102085 ABORIGINAL AND CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE PEDAGOGY – SUMMER A 2019

JADE CUNNINGHAM 17999508

SMARTER STRONGER JOURNAL

Self-Assessment- 22nd November 2018

How much do I currently understand about the philosophy and beliefs of the Stronger Smarter
philosophy and approach?

Rating - One/Five
How much do I understand and use the common language of Stronger Smarter?

Rating - One/Five
How aware am I of my own assumptions about Indigenous students, their families and their
education?

Rating - Three/Five
How well do I understand myself as a cultural and unique being?

Rating - Three/Five
How aware am I of enabling and disabling practices at my school?

Rating - Two/Five
How aware am I of my own engagement with enabling or disabling practices?

Rating - Three/Five
How much effort am I putting into changing my own disabling practices?

Rating - Two/Five
How much effort am I putting into changing the disabling practices in my school?

Rating - Two/Five
To what extent do I explicitly engage with data to track Indigenous student performance?

Rating - Three/Five

End of Introduction- 7th December 2018

My self-assessment reflects my limited knowledge of the Stronger Smarter philosophy and

practices for best teaching and learning from my future Indigenous students. Although I do
have knowledge of Indigenous practices in my teaching area of Geography, as I pre-service
teacher I have little experience of my teaching practices and school’s capacity to improve
outcomes for Indigenous students. I am very passionate about being able to support my future
student’s wellbeing and learning.
 The stronger smarter philosophy – 22nd November 2018

The East Kalgoorlie motto 'deadly and smart' resonates with me as it provides the school and
wider community with a positive vision for students’ education. Images of the students in the
classroom showed a positive, engaged and supportive learning environment. This resonates
with me as a pre-service teacher as I aim to creative a positive environment for my students to
interact with each other and the environment around them.

The schools focus on meeting the learning needs of all students makes me feel empowered as
an educator. I believe it is every teachers role to best support all learners in their access,
opportunities and engagement in learning. Both within my own classroom, school and wider
community I am passionate in establishing strategies and programs to support our diverse
learners.

I believe having high expectations of all learners is important for challenging and engaging
students in their learning and community. It is important to support our Indigenous Australian
students to break through the past failings of expectations of the Australian education system.
Understanding students as individuals is key to support learners’ achievement of expectations
through understanding strengths, interests and beliefs.

In my role as a pre-service teacher I believe I can support students to believe in themselves

and create goals for the future. While completing professional practice I will be able to
establish my own expectations of students and support them in their achievement of these
learning goals. In my own future classroom, I have the vision of creating a positive learning
environment that best supports all learners needs at a high standard.

Changing the tide of low expectations – 28th November 2018

Building high expectations through the principles of strong and smart is powerful for changing
the low expectations that exist within schools and the community. I believe explicit teaching of
these principles will empower students to challenge their expectations and goals they have set
for themselves.

In my own context as a pre-service teacher at university, I can see the significant focus on
academic performance both within the secondary and tertiary learning community. I believe
to best support learners to be strong and smart, a conscious effort to provide different forms
of assessment of performance is critical for our students. Measuring a students performance
solely on summative assessment and standardised testing is not an accurate measurement of
any students abilities.

I believe providing leadership opportunities for our Indigenous students is extremely valuable
to create a learning community that teaches beyond the curriculum, to allow students to share
and learn from culture.
I have experienced schools unconsciously placing low expectations for student performance,
and result in negative student-teacher relationships experienced by Indigenous learners as a
result of a lack of understanding or willingness to support students’ diverse needs. As a future
teacher I constantly connect with current literature and teaching strategies to inform myself
on the ways in which to best support and encourage Indigenous students’ performance,
leadership and relationships.

The perceptions of teachers and leaders have an enormous impact on the learning experience
of our Indigenous students. Although the perceptions of teachers and leaders may be
presented unconsciously, they significantly impact the relationship Indigenous students have
with their teachers and the interactions and learning environment with peers.

Creating a positive and supportive learning community that encourages students’

performance, leadership opportunities and valuable relationships is key to encouraging
students to be strong and smart.

Part 1 Self-Assessment – 4th December 2018

The East Kalgoorlie motto 'deadly and smart' resonates with me as it provides the school and
wider community with a positive vision for students’ education. Images of the students in the
classroom showed a positive, engaged and supportive learning environment. This resonates
with me as a pre-service teacher as I aim to creative a positive environment for my students to
interact with each other and the environment around them. The school learning environment
is full of art and culture. This makes me think about how I can create a classroom that reflects
the Indigenous culture of my students. Having a classroom that supports my students will
create conversations, expectations and support the discussion and use of culture within their
learning.

