Indigenous education

Transitions programs to support non-traditional students have been in existence in Canada since the educational reform movement of the 1970s (Malatest & Associates, 2004).  Scholarly research in the success of such programs is frequently presented in terms of institutional directives such as retention and attrition and success is is typically measured by graduation rates. Despite investment in these programs, more than thirty years later there still exists a considerable gap between Indigenous students’ graduation rates and those of their non-Indigenous counterparts, with significant numbers of students dropping out of university programs within the first year (Statistics Canada, 2011).
    The goal of this exploratory case study was to determine what attributes of the design and structure of a hybrid learning environment encouraged positive persistence decisions. The case was positioned within the first year of an Indigenous Pre-Nursing Transitions (PNT) program in a western Canadian university.
Scholarly literature on persistence and community models such as Tinto’s (1975) Student Integration Model and Wenger’s (1998) Community of Practice were evaluated for their applicability to non-traditional students. Data collection took place over one academic year and consisted of interviews with student and faculty participants, as well as observation of online activities within two required biology courses. The results of this case study demonstrated the complexity of community membership for Indigenous students. Further, the results highlighted the importance of a one-to-one relationship with the instructor and student expectations about this relationship. Other factors that contributed to positive persistence decisions were scale of the environment and structure of course content.

ʻAuwai are the irrigation ditches Kānaka Maoli developed to allow for sustainable, prolific wetland taro cultivation. This article traces the decline of ‘auwai and lo‘i kalo alongside the loss of Kanaka Maoli control of our national school system, both driven by a shift in the dominant economic system and sealed by the shock of US occupation. Drawing on oral history interviews with teachers and drawing on Corntassel’s notion of ‘sustainable self-determination’ (2008), I tell the story of current efforts of to rebuild ʻauwai and loʻi through a partnership between a Hawaiian culture-based public charter school and the nearby state university. This work provides a metaphor for educators’ efforts to restore pathways of cultural knowledge transmission against continued imperialism. I argue for simultaneous, overlapping efforts to reform education and to rehabilitate the economic and ecological systems that will again allow us to feed ourselves and our ʻāina. Indigenous education must engage in transformation of the larger political economic structures that organise our relations with the natural resources.

"This project involved several components: a review of the national and international literature in regard to the transition to school; an analysis of quantitative data, and consultations with a range of key stakeholders including a series of case study visits to different kinds of prior-to-school education settings. The objective of these research elements was to ensure the reports and guidelines developed through the project are well grounded in practice".
The project also involved visits to a range of settings where Aboriginal children were transitioning into school that were recommended as best practice by the state and territory based education departments. These are written up as case studies within the report.

In recent years, the issue of how best to support Indigenous students enrolled in
undergraduate academic programs has been increasingly directed by practices which
promote a ‘success-oriented’ approach (Devlin, 2009; Devlin & McKay, 2017). This paper
outlines a critical reflection of two lecturers involved in the delivery of a mainstream Charles
Darwin University Academic literacy unit to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI)
students enrolled at Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education. This is a
preliminary examination of a later deeper reflective study. In this study we use Brookfield’s
(1995, 2009) critical reflection process to examine the curriculum and pedagogical
transformations to a standard academic discourse unit in order to make it more conducive
to ATSI learning and academic success. Both lecturers have been teaching Indigenous
students in the Northern Territory in a variety of contexts over the past three decades and
co-teaching this unit provided an opportunity to examine our pedagogical practices that led
to ATSI student achievements. This paper firstly presents the context by examining the
teaching program. It then explores the student cohort and reflects on specific changes we
made in our teaching and learning program to enhance student achievement.

Teaching with intent 2: Literature-based literacy teaching and learning (Winner of the 2020 Australian Education Publishers' Award for Teacher Reference Resource)
Becoming literate requires students to navigate the complexity of decoding and making sense of text. Many students struggle with this challenge. Teaching with intent 2 describes a highly effective approach to teaching language and literacy that’s anchored in storytelling. Parkin and Harper present a literature-based program developed over years of professional practice in the classroom with marginalised students. It involves a sequence of pedagogic strategies that allow teachers to systematically build their students’ knowledge about text, language, reading and writing – thoroughly explained in this book, with practical guidance to help you apply the ideas successfully in your own classroom.

Euro-Western perspectives dominate visual communication design education in Australia. This paper examines how the “8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning” pedagogical framework transformed the learning and teaching of design within high school contexts in two Aboriginal communities – Ntaria in the Northern Territory and Warmun in Western Australia. Known as 8 Ways, this model facilitates a culturally safe space for knowledge sharing, encourages teachers to engage with Indigenous pedagogies within the classroom, and emphasizes relational learning. Multiple participatory methods informed our approaches, including the development of place-based design curricula to embed and evaluate 8 Ways. These case studies reveal how Indigenous pedagogical approaches to design education can create value and meaning for Indigenous young people through the enactment and expression of cultural identity, while reinforcing connection to land, family, and community. We argue that non-Indigenous educators can draw upon Indigenous pedagogies to decolonize their teaching strategies and to engage Indigenous students in meaningful culture-centered, intergenerational, and on-Country learning experiences. This research paves the way for participatory and place-based models of design education that reinforce and return the knowledge systems, land stewardship practices, and cultural values of Australia’s First Nations peoples to the classroom.

