Educational+Equity+-+Struggles+of+Indigenous+Australians

Author: Jacob Jennings Student #: N8088471 Tutor: Jey Rodgers

= Educational Equity - Struggles of Indigenous Australians =

Even in todays society, equity or lack there of is still present. Educational equity is a basic human right and if equity is present, the environment should promote equal prospect for learning and the opportunity for students to consider options or make choices throughout their education based on their personal strengths and abilities. An equitable education is one which is not based on stereotypes, biased expectations or discrimination (Opheim, 2004). The artefact above seems to represent the issue perfectly. We have a young aboriginal boy trying to merge with western culture and schooling practices and as this review will detail, this merge hasn’t and isn’t working too well.
 * The Artefact**

On the international stage, Australians are amongst the hig hest academic achievers. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranked Australian students within the top ten for academic performance and achievement out of 34 high-income economies. Regardless of Australia’s standing, its education system has seen decade long trends of inequality and inequity. McGaw (2007) described Australia as a ‘high quality- low equity’ nation and reports that the country is underperforming on the international stage. He describes an ongoing relationship between social background, educational achievement and tertiary education and results from the OECD support this by showing significant trends of underachievement in indigenous, rural and low socio-economic populations within Australia. The issue of educational inequity amongst Australia’s indigenous population has been a continuing and relevant topic of discussion amongst policy makers in both government and institution since the 1960’s.
 * Public Health Issue**

Since the introduction of main stream schooling into indigenous communities in the 1960’s there has been marked educational inequality and inequity between indigenous and European Australian students (Grey & Beresford, 2008). The Australian government recognised the disparity and enacted the National Aboriginal Education Policy in 1989, which aimed to see every Australian child educated equitably by the year 2000 (Grey & Beresford, 2008). Thirteen years later significant but inadequate progress has been made and Australia is still seeing it’s Indigenous students falling behind their Caucasian peers.
 * Literature Review**

Grey and Beresford (2008) presented a review investigating the underlying causes of inequality and inequity of the Australian education system in regards to Indigenous Australians. They propose that while there have been many significant improvements of academic outcomes in Indigenous Australians, there is still a stark difference between the achievements of Indigenous and European Australians. In a longitudinal study over a 15 year period, Grey and Beresford (2004) found improvements of Indigenous educational outcomes in the areas of school retention, with 39% of indigenous students completing grade 12 in 2004 (three times higher than in 1987) and benchmarking, with 78% of Indigenous children in grade three meeting benchmark standards. They reported that this improvement is ongoing and writing skills are increasing steadily at about 10% every decade. This notable gain is however a comparison to Indigenous student’s outcomes almost 30 years ago and not a comparison to the achievements of European Australian students. The difference between Indigenous and European Australians outcomes in school retention, attendance and benchmarks is frighteningly high. In their 2008 study, Grey and Beresford reported a 37% difference between groups in school retention, a 40% difference for school attendance and significant differences in reading (25%), writing (19%) and numeracy (24%) benchmarks. They remark that with the current trend of a 10% gain per decade, it will still be another 40 years before the gap is closed.

Grey and Beresford (2001) present potential underlying causes for the educational disparity. They suggest that the profound disadvantages faced by indigenous students are the main contributor to academic disadvantage. They report that economic and social disadvantages such as low employment, single parent, English as a second language, poverty, isolation and health are all significant contributors to educational risk. Furthermore Grey and Beresford (2008) believe that these factors directly impact upon a students’ ability to attend school and therefore school attendance should be a key objective in attaining educational equity.

Lyons and Janca (2012) present a review which supports Grey and Beresford’s previous research into the importance of school attendance in the Indigenous community. In their review, they highlight the complex relationship between school attendance and health. They report that there is a direct correlation between academic attainment and mortality rates in the indigenous community, in that those who have not completed high school have a significantly shorter life span than those who do. The direct impact of the school-health relationship on indigenous students is significant. Lyons and Janca report that school provides a standard of physical and psychological care where children have access to health services and emotional support, therefore children who do not attend school regularly are at a higher risk of physical and psychological illness. Further evidence of the school-health relationship can be seen in rural Indigenous communities. Lyon’s and Janca report that Indigenous students who live rurally have the lowest performance on all areas assessed on the National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy test (NAPLAN) as well as significant physical and psychological illnesses such as inflammatory diseases, long term heart damage, clinical levels of stress and depression. This study adds to existing research highlighting the complexity of the issue of educational equity in the Indigenous Australian community.