The schools focus on meeting the learning needs of all students makes me feel empowered as
an educator. I believe it is every teachers role to best support all learners in their access,
opportunities and engagement in learning. Both within my own classroom, school and wider
community I am passionate in establishing strategies and programs to support our diverse
learners. As a pre-service teacher I need to develop my knowledge and strategies to best
support, engage and extend my Indigenous students. The Stronger Smarter philosophy will
help to improve my ability to explicitly outline my high expectations for all learners, and help
my students to make their own learning goals.

I believe having high expectations of all learners is important for challenging and engaging
students in their learning and community. It is important to support our Indigenous Australian
students to break through the past failings of expectations of the Australian education system.
Understanding students as individuals is key to support learners’ achievement of expectations
through understanding strengths, interests and beliefs.
In my current context as a pre-service teacher completing the Stronger Smarter modules
provides myself with the opportunity to reflect on my professional practice experiences and
think about my teaching pedagogy to best support my future Indigenous learners not only in
my classroom, but within the community. In my future classroom I aim to establish individual
learning goals for my students and explain the high expectations I have for them both in their
learning and growth as individuals.

School Culture – 28th November 2018

Reflecting on professional practice experiences as a pre-service teacher I have experiences one

school's distinct culture that has both enabling and disabling factors for students.

One particular enabling aspect I have experienced of school culture is the positive impact the
schools large focus on sport has on some students. Students are given significant opportunities
to pursue their sporting interests, whilst being academically supported. Students identified as
being high sporting performers have the opportunity to be placed into a particular class for
each stage group. The teachers of these classes provide significant support for the students
that miss class due to sporting commitments. Parents are largely involved in communication
with teachers. This school culture encourages students to engage in their interests and be
flexible and supported in their attendance and types of assessments completed. This program
allows students to be engaged in the school and wider community both in their sporting and
learning achievements. Although the large sporting environment of the school is positive for
some students, is can also be a disabling factor for students.

An example of a disabling factor within the school community is the lack of discussion and
teaching of diverse cultures and beliefs. Students are largely unaware of their peers’ cultural
influences. This creates an environment of students feeling judged for sharing or practicing
their cultural ideas in front of their peers. I believe it would be extremely valuable for the
creation of positive learning community by creating an open and supportive environment for
students to share their experiences, beliefs and cultures. To allow students to be supportive
and understanding of diversity they must be explained and engaged in different cultural
activities and experiences.

Intercultural Understanding – 28th November 2018

My own beliefs, behaviours and perceptions influence my teaching pedagogy, including the
ways I interact with students and the wider community. As an advocate for the inclusion and
support of all learners in the school and classroom I constantly reflect on teaching and learning
strategies to best support diverse learning needs. As a future teacher this focus on inclusion
will develop as I gain experience in the classroom and school community.
My awareness of culture as a filter of our world will inform my teaching as I continually reflect
and grow. Throughout my planning of units and lessons I will provide opportunity for students
to experience different cultural perspectives and to share their own beliefs.

Using this understanding of the impact of intercultural understanding, I am to build on my

knowledge through current literature and teacher action research. Building on my strengths
and ability to create and support inclusive education for diverse learners will be largely
influenced by my future schools. If negative cultural understandings and practices are in place,
I will share my knowledge of and the importance of cultural proficiency. I believe in order to
develop the cultural understanding of schools and community must involve the students’ ideas
and beliefs.

Deficit Conversations – 3rd December 2018

As a pre-service teacher I have experienced teacher deficit conversations occurring regularly

in the staff room. When starting professional practice, I did notice teachers wanted to provide
myself with preconceived perceptions of students and their behaviours.

Largely deficit conversations in the staff room focus on student attendance, behaviour and
family life. Deficit conversations are often focused on the negatives of the students and how
they cannot be supported to do certain factors.

Deficit conversations can be extremely harmful to the individual student, but also the teacher’s
perceptions and level of support provided. As a future teacher I aim to not engage in these
types of conversations and have a positive outlook on all students as individuals and their
ability to perform to the best of their ability and grow as learners.

Changing Deficit Conversations – 3rd December 2018

Changing the culture of deficit conversations is valuable to reduce the significant impact these
conversations have on the expectations of students, teachers support and stereotypes. It is all
teacher’s responsibility to reflect on their perceptions and the conversations they engage in.

I believe informing all staff in the school community about deficit conversations and their
impact is a key starting point to change the environment for positive support and perceptions
of learners. It would also be powerful to have an Indigenous elder speak about their
experiences of deficit conversations from the perceptive of possibly a parent. Supporting
faculties to reflect on the way in which they discuss students and the methods for providing
support is necessary to modify patterns of conversations.
 Summary : Understanding School Cultures – 3rd December 2018

As a future teacher I have learnt the importance when starting at a school to understand the
culture and the impact this may have on students, being aware of and not participating in
deficit conversations, and providing support and a positive learning environment that best suits
different students.

