I'd like to share with you today some of the experiences I've had over the years I've been involved in pre-school education. But before I get down to some of my personal experiences, I'd like to talk aboutpre-school education in general.

Kevin Rogers is of the Wandarung tribe. He is in his third year of teacher education at the Aboriginal Teacher Education Centre at Batchelor. He is also a member of the National Aboriginal Education Committee. This talk was delivered to teachers at the National Workshop for Teachers of Aboriginal Children, Perth, 29th August - 2 September, 1977.

As teachers, most of us would agree that our attitudes and expectations do somehow influence the academic goals of our pupils and of ourselves. Research findings indicate that the self-fulfiling prophecy operates in all realms of education and that it results in the kind of behaviour that is expected. The significance of this, especially for teachers in cross-cultural classes, is now well established and generally accepted. However, the ways in which we actually transmit our attitudes and expectations to our pupils are still not clear.

Education systems are devised by the members of a society to perpetuate the values, customs and beliefs of that culture. Therefore, in a multicultural society, any child from a minority cultural group who is educated in the educational system of the majority cultural group as, for example, most Aboriginal students, must be at a disadvantage.

Those involved in educational programs with Aboriginal children have noted that the parents have little contact with the schools, and feel that they are unable to help their children with their schoolwork, even where they express interest in their children's school progress.

The Aboriginal consultative group to the Schools Commission in their report. Education for Aborigines, made the following statement about the involvement of parents in the education of their children.

This paper treats two analytically separable but interwoven themes: Firstly, the role of the community in the educational process, and secondly, the effects of the community situation on the classroom situation, and vice versa. A major point of departure in the argument is the view that Aboriginal communities, defined here as Aboriginal settlements under special government administration, can be seen as educational agencies or institutions in a process of Westernization. At least this is how statements relating to policy and community planning can usefully be interpreted.

National Aborigines Week begins on July 5, and with it, a major campaign to force politicians and Australian educators to reverse the disturbing pattern of failure at all levels of Aboriginal education.

This paper is a report on a recent study of urban Aboriginal children at home and at school, in Adelaide It will mostly describe the situation for just three of the students in one reception/Year one classroom, as they are representative of many Aboriginal students in the other classroom which was closely studied, and in classroom whose teachers I interviewed, or who were observed by me. In other words, the situation that I am describing for Naomi, Jason and Terry is, I believe, similar to the situation for many young Aboriginal students in urban classrooms in South Australia. Naomi, Jason and Terry were three physically attractive, energetic, bright and curious five year olds. Outside the classroom they were articulate and confident but inside the classroom, by the end of the year, they were in the lowest academic group for their age, considered troublesome by their teacher, and were largely ostracised by their non-Aboriginal peers.

In many areas of government policy there is a big gap between theory and practice, that is, there is a difference between what ought to occur and what actually eventuates. This is unfortunately true for education as well. That education actually alienates the young from the old and from their traditional life-style may in some way be substantiated. In theory this should not happen. Before any discussion on the pros and cons of such a state of affairs, however, there is a need to define what education is, to define some of the approaches officially accepted in Aboriginal education and to differentiate between the needs of some of the more recognizable Aboriginal groups and their life-styles.