Hostname: page-component-5c6d5d7d68-ckgrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-06T19:44:59.405Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Injinoo Home Language Program: A Positive Community Response to Marginalisation and Institutional Racism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Christine Turner
Christine Turner*
Affiliation:
Injinoo, Cape York
Get access

Extract

Teaching in and of itself is a difficult task fraught with obstacles to classroom success. For those who teach Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students these obstacles are compounded by a political atmosphere that colours every decision made within the school and indeed within education departments.

As classroom teachers it is easy to say that politics has nothing to do with teaching and pretend that it is not an issue. As convenient as this attitude may be, it is denying the facts. Indeed all teachers involved in Indigenous education must accept that their role is political. They must see that part of their task is to overcome years of institutional policy and attitude that have contributed significantly to poor educational performances for Indigenous students in Australia.

Type
Section A: Schools
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , April 1997 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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

Australian Ministry of Education (1991) National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Bamaga Primary School (1994a) Bamaga State Primary School, ELA Policy. Bamaga State School.Google Scholar
Bamaga Primary School (1994b) NPA School, School Development Plan 1995-1998: Education Our Way. Bamaga State School.Google Scholar
Christie, M.J. (1985) ‘Perspectives on experience and learning: the role of language in Aboriginal education.’ In Social Aspects of Language and Education. Geelong: Deakin University.Google Scholar
Coombs, H.C., Brandl, M. and Snowden, W. (1983) A Certain Heritage. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
Department of Employment, Education and Training (1994a) Langwij Comes to School: Promoting Literacy Among Speakers of Aboriginal English and Australian Creoles.. Canberra: Social Change Media and the Curriculum Corporation.Google Scholar
Department of Employment, Education and Training (1994b) National Review of Education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: A Discussion Paper. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Gallagher, N. (Ed.) (1993) In Our Days: Injinoo Before Time. Injinoo: Injinoo Community Council.Google Scholar
Harris, S. (1984) ‘Aboriginal learning styles and formal schooling.’ The Aboriginal Child at School 12(4): 3-23, 30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, J. and Sandefur, J. (1994) ‘The Creole language debate and the use of Creoles in Australian schools.“ The Aboriginal Child at School 22(2): 7–21.Google Scholar
Heath, S.B. (1983) Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
King, D.A and McHoul, A.W. (1986) ‘The discursive production of the Queensland Aborigine as subject.’ Social Analysis 12(August).Google Scholar
Luke, A. (1992) The Social Construction of Literacy in the Primary School. Melbourne: McMillan.Google Scholar
Nakata, M.(1993) ‘Culturein education: apolitical strategy for us and them.’ In Loos, N. and Osani, T. (Eds), The Struggle for Human Rights: Readings in the History, Education and Future Torres Strait Islanders of Australia. Tokyo: San-You-Sha.Google Scholar
Peninsula Regional Office of Education (1992) Teaching in the Gulf and Cape. Cairns: Queensland Department of Education.Google Scholar
Pettman, Jan (1992) Living in the Margins: Racism, Sexism and Feminism in Australia. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Queensland Department of Education (1992) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Early Childhood Education Policy. Brisbane: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Branch, Department of Education.Google Scholar
Shnukal, Anna (1988) Broken: An Introduction to the Creole Language of Torres Strait. Pacific Linguistics. C–101.Google Scholar
Torres Strait Islander Regional Education Consultative Committee (1992) Ngampula Yawadhan Ziawali: Education Policy for Torres Strait, 1992. QATSIECC.Google Scholar
Tucker, Marcia (1990) ‘Director's forward.’ In Ferguson, R., Gever, M., Minh-ha, T.T. and West, C. (Eds), Out There: Marginalisation and Contemporary Cultures. New York: The Museum of Contemporary Art and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar
Turner, C. (1995) The Injinoo Home Language Program: Community Beliefs and Theoretical Basis. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
West, C. (1990) ‘The new cultural politics of difference.’ In Ferguson, R., Gever, M., Minh-ha, T.T. and West, C. (Eds), Out There: Marginalisation and Contemporary Cultures. New York: The Museum of Contemporary Art and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Google Scholar