Over the past 10 years, great improvements have been observed in the Year 12 attainment rate of Indigenous Australians. This has been due, in part, to government funding of programmes aimed at improving education opportunity for Indigenous Australian students, including funding of scholarships for students from remote areas to attend boarding schools. The current qualitative study investigated the perspectives of school leaders and Indigenous secondary students across the Australian state of Western Australia, on the utility and impact of this boarding provision. Students identified that boarding education allowed them to achieve a dual goal of meaningful career pathways and improved health outcomes, although they faced challenges unique to the Indigenous boarding school experience in terms of student self-concept, racism, homesickness and post-school transitions.

The paper explores citizenship positions for the Sami as citizen in the overarching policy document for the Norwegian school. Informed by the perspective that policy documents hold discursive productivity in the Foucauldian sense, this document is regarded as vital for locating normative cultural ideals. The analysis points to three discourses: indigeneity, multiculturalism and the common Norwegian cultural heritage perspective. Although the analysis suggests that there is a variety of possible citizenship identity positions, tensions are located in their ontological and epistemological claims regarding what it means to be Sami. The paper argues that indigenous perspectives might both challenge and complement current ideas of citizenship and human rights education. Notably, indigeneity accentuates the tension between universalism and recognition in human rights education. The paper also points to how the curriculum has great ambitions about the possibilities of inclusive practice wi...

In developed countries, the education divide between students with access  and those without access to elite education providers has deepened. Students who have limited access to ‘elite’ education are at risk of joining a vicious circle of low educational outcomes, inadequate and inappropriate training for the emerging workplace, and behaviours that make escape from poverty difficult (Boven, Harland & Grace, 2011). This case study explores the lessons to be learned from a school that has embarked on a path to engage all of its students in 'Education for Enterprise' as a curriculum foundation to help its students aspire and achieve educational outcomes that better position them for modern citizenship, tertiary education, or other promising career pathways.

Related information:
Boven, R., Harland, C., & Grace, L. (2011). More ladders, fewer snakes: Two proposals to reduce youth disadvantage (Discussion Paper 2011/1). Auckland, N.Z.: The New Zealand Institute. Retrieved from http://stakeholderstrategies.co.nz/files/REPORT%20-%20More%20ladders%20fewer%20snakes.pdf

Mellalieu, P., & Vause, A. (2012, March 17). Advancing educational outcomes through Education for Enterprise in a Maori/Pacifika school: The case of Nga Kakano Christian Reo Rua Kura Part ONE: Strategic development issues. Innovation & chaos ... in search of optimality. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from http://pogus.tumblr.com/post/19444076798/advancing-educational-outcomes-through-education-for

"This paper examines the principles of economic justice and the education mechanism in theInternational Labour Organisation’s
Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
(ILO169) in order to provide a framework for assessing standards-based and progressiveeducation methods with respect to the provision of education services to Indigenouscommunities. With alleviation of Indigenous poverty in Australia as its
raison d’être
, thispaper investigates and compares the extent of the contribution made by progressive andstandards-based approaches to education in achieving economic justice. We describe theInternational Labour Organisation (ILO) and its context, and analyse provisions for educationagreed in ILO169 and their significance for Indigenous education in Australia. We find thatboth standards based and progressive education methods have a contribution to make but thatneither will, by themselves, support Indigenous Australians to achieve economic justice. Wepropose that adopting the ILO169 provisions in the Australian education system would assistin resolving the inadequacies of the two approaches by providing an overall concept of economic justice by which to guide further developments in the field, in policy development,and in teacher education"

The Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin University offers an Indigenous Tertiary Enabling Course designed to equip Indigenous students for entry into mainstream university degree programs. While the program is highly regarded, it is argued that opportunities offered by incorporating contemporary learning technologies to allow more effective student engagement can deliver more successful outcomes. With this in mind the Centre has undertaken to introduce the use of tablet devices (iPad) and notebook computers (MacBook Air), which will enable a strategic shift towards a more studentcentred, technology, integrated model of student engagement with anticipated enhanced outcomes. The Centre has undertaken to trial the use of online teaching and learning strategies in semester 1, 2014. At this pre-tertiary level, it is anticipated the advantages of a student-centred experience will become evident as the trial moves through the year. This paper describes the current conditions and staff ...

