2000 words

REFLECTION bout YOUR EXPERIENCE:

_ Assess (analyse) OWN UNDERSTANDING about the new KNOWLEDGE gained

_ USE such KNOWLEDGE (when embedding ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE): MATHS and PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE.

Sources of Knowledge:

Lectures:

Videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA3UsF8yyho

http://www.programs.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/content/

Stan Grant in Home Delivery https://www.facebook.com/ABCTV/videos/10156494607750543/

http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2014/04/14/3984995.htm ?

http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/you-cant-ask-that/LE1517H008S00 ?

http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/809594947886/first-contact (Not enough time --> good

example for attitudes of some European Australian about Indigenous people)

Trip:

Some Questions And Answers About Indigenous Peoples, Migrants And

Refugees And Asylum Seekers
Others:

https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2016/11/the-australian-dream/extract ?

https://theconversation.com/why-our-kids-should-learn-aboriginal-history-24196 --> Yes

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-publications/every-child-magazine/every-child-
index/every-child-vol-18-1-2012/indigenous-culture-everybodys-business/ Yes

Below is a summary of your thoughts following Kerry's presentation

Connect with community

Whole school approach
Build pride and identity
Visibility of Indigenous cultures in school and classrooms
Self-identified
What works with one child or in one school may not work with another
 Importance of creating a welcoming school/classroom environment
High expectations of all students
Investigate what problem might be and try to solve it
Importance of initiating program in negotiation with community
These are the groups' shared summaries of strategies used at the schools in

Readings?

BEFORE OWN UNDERSTANDING HOW: EMBED HOW: EMBED

ABORIGINAL ABORIGINAL PERSPECTIVE
PERSPECTIVE IN MATH IN PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE
As an international History of Australia and Having learnt about the Understanding of
student who came Indigenous Australian: inconvenient truth, I Indigenous history from
to Australia only realised that developing this course is definