibilities. You and I know that Aborigines are the poorest, worst housed, least healthy group of people in Australia. More to the point, they are the least educated group of people in the Australian community. Our challenge is to rectify that situation.

We will not get very far if we delude ourselves into thinking that we are working for the Aborigines. We have gone past that stage. You and I work with Aborigines. That is why we are so committed to the employment of Aboriginal teacher aides; why we have pushed Aboriginal Teacher Training; why we employ Aboriginal home/school co-ordinators; why we have Aboriginal school councils, and why we are forming a State Aboriginal Education Consultative Commi ttee.

(Mrs Anne Madsen is an Aboriginal teacher aide at Bloomfield River. Originally she came from the Cairns area, and so writes from personal experience, of the importance of getting to know your community. She presented this paper in December 1977, at the Aboriginal Teacher Aide Conference, Gatton.)

The first two years at Bloomfield River were very busy ones for our family as we were building our house and improving our property so we didn’t have much time for much else at this stage, but as time went on the Mission manager paid us a visit, and over a cup of tea he and his wife invited us over to the Mission to do our shopping and to church services, also just for a visit to have a talk and a cup of tea. My family and I accepted this invitation and we became very good friends. This helped quite a lot with the people also.

It is uncertain when the last exclusion of children from a public school, merely for having some Aboriginal ancestry, actually occurred. In 1937, the Commonwealth and States’ conference on Aboriginal matters recommended assimilation as a general policy rather than protection, particularly with regard to the detribalized, part-caste Aboriginal people. In 1938, the New South Wales Public Service Board in its report on the Aborigines Protection Board, recommended the policy of assimilation be implemented in schools. In 1940, the Aborigines Protection Act was amended. The Aborigines Protection Board was renamed the Aborigines Welfare Board and restructured to include Aboriginal members. The complete responsibility for the education of all Aboriginal children was transferred to the New South Wales Department of Education. Almost overnight, the policy of segregation was changed to assimilation.