A Bilingual Early Childhood Conference held in the Northern Territory at Batchelor Education Village in August 1980, provided the content and emphasis of this paper. In attendance at the conference were Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members of teaching teams from bilingual schools of Central Australia and the Top End of the Northern Territory.

The conference aimed at providing an opportunity for dialogue to occur between team members, to assist them in further understanding the importance of two-way communication, and to raise their conscious level of thinking towards understanding the roles each should play within a bilingual classroom setting.

The team-teaching approach demands co-operation and a close working relationship between both team members. Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal teachers plan together for each day of teaching and share class materials and ideas. Each teacher must be willing to be a leader at times and a follower at other times, and there must be constant discussion about the aims of their programs and their subsequent implementation. Groups of children normally rotate between the members of the team for different lessons, which are presented in the mother tongue language of the teacher in ‘face to face’ contact with the children.