Enhancing opportunities for Australian aboriginal literacy learners in early childhood settings.

In the context of contemporary Australian society, the education system is still failing to increase educational outcomes among the majority of Australian Aboriginal (1) learners. This is evidenced in research (see Batten, Frigo, Hughes, & McNamara, 1998; Department of Employment, Education, and Training, 1995, 1997; Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training and Youth Affairs, 2000) and in annual results from statewide testing programs. This educational dilemma has persisted despite the regular introduction of systemic initiatives and funding aimed at addressing Australian Aboriginal learners' low educational outcomes. Continued tension exists between, on the one hand, policy and suggested strategies addressing the broad context, and, on the other hand, the development of context-specific classroom practices that will enhance literacy outcomes for Australian Aboriginal learners. While various approaches can be considered, the uniqueness of the Australian experience--both in historical and contemporary contexts--requires consideration of Australian histories, cultures, and geography. In light of this, a cultural-historical approach that "assumes that individual development and disposition must be understood in (not separate from) cultural and historical context[s]" (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003, p. 22) provides a useful framework for discussion.

The purpose of this article is to focus on how young Australian Aboriginal learners experience early childhood literacy practices. The cultural-historical perspective used by the authors considers the inequities often embedded within these practices and identifies ways in which issues of social justice and historical and cultural understanding can be emphasized to provide support for these learners that will enhance their learning opportunities. It draws on the literature of critical literacy, initially explored by Freire (1987, 1996), who believed, "Language and reality [to be] dynamically interconnected," and that "The understanding attained by critical reading of a text implies perceiving the relationship between text and context" (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. 29). Freire recognized that "reading the world precedes reading the word and reading the word implies continually reading the world" (Freire & Macedo, 1987, p. 35).

The more recent work of Luke and Freebody (1997) confronted traditional views of literacy and argued that the contexts of literacy instruction are not "neutral," nor are the contexts of literacy events necessarily "level playing fields." All learners do not have comparable access to such resources as linguistic knowledge, representational systems, and mediational means and cultural artifacts or status. An understanding of critical literacy requires the "analysis and critique of the relationships among language, power, social groups and social practices" (Knobel & Honan, 1998, p. 127). Such understandings are acquired in functional settings and cannot be divorced from social practice (Gilbert, 1993). The sociocultural construction of literacy, which has a crucial role to play in understanding how young learners interact/react in unfamiliar education settings, is underpinned by critical literacy concepts. Learners who have ready access to the dominant literacies of education have a decided advantage over minority groups, including Australian Aboriginal groups, who are unfamiliar with these literacies. Lankshear, Gee, Knobel, and Searle (1997) explain this advantage as being empowering to the dominant groups, who make what they already have (or have privileged access to) into currency for acquiring social goods and benefits.

Contexts

Each country throughout the world has its own set of cultural-historical contexts that profoundly affect the construction of relationships between aboriginal populations and education. Australia is no different. The following details provide an overview of the historical and cultural, geographical, and literacy contexts particular to Australia.

Historical and Cultural Although the period of postcolonial history in Australian history is minimal (approximately 225 years) when measured against Australian Aboriginal history (beyond 40,000 years), the changes it has wrought upon the Australian Aboriginal populations have been enormous. Through deliberate policies of deculturalization, Australian Aboriginal communities faced complete forced restructuring of their societies and the loss of many traditional languages. Consequently, Australian Aboriginal families and communities have fragmented, as communities were removed from their "country" and resettled in areas convenient to those in power.

Until very recently, the focus of Australian history centered around the view that Australia's history began when the Europeans arrived in 1770. Australia was claimed by the British and declared "Terra Nullus" (uninhabited, empty, vacant land). This early assumption shaped the Eurocentric slant to the history that was taught (and, in some cases, continues to be taught) in schools. As a result, limited understanding exists in the non-Aboriginal community of the mostly unwritten histories of Australia's Aboriginal people. Access to this critical information is still limited and is mostly available only in oral form from a select few Aboriginal people and communities that have been able to recall and / or articulate their historical connections with their culture and land.