Although when starting at a school it will be difficult to make change in the school community,
it is ok for me to create an inclusive and supportive classroom. I hope that I can create an
environment that students look forward to learning and engaging in. I would like to become
involved in a leadership group that enables students the opportunity to participate in programs
and activities that they may not have had the opportunity to do before.

My experiences during professional practice has helped shape my teaching philosophy with a
significant focus on students’ wellbeing and pursuit of interests.

Part 2 Self-Assessment- 4th December 2018

As a pre-service teacher I have been able to experience one schools distinct culture and the
experiences students have as a result of this.

Within the school community there is a lack of connection with the wider community, and
open discussions and engagement with students own Indigenous culture. This is disabling for
the school and individual students’ culture and identity. To make the school culture more
enabling students need to be supported and encouraged to embrace their own culture. This
should be supported by engaging with the community and its elders to create a learning
environment that reflects the students’ culture. Providing students with the opportunity to
create art and performance would be extremely valuable to demonstrate the schools
Indigenous culture and stimulate positive discussion and representation of students as cultural
individuals.

The culture of deficit conversations in the staffroom around student attendance, behaviour,
family life and expectations need to be change to support students and the perceptions
teachers have of them. As a pre-service teacher I have experienced teacher deficit
conversations occurring in the staff room. When starting professional practice, I did notice
teachers wanted to provide myself with preconceived perceptions of students and their
behaviours. In order to create an enabling school culture all teachers must be educated on
what is a deficit conversation and the impact they have on the expectations and support
provided to our students. Having a whole staff seminar surrounding changing conversations is
a starting point, but it is also important for teachers to engage in their own reflection of their
perceptions and expectations, why they have these, and how they can change these to best
support their students.
School culture is extremely important to support students in all aspects of their learning.
Having open and honest conversations with students about how to best support their own
individual culture and drawing from the knowledge of the community is extremely important
to create an enabling culture.

Part 3 Strategies for Change- 4th December 2018

As a future teacher I believe the meta-strategies positive student identify, Indigenous

leadership and high expectations are extremely important for me to learn, develop and
implement in my future classroom.

Meta-strategy 1: Positive Student Identity- 4th December 2018

I believe Chris Sarra's message is extremely important when embracing a positive sense of
Indigenous student identity. As a teacher and school community I am not creating a student’s
Indigenous identity, it already exists, my role is to strengthen and support students
development of their Indigenous identity.

I believe a school’s culture has a significant role in creating and embracing a positive Indigenous
identity. Using a strong motto such as East Kalgoorlie's 'deadly and smart' embraces students’
Indigenous identity, encouraging and supporting students to be proud of their culture and
apply their identity in all aspects of their learning. Allowing students to perform their identity
through art and performance is valuable to create a positive and supportive environment for
all students to develop their own positive understanding of their Indigenous identity. It is also
important for students to see teachers embrace their own identity and culture.

In my own geography classroom, embracing aspects of the curriculum that allow me to teach
students and allow students to teach me about Indigenous ways of doing is so important to
creating and embracing positive Indigenous student identity. I believe providing students the
opportunity to teach each other and apply their knowledge of their own culture is valuable for
creating a positive environment for students to embrace their Indigenous identity.

It is the role of all teachers and members of the school community to encourage and support
students to create and embrace a positive sense of Indigenous identity. Each individual will
approach their identity differently and must be supported in their journey to embracing a
positive sense of their Indigenous identity.

Meta-strategy 2: Embracing Positive Indigenous Leadership- 7th December 2018

As a future teacher developing my skills for embracing positive Indigenous leadership is

extremely important. In my future school and classroom, I would like to establish a positive
relationship with my students’ parents/carers, and providing the opportunity for them to be
involved in their students learning and embracing of their Indigenous identity. I also would like
to allow members of the community to join the classroom, and provide their knowledge on
different topics.

Embracing Indigenous leadership in schools enhances community relationships and

connections. Providing students with a connected environment with their parents/carers and
members of the community allows their learning to be strengthened. Engaging the community
in different programs and within the classroom would enhance my knowledge and ability to
support my students as a non-Indigenous person.

Meta-strategy 3: High Expectations Leadership- 7th December 2018

When completing professional practice, I observed each teacher having very different
expectations of their students. I believe overall the school did not have high expectations of
their students, with reference made to past years performing and behaviours significantly
better, particularly in years 11 and 12. Not expressing high expectations of all students create
a learning environment where students play to the lower expectations, with negative
perceptions of themselves. Having a strong school culture, positive student identity and
effective leadership are key for improving this schools expectations of its students.