This chapter addresses the complex, historical, socio-political context of Native and Indigenous education within several national and regional contexts. Settler colonialism is particularly highlighted as a source of Native and Indigenous land dispossession, dehumanization, and disenfranchisement. Attention is devoted to the interplay between economic development, equity and human rights discourses in education, with a critical eye toward the Euro-dominance that allows limited
forms of Native and Indigenous cultural and linguistic autonomy. Finally, neoliberal global capitalism’s impact on the educational contexts of Native and Indigenous peoples is explored in various specific social locations with specific examples.

This presentation outlines some of the myths that are promulgated about remote communities and schools in Australia. Please refer to other lectures for detailed information. This is just a summary of findings presented as a lecture to a group of undergraduate students at Flinders University.

Indigenous Australian underrepresentation in higher education remains a topical issue for social scientists, educationalists and policy-makers alike, with the concept of Indigenous academic success highly contested. This paper is based on findings of a doctoral study investigating the drivers of Indigenous Australian academic success in a large, public, research-intensive and metropolitan Australian university. It draws on the concept of transformational resistance to illuminate the forms that Indigenous resistance takes and how identities of resistance performed by Indigenous students complicate and speak to the students’ notions of academic success. By drawing on ethnographic data, this paper demonstrates how Indigenous academic success is fuelled by the idea of resistance to the western dominance, where resistance becomes the very cornerstone of Indigenous achievement.

Peter J. Anderson and Bernadette Atkinson teach Indigenous and Traditionally Education in a Global World as a fourth year unit in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Clayton. This paper is a selfreflective piece of work where we discuss the use of graduate attributes relating to Indigenous Education, put forward by the Australian Institute of Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). These standards have the potential to improve pre-service teachers knowledge in relation to Indigenous education, therefore equipping them with the necessary skills and tools required to teach effectively to Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. The focus of this paper pertains specifically to AITSL focus area 2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non- Indigenous Australians discussing how pre-service teachers can promote reconciliation and teach Indigenous subject matter in a respectful manner to non-Indigenou...

Nuuchahnulth grandparents, the naniiqsu, spoke in storied discourse when we lived with them. Cultural narrative was the logic with which they talked about living. Their terms of reference were their lives and doings as storywork. The bits and pieces of Nuuchahnulth stories about here or there in the territory were continuously part of their meaning making with us when I was a young parent. Of course, we needed to know the time of day, how to do laundry and fish and berries and the other instrumental knowings in the bicultural demands of reserve life. But…the narrative frame in which we lived was and continues to be storied with survivance stories. In the presentation, I will share a storywork framework based in research with Elders and how they worked stories, “as far as I know”.

Ngukurr in Southern Arnhem Land is a Kriol-speaking community of around 1,000 people with one
government school catering for students from preschool to secondary years. Outside of a handful of
bilingual schools, remote schools in the Northern Territory like Ngukurr teach largely in English-only
and it is atypical for home language to be incorporated into local curricula in a structured way. A
community-based program in Ngukurr called Meigim Kriol Strongbala (Make Kriol Strong) has been
supporting Ngukurr School since 2019 to incorporate Kriol into students’ formal education. In Term 1
of 2020, Meigim Kriol Strongbala and Ngukurr School collaborated to develop and deliver a Health
and Physical Education unit to one Early Years class at Ngukurr School of mostly Year 2 and 3
students.

The classroom teacher (Carter) had identified that Kriol delivery would allow students to interact and
understand with the content better. Carter also noted that students were more likely to use Kriol
when angry or upset further supporting the utility of delivering Australian Curriculum content such
as “Being healthy safe and active” and “Communicating & interacting for health and wellbeing”
(ACARA 2020) in Kriol.

The Kriol unit that was developed and delivered was based on the Zones of Regulation curriculum
(Kuypers 2011) which promotes self-regulation and emotional control. Keywords used in Zones of
Regulation curricula (e.g. ‘just right’, ‘silly’, ‘bad’) were reconceptualised to create a unit that was
embedded in the students’ own worldviews. For example, the English-derived word sheim was
introduced as a focus word but unlike English ‘shame’ this word is used by Aboriginal students
according to its distinctive semantics (as described by Harkins 1990). Non-English derived keywords
were featured as keywords in the unit, including jinggarlibala ‘proud’ (used as a contrast to sheim
‘shame’) and wanguluwan (covering meanings like ‘orphan’, ‘alone’ and ‘uncared for’). Delivering the
unit in Kriol also implicitly fostered awareness and pride in students’ first language.

The delivery of the unit was evaluated as highly successful with the series of lessons assessed as
enjoyable and engaging. Students quickly demonstrated emerging practices of using Kriol/L1 as a
language of content learning (which was novel for them) and a number of reticent learners in the
classroom came out of their shell not only during the Kriol lesson delivery but with demonstrated
increased engagement across all parts of the curriculum. Throughout 2020, students have continued
using Kriol terminology as they continue to develop self-regulated behaviour skills using the Zones
of Regulation curriculum.

