The Challenge
Parnngurr Community School operates in a very remote Indigenous context with a short contact history, where English is a second language, literacy is not seen as an essential part of everyday life. As measured against national school outcomes benchmarks our kids have not performed well until this year (2010) but this is not the only problem we face. Potential employers of our students tell us that the failure of our graduates to stay in employment is not just due to their low achievement levels in English and other school-based skills but is equally their lack of ability to operate within a western work environment.
When entering mainstream employment for the first time Martu must adjust to the stress of incessant cross-cultural communications with co-workers and supervisors in an unfamiliar language, as well as new expectations such as regular attendance and punctuality, all without their usual nurturing contact with relatives.
To prepare our students to engage with the world of work, school must do far more than teach the conventional curriculum if there is to be improvements. It needs to develop our Indigenous students across a range of dimensions. This is the challenge we are facing but we are not alone. The school has partnered with Martu People Ltd, a charitable Martu run organisation tasked to improve the social and educational destinies of Martu people. Together we pioneered the ‘development approach’ which is being used to drive all our programs (see 'Our Development').
The following domains mostly refer to competencies our students need in the majority society, for example, they may be socially competent within their own society but need additional skills to operate outside that:
- Cross-cultural understandings - understandings that underpin operating in the mainstream.
- Physical health and wellbeing - physically fit, strong in self.
- Social competence - socially adept in both societies.
- Emotional maturity - emotional resilience in both societies.
- Language and cognitive skills - speaking and understanding Martu Wangka and English.
- Communication skills and general knowledge - communicating within and knowledgeable of both societies.
There are many interconnections between these domains and the key learning outcomes in areas such as literacy and numeracy: As student skills improve across the developmental domains their outcomes in key learning areas also improve. For example, our nutrition program produces better outcomes by encouraging attendance through offering attractive food and improving the health of our students, and when our students are not hungry they focus better on their schoolwork.
Some of the programs favoured in remote schools have a narrow focus at the expense of promoting wider cross-cultural understandings. A lot of school learning promoted by these programs is inevitably identified by students as esoteric ‘school knowledge’, with no practical application in their own world, something to be quickly forgotten in the context of students' ‘real’ lives.
In comparison, this is similar to what happens to a person who has studied French as a foreign language at school, then travels to France years later only to find they have forgotten most of what they learnt, and anyway they lack critical social knowledge to use the language fluently. Often our students do not apply their classroom English or literacy in situations outside school because current programs do not give them the social skills, general knowledge or cross-cultural understandings to do so with confidence.
We have found that such quarantined school learning is subject to the ‘plateau effect’: students get to a certain level in literacy and numeracy development and then stop learning or learn at a much slower rate than previously, never making the leap to the next level no matter how many years they attend school. Through our 'developmental approach' we are attempting to lay strong foundations across a variety of domains by providing programs and opportunities that are based specifically on the needs and interests of Martu students.
Our Programs
The Ann Morrice Literacy Cycle
The 'Ann Morrice Literacy Cycle’ (AM) program delivers ‘social literacy’ by addressing social and communication needs, as well as having a strong methodology for teaching reading and writing. Our partner, Martu People Ltd, has funded this program in our school for 2010.
AM addresses multiple domains in the classroom by using daily real life events and interactions. For example, in a remote indigenous context a fun real life event, such as the weekly mail plane drop off, provides a powerful opportunity for an AM trained teacher to guide the students through a literacy cycle promoting development across a variety of domains and literacy outcomes.
Guided by the teacher the students develop their communication and social skills as they meet and greet the pilot, ask questions, and learn about the pilot's job and the plane.
This interaction can be photographed or videotaped and the learnings transferred back to the classroom through conferenced writing activities. This can lead to a whole class production of a book, through which appropriate use of grammar, spelling and punctuation can be promoted, while spelling and word banks are developed.
These books can then be stored and used by the students as a motivating resource for future reading. This also develops a strong teacher-student relationship, which further promotes social and communication skills and maturity, which are crucial to the success of Martu students.
Stepping Stones
Stepping Stones is a program that allows students to develop maths skills in concert with developmental dimensions such as social skills.
Mathematical learning that is embedded in a broad range of related developmental achievements has the potential to lead to real learning and eventual employment in the Western Desert.
Parnngurr Community School is adopting the new Stepping Stones Maths Program, not only because it fits the new national curriculum but also because it incorporates group work, a team approach and employs maths games that increase social interaction and promote self-esteem.
This program ensures that we can develop students across a range of growth dimensions and thereby encourage real learning.
Junior Umpiring and Coaching
Junior Umpiring and Coaching is a program developed at the school which cultivates team work, communication and leadership skills
Parnngurr Community School runs a number of sports programs designed to develop our students across a wide range of developmental dimensions. In particular, we run a junior umpiring and coaching program that promotes the leadership skills of our students, enabling them to take their place as future community leaders and role models.
Transition to Work
Transition to work opportunities develop the cross-cultural, social and communication skills needed in the workplace, while also improving academic learning outcomes.
The school is building a new Art room for lessons to be linked with the local Indigenous Art Industry. This project aims to capitalise on the community’s entry into the commercial art industry through Martumili by creating mentoring opportunities for our students, potentially, the artists of the future. Students work as assistants to senior community artists, learning painting techniques and the stories associated with the paintings.
Some of the most important skills to be developed are not merely the ability to paint but to understand the art industry from a non-Indigenous point of view and to be able to operate within it at any level including management.
The school has also established working relationships with Newcrest mining, BHP Billiton and Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa. These organisations offer our students their most realistic pathway to employment. Our secondary students will be participating in 'transition to work' excursions with these organisations throughout the year.
Promoting Cross-Cultural Understandings
This program has been designed by the school as an arena in which students can study non-Indigenous Australia and openly discuss cross-cultural differences and their implications.
Parnngurr Community School does not want our students to ignore or minimise the differences between their Martu culture and that of the mainstream. Our concern is that Martu students are often confronted with these cultural differences only when they are trying out for their first job where they are quickly discouraged and demoralised.
Cultural differences are openly discussed in our school right from the beginning grades. We also encourage students to learn about Australian mainstream culture and gain a deep insight into it.
An excursion to a major city is the culmination of these studies, with students keeping diaries and using their own cameras. They then discuss their observations with their teachers, in lessons that also develop English oracy and literacy.
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10-Jan-2010
In March we are heading off to the Gold Coast for our yearly cross-cultural excursion. |
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