Assessment Task 1 Reflective Essay

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Option 2

Dr. Chris Sarras comment in the Closing the Gap (Department of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet, 2017, p. 35) in teacher perspective is incredibly important for teachers that work
with Aboriginal students. A teachers perspective towards Aboriginal communities and
culture does have an impact on a students ability to learn. As a result, Aboriginal students
attendance and the rate in which these students are suspended dramatically change due to the
lack of adequate support they receive or feel they have received. This is where programs such
as the Stronger Smarter Institute (SSI) provide teachers with new philosophies and frame
works in order to provide the needed support that Aboriginal Students require and deserve.
The Stronger Smarter program (SSP) allows for teacher to become aware of their own
perspectives and gain skills to better prepare and engage Aboriginal students and deal with
issues such as attendance and suspension. This program does have limitations however, as
particular contextual circumstances that surround an individual child do have an effect on the
students desire to attend classes and their behaviour. It is a balance of building a relationship
with a community and using the SSP which focuses on supporting the individual student and
small class communities which will inform my future practice when working with Aboriginal
Students.

How a teacher approaches and perceives their students genuinely effects a students potential
to perform in the classroom. The importance of having a teacher that is free from any
negative perceptions of a particular culture is the primary purpose of Dr. Chris Sarras
comments and illuminates a significant issue within the education system and its methods for
teaching Aboriginal students. This issue of teachers perceptions effecting Aboriginal
students is not a new one (Martinez, 1994, p. 174) as teachers are often engrained with the
perspective that Aboriginal students are troublesome and have difficulties learning in
comparison to other students in the classroom (Dockett, Mason, & Perry, 2006, p. 142).
These perspectives will shape how a teacher approaches particular students either through the
constant focus of behaviour management or through the simplifying of tasks to cater to these
perceived abilities of particular students. Students become increasingly aware of the biases
and perceptions in a teachers practice as a relationship builds (Warren, 2014). Not only does

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this practice effect student learning but it also directly contradicts the Aboriginal Education
Policy number 1.1.8 and its focus on building an equitable, fair and culturally inclusive
environment that provides enrichment for students to achieve their potential (NSW
Department of Education, 2008). Additionally, this also represents a lack of understanding of
the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) Professional Standards
for Teaching with the standards 1.4, 1.5 and 2.4, directly relating to the strategies that support
and build Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students within the classroom (Australian
Institute for Teaching and School Leadership, 2014). The incorporation of teaching programs
such the SSP allow for teachers to correct these misperceptions of Aboriginal Students and in
the process not only be able to become more professionally competent, but also empower
students as teachers demonstrate an increased grasp of Aboriginal culture and use teaching
tools that directly engage with Aboriginal students (Stronger Smarter Institute, 2015). This
depth of cultural understanding has been frequently requested by Aboriginal Communities
(Bourke, Burden, & Rigby, 2000) and propels Indigenous students to engage with school
work. The application of this practice responds to Dr. Chris Sarras comment by
demonstrating how negative perceptions can be removed in favour of building positive
perceptions which enable Aboriginal student learning and teacher perceptions being a key
factor in the education of Aboriginal youths.

Attendance
One issue which affects Aboriginal students is the rate of attendance in the classroom. The
2015 Aboriginal Students in NSW Public Schools annual report identifies attendance of
Aboriginal students as an issue of concern, particularly in rural and remote communities
(NSW Government Department of Education, 2015, p. 14). The SSP seeks to remedy this
issue by providing teachers with methods of building a personal relationship with individual
Aboriginal students which empowers them with a sense of Aboriginal identity and a personal
desire to go back to a school environment (Stronger Smarter Institute, 2015). These methods
are heavily supported within Aboriginal researchers who stress that such knowledge is vital
to the growth of positive teaching practice and supporting the minority students way of
learning (Boulton-Lewis, Fanshawe, Gunstone, Purdie, & Tripcony, 2000, p. 17). It is the
incorporation of social and emotional learning of Indigenous students within the SSP that sets
this program apart from government statistics such as the Closing the Gap report, which only
focuses on attendance based off accessibility rather than suggesting methods of directly
engaging students in a personal manner which encourages the desire to attend school and

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improves classroom performance (Dobia & Roffey, 2017, p. 316). An effective method of
promoting a strong social and emotional learning then comes from the SSPs focus on
Aboriginal identity, as a strong sense of identity links students to a larger community, where
they can be supported and encouraged (Kickett-Tucker, 2009, p. 131). Nurturing students
sense of Aboriginal identity is a key method of engaging students in school work and will be
heavily incorporated in my own teaching practice. The building of identity improves personal
image for students but in terms of attendance, the ability to link content with students
personal development would only strengthen their desire to attend as learning about an
individuals background and culture provides insight into many facets of an individuals life.
If my classroom can provide that using the philosophies and methods of SSP then its
incorporation into my teaching method will only support my students in their learning,
develop my own perspectives on Aboriginal culture and the improve classroom culture.