It is important within my future school that I work towards a shared understanding of what the
school’s high expectations are and the process to achieving them. Although each individual has
their own identity and learning goals, it is important as a school community to create a shared
high expectation of all learners. I believe having different visual representations of the school’s
motto and goals around the environment is valuable for students. The message of 'deadly and
smart' encourages high expectations of students to both have a positive Indigenous identity
and strive to perform to the best of their ability.

In my own future classroom, I will be visually displaying the shared high expectations of the
school to encourage my students. I believe it is important to establish a strong relationship
with students and their parents/carers to share the high expectations and accountability for
the achievement of this. Having parents/carers involved and supported in the learning process
through a positive relationship helps to ensure the high-expectations of the school are shared
at home. I believe it is important to celebrate small successes of my students, not just
academically, but as they grow as adolescents.
 Meta-strategy 4 and 5: Innovative School Models- 7th December 2018

Two particular school models stood out to me that could be extremely valuable to my future
school in the context of being semi-rural/ developing urban area.

Firstly, Manyalluluk School's night school program is a great initiative to involve parents in
students learning and create a strong community connection. Often parents express that they
are unsure of how to support their children in their learning as they don't know how they
subject. I believe providing the opportunity and time for students to interact with their parents
and share their learning is valuable for the development of their own identity. This program
also provides the opportunity for students to demonstrate and embrace their developing
positive Indigenous identity and learn from other Indigenous members of the schooling
community, whether it is parents or other individuals involved with the school. Giving students
and their family the opportunity to share a meal together is meaningful and valuable to families
that may require community support.

Secondly, I believe having Indigenous teaching aides is so valuable for students in the
embracing of their positive Indigenous identity. For non-Indigenous teachers like myself,
having an Indigenous teaching aide would help provide me with extensive knowledge of the
community and help to best support my students. I believe this is an important model for
embracing positive Indigenous leadership. This model will work in a number of different
contexts to provide students with the most valuable positive learning environment.

Self-Assessment- 7th December 2018

How much do I currently understand about the philosophy and beliefs of the Stronger Smarter
philosophy and approach?

Rating - Four/Five
How much do I understand and use the common language of Stronger Smarter?

Rating - Four/Five
How aware am I of my own assumptions about Indigenous students, their families and their
education?

Rating - Four/Five
How well do I understand myself as a cultural and unique being?

Rating - Five/Five
How aware am I of enabling and disabling practices at my school?

Rating - Five/Five
How aware am I of my own engagement with enabling or disabling practices?

Rating - Five/Five
How much effort am I putting into changing my own disabling practices?
Rating - Four/Five
How much effort am I putting into changing the disabling practices in my school?

Rating - Four/Five
To what extent do I explicitly engage with data to track Indigenous student performance?

Rating - Three/Five

Part 3 Summary: Strategies for Change- 7th December 2018

As a future teacher I believe teacher education is the number one way to create an innovative
school that best supports the learning and development of all students. Teacher education and
perceptions of Indigenous students must be addressed to being making changes to redevelop
schools’ ways of teaching and learning.

I believe the involvement of community members is valuable to redevelop existing resources

such as units of work. Providing lesson opportunities for community members is an innovative
way to provide students with meaningful learning opportunists that also reflect the curriculum.
Incorporating Indigenous perspectives and teachings into different learning areas such as
historic accounts, geographic understandings and mathematical explanations are extremely
valuable for students. I also believe giving students the opportunity to have a say in the ways
they are taught and the programs they are involved in is important.

End of Part 3- 7th December 2018

The Stronger Smarter modules have developed my philosophy around the teaching, learning
and support of my future Indigenous students. I feel empowered as a future educator to make
changes to improve my school’s environment for the support of culture. Important changes I
would like to see in my future school is the development of high expectations across the school
and systems for students to be supported in the achievement of these expectations, the
connection of schools and the community to enhance the school’s culture and Indigenous
leadership opportunities to support students embracing of their positive Indigenous identity. I
believe schools must frequently reflect on their school model, and apply innovative models
and teaching strategies to support our current learners. In the dynamic environment of
teaching and learning, resources must constantly be reviewed and ways of teaching developed
to best support learners. I believe the modules have strengthened my focus on student
wellbeing and have now given me an enhanced focus on high expectations which I will apply
in my future classroom.
As a pre-service teacher my personal learning journey is just beginning. On professional
practice I would like to apply the skills I have learnt in these modules in my establishment of
high expectations and embracing culture and students’ knowledge to drive my lessons. I will
continue to read current research and teaching strategies to best support Indigenous students
in their own learning journey. I believe I have much to learn to develop my pedagogy to support
my future students and hopefully improve my future school’s community.