Prior to the European invasion and occupation, around 700 different traditional Australian Aboriginal languages were spoken in Australia; today, however, few people speak the original languages. In the past, the treatment encountered by Australian Aboriginal people, through government policies, both written and unwritten, caused many Australian Aboriginal people to foster negative feelings and attitudes towards education, authority, and government bodies. These government policies--while not always specific--certainly did not preclude eradication, extermination, and genocide by those in control. In fact, it was not until the first and only successful Commonwealth Government referendum in 1967 that Australian Aboriginal people were recognized as rightful citizens of their own country. During the 1880s, for example, political policies placed Australian Aboriginal people under the complete control of the government, and they were forbidden to speak their traditional languages. They were forced to learn English, with minimal school education available to assist them. The coercion to learn Standard Australian English (SAE) continues to the present day, with many Australian Aboriginal people subjected to negative experiences when attempting to be successful readers and writers of this language. Rather than automatically taking up SAE, however, the Australian Aboriginal people developed language variations that have become known as Aboriginal English (AE). These AE languages, developed from their traditional Australian Aboriginal languages overlaid with SAE, are now the first and home languages of many Aboriginal people throughout Australia (Simpson, 1998).

Across Australia, considerable variations can be found within AEs, but certain syntactical patterns and elements of vocabulary remain constant. Despite AE generally being recognized by government departments, it is often perceived within the wider community as a poor form of SAE that requires remediation and/or correction, rather than being acknowledged as a separate and first language for some that should be taught as a second language for others (Simpson, Munns, & Clancy, 1999).

The difficulties surrounding the enormously complex gaps of understanding about historical, cultural, and language differences have had a profound effect on the ways in which Australian Aboriginal learners deal with the demands of conventional Western education. Although many Australian Aboriginal societies and communities have been restructured, their cultural beliefs, values, and attitudes remain and play an important part in how their children perceive the world. Because a large part of the Australian non-Aboriginal population, including many educators, has very limited knowledge about or understanding of Australian Aboriginal historical, cultural, and language issues, confusion, misunderstandings, and conflicts often occur within educational settings.

Geographical. Australia's land mass constitutes about five percent of the world's land area, making it the world's sixth largest country. Australia's land mass is 7,686,850 [km.sup.2], while the United States has a land mass of 9,629,091 [km.sup.2] (see Diagram 1); however, there is a vast difference in the populations: 19,169,083 and 275,562,673, respectively. Australia's population density is 2.5 persons per [km.sup.2], compared to that of approximately 29 persons per [km.sup.2] in the United States (see Table 1) (www.ga.gov.au/education/facts/dimensions/compare.htm). The majority of the Australian population lives along the coastal areas of the eastern seaboard, with small concentrated populations in other coastal areas. The diversity of landscape (from coastal fringes to great expanses of deserts to rugged mountain ranges), the sparse population distribution, and the diversity of shared experiences all contribute to the difficulties associated with the development of context specific programs and the distribution of resources to serve the populations throughout the continent.

Such diversity means the environments that are inhabited by Australian Aboriginal communities are enormous, from metropolitan, urban, and rural areas to remote, coastal, desert, and mountain regions. While it can be said that all Australian Aboriginal people have some shared cultural experience, attuned to the nature and characteristics of the land they inhabit, their stories, and their own particular countries, they are also a diverse people.

Literacy. At present, literacy ability is mostly measured through state and national testing, which values the acquisition of skills above a sociocultural approach to literacy. This process either ignores or shows little recognition or understanding of cultural-historical contexts of such groups as Australian Aboriginal learners, or of the differentiation between the acquisition of dominant sociocultural practices and the learning of the formal literacy skills of the dominant society. If Australian Aboriginal children are to be successful literacy learners in the mainstream culture, then they need time in early childhood settings to navigate the sociocultural practices of these settings (Simpson & Clancy, 2001), to develop, as Hill (1997) states, a "socio-identity kit" that "is acquired through scaffolding and interaction with people who have already mastered this way of being and way of learning within the social and cultural community" (p. 271). Only then can they be expected to succeed in the learning of formal literacy skills.

Discussion and Educational Implications

To benefit from school, Australian Aboriginal children need supportive educators who are willing to reflect upon and critique their own pedagogical practices through developing a "critical language to help them understand teaching as a form of cultural politics[;] that is, as a pedagogical enterprise that takes seriously relations of race, class, gender and power in the production and legitimation of meaning and experience" (McLaren, 1988, p.xii).

Such educators then will be able to facilitate the complex processes Australian Aboriginal learners have to confront in their learning, by providing practices that will enhance opportunities for their learners. The particular issues discussed in this article address questions relating to equitable educational opportunities, cultural knowledge, power relationships, and established learning models. This discussion links the problematic nature of these issues with aspects of relevant literature and examples from the Narang Guudha research (see Simpson & Clancy, 2001), which captures the "real" educational experiences of young Australian Aboriginal learners in early childhood settings.