Teacher Education in Taiwan: State Control vs Marketization was written and edited by experts involved in research, practice, and consultancy within the field of teacher education in Taiwan. It is a collection of in-depth and critical analyses of teacher education development and improvement approached from different angles and perspectives. They include the history of teacher education; changes in education policies, laws, and regulations; major theories and philosophies that affected education thought; planning of diverse programs and practices for pre- and in-service teachers; evaluation of professional performance and development; and strategic alliances of key actors, among others.

The lived experiences of 11 Tłįchǫ high school graduates from the Aboriginal community of Behchokö, Northwest Territories were explored. A blended identity-based and ecological lens facilitated holistic understandings of resilience processes, lifecourse patterns, and domains of meaningful learning. Narratives revealed a bicultural tension embodied in late elder Elizabeth Mackenzie's call for Tłįchǫ youth to become "strong like two people": competent and confident in both an Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cultural world. Deeper understandings of social identities and resilience-enhancing supports, resources, and contexts informed the development of a model of dynamic resilience for Tłįchǫ students and three broad educational policy recommendations.

Recognizing that educational change in Nunavut has not been extensively documented, this article provides an entry point for considering how Nunavut can be better understood and situated with scholarship on Indigenous education in Canada. Comparing the history of education in Nunavut with key turning points in First Nations education, the article illustrates important distinctions in understanding the Arctic context. Examination of more current issues illustrates the distinctive perspective offered from Nunavut -Canada's only jurisdiction where the entire public education system is intended to be responsive to the Indigenous (Inuit) majority. Finally, four areas of common struggle are proposed for further consideration: walking in two worlds; human resource development; decolonization; and, radical implementation and radical pedagogy.

THE LEGACY OF COLONIZATION

When discussing the problems of development many indigenous communities face, I always make a point that the root of such disastrous conditions is, in part, in the colonial legacy affecting indigenous peoples even now. I often, however, get to hear that (1) I should get over it as colonialism is in the past; (2) it’s not the first time it happened that a weaker group was colonized and abused; or (3) governments have apologized (e.g., New Zealand, Canada, Taiwan), they have been pouring resources to those areas, what else do you want?

I personally want such individuals to understand that:

1. Colonialism may well be in the past, but its effects are not: indigenous peoples worldwide lost their land, resources, connection to ancestors in burial places, and control over their lives. This in turn broke down traditional structures, institutions, and families. Residential schools established to ‘civilize’ indigenous people destroyed indigenous education, cultures, languages, identities, and ties to communities.

Reconciliation efforts have been superficial and on the terms established by dominant groups – those who colonized and created top-down racist power structures in the first place. Apologies are window-dressing – Taiwan’s president apologized last year (2016) and promised the establishment of a historical and transitional justice commission. Qualitatively nothing has changed. Not in Taiwan, not anywhere else.

A continuing injustice is what indigenous people have been suffering from despite the fact that on paper colonization ended.
2. The fact that this happened in the past only means it shouldn’t happen again. For this we need to ensure that minority rights are protected, past legacies and their impacts are assessed and addressed.

3. In spite of the aid proffered, who owns the land and control the resources? Once a Chinese person in Taiwan told me everyone would like to be indigenous in Taiwan because of all the perks indigenous people get. Let’s take a look at the so-called perks and development projects and aid.

What stories are educators drawing on as they engage truth and reconciliation education? Madden argues that truth and reconciliation education should not centre solely around stories of the residential school experience and portrayals of Indigenous people as victims. Indigenous counter-stories of refusal, resistance, resilience, and restorying and resurgence are also needed to shine “light on community processes that challenge historical and contemporary colonial relationships with Canada.”

A Story to Tell: 'A School Made Just for Us' (2017) is an updated and translated version of Storytellers (2016), which was selected as one og the 25 winners of the eponymous contest of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). It was published in Les Cahiers du Ciéra in December 2017 and translated to English by Mikayla Cartwright and Kristopher Scott for presentation at the annual conference of the Oral History Association (OHA) in September 2018.

This ongoing chapter is part of Emanuelle Dufour's current doctoral research-creation project. It taps into the multiple potentialities of oral history and visual methodologies to promote a dialogue about educational issues involving Quebec and First Nations.

The future of indigenous knowing depends on the children of the indigenous communities. But, in my view the present drive to send all children to school will ensure the death of all traditional skills; craft, farming, healing, folk arts and other specific knowledge systems that artisanal and village communities hold within. ‘Education’ as exemplified by the system that we are all part of which is institutionalized, structured, instruction -oriented and expert dependent will make extinct all other ways of knowing. The reason for this, very briefly, is that the process of ‘knowing’ in ‘non-codified knowledge societies’ (instinctual, biological, unselfconscious, relating to senses) is very different from the process of ‘knowing’ in ‘codified knowledge societies’ (Memory, text and digital codification). And these present-day systems of learning tend to create blinkers that do not allow an understanding of the earlier systems.
Before I go in to the specificities of knowledge, I would like to talk at little more about my own journey in search of authenticity and originality. It illustrates the dilemma faced by most of us when thrust into the mould of today’s education.