Another aspect of the SSP that supports attendance rests in the ability to engage communities
to become involved with the school in order to encourage their support for the educational
process and in sending their children to the school. Although the SSP encourages this, there is
a limitation for the program based on a broader understanding of the Aboriginal communities
which may have differing opinions on schools and education. The Closing the Gap report
expresses that ongoing relationships need to be formed between Government and Non-
Government organisations and Aboriginal communities in an effort to encourage school
attendance (Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2017, p. 36). The SSP encourages
this development within teacher practice (Stronger Smarter Institute, 2015) however, both the
report and program fail to acknowledge that some issues involving attendance are due to
communitys circumstances and their views on Western education. Aboriginal students have
frequently expressed that their lack of attendance is attributed more than simply taking the
day off or a lack of engagement in the course work but simply due to the fact that students,
and possibly their parents or family, feel as if students benefit from learning outside of the
Western school environment and will gain a better practical experience outside the school
(Ladwig & Luke, 2014, p. 191). Another issue raised within Aboriginal communities stem
from a history of schools becoming a focal point of dramatic changes within Aboriginal
communities either through the loss or oppression of traditional knowledge or through the
loss of children in the Stolen Generation (Lowe, 2017, p. 41) and with that historical memory
in the forefront of some of the remote communities, the desire to send children to western

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schools would not seem appealing. I believe that in order to remedy this issue taking steps
similar to the SSP such as community open days is needed to encourage school attendance
however, I do believe further steps need to be taken. Going out to these remote communities
could provide an insight into the valuable forms of education that these communities deem
essential for their young people and in doing so I could begin to learn from the community
about their values and community needs and begin to tailor classes to meet or replicate these
needs in the classroom. In doing this I would hope that such actions would be considered a
sign of respect to these communities and encourage students to attend classes that directly
parallel to the needs of their community. Incorporating the community elders directly into
these classes could also be another method of encouraging remote communities to begin
viewing the school as a hub of knowledge rather than a symbol of colonialism and
oppression.

Suspension
The second issue that affect Indigenous education is the consistent suspension of students and
has been linked to the negative perception of Aboriginal students teacher acquire as discussed
earlier in this report. SSP does contain a strategy that helps students to refrain from making
disruptive choices by setting high expectations in terms of behaviour and in school
engagement (Stronger Smarter Institute, 2015), however, much of the research and literature
does not offer many strategies to help lower the number of suspensions in school, which is
the primary limitation of this program. The 2015 Aboriginal Students in NSW Public Schools
annual report highlights suspension as an area of concern however, it does suggest that
suspension is used as a strategy that allows time for the school to work with the
student..to plan for students successful participation in school (NSW Government
Department of Education, 2015, p. 16) and that suspensions, over a period of 2010-2014,
have dropped in short suspensions by 2.5% and with long suspensions issued in proportion
has varied between 5.7%-6.3% (NSW Government Department of Education, 2015, p. 16).
Despite these statistic however, there is no values to these percentages for the number of
students this affects, in fact the recent Closing the Gap 2017 report has no mention of
suspension. This suggests that the issue is still quite large and that these changes are
miniscule in comparison to the larger issue. When analysing schools, it has been discovered
that male, low socio-economically based Aboriginal students, with difficulties learning or
disability are more likely to receive suspensions then other students (Anderson & Boyle,
2015, p. 12) and I believe that this consistency is based on teacher perceptions of Aboriginal

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students and their behaviour. With teachers often generating or being supplied the perspective
that the Aboriginal students in classrooms can be slow learners or the most disruptive in the
class (Dockett, Mason, & Perry, 2006, p. 141) this generates a low expectation in teachers for
the successfulness of Aboriginal students and creates a term called deficient syndrome
(Rose, 2015, p. 76) which is cemented in a teachers practice when years of negative imagery
towards Aboriginal students is then thought to be accurate for all students (Rose, 2015, p.
77). This is where the SSPs focus on generating high expectations for Aboriginal students
may be used to combat this issues alongside the development of accurate understanding of
Aboriginal communities and culture (Stronger Smarter Institute, 2015). These developments
may see a change in the rate of suspension within schools due to the new found depth of
understanding teachers have for these students however, research nor any Government
documentation address this strategy or outline an accurate depiction of the results of these
programs which offer limited credibility to its application and as a result, hinders this
program and becomes a limitation. I would attempt to apply this method regardless within my
teaching practice. The removal of ingrained teaching assumptions in regards to Aboriginal
students, I believe is not only beneficial for any teacher, but also is a benefit for the students.
Setting a high expectation for all students should be a priority regardless of which culture that
particular student identifies with and students respond to such expectations if given the
opportunity to do so, without any limitations or assumptions being made by the teacher.

Conclusion
The issues that surround the educational system and Aboriginal communities are complex.
Dr. Sarras statement does reflect a substantial issue, that negative perceptions and
assumptions of Aboriginal students have no place within the educational practice of teachers.
Issues such as attendance and suspension can be linked to the inaccurate knowledge these
teachers have for Aboriginal students and communities as the bulk of both of these issues
stem from the limited knowledge teachers have for these communities and how it is applied
in the classroom. The Smarter Stronger Program attempts to build this knowledge for
teachers and supply teachers methods that empower students and teachers. The limitation of
its use comes from its sole focus on the school environment and the students within the
school environment when in fact these issues may stem from a larger context. Developing a
strong repour with Aboriginal communities, supporting cultural identity, engaging with the
community directly for support, identifying community needs and developing a high
expectation for these students seems to be the accurate practice in enhancing Aboriginal

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students learning and may in fact close the gap between western and Aboriginal
communities in education. Pairing this larger contextual focus with the SSP is the method
that I will attempt to practice in my future classroom as I believe this combination will allow
not only my perceptions of Aboriginal students to be more accurate but also provide an
understanding for these students about their community, identity and culture that become
pivotal to their successful learning.

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