Involvement Of Aboriginal Parents In Schooling example essay topic

Consider how the experiences of Aboriginal People described in "A Terribly Wild Man" have influenced the involvement of aboriginal parents with schooling and the outcomes of Indigenous children? As from the mid nineteenth century Aboriginal people experienced both psychological and physical trauma. The youths were kidnapped and removed from their traditional localities, abused and did not receive remuneration for their labour, this is just to put it nicely. In the late 1800's, the federal government and Christian churches collaborated to determine the education of Aboriginal children. The government and the church would methodically use education as a tool to assimilate Aboriginal children (and eventually their families) by inculcating white middle-class values. It was believed that Christianity would "civilize" the natives.

The plan was to forcibly remove children from their homes, segregate them from their reserve communities, and place them in residential schools. Indigenous students did not have the opportunity to experience their cultural and natural heritage. This would have enhanced their sense of identity and pride in their culture. Indigenous people can reach comparable levels of literacy and numeracy as other Australians and should be given every opportunity to do so. The most important contribution parents can make to the success of their child's education is to be involved. Many Aboriginal parents are hampered in their desire to aid and direct the schooling of their children by a lack of experience, knowledge and resources; this is all due to the mistreatment they received by the white settlers.

Successful schooling should promote the participation of educational staff, students, families and the community in making decisions about learning. Children from the age of five were torn from their families and placed under the stewardship of missionary priests and nuns in foreign institutions devoid of caring and love. Foreign language (English and Latin), foreign religion (Catholicism, United, Anglican), and a foreign culture were forced upon them under constant threat of punishment. They were expected to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the European colonizers and forgo their "primitive" ways of life. Their newly acquired education was to be taken back to, and absorbed by, their communities. The loss of children to residential schools devastated Aboriginal communities and led to the decline of Aboriginal families and family responsibilities.

Households without children became households without happiness or purpose. Mothers, aunts, and grandmothers had only infants and toddlers to nurture and teach the culture. Fathers, uncles, and grandfathers were robbed of teaching survival skills to adolescent sons, nephews, and grandsons. Through the establishment of residential schools and the development of reservations, the government attempted to destroy Aboriginal practices. The church and the government were directly responsible for the loss of Aboriginal languages, cultures, and spirituality.

The dignity and basic human rights of Aboriginal people were violated. Children were extremely vulnerable to exploitation because of their position as members of a colonized population and because of their youth. Aboriginal children were highly sought after employees in colonial Queensland for reasons such as: settlers believed that indigenous children could be civilised through the performance of labour for Europeans as argued by historian Rosalind Kidd. Furthermore, the Industrial and Reformatories Schools Act of 1865 had a provision that enabled the government to remove children of Aboriginal and 'half-caste' mothers to Aboriginal missions and reserves. The irony of this Act was that it allowed the removal of Aboriginal children from the nurturing surroundings of family, but was not used to remove them from harshly exploitative employment situations. While the government refused to pass any laws protecting Aboriginal children in employment, it was quick to enforce employment agreements that Aboriginal children had supposedly made with settlers.

In 1898, a 12-year-old Aboriginal boy, Charlie, was charged at the Croydon police station with breaking such an employment agreement after he ran away from his employer. Charlie was only released from the watch-house after he agreed to return to his employer and keep to his agreement. These workers, however, had scant legal protection and a multitude of abuses accompanied the employment of Aboriginal children. One particular evil that accompanied the employment of Aboriginal children and not European children was kidnapping. While some settlers incorporated the Aboriginal children of their adult employees into the workforce and others relied on missions and reserves to provide their Aboriginal child workers, an even larger proportion of European settlers engaged in kidnapping and illicit trading to obtain these young workers.

In 1871, Alfred Davidson wrote to Brisbane's Colonist newspaper, asking if the rumours regarding the frequent kidnapping of Aboriginal children from Aboriginal camps were true. Davidson asked, 'Is it really correct that children are taken out of the native camps for servants? If it is, slavery exists in the colony'. Queensland's Southern Protector of Aboriginals, Archibald Mest on, later confirmed that the kidnapping of Aboriginal children from the frontier had been common.

He wrote of settlers in colonial Queensland who had "Abducted [Aboriginal] women and sent [Aboriginal] children away to distant friends with as much indifference as if they were pet squirrels or tame galas. They knew or cared not if the wild fathers and mothers loved their wild children, or the wild children loved their parents. They were either not credited with any human instincts or those instincts were entirely disregarded". vs. While a high proportion of the Aboriginal child workforce were kidnapped and removed from their families and traditional areas, even higher proportions were abused by their employers over a sustained period. European children were almost certainly also abused, but European officials were more likely to take action to prevent this abuse. The abuse directed against some young Aboriginal children was horrific; there are even recorded cases of them being murdered by their employers. In 1871, Colin McIntyre killed his 11-year-old male Aboriginal servant after he did not return from the butchers in proper time with beef.

