The inequality in Australian education can be attributed to a history of low expectations and discrimination placed on Indigenous people by the government and society. Aboriginal children were denied the right to education until the 1970s due to the discrimitory views of the government and society. The Indigenous population were the sub-standard race of humanity with little to no chance of succeeding in life and these attitudes affected the educational choices offered to them (Ray & Poonwassie, 1992). As the superior race, the Anglo-Celtic Australians, considered themselves both intellectually and socio-culturally more advanced than their inferior Aboriginal neighbours (Foley, 2013). As a consequence of these racially and culturally motivated preconceptions, children of Aboriginal descent were considered unskilled outside of their own and were deemed incapable of excelling in ‘civilised’ white society (Foley, 2013). As a result, the Australian Government, in an effort to civilise and nurture politeness within the Aboriginal people, constructed “structured” (p 139) education training institutions in 1814. However, these problems only provided sufficient schooling for menial work: Aboriginal male children were prepared for agricultural employment, while girls were trained for domesticated services (Foley, 2013). Thus, as a direct consequence of low expectation for life success, Aboriginal children were offered minimal schooling ‘consistent with the perception about the limitations inherent in their race and their expected station in life at the lowest rung of white society’ (Beresford & Partington, 2003, p43). According to Foley (2013) this combination of low expectations and poor academic grounding meant that Indigenous children we...
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...digenous students. The historical conditions, combined with the views and attitudes enforced on the Aboriginal race today and generations of low socio-economic status from a lifetime of disadvantage has caused educational disengagement. This essentially culminates in a system where the Aboriginal youth will forever be disadvantaged which has implication for their attainment of higher education, employment and quality of life. Programs to improve the schooling success have demonstrated only small, if any improvements. Greater government focus tailored to the specific cultural needs of the Indigenous students is required as well as better education and training for teachers to manage the diversity in the classroom. Perhaps increasing the skill set in Aboriginal cultural values would place greater importance on their education, leading to increase education outcome,
In the 1950s and 1960s, the government began abolishing the compulsory residential school education among Aboriginal people. The government believed that Aboriginal children could receive a better education if they were integrated into the public school system (Hanson). However, residential schools were later deemed inappropriate because not only were the children taken away from their culture, their families and their people, but the majority of students were abus...
Parbury (1999:64) states that Aboriginal education “cannot be separated” from the non-Aboriginal attitudes (racially based ethnocentricity that were especially British ie. white and Christian) towards Aborigines, their culture and their very existence. The Mission Schools are an early example of the connection between official education policies and key events in Aboriginal history. Aboriginal children were separated from their parents and placed into these schools which according to McGrath (as cited by Parbury, 1999:66) it was recommended that these establishments be located ‘as far as possible’ from non Aboriginal residents so as to minimize any heathen influence that Aboriginal children might be subject to from their parents. Mission Schools not only prepared Aboriginal youth for the manual labour market but also, adds Parbury (1999:67) their aim was‘to destroy Aboriginal culture and replace it with an Anglo-European work and faith ethic.’ Despite the NSW Public Instruction Act (1880) which made education free, secular and compulsory for all children Aboriginal children could be excluded from public schools based on prevailing dominant group attitudes. Consequently, the NSW Aborigines Protection Act (1909) was introduced as a result of a perceived public education crisis and Laws had already been passed, similar to protectionist type policies. This Act gave the State the power to remove Aboriginal children from their families whereby this period of time has become known as ‘Stolen Generations.’ It was during this time that Aboriginal children were segregated from mainstream schools. (Parbury, 1999; Lippman, 1994).
... known struggle for aboriginals to stay in school and finish more than it is a struggle for non-aboriginals because of the issues that evolve around aboriginals, the only thing we can do to help these rates decrease are to continue working and help educators find and implement new ways to help students succeed.
The plan focused on three areas which were engagement, connections and attendance. The plan was to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders a voice and cultural context that addressed the cultural gap of non-Indigenous educators and administrators (Hogarth, 2015). The limitation of the three targeted areas focused on engagement, connection and attendance but neglected the other categories of education. The plan focused only on the three domains and ignored the other areas hence causing the quality of literacy and numeracy to decrease in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. As a result, the government introduced a policy called Closing the gap in 2007. This policy was introduced to improve the quality of literacy and numeracy of Indigenous and non-indigenous students within a decade (ACARA, 2016). The three targeted areas to closing the gap was directed to improving the young Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander educational outcomes. Australia’s statistics showed that in 2009 there were 129,953 indigenous students enrolled in schools comparing to the 2 million non-indigenous students enrolled in school. These statistics show a great difference in enrolments. Since the introduction of the ‘closing the gap’ policy the number of Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander students in schools
The Aboriginal Education and Training Policy`s (AETP) (NSW DET 2008) main goal is that “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students will match or better the outcomes of the broader student population” (1.1.2) and includes an explicit focus on developing cultural competencies (NSW DET 2008, p.6). Establishing ‘learning partnerships’ and relationships with Aboriginal communities, including Aboriginal content within the curriculum (NSW BOS 2008, p. 2), and engagement are advocated as necessary elements to achieve this edict. Racism has been proven to be an extremely detreimental factor on all fronts, especially within the education context. To address this intolerance the Anti-Racism Policy (ARP, 2005) is committed to eradicating all forms
Though the film mentioned the impact that residential schools had and still has on the aboriginal people, I felt that this issue needed to be stressed further because the legacy of the schools is still extremely prominent in aboriginal communities today. The film refers to the fact that residential schools harmed the aboriginal people because they were not able to learn their culture, which has resulted in the formation of internalized oppression within in the group. “The...