In this chapter we argue for amplifying and renewing Indigenous family leadership and engagement in systems of education that aim to support Indigenous communities' resurgence. Families are the heart of Indigenous nations and communities. For many Indigenous people and communities, families include all of our relationsreflecting multiple generations, extended family, other community members, more-than-humans, and the lands and waters of our M. Bang

In this paper, we offer an organisational analysis of the World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium (WINHEC), aiming especially at achieving nation-building and selfdetermination for indigenised higher education efforts. We use a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges approach to examine WINHEC's organisational contributions, effectiveness, unique aspects, and challenges. Our findings carry some important implications to further the indigenous engagement and governance within indigenous higher education worldwide.

This paper will review several examples of educational programs that have been framed as bridging indigenous knowledge and western science, locates them within the discourse of interculturality, and attempts to situate them as well on a spectrum/continuum of depth and practicality of project development, content and delivery. The focus on science education is an attempt by the author to deal head-on with criticism of western science as standing irretrievably oppositional to indigenous knowledge (IK). In the process we see examples of teacher-initiated programs, professional development, and a reconstituting of western science with its history, philosophy and sociology in order to reach IK. The goal is to stay as close to the classroom level as possible – to what teachers and students must actually face when bringing two (or more) knowledges together – and explore conditions conducive to successful intercultural learning experiences.
The aim of this paper is to approach intercultural education from both teaching and learning perspectives, contextualized within the developing intercultural discourse. Beginning with bilanguaging and border thinking in the classroom – defined as taking place between teachers and material, students and teachers, students and material, students and students – to teacher and government initiatives from the perspectives of those actually in the classroom, and the constructive and curricular elements found therein. We will look briefly at student thinking, specific methods of teacher training, examples of IK pedagogy, and two additional methods (curriculum development through lesson study and participatory/collaborative action research) currently used in other fields, but which hold potential for development of intercultural curricula. We conclude with a brief overview of best practices learned from the examples reviewed, and touch on how outcomes may contribute to the redefining of citizenship.

This article is a case study of my active involvement in two university courses to collaborate with students and community members to document their place and heritages; improve teacher retention by active involvement through course activities; and provide preservice teachers an opportunity to visit a remote Alaskan village and gain firsthand knowledge from first-year teacher experiences.

he primary aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a community and school sport pro-gram (SCP) on Indigenous adolescents' life skills and physical activity levels within program ses-sions. A secondary aim was to determine the acceptability of the SCP. Participants in the SCP (n = 34; 89%) participated in a 10-week case study (age = 13.7 ± 1.16; 58% girls). Systematic observa-tions of SCP sessions were conducted to determine physical activity levels and a life skills ques-tionnaire was implemented. Acceptability measures included retention, implementation, atten-dance rates, and interviews with participants [n = 18] and key stakeholders [n = 6]. Systematic observations indicated that Indigenous students were engaged in MVPA for 58% of lesson time. Participants' life skills remained unchanged (p = 0.93). Interview data showed that Indigenous students and key stakeholders believed the SCP was acceptable. This study highlights the need for partnerships between Indigen...

Academic Reference:

Zuckermann, Ghil'ad & Monaghan, Paul (2012). "Revival linguistics and the new media: Talknology in the service of the Barngarla language reclamation", pp. 119-126 of Foundation for Endangered Languages XVI Conference: Language Endangerment in the 21st Century:Globalisation, Technology & New Media. Auckland, New Zealand.

------------------------------


Revival Linguistics and the New Media:
Talknology in the service of the Barngarla Language Reclamation


Ghil‘ad Zuckermann

Chair of Linguistics and Endangered Languages
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[ghilad.zuckermann@adelaide.edu.au]


Paul Monaghan

Mobile Language Team
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, SA Adelaide 5005, Australia
[paul.monaghan@adelaide.edu.au]


Abstract

Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (see Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).

The study: The Barngarla language (spelled Parnkalla by Schürmann 1844) is a no-longer spoken Thura-Yura Pama-Nyungan Aboriginal language of the Lakes Cultural Region of South Australia. Most recently Zuckermann, Monaghan and the Barngarla community have launched a reclamation of this sleeping beauty in three major rural/urban centres on the Eyre Peninsula, namely Port Lincoln, Whyalla, and Port Augusta. The presence of three Barngarla populations several hours drive apart presents the revival linguist with a need for a sophisticated reclamation involving ‘talknological’ innovations, such as online chatting, newsgroups, photo and resource sharing through a Barngarla wiki. This paper also examines the tensions accompanying the creation of a Barngarla ‘community of practice’ (cf. Wenger 1998) in a post-traditional Aboriginal context. In important ways, the new talknology poses a direct challenge to existing authority structures relating to the everyday management of knowledge, collaboration and participation. We predict that how the broader Barngarla community negotiates these issues will have an important bearing on the ultimate results of the reclamation project.




