Indigenous Communities In Education

Blog Response: Indigenous families and communities in education.

Exploring the important question of how indigenous families and communities should become more involved in the educative process, Samuel Coombs (2018) argues his beliefs through his title, ' If we really want to focus on closing the gap in indigenous education then families and communities must be welcomed and involved'. Coombs takes the strong stance that not only is the 'closing the gap' initiative not effective, but that more has to be done within schools in order to increase positive outcomes for indigenous education. Specifically, he supplies two areas that he believes should be improved and implemented; firstly the inclusion of indigenous communities in policy decisions; and secondly by creating educational environments that are more welcoming to not only the indigenous community, but very specifically to the

Indeed Hogarth (2017) upholds this clear disparity in the relationship between Indigenous communities and education, by highlighting the ‘Coolangatta Statement on the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Education’ (1999) as a key source. The statement suggests that this is not an issue that can be addressed at the surface, but actually reflects that the ‘perceived failures’ are a rejection at a deeper level of the euro-centric education system. Not only are the “…goals, targets and strategies in current Indigenous education policy is set by government” ( Hogarth, 2017) but the supposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Advisory Group only has two indigenous members. Without the real input and influence of Indigenous communities, it is difficult to see how the relationship between schools and the indigenous communities and parents will be