Equitable Educational Opportunities. How does the use of Aboriginal English in the classroom situate the Aboriginal learner in comparison to the non-Aboriginal learner? Because Aboriginal English is not the conventional language of Australian classrooms, and is only spoken by a small minority of Australia's total population (approximately 2.4 percent), learners using this language will often find themselves marginalized and misunderstood. They are "communities of people who share cultural backgrounds" (Gutierrez & Rogoff, 2003, p. 21), and it is the combination of these historical and cultural factors that has led to the development of Aboriginal English.

How this language is perceived by the non-indigenous population can be a key factor in relation to equitable educational outcomes for Australian Aboriginal children. Because it is often not recognized as a first language, children are constantly corrected using the models of Standard Australian English (SAE), which can lead to considerable confusion for the children.

For example, Ken was sitting with a classroom helper, sharing The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Carle, 1975). He did not want the book read to him; he wanted to hold it, flick through the pages, and talk about it. He was animated and excited as he exclaimed, "'im 'ungry. Now 'e found the happle." While this utterance uses a characteristic AE syntactical pattern, it also demonstrates the confusions that can occur when children try to code-switch between AE and SAE. Ken is unsure about the use of the pronoun and what to do with the sound "h," which does not exist in most Australian Aboriginal languages. At the same time, it is understandable that his language can be interpreted as "poor English," if one applies the conventions of SAE. He does not use a form of the verb "to be," but instead applies an inappropriate pronoun and inserts the "h" sound with the wrong word. If educators are to avoid negative stereotyping in relation to AE language use, they must know when they are hearing it and have access to information about the historical development and associated cultural nuances embedded within it (Clancy & Simpson, 2002). This can only happen when they are prepared to listen and to seek support.

Cultural Knowledge. What is the impact of gaps in cultural knowledge on learning outcomes for Australian Aboriginal learners?

Gee's (1996) work in critical literacy draws strongly on the fact that:

the cultural models of non-mainstream learners, rooted in their homes and communities, can conflict seriously with those of mainstream culture ... and that the values of mainstream culture are, in fact, often complicit with the oppression of non-mainstream learners' home cultures and other social identities. (p. 88)

One of the areas that creates difficulties for young Aboriginal children is the different cultural practices that relate to food. Cultural practices relating to food can cause inordinate problems for Australian Aboriginal learners in the school context. For example, Dean shared all his food at morning tea time. By lunch time, he had nothing left and so he simply walked around and helped himself to food from the other children's lunches. This upset the other children, who began to accuse him of stealing their food. Dean could not understand why he was in trouble and he did not have the language to explain the cultural underpinnings of his actions.

In the Australian Aboriginal context, all food is for sharing. Such cultural understandings are implicit within Dean's home setting and he is unaware of any alternative. Such cultural practices conflict seriously with the conventional practices of the mainstream culture, often causing confrontations with authorities. When linked to other misunderstandings, tensions arise for the child and the educator. Ultimately, this breeds resentment, which works against establishing learning environments conducive to equitable learning outcomes for all learners.

Power Relationships. How can power relationships between Australian Aboriginal and Australian non-Aboriginal stakeholders be negotiated in early childhood settings? The work of Gilbert (1993) clearly recognizes the relationship between language practices and power:

[There is a need] to explore how language practices are used in powerful institutions like the state, the school, the law, the family, the church, and how these practices contribute to the maintenance of inequalities and injustices. For teachers, it means engaging with issues that are often controversial, certainly contemporary, and perhaps quite volatile. (p. 324)

In the following classroom, the teacher was Australian non-Aboriginal, and she was assisted by an Aboriginal Education Assistant (2) (AEA). The children were busily working on a variety of activities. The teacher moved around, first asking the children if they would like to come out onto the mat and read. Most children either shook their heads or simply said "no." She then switched from the low modality of her initial request into a more direct approach, telling the children to put their materials away and to come out onto the mat. The children gave the impression they were ignoring her and continued with what they were doing. Instead of reacting, the teacher waited and watched. She was puzzled, because these children were not ordinarily defiant or disobedient. In the meantime, the AEA organized some chairs into pairs, placed a book on each of them, then said softly, "Who wants to come for a ride in my Holden car?" Immediately, the children joined her, picked up the books as they sat down, and followed along while she read the car story.