Similarly, in 1876, a small Aboriginal boy, Monday, who was employed by a bricklayer, was murdered by his employer after an argument vii. His remains revealed that he had been 'frightfully beaten about the head and body " vs. These horrific experiences are just a fraction of what the Indigenous children were put through. Throughout the intervening years the upbringing of Aboriginal children had many negative effects due to their mistreatment. Aboriginal students in the public system experienced many social, emotional, and academic problems. Up until the 1960's, Aboriginal parents had had no say in their children's education.

The public school system was foreign to the students and their parents. Teachers had never had the training for, nor the experience of, working with Aboriginal students. It was a recipe for disaster, and that is what it was, a disaster. Most Aboriginal parents today are limited in more ways than one, their limitations range from education to even showing love to their children although without a doubt are capable of being fit parents. Parents' own experiences of schooling are often limited, if not emotionally distressing. Lack of participation in schooling leads parents to assume they lack the knowledge appropriate to schooling.

Other factors such as hostility, rejection, shyness and a lack of self-esteem also inhibit the involvement of Aboriginal parents in schooling. Aboriginal parents assume that they will be turned away or laughed at due to their limited knowledge; therefore they hesitate to get involved. The majority of Indigenous students in Australia fail to complete high school and as a consequence their career options are markedly circumscribed. For example, in Western Australia, each year less than 20% of Indigenous students complete high school, compared with over 60% of non-Indigenous students. This suggests that the kind of schooling being delivered to them is inadequate or even that parental involvement is low. For the majority of Indigenous students, changes are required if they are to complete high school and succeed.

All schools need a vision for their students, a sense of what is important and valuable for the learners, which will provide direction for all educational activity. The cooperative development of that vision, by students, parents, staff and other community members results in a school that is truly reflective of the whole community and recognizes the legitimate interest families and communities have in their children. Decisions related to learning at an individual, classroom, school, regional or Territorial level incorporate meaningful input from and feedback to all partners in education. Schools with a community vision reach out to the community and become part of the community by providing many opportunities to involve family and community members in school activities.

This may mean recognizing and working at breaking down barriers which hinder meaningful involvement. Where historical factors may have impacted negatively on parental involvement, it is important for educators to make a concerted effort to break down barriers by establishing an inviting school climate and by taking schooling beyond the walls of the school, thus enabling and encouraging meaningful involvement of parents and other community members as part of the schooling process. Just as employees' levels of productivity and efficiency are influenced by their work environment, the same is true for students. An inviting, safe environment which reflects the values, world views and languages of the community's cultures contributes to the well-being of both students and staff, and promotes a sense of community ownership of the school. The physical arrangement in the classroom, for example student groupings, can foster the development of important social skills, such as interaction and collaboration. The social and emotional environment can foster the development of positive relationships among students, staff, and other partners.

Schools can be models of concerned and caring communities, where mutual support for learning is evident and where everyone is committed to working towards common goals. Growth in learning occurs in an atmosphere in which students are encouraged to take risks, to try out new ideas without fear of failure or adverse criticism and where mistakes are seen as an inevitable and valuable part of the learning process. Schools can do this best by providing students with an environment which affords them sufficient time and where they receive encouragement to explore relationships between new knowledge and existing understandings. Individual teachers are unable to provide the kind of education needed for success unless there is a concerted effort by the school and the community. It is clear that if better education for Indigenous students is to emerge, change needs to start at the top, where the social and political context can be constructed in a way that is sympathetic to the needs of teachers and community members who put the change into effect. A successful approach requires cohesion among teachers and parents in their efforts: the focus of efforts must be the education of the students rather than the demands of the bureaucracy or individual parental wishes.

Parents must be welcomed by the school as collaborators in a process, which entails mutual communication and understanding. Kidd, The Way We Civilised, pp. 18-35. 'Annual Report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals for 1905', 1906, vol. 2, p. 924. Entry made on 13 November 1898, Police Station, Croydon, Watch-house Charge Book, 28 February 1898 8 May 1899 'Annual Report of the Northern Protector of Aboriginals for 1901', 1902, vol. 1, p. 1132 Colonist (Brisbane), 15 July 1871, p. 2. Queenslander, 21 October 1871, p. 8. vii Queenslander, 1 July 1876, p. 18. vs. 'Annual Report of the Northern Protector of Aboriginals for 1900', p. 1336.