Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T18:17:19.315Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Meanings of Reconciliation in the School Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Nina Burridge
Nina Burridge*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Education, University of Technology Sydney, Karing-Gai Campus, PO Box 222, Lindfield, New South Wales, 2070, Australia
Get access

Abstract

This paper draws on findings from a major research project conducted between 1998 and 2000 on meanings of reconciliation in the school education sector. Using data collected from surveys and drawing from the community context in which schools exist, it explores and analyses meanings of reconciliation within school communities when the discourse of what constitutes reconciliation was at its peak. Survey responses were used to map the level of support for reconciliation and to identify what barriers existed to the teaching of reconciliation in schools. Responses were categorised into various themes which defined the type of meaning respondents had accrued to reconciliation. The overwhelming impression from this research is that Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people aspire to a level of harmonious co-existence; what is less clear is the direction on how this can be achieved. There is a great level of support for reconciliation within the education community with almost no responses being overtly negative. Many of the comments can be seen as reflecting “soft” reconciliation perspectives. A prevailing theme of this research is that the harder issues of reconciliation are being ignored in favour of symbolic representations. What perhaps best distinguished the survey comments from the responses from the general community was the greater desire amongst the education sector for equitybased solutions and the need to redress past injustices through social justice action. There was a greater understanding of the link between past dispossession and current disadvantage and this required action through specific programmes, and education was seen as a major part of this. Given the current sociopolitical context, anecdotal indications suggest that reconciliation may reflect wider community attitudes and may be “off the agenda” in schools, except within the narrow parameters of Department of Education requirements for activities or celebrations during NAIDOC or Reconciliation weeks.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 35 , 2006 , pp. 68 - 77
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Austin, J.L. (1980). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, P., & Levinson, S.C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Oxford: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buckskin, P. (2001). Achievements and challenges in Indigenous education. Unicom: Journal of the Australian College of Education, 27(1), 5–10.Google Scholar
Cameron, D. (2001). Working with spoken discourse. London: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Commonwealth of Australia. (1989). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education policy. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Coulthard, R.M. (1985). An introduction to discourse analysis. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. (1999). Document for reconciliation. Retrieved 3 September, 2006, from http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/orgs/car/docrec/draft/#2.Google Scholar
Department of Education and Youth Affairs. (1999). The Adelaide declaration of the national goals of schooling in the 21st century. Retrieved 3 September, 2006, from http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/school_education/policy_initiatives_reviews/national_goals_for_schooling_in_the_twenty_first_centuryhtm.Google Scholar
Gardiner-Garden, J. (1999). From dispossession to reconciliation. (Parliamentary Research Paper 27, 1998-99). Retrieved 3 September, 2006, from http://www.aph.gov.au/LIBRARY/Pubs/rp/1998-99/99rp27.htm.Google Scholar
Irving Saulwick & Associates. (2000). Qualitative research into issues related to a document of reconciliation (Report No. 1). Canberra: Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.Google Scholar
Hawke, R.A. (1988). Time for reconciliation. In Baker, K. (Ed.) A treaty with the Aborigines? (Policy Issues No. 7) (pp. 4–5). Canberra: Institute of Public Affairs.Google Scholar
Lemke, J.L. (1995). Textual politics: Discourse and social dynamics. London: Taylor & Francis.Google Scholar
Mortimore, P. (1997). Can effective schools compensate for society? In Halsey, A.H. et al., (Eds.), Education: Culture, economy and society (pp. 478–488). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Newspoll. (2000). Quantitative research into issues relating to a document of reconciliation. Retrieved 3 September, 2006, from http://72.l4.235.104/search?q=cache:3_ryHbkVt7IJ:www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/car/ZOOO/5/research.pdf+Qualitative+Research+into+Issues+related+to+a+Document+of+Reconciliation&hl=en&gl=au&ct=clnk&cd=1.Google Scholar
Pearsall, J. (Ed.). (1999). The Concise Oxford dictionary (10th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. (1991). National report: Overview and recommendations. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Sweeney, B., & Associates. (Ed.). (1996). Unfinished business: Australians and reconciliation [Electronic version]. Canberra: Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation. Retrieved 7 September, 2006, from http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/car/ub/unfinished.html.Google Scholar
Symes, C., & Preston, P. (1997). Schools and classrooms: A cultural studies analysis of education. South Melbourne: Longman.Google Scholar