The cultural issues here relate specifically to the ways language is used to regulate actions and behaviors in the classroom. When the teacher first spoke, the children took the question literally--they did not understand it as being a pleasant way of asking them to do something. They genuinely believed they had a choice. Although the teacher then used more direct language, different perceptions of time frames came into play. In the classroom, children usually are expected to comply with instructions fairly quickly. Australian Aboriginal children work on the assumption that they have time to finish what they are doing. The AEA was able to get the children to comply by using her cultural understandings to create a meaningful context for the reading activity, and then by inviting the children to join her rather than simply telling them to do it.

The teacher watched this interaction carefully; while there was no direct exchange between her and the AEA, subtle negotiations of power were at play: between the children and the teacher, the AEA and the children, and the AEA and the teacher. Such interactions demonstrate the complexities of language practices and cultural power. Through observing the strategies employed by the AEA and the response of the learners, the teacher was compelled to reflect and consider alternative approaches when engaging with these young learners.

Established Learning Models. What are the consequences for Australian Aboriginal learners when well-established learning models are culturally inappropriate? The cultural contexts of Aboriginal and western style education processes are quite different. While some Aboriginal children adapt to western models, this is not always the case.

In an interview, one AEA stated, "It is often not until Aboriginal people reach adulthood that they begin to make some sense of their schooling." When reflecting on her own education, she expressed her experiences in this way:

I am thinking about how we interpret things and how we construct them in our minds, the input, working it all out, and then the output .... I think that over time, you work it out. I think it takes years before you can develop the white man's way.

Sadly, many Australian Aboriginal people will never gain this understanding, and consequently will wear the label of "illiterate."

The cultural subtleties embedded in the ways in which language is used by both Australian Aboriginal communities and Australian mainstream society relate not only to how power relationships are negotiated and constructed (as in the Holden car example), but also to learning styles. The western tradition of education is firmly based around models of inductive learning, which had its origins with Plato. Such models suggest that when teachers ask questions (to which they have preconceived answers), they will draw the knowledge out from the learner. However, most Australian Aboriginal learners prefer learning by observation and imitation rather than by verbal instruction (Harris, 1992). Culturally, it often is considered more appropriate to wait for information to be volunteered, as direct questions can be considered rude. In Australian Aboriginal communities, questions are asked when you are attempting to find out something you don't already know, not to confirm what you already know or to test someone else's knowledge.

For example, one young child, after his first day at school, arrived home to announce, "I'm not going back there any more. They don't know nothing, them teachers. They keep asking me how to do things. How do I know that stuff? I only just started school." Pedagogies that revolve around the processes of questioning are not necessarily appropriate for Australian Aboriginal learners. Indeed, such processes often serve to marginalize and alienate these learners from day-to-day educational activities.

Conclusion

Early childhood educators cannot be expected to automatically understand or know about all the specific issues in relation to historical contexts, cultural practices, literacy learning, and language of Australian Aboriginal learners in their classrooms. However, as Delpit (1995) suggests, "If teachers hope to avoid negatively stereotyping the language patterns of their students, it is important that they be encouraged to interact with, and willingly learn from, knowledgeable members of their students' cultural groups" (p. 56). They need to face the challenge of understanding the cultural-historical contexts of their students, acknowledging the socio-cultural inequities of any minority group in their care, and being prepared to question conventional western views of teaching and learning. Additionally, they need to recognize that as members of the dominant culture who hold positions in a powerful institution (the school), they bear the responsibility of meeting the needs of Australian Aboriginal learners in their care. They also need strong professional development opportunities and access to proactive networks of like-minded educators. Only then will such educators be in a position to reflect on their teaching practices, to support and enhance opportunities for Australian Aboriginal literacy development, and to promote social justice for all young children.

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Notes

(1) We recognize that indigenous people of Australia comprise both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However, the focus for the research from which this paper is drawn is on Aboriginal learners from communities in urban/rural New South Wales.

(2) Aboriginal Education Assistants are Aboriginal people employed in some New South Wales public schools with significant Aboriginal enrollments; they work in community liaison, student welfare, and classroom support for Aboriginal learners, families, and their teachers.

Lee Simpson is an Australian Indigenous Ph.D. student, Education, Health, and Science Faculty, Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory, Australia. Susan Clancy is Literacy Education Lecturer, School of Education, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia.