Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages

Greetings from the Australian National University in Canberra, where the "Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages" is being launched. Professor Michael Christie, Charles Darwin University gave an overview of "‘Aboriginal languages, literatures and technologies in the Northern Territory since the 1970s’". This is in conjunction with the 13th Australian Languages Workshop. Also mentioned was the IKRMNA Project.

Professor Christie criticised the current trend to require aboriginal students to use English for a specified period per day, driven by the requirement to meet nationally standardised test requirements. He instead described a process where students create the content for the curriculum based on recording local knowledge. He also said there were a lot of good funded projects in community centres and libraries, using mobile and digital technology. Also some linguists at the NT Department of Education may be used to adapt some indigenous materials for teaching. Professor Christie said that many within the Department of Education were unhappy with the direct of new policies which minimise aboriginal language.

Another aspect mentioned was the role of aboriginal teachers in teaching subjects such as mathematics in a way the indigenous students could relate to.

This was an inspiring presentation and  one where some of the setbacks due to Northern Territory and Australian Government education policies policies were looked on with sadness, rather than anger. This is all the more remarkable as academics in the field of indigenous education are expecting an epidemic of youth suicides due to the new government policies.

Recently I have been looking at the use of computer for education in remote indigenous communities in Australia and Canada. Perhaps there are some lessons for Australia which can be learned from elsewhere. During the discussion this afternoon, comparisons were made with Canada, where 30 times as much was spent on preserving indigenous languages. One positive point was the role of universities.

Sharman Stone MP,, Member for Murray officially launched the new archive. She was deputy chair of a parliamentary committee which produced ‘Inquiry into language learning in Indigenous communities’ (2012). She commented that one problem was where the language the students actually speak is ignored and they are taught as if they spoke English.

Public lecture

Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages: Launch and public lecture

The Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages (LAAL) (http://laal.cdu.edu.au)/ will be launched by The Honorable Sharman Stone, Member for Murray. Dr Stone was deputy chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs which in 2012 produced the report ‘Inquiry into language learning in Indigenous communities’ A public lecture entitled ‘Aboriginal languages, literatures and technologies in the Northern Territory since the 1970s’ will be given by Professor Michael Christie from Charles Darwin University following the launch. Professor Christie will reflect on over 40 years involvement with bilingual education, linguistics and literature production in the Northern Territory, and the ways in which Aboriginal philosophies and pedagogies have influenced the production and use of literature over the years. LAAL, an ARC-funded project, contains thousands of books in Australian Aboriginal languages produced in the Northern Territory during the era of bilingual education that are now digitised with permission for public access. The archive has been devised to be of use to both the remote Aboriginal communities of origin in the intergenerational transmission of traditional knowledge, and to the international research community interested in working collaboratively with Aboriginal languages, texts, and their owners. The archive contains books in over 25 Indigenous languages from 20 different communities, and includes traditional stories, language instruction, histories, songs, experience stories, ethno-scientific texts and others. Stage two of the archive project has been funded to radically extend the range of texts, and to engage language owners, educators, and researchers in exploring, enriching and engaging with the archive. The event is part of a larger workshop on Aboriginal languages sponsored by ANU. For information visit http://chl.anu.edu.au/languages/alw2014.php

Prime Minister’s Closing the Gap Report Fails to Address Effective Education

The Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Abbott MP today  released the "Closing the Gap Prime Minister’s Report
2014" on improving the living standards of indigenous Australians. The targets included in the report are not particularity ambitious. Two related to education are: "Halve the gap for Indigenous/ children in reading, writing and numeracy within a decade (by 2018)" and "Halve the gap for Indigenous people aged 20–24 in Year 12 or equivalent attainment rates (by 2020)". In methods to improve education, the Prime Minister did not mention the use of the Internet, computers or distance education. It appears the only measure the PM is proposing is to punish students and their parents for non-attendance at school. Recently the NT Department of Education released a " Draft Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory " by Bruce Wilson (6 February 2014), which  proposed not providing instruction to indigenous students in their own languages and to move students into boarding schools away from their communities. It is disappointing that at the same time a global revolution in education is taking place to provide more self directed learning, relivant to the student, where and when they want it, the Australian and Northern Territory governments appear to be planning to move education for indigenous students back to the nineteenth century.

Blended Learning Model for Remote Indigenous Education

The NT Department of Education has released a Draft Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory ( Bruce Wilson, 6 February 2014). The report proposes not teaching indigenous languages in schools and makes no mention of the use of computers for remote education. I suggest that use of blended learning, combining classroom and computer education, could allow for better education and support multiple languages at low cost, with educational and cultural benefits for the students.

Teaching Only English 

The report finds that "Indigenous students in very remote schools in the Northern Territory are already two years of schooling behind Indigenous students in very remote schools in the rest of Australia in their writing results".  The report notes that many NT Indigenous children enter school with little or no English. The report therefore focuses on English language skills. The logic for this appears flawed, in that the report says "English language skills and knowledge that underpin success in the western education system". This assertion is clearly false: western countries carry out their primary schooling in the primary language of the country, not necessarily English. The report does not support bi-literacy approaches to education, but fails to mention that it is common to teach both a national language and a local language in many countries, as well as multiple languages being provided in schools in other Australian states. The report does not address the cultural and human rights issues in proposing not to teach students their own language at school. Such an approach may be considered unlawful discrimination.

Distance education

The Report Overview says "Distance education will be an important element of this set of solutions: the current arrangements should be reviewed to ensure they meet the need" and makes one recommendation (15 e.) on DE:

examine the three-school distance education arrangement and current practice to determine how well they are suited to the changed secondary schooling arrangements proposed in this report.

However, the report does not appear to make mention of blended learning, that is using a combination of classroom and on-line learning. Nor does the report mention the One Laptop Per Child Program (OLPC), which has provided specially designed learning computers for students in some remote schools. The Australian OLPC program takes a different approach from countries where the computers are centrally issued by the education department, instead emphasising support for teachers (Howard & Rennie, 2013).

References

Howard, S., & Rennie, E. (2013). Free for All: A Case Study Examining Implementation Factors of One-to-One Device Programs. Computers In The Schools, 30(4), 359-377. doi:10.1080/07380569.2013.847316