Whiteness In Education

argues how identity for Aboriginal Australians has been portrayed through education

Week ones study was focused on the Aboriginal Acknowledgement of Country and the Indigenous terms of reference. These are two very important topics as they focus on the interaction between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians, fostering a relationship a relationship of trust, respect and understanding. A proper understanding of the Aboriginal Terms of Reference is an integral tool for an aspiring teacher such as myself. They encompass the cultural knowledge, understanding and experiences that are at the center of the Indigenous culture (Oxenham, 1999).

Aboriginal Injustice In Verna St. Denis’ article, Silencing Aboriginal Curricular Content and Perspectives Through Multiculturalism, she is able to persuasively criticize the government’s use of multiculturalism in order to elude the significance of Aboriginal history – both in public education and national politics. The contents of this paper will include: The author’s main argument and the strengths of her evidence, my own personal opinions of the article, the implications and relevance to the current education system, my own personal philosophies regarding the author’s argument, the incorporation of aboriginal studies in technology education, and finally, the movement forward in recognition and reconciliation of Aboriginal history. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Verna St. Denis’ article and to respond with my own personal philosophies in regards to

Over many years the commonwealth and the state education departments have put enormous time and effort into producing a wealth of Aboriginal education resources. When developing school-based resources or selecting texts or materials, teachers should carefully evaluate their educational value for embedding Indigenous perspectives. Chris informs us that you can never have too many resources when teaching, especially within the Aboriginal community. He explains that so many resources can be found outside in the Indigenous community. The curriculum is an essential resource for educators to enforce in the classroom to ensure the students are achieving the outcomes for the year.

This is often caused by either a preconceived impression of this demographic by educators or employers, or a complete lack of resources to pursue better school or career experiences, this can be because of low finances preventing them from accessing the necessary resources, or a lack of understanding on the resources and information required to advance. When the Aborigines Act came into effect, many rumours and stereotypes were created towards Aboriginal Australians, claiming they were ‘dirty’, ‘barbaric’ and often ‘temperamental’ in order to justify their treatment of these individuals, creating the misconception that the State was saving the Aboriginal Australians from themselves. These stereotypes have created a preconceived impression of Aboriginal Australians, making employers and educators unwilling to give Aboriginal peoples opportunities that they might ‘abuse’, ‘misuse’, or ‘neglect’. The Aborigines Act also dictated the education of all Aboriginal Australians under the age of sixteen, leading them to often lack the knowledge to become employed in high paying jobs, this meant that these Aboriginal peoples could not teach their children how to achieve these jobs and educations, which caused a vicious cycle. Now, most Aboriginal Australian university students are only the first of second people in their bloodlines to receive that higher education, which meant they could not seek help from others in their family, as those others were simply not at that

The educational system in America contains numerous racial disparities that affects the very core of the children who is suppose to benefit from education. This disparity comes in many forms in primary schools, a teacher’s attitude being one of them (Epps, 1995). A teacher’s attitude in a classroom consisting of a racially diverse children is a large contributing factor to the academic success of their students, more specifically, the minority African American students. It is a given that all schools should employ qualified teacher who are passionate about their students and the quality of education they provide to these students. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many urban schools that house a large proportion of African American students

As well as this , we should raise awareness to non-Indigenous students so they can be respectful of all cultures within their community (Diplock, 2015). I believe that a critical pedagogy when teaching Indigenous students can make a positive difference to their education. My teaching will emphasise theory and practice in new, collaborative ways (Diplock, 2015).

Media has experienced an exponential growth over the last few decades and is now accessible to many different individuals regardless of their location or social class. Many issues can be broadcast to a wide population in a matter of seconds being beneficial in the sense that past issues such as the residential schooling system can be incorporated into many mainstream aspects of our society. The media, in the sense of residential schools can be used as an effective tool to educate about the history of Aboriginal education primarily through film/video and radio. The inequality, inadequate education, and culture dismemberment that took place within these schooling systems is demonstrated in Lisa Jackson’s Savage.

Martha Peraza SOC 3340 Inequality in Education California State University, Bakersfield Abstract In the United States, there exists a gap in equality for different demographics of students. The factors contributing to educational disadvantages include socioeconomic struggles, gender of students, language or culture, and particularly for the scope of this paper, race.

However, there is still hope. While the injustices of the Stolen generation, massacres and centuries of mistreatment against Indigenous Australians can never be erased, we can create future in which these atrocities never occur again. These atrocities emerge from ignorance and fear, so working to understand Indigenous culture must surely be the only path to removing the racism that plagues Australia. We have so must to learn from the rich cultural history of Indigenous Australians, particularly in their spiritual relationship with the land they have lived on for thousands of years. If we embrace this incredible knowledge, not only will we eliminate the barriers preventing equality in our society, we will also be stronger as a nation in both environmental and social relations.

Indigenous Australian youth still face numerous difficulties growing up in a modern Australian society, even though they are living in a time of ‘equality’ for all religions, races and genders. This paper examines the main cultural influences for indigenous youth, and challenges they face growing up. In particular, it will explore the ways in which Indigenous youth today continue to be affected, connected and interdependent to both a dominant white culture and indigenous culture. It also includes the reasons why the indigenous youth of Australia continue to be marginalized, oppressed and stereotyped while growing up in a society that claims to be an egalitarian democratic country. Examples of Indigenous youth from the film ‘Yolngu Boy’ are used to explore this topic.

This sudden change still has an enormous effect on today’s Indigenous population. How is it fair that the oldest population of people die a decade younger than non-Indigenous Australians? The perpetuation of racism which is manifested in our society has left many Indigenous Australians in a disadvantaged position. Including through, limited access to education with adult literacy rates of just 30 percent and literacy rates of children under 15 more than 48 percent lower than non-Indigenous Australians, consequently means lower educational achievement rates and higher unemployment rates of 17.2 percent compared to 5.5 percent for non-Indigenous Australians (Australian Bureau of Statistics , 2013 ). These facts must be recognised to ensure real equality and a fair-go for Indigenous people.

An issue in New Zealand related to society is racial-ethnic identity (REI), which is “the significance and meaning of race and ethnicity to one’s self concept” and is an important part of development in adolescents, specifically minority and indigenous adolescents and at schools (Webber, McKinley, & Hattie, 2013, pp. 17). Webber et al. (2013) wrote how society makes race be a powerful indicator of social status. This idea has created stereotypes in New Zealand, in which the stereotypes are contradictory. REI can be developed in schools because adolescents are seeing what society thinks about their identity.

I particularly agreed with the authors’ argument about blending cultural and academic knowledge (McKinley & Brayboy, 2005, p. 435). I think it is institution’s responsibility to respect their cultural knowledge but also provide appropriate academic knowledge, relative to Indigenous students to be able to actively engage in reciprocal learning with their cultural knowledge, which, then, adds value to their survivance practice. I find that this piece opened up a new way of looking at the challenges which Indigenous students encounter and the ways to move forward with the situation through changing the perception of education not only from Indigenous students, but also from the perspectives of non-Aboriginal members in institutions by providing a way to

thesis: 1) proper education can inspire a positive attitude to racism 2) education helps racial students to move from intolerance to acceptance and understanding of cultural difference 3) education provides cognitive skills, which increases people’s captivity people’s capacity to detect prejudice and to reject it. Is Education the Best Inversion Against Racism? The ex Prime minister of Britain Tony Blair has always insisted the importance of education in preventing racism. According to Tony Blair some people are born to be bad, you can’t stop people from being bad (Blair, T. Education backs Lessons Against racism 1999.) proper education can help get rid of prejudice and changes in the national curriculum of the British educative system whereby