Revival Linguistics

Revival Linguistics is a new branch of linguistics, currently being established at Adelaide. It analyses comparatively and systematically the universal constraints and global mechanisms on the one hand (see Zuckermann 2009), and local peculiarities and idiosyncrasies on the other hand, apparent in revival attempts across various sociological backgrounds, all over the world (Zuckermann & Walsh 2011). A branch of both linguistics and applied linguistics, it combines scientific studies of native language acquisition and foreign language learning (language reclamation is the most extreme case of Second Language Learning).

Revival Linguistics complements the established field of documentary linguistics, which records endangered languages before they fall asleep. Revival Linguistics ought to revise the fields of grammaticography (writing grammars) and lexicography (writing dictionaries): Grammars and dictionaries ought to be written for language reclamation, i.e. in a user-friendly way, for communities, not only for linguists. For example, juxtapose Lutheran missionary Clamor Wilhelm Schürmann’s 1844 spelling of the Barngarla word nunyara ‘recovery’, which ignores the English environment, thus resulting in the pronunciation nanYAra rather than NOONyara.

Closely related to contact linguistics, Revival Linguistics changes the field of historical linguistics, e.g. by weakening the Family Tree model, which implies that a language ought to have only one parent. Assisting Aboriginal communities in a realistic, non-purisitic way, without selling them myths, Revival Linguistics promotes efficiency and efficacy in language reclamation.

Certainly Australia has been made the ‘Unlucky Country’ through the historical processes of linguicide (language killing) and glottophagy (language eating). These twin forces were in operation from the early colonial period. In her detailed study of the role missionary language practices in the early years of the South Australian colony, Scrimgeour quotes the following colonial language ideology: ‘Mr Forster afterwards adverted to the present mode of teaching the children in their own language. He, with all respect to the Missionaries, would say, on several grounds, that this was wrong. The natives would be sooner civilized if their language was extinct. The children taught would afterwards mix only with whites, where their own language would be of no use – the use of their language would preserve their prejudices and debasement, and their language was not sufficient to express the ideas of civilized life.  He gave the Missionaries full credit for their talents and zeal, but he thought it would be better to teach the children in English’ (from Report on a public meeting of the South Australian Missionary Society in aid of the German Mission to the Aborigines, Southern Australian, 8 September 1843; Scrimgeour, 2007: 116, italics added).

In the case of glottophagy, Governor George Grey noted: ‘The merchant in London who lays on a vessel for a certain port, regards the affair as a mere mercantile speculation, but could he trace out the results he effects in their remotest ramifications, he would stand astonished at the changes he produces.  With the wizard wand of commerce, he touches a lone and trackless forest, and at his bidding, cities arise, and the hum and dust of trade collect – away are swept ancient races; antique laws and customs moulder into oblivion.  The strong-holds of murder and superstition are cleansed, and the Gospel is preached amongst ignorant and savage men. The ruder languages disappear successively, and the tongue of England alone is heard around’ (Grey 1841: 200-201, italics added). Grey was a strong supporter of Aboriginal languages, encouraging Schürmann’s work documenting the Adelaide language (Kaurna) and Barngarla at Port Lincoln (see below).

With globalization, homogenization and Coca-colonization there will be more and more groups all over the world added to the forlorn club of the lost-heritage peoples. Language reclamation will become increasingly relevant as people seek to recover their cultural autonomy, empower their spiritual and intellectual sovereignty, and improve their wellbeing. There are various ethical, aesthetic and utilitarian benefits of language revival: for example, social justice, diversity and employability, respectively.

Zuckermann (2012) has enthusiastically called for Native Tongue Title and linguistic human rights, suggesting that the Australian government ought to compensate Indigenous people not only for the loss of land but equally importantly for the loss of language. Zuckermann has suggested to the Australian government to define Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander vernaculars as official languages.

Furthermore, it is predicted that in the future the very insights offered by Revival Linguistics will themselves become part of Indigenous Intellectual Property, when Slovenes and Estonians come to Australia and New Zealand to ask Aboriginal Australians and Maori to assist them in their own European language resurrection.

There is an urgent need to produce perspicacious LINGUISTIC and socio-linguistic insights relevant to language reclamation. Otherwise, linguists or language workers would not be able to offer, if asked by Indigenous people, efficient and efficacious advice. There are linguistic constraints applicable to all revival attempts. Mastering them would help revivalists and First Nations leaders to work more efficiently; for example, to focus more on basic vocabulary and verbal conjugations than on sounds and word order – see Zuckermann (2009: http://www.zuckermann.org/pdf/Hybridity_versus_Revivability.pdf.

Revival linguistics would assist revivalists to be more realistic and to abandon discouraging slogans such as "Give us authenticity or give us death!" The following are among the basic principles that the revival linguist encourages in Aboriginal communities:

i. If your language falls asleep: stop, revive, survive!
ii. If you revive a language, embrace the hybridity of the emerging tongue; and
iii. If your language is healthy, assist others in linguistic need.

