Families Supporting Schooling

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Families Supporting Schooling  A Project for
Independent Schools Part of the Low SES /
Literacy and Numeracy National Partnerships
Initiatives
Bronwyn Ewing PhD YuMi Deadly Centre Faculty of
Education Queensland University of Technology
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Standpoint theory need to be aware of own
cultural and individual standpoint and they are
implicated in the research work we conduct in
communities (cf. Karen Martin, 2007 Aileen
Moreton-Robinson 2000 Martin Nakata, 2007).

• Bron Ewing I am the youngest child of Peter
  Henry Grenville Ewing and Daphne Jean Roberts. I
  was born and raised in Sydney, Eora country in
  NSW, Australia. My father is a direct descendant
  of the Ewing clan from Galway, Ireland and before
  then the MacEwan clan from Glasgow, Scotland. My
  mother is from England. I identify as from the
  Ewing clan of Ireland with ancestral ties with
  Scotland and England. I am Irish-Catholic,
  female, mother, grandmother, an education
  researcher who works with parents transitioning
  with their children into formal schooling and,
  the teaching and learning of mathematics with
  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
  from the Early Years prior-to-school to
  Vocational and Education training contexts.

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¹Indigenous refers to the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples of Australia. Even though
Indigenous is a homogenising term, that is, one
people one culture, the meaning of the word in
the context of this presentation is the opposite.
We recognise and respect that Indigenous people
of Australia consists of Many First Nations each
with their own unique culture and histories
(Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Social
Justice Commissioner, 2008).
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• Early childhood education policy has primarily
  focused on the role of the Early Childhood
  educator in childrens learning of mathematics
  (see for example DEEWR, 2008 DETA, 2007),
  however, parents play a critical role in their
  childrens learning and development through
  language (Cannon, et al., 2008 McTurk et al.,
  2008)
• Language determines how we come to know and to be
  in the world
• It is what binds communities, parents and
  children together, that is, the adults which the
  children will one day become repeat the processes
  with the next generation of children (Zeegers,
  Muir Lin, 2003)
• Parents make decisions about
• the objects in a childs environment
• the settings in which their children play and
• what knowledge to teach.

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• Review of Australian Directions in Indigenous
  Education 2005-2008 (MCEECDYA, 2009)
• Recommendation 2 Schools to establish parent
  forums, serviced by currently employed Indigenous
  staff. Schools, in consultation with parents,
  must define a set of principles and guidelines
  for how these staff members should limit their
  participation in parent forums to matters which
  cannot otherwise be pursued directly by them in
  the workplace.
• Recommendation 3 All jurisdiction to
  investigate how Aboriginal and Torres Strait
  Islander para-professionals could
• Concentrate their work with individual students,
  their teachers and parents on how school studies
  actually work
• Assist in negotiating each students Personalised
  Learning Plan and
• Continually emphasise why it is necessary for
  each student to attend regularly and do all the
  work consistently.

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• The extent to which Aboriginal and Torres Strait
  Islander parents and community conceptualise
  their role in their childrens learning prior to
  and at entry into formal schooling
• The extent to which Aboriginal and Torres Strait
  Islander parents want their children to access
  quality education so that they can gain the
  knowledge, skills and capacity to succeed in
  education, employment and in their present and
  future lives
• How a Westernised education system accords with
  Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
  learning systems and acknowledges the influence
  of parents, extended family, Elders and
  Community
• How a Westernised education can bring about
  successful outcomes when it does not recognize
  Indigenous knowledge systems, cultures and home
  languages
• How a mainstream education curriculum written to
  English conventions provides Aboriginal and
  Torres Strait Islander children with the
  knowledge and skills to participate in daily
  social life, if it does not recognize their
  cultural identity
• How both ways education can work in an
  intercultural space i.e., the meeting of two
  distinct cultures through processes and
  interactions which retain the integrity and
  difference of both cultures and which may involve
  a blending of elements of both cultures but
  never the domination of one over another (Taylor,
  2003, p. 45).

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Community a culture that is orientated
primarily towards the needs of the group. This
cultural orientation perceives that the whole
community must be strong in order to adequately
meets the needs of the individual. (Priest, 2005,
p. 12) Contextualising to culture that which
already exists, that is, Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Community, cultural context and
home languages (including the sky, the sea, the
land and spiritual values) and Indigenous
knowledge systems (see Martin Nakata (2007, p.
2) . High-context cultures are characterized by
a holistic (top-down) approach to information
processing in which meaning is extracted from
the environment and the situation. Low-context
cultures use a linear, sequential building block
(bottom-up) approach to information processing in
which meaning is constructed (Ezeife , 2002, p.
185). The effect of this process would be that
students have incentive to learn for
understanding because they can find meaning and
links to their own cultures, their home languages
and in the symbols used in their Communities.
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Action Research
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Designing
Collecting data
Taking action
analysing data
Communicating outcomes
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Evaluation assessing the value and quality of
Families Supporting Schooling Project

• Examining existing practices
• Start with general questions How are we going?
  What are we doing? Whats working? Whats not?
  How do we know?
• Asking problem-posing and problem-solving
  questions How could we improve things?
• Asking what the Community needs
• Repeatedly asking opening up questions why are
  we doing this?
• Start with immediate problem/s
• Reveal existing assumptions and intentions
• Develop new and improved evaluative criteria

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Questionnaire for First Round Workshop 30th
November 1st December 20091. What awareness
do you have about how Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander parents might approach teaching
their children prior to formal schooling? 2.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and
communities share the aspirations of Indigenous
communities around Australia, that is, they are
keen for their children to receive a good
education. Please comment on the extent to which
you are aware of such aspirations?  3.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and
communities draw on their knowledges of parenting
and education (see Karen Martin, 2008). Please
comment on the extent to which you engage with
the parents and communities to learn about such
knowledges to assist you with teaching their
children. 4. Please circle on the scale below
the extent to which you are aware that parents
might communicate with their children in home
language/s other than English.unaware
1 2 3 4 5 aware5. Please comment on the
extent to which you perceive the importance of
parents teaching reading, early numeracy, early
science, music, art and drama prior to formal
schooling and how this is recognised when their
children commence school. 6. Please comment on
how you accommodate different groups in your
community.