The barriers that make finding a solution to the educational equity problem, such as isolated communities, language issues and physical illness also contribute to difficulties in conducting longitudinal research with Indigenous Australians. The solution that these studies have offered is using data gathered from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which provide information at a small window in time. This data allows researchers to make comparisons in time and across groups of people. However the limitations of this kind of data are many, with large isolated communities not included in the study, individuals not receiving surveys, and those that do may not represent the wider Indigenous Australian community. Unfortunately this may mean that the problem is more widespread and underreported than current estimations.


 * Cultural and Social analysis**

Both the Aboriginal culture as well as the ingrained Australian culture play a significant part in the issue of educational inequity. Basedow (2012) describes aboriginal culture as focussed on family and kinship, with little regard for the individual needs of group members. This social structure is very different from mainstream Australian culture that is considered individualistic and materialistic. This is just one of the many differences between the two cultures and the disparity is cause for address within Australia’s education system. Munns, Martin and Craven (2008) identifies some of the cultural differences between Indigenous Australians and mainstream culture that serve as barriers for engagement in education. Munns et al., explains that motivation is experienced differently within the Aboriginal community as many individuals are not driven by authoritative parents, academic success or economic reasons. Similarly the Australian education system is based upon literacy, reading, writing and numeracy, none of which is traditional in Indigenous cultures. There has been a call for education providers to acknowledge and ameliorate these issues to ensure equity for Indigenous Australians. A plethora or research has been conducted on recruitment and retention of Indigenous persons to tertiary institutions, however the policies of equity and cultural tolerance are often insufficient and lacking. Gunstone (2008) argues that Australian universities are providing inadequate policies to enable the educational needs of Indigenous Australian’s to be met. He believes that universities are failing to ‘recognise and address the historical and contemporary

disempowerment of Indigenous peoples that has occurred and still occurs in every area of the university’ (p. 104). He believes that to redress these issues there needs to be action in numerous areas of institutions. Firstly he suggests that members of the Indigenous community be involved in policy making to ensure that they are equitable and fair to an Indigenous person. Secondly he believes there is a lack of commitment from universities to employ Indigenous Australians and that universities have a responsibility to set a standard for equitable employment. Lastly and most importantly Gunstone believes there is a critical undercurrent of racism amongst staff and students at universities. He reported that none of the 12 universities he surveyed had anti-racism policies at the individual and institution level. He believes education and well-written policies will help redress this problem.


 * Reflection**

Educational equity for Indigenous Australians should be important for all Australians. The artefact and review presented perfectly summarise the degree of the problem that still exists today. If educational institutions are able to address these issues and provide an environment for Indigenous students to study effectively, Australia may begin to change the cycle of Indigenous disadvantage. It is the hope that providing benchmarks such as equity and anti-racism policies the gap between Indigenous students and other Australians will begin to close. If this gap doesn’t close, society will continue to become stagnant with the powerful staying powerful and the less-powerful staying less powerful. Personally, I never new to what degree there was inequity amongst the indigenous population. I new it was a problem, however not quite this significant. The stats provided highlight the need for change and I believe that until indigenous populations are involved in policy making at the educational level, as suggested by Gunstone, progressions will continue to be slow and fail to fix the underlying issues specific to indigenous cultures and values.


 * References **

Grey, J. & Beresford, Q. (2001). //Alienation from school among Aboriginal students//. Perth: Institute for the Service Professions, Edith Cowan University.

Grey, J & Beresford, Q. (2008). A ‘formidable challenge’: Australia’s quest for equity in Indigenous education. //Australian Journal of Education, 52// (2), 197- 223.

Gunston, A. (2008). Australian university approaches to Indigenous policy. //Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37 (1)//. 103.108.

Lyons, Z. & Janca, A. (2012). Indigenous children in Australia: Health, education and optimism for the future. //Australian Journal of Education, 56// (1), 5-21.

[|McGaw, B.] (2007). Resourced for a world of difference. //The Australian//, August 1: 25

Munns, G., Martin, A. & Craven, R. (2008) To free the spirit? Motivation and engagement of Indigenous students. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37 (2). 98 – 107.

Opheim, V. (2004). Equity in Education. //Country Analytical Report, Norway.//


 * Links**

[|Indigenous Education and Teacher Support]

[|Integration of Indigenous Perspectives]

[|Closing the Gap]