Classroom talk often consists of teachers’ questions and commands and children’s responses or answers. While this may not be the best approach to learning it is nevertheless very common. In this paper, some of the talk that occurred in some Aboriginal classrooms (Graham, 1987) has been examined to see just what children were saying (and therefore thinking) and if teacher talk was focusing on the things children need to know if they are to learn mathematics more effectively in school. To begin with let us look at what some children are saying and therefore meaning as they respond to teachers’ questions.

To situate the Aboriginal Studies program I am designing, I would need to say that in a Year 11 course in Religious Education at a Catholic Girls’ Independent (non-systemic) High School in Brisbane, the Semester 2 area is Morality and Justice and involves a consideration of personal decision making, understanding stages of moral development, individual/personal moral issues and social, moral and justice issues. (I should add that the school is almost totally non-Aboriginal although it is multi-ethnic to the extent that it runs ESL classes at each year level).

This paper outlines an approach used by the Aboriginal Education Unit - Kalgoorlie Education Centre, W.A., to determine the educational needs of Aboriginal Communities. The team that carried out this program were: Mr Billy Kerr, Aboriginal Education Officer, Kalgoorlie D.E.C.; Mr Billy Vincent, Aboriginal Liaison Officer, Kalgoorlie D.E.C.; Mr Neil Darby, Priority Country Areas Program Field Officer, Kalgoorlie D.E.C.; Mr Ted Penny, Community/Schools Liaison Unit, Ministry of Education; Mr Lex Leslie, Principal, Yintarri School, Coonana.

The Aboriginal/Islander population of Queensland was calculated by the 1981 census to be greater than 44,000 (Department of Aboriginal Affairs, 1984, p.11). However, for a slightly later estimate, the Annual Report of the Queensland Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement records a figure of 60,000 (Department of Aboriginal and Islander Advancement, 1984, p.l). Both of these figures could be substantially correct given a possibility that some Aboriginal people may not identify themselves as such on census returns. Whatever the reason for the difference in the figures, a total of some 50,000 is most likely conservative for the present time. This figure converts to a percentage of slightly over 2% of the Queensland population being Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Of the 50,000 Aboriginal/Islander population some 24% are Torres Strait Islanders (Department of Aboriginal Affairs, 1984, p.11).

It is axiomatic that the development of any material such as this for inservice and induction of teachers draws on the work, ideas, and philosophies of many people over a considerable period of time. If it has any success in achieving desirable results it must be appreciated that the recent developers “stand on the shoulders of those who went before.” Paul Mort (1964, p.324) reinforces this by stating

There is little doubt that the most effective teacher of Aboriginal and Islander children would be a person from the community in which the children live, or at least one who shares many of their life-ways. However, until Aboriginal and Islander children have access to teachers from their own cultural groups, it is important that what has been learned about how best to provoke a learning environment for them is readily available.

The purpose of this report is to investigate the need for and purposes of parental and community involvement in an Outer Torres Strait Island school, namely Saibai State School, and to explore and report on some of the approaches to community involvement that we have trialled in our school.

If a school is aiming to educate its students for an active role in the society, then it is vital that the school be a living, active part of that society. It is unrealistic for teachers to assume that the school can stay separated from the community but still educate its students in a real and meaningful way.

This article is a follow-up to “Utilizing a Research Project as a Teaching/Learning Strategy : The Joys and Fears of Childhood” which appeared in Vol.15 No.3, 1987. In both projects the students contributed significantly.

In Semester II, 1987, a group of Aboriginal and Islander students in their second year of the Diploma of Teaching (ECE) at James Cook University conducted an action research project entitled “Cross-cultural Perspectives on Children’s Friendships in Middle Childhood”.

With the Bicentennial on our doorstep, it is crucial that teachers possess some understanding of the issue of land rights and the debate which will undoubtedly occur throughout 1988. Such debate may at best become an issue raised in classroom discussion or at worst jeopardise Aboriginal-white relations in their own schools. This paper seeks to highlight some of the critical points necessary for an understanding of the basic issues involved in land rights in the specific context of Aboriginal-white relations.

Ear disease and hearing problems are alarmingly widespread in Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. School hearing screening results indicate that between 25% and 50% of Aboriginal children may suffer from middle ear disease and associated hearing loss. This means that up to half the children in any classroom cannot hear their teacher properly.

There is a growing body of literature of teachers’ accounts of their attempts to implement improvement and change in classrooms and schools. This literature is evidence that Australian teachers are thinking more reflectively and critically about their work than ever before.

This paper will attempt to define action research, and explore its characteristics and the epistemological and theoretical framework that has grown out of it.