One day we may invent devices to “inject” a language into our brains. But until then, any attempt to reclaim a hibernating language will result in a hybrid that combines components from the revivalists' and documenters' mother tongues and, of course, the target language. In the immortal words of Jerry Seinfeld: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!"

The Study


Figure 1: Map of Traditional Aboriginal Country after Norman Tindale (adapted from Hercus 1999)

The Barngarla language reclamation project has arisen through partnerships between the University of Adelaide (Linguistics and the Mobile Language Team) and the Barngarla people. Although still in its infancy, consultations began in September 2011, a number of very significant steps have been made towards reclaiming this ‘sleeping beauty’. Without doubt, the key challenge has been to develop a strategy for the reclamation of the language simultaneously and without favour in three major regional centres. In ways that will be elaborated below, this multi-sited, regional or peripheral reclamation makes demands that are very different to those often found in metropolitan reclamation contexts (e.g. Kaurna, cf. Amery...

Este trabalho busca investigar algumas dinâmicas políticas e de elaboração indígena de conhecimentos entre os Tuxá de Rodelas, intensificadas a partir de seu engajamento no processo de autodemarcação do território de Dzorobabé, em Rodelas-BA. Para os Tuxá, Dzorobabé é considerado território ancestral, tradicional e historicamente relacionado aos índios rodeleiros da região do Submédio São Francisco, antepassados de quem se compreendem descendentes. Ao mesmo tempo que intensifica dinâmicas de organização social e política, a autodemarcação oportuniza aos Tuxá uma reabitação no território considerado cosmologicamente forte, pela presença desses mesmos antepassados – brabios, gentios, mestres encantados. Esta tese apreende certos dinamismos postos em ação quando da autodemarcação, iniciada em 2017, e reflete sobre formas de trato com a ciência tuxá, isto é, seu complexo de práticas e conhecimentos rituais que compõe base para a concepção indígena de mundo, bem como para as políticas e planejamentos educacionais elaborados pelos professores tuxá no âmbito de sua educação escolar indígena. Etnograficamente, buscamos delinear as correlações entre política indígena no processo de reabitação do território com dimensões de entendimento do complexo ritual da ciência e suas práticas político-rituais. Os arranjos políticos – divisões em grupos político-familiares, troncos que compõem atualmente o Conselho Tuxá – apontam modos específicos de relacionamento com o território, quer em sua ocupação material, quer nos relacionamentos imateriais com a dimensão da ciência no lugar. Também evidenciam a multiplicidade de grupos políticos entre os Tuxá de Rodelas, seja na Aldeia Mãe, seja na área urbana da cidade, e que se reorganizam em torno da autodemarcação a fim de que a ocupação do território possibilite novas afirmações políticas e acesso a recursos – representatividade política, acesso à terra, entre outros. Acompanhando os primeiros seis meses (agosto de 2017 a fevereiro de 2018) de autodemarcação, nossa etnografia busca descrever processos de negociação entre distintos grupos político-rituais, atentando para as dimensões materiais e imateriais que a reabitação em Dzorobabé promove. Observamos como a circulação de diferentes grupos político-rituais no território cosmologicamente forte evidencia distintas formas de se acercar dessa força, e estabelecer tratos possíveis com a ciência e com os conhecimentos que a ela se relacionam. No limite, estudamos dois modos de educação indígena que a relação com a ciência favorece: um, que chamamos de pedagogia da mata, elabora relações cosmopolíticas e rituais com os entes encantados e com os conhecimentos que deles advém; outro, acionado sobretudo por professores indígenas, transita por repertórios pedagógicos (indígenas e não-indígenas) em estreita relação com conteúdos aprendidos por meio da ciência, em contextos não-escolares, aí incluídos os rituais. O reforço dos repertórios e das políticas pedagógicas por meio do recurso à ciência permite-nos compreender como, entre outros projetos, vem ocorrendo entre os Tuxá de Rodelas uma tentativa de revitalização linguística baseada em múltiplos documentos e fontes: a própria comunicação com os brabios e mestres encantados – cuja coetaneidade em Dzorobabé estimula – e também textos do período colonial como o catecismo bilíngue em português e Dzubukuá, idioma da família cariri, tronco macro-jê, historicamente falado por povos da região. Ao território ancestral, assim, soma-se a noção de uma língua ancestral que nos permite traçar múltiplos acionamentos de uma territorialidade tuxá que permeia terra (pela autodemarcação), conhecimentos (pelas práticas rituais e pela ciência) e educação escolar (pelo horizonte de fortalecimento étnico e revitalização linguística que o projeto do Dzubukuá assume atualmente). Palavras-chave: Territorialidade; Política indígena; Ritual; Conhecimento; Educação.