The education of Aboriginal people is a challenge that has been a concern for many years and is still an issue. However, it remains the best way young people can climb out of poverty. With the colonialization and the oppression of Aboriginals, there have been many lasting side effects that continue to be affecting the Aboriginal youth today. “While retention and graduation rates have improved among urban Aboriginal population, an educational gap still remains between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in urban settings” (Donovan, 127). Many suffer from a diminished self-worth, as they do not feel valued and feel inferior to their classmates. In this essay I am going to outline the reasons Aboriginals are struggling, discuss what is being done
The inequality in Australian education can be attributed to a history of low expectations and discrimination placed on Indigenous people by the government and society. Aboriginal children were denied the right to education until the 1970s due to the discrimitory views of the government and society that the Indigenous populations were the sub-standard race of society with possibility of achieving in life in comparison to the white Australian population ( ). The Anglo-Celtic Australians, the white people, judged themselves to be the superior race and considered themselves more intellectually and socio-culturally developed than the Aboriginal members of society (Foley, 2013). As the Indigenous Australians were considered the lowest rung of society, children of Aboriginal descent were considered not skilled outside of their own and were deemed incapable of excelling in ‘civilised’ white society (Foley, 2013). As a result, the Australian Government, in an effort to civilise and nurture politeness within the Aboriginal people, constructed “structured” education training institutions in 1814. However, males were only provided the skills to prepare them for agricultural employment, while the girls were trained for household services (Foley, 2013). This denial to education to formal education was largely ‘consistent with the perception about the limitations inherent in their race and their expected station in life at the lowest rung of white society’ (Beresford & Partington, 2003, p43). According to Foley (2013) this co...
Many people believe that “having an economy that places a greater value on skills and education is a good thing” and that is the thing that is needed to improve people’s lives and futures (Baicker, Lazear). If what our economy is trying to do a good thing they why are so many students still suffering? The main issues are the low-income education that many students have. Many schools are getting money from the government but that is not enough to pay for everything students need. Educational standards have continued to increase throughout the years but that does not help the students who are unable to pay for the better education. These students who cannot pay for the better education are stuck barely getting by with a low education. A low-education can affect many areas of regular schooling. The students who are at low-income schools do not know what type of disadvantage they have compared to other students across the country. These students believe that they are getting the best education, but there are many students who are getting a better education at a school that has the funds to pay for everything their students need. Low-income students are suffering due to the environment they are in at school and they continue to suffer throughout their life due to it. These students will continue to suffer unless something is done about the low-income schools and improve them for the future. Improvement has to come from all areas, not just one aspect of schooling but from all aspects. Although education has improved along with technology many low-income students still suffer from the vast inequalities. These inequalities will take many years to find a way to fix and even more years to actually fix, until this happens the students will...
Education inequality has been present throughout the years, discriminating between the minority student and its Caucasian counterpart. Education is an important factor to become successful now days. Although children of all backgrounds are provided access to education, the American education system still has a gap between the rich and poor. Students of the high class are granted with liberal education, where they can share their thoughts, opinions, and ask questions because the teachers encourage them to do so. But the lower class (minorities) are getting education in a mechanical method (banking)-where the teachers share their thoughts and opinions but do not encourage the student to participate. In the article “500 nation” When the student
Socioeconomic status can be defined in terms of family wealth and assets as well as educational background. For this reason, many comparisons can be made between socioeconomic status and education. Furthermore, academic achievement and the level of education reached by an individual, is determined by socioeconomic status. Research has shown that environmental circumstances and family issues greatly influence a child's future because the impact of the socioeconomic status depends on the level to which an individual becomes successful in life. Research also shows that family conditions can impact a child’s education and their quality of life. For example, being raised in a high-economic culture increases the chances that a child will attend
Income inequality continues to increase in today’s world, especially in the United States. Income inequality means the unequal distribution between individuals’ assets, wealth, or income. In the Twilight of the Elites, Christopher Hayes, a liberal journalist, states the inequality gap between the rich and the poor are increasing widening, and there need to have things done - tax the rich, provide better education - in order to shortening the inequality gap. America is a meritocratic country, which means that everybody has equal opportunity to be successful regardless of their class privileges or wealth. However, equality of opportunity does not equal equality of outcomes. People are having more opportunities to find a better job, but their incomes are a lot less compared to the top ten percent rich people. In this way, the poor people will never climb up the ladder to high status and become millionaires. Therefore, the government needs to increase all the tax rates on rich people in order to reduce income inequality.
The main purpose of this social movement is to advocate for equal rights to education for students. Whether you’re a parent, grandparent, or a student your major concern at some point in your life is whether you’re able to receive an education in this country due to the way educational system is constructed. Having an education is the key to improving our life, the life of our family, and the overall standard of living in our country. However, so many of us are being denied of education for various reasons that our social movement is about to tackle. The goal of this social movement is to provide universal access to education despite of your race or socioeconomic status, or sexual orientation/identity.
By integrating different levels of capabilities into learning, it gives Indigenous students a chance to begin where they are comfortable at, giving them the confidence they need to progress onto further levels of work. Positive impacts to Indigenous education outcomes are greatly affected by the ‘8 ways of Indigenous learning’ framework which interconnects pedagogies, creating a further degree of understanding (8 ways of learning, 2012). This strategy is not only benefiting the Indigenous students in the classroom, but can also cater to diverse learning needs of non-Indigenous students. It will also increase the feeling of inclusion for Indigenous students as everyone can participate in their cultural ways of learning, expanding their connectedness to the school, therefore, desire to succeed (Devlin,
To me, equality of opportunity in public education is where every single person deserves and is entitled to an equal chance to obtain a good education, grow and make positive progress throughout their time in school, and be successful in reaching their full potential later in life. These people should be treated identically, not differently due to their gender, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.