Mobility is a well known characteristic of Indigenous Australians' lived experience and plays an important role in the maintenance of connections to family and country that are integral to Indigenous people's cultural and spiritual well-being (Commonwealth ). While some researchers have drawn attention to student mobility as a challenge for literacy teachers (Comber, 2003; Henderson, 2006) lesser explored are literacy practices that 'close the gap' for Indigenous students, particularly, mobile Indigenous students attending urban schools. This paper explores current research about the mobility of Indigenous students and contextualises the challenges faced by primary school literacy teachers working in school and community settings characterised by high mobility, Indigeneity and socio-economic disadvantage. It highlights the significant gaps in research available to inform practice in literacy teaching that meets the needs of mobile Indigenous students attending urban schools. It then discusses a participatory action research project underway in regional Queensland that aims to document effective literacy teaching practices for mobile urban Indigenous students. Finally, it offers some preliminary insights as emergent in the action research project to date.

The rates of higher education access, participation and completion for Indigenous students are much lower than those for non-Indigenous students in Australia. This paper argues for a research-led focus on what works in terms of Indigenous student equity in higher education. Undertaking independent evaluation of existing initiatives and leveraging the experience of hundreds of successful Indigenous graduates, it may be possible to articulate some of the ways in which success has been, and can be, achieved, despite the challenges that face Indigenous students. In other words, it may be possible to articulate some aspects of what works for some Indigenous people in relation to higher education. A focus on articulating strategies that Indigenous individuals and communities might adopt in relation to higher education should be developed alongside the management of systemic problems through a range of means. The "successfocused" approach would provide one of a suite of approaches that may be helpful in addressing Indigenous student equity.

The paper aims to understand, challenge and deconstruct what the local means for the development of indigenous education in Taiwan. More precisely, it will question the idea of the ‘local’ in this context, as indigenous people do not necessarily all hold similar views about local indigeneity and its place in educational development in Taiwan. As research shows, indigenous people’s views are influenced by intersecting factors, such as class, gender, rural or urban location, education, and profession. While some indigenous people may identify ‘local’ as the identity and interests of their indigenous community, or as their family, others may seek allegiance, construction of identity, and learning with and from the transnational indigenous movement.

The paper starts with a philosophical overview of what is local and what is indigenous. It then analyzes the Taiwan case, from the historical context of indigenous people to contemporary views and perspectives on indigeneity, indigenous development and education. Indigenous perspectives on development and education are presented based on primary research conducted with indigenous people in eastern and western parts of Taiwan, including data from in-depth interviews, informal discussions, and observations. The paper concludes by considering the implications of these understandings for Taiwan’s development and education, and for what is meant by the local indigenous and its influence on education in this case.

Summary and key recommendations

• School-community partnerships can start with early childhood programs and must extend beyond these. Realising and respecting the role of local staff in schools and partnerships with others outside the school for teaching and learning provide successful means of the doing this.
• Schools need strong and sustained practices of collective enquiry and sustained individual and collective learning to respond in flexible and informed ways to the context.
• ‘Best practice’ assumes that education is simple—in remote Aboriginal communities, it is complex and requires contextually responsive solutions that engage all stakeholders.
• One-size-fits-all approaches don’t work in complex systems.
• Emergent and locally responsive practice allows for experimental, novel and unique approaches.
• Strategies that lift local non-teacher employment will be likely to improve both attendance and performance.
• Culturally and contextually responsive pedagogy, including the use of home language in schools, is crucial to respecting and addressing the learning needs of students in remote schools.
• Expert English language teaching and learning beyond literacy micro-skills is essential.
• There is a lack of baseline data that shows how many students go to away for secondary education and how long they stay, achievement rates. Research is required.
• There is a lack of independent evaluation for existing programs supporting away from home secondary programs targeting Indigenous students, and more specifically, their efficacy or potential for remote and very remote students. Independent evaluation and research is required.
• To improve access and achievement to post primary education well supported suite of options, locally and away from home, should include metropolitan and regional boarding options, short term away from home learning opportunities and access to learning in communities.
• Establishing relationships between students and staff in remote schools and those in urban schools can provide important networks, knowledge sharing and learning opportunities for both groups.

From the Publisher.

OVERVIEW: As the first country in the world to enact a formal policy of multiculturalism, Canada has made impressive strides toward promoting civic inclusion for all; however, the education system remains less than forthcoming about the injustices that shape our democracy and create conditions that teach young people to see difference as deficiency. Ratna Ghosh and Mariusz Galczynski seek to persuade educators to incorporate the ideology of multiculturalism into their classroom pedagogy and professional practice. In this third edition, Redefining Multicultural Education mobilizes an expanded definition of multiculturalism that encompasses gender identity, sexual orientation, religious expression, and (dis)ability.

New features include material on environmental awareness, cyberbullying, multilingual learners, digital technologies, youth radicalization, and recent events in Quebec and First Nations communities. Integrating vignettes, discussion questions, and sample activities with techniques for applying a multicultural lens to any subject area or level of study, this lively and accessible guide is essential for those interested in preparing students for a global economy in which innovation relies, before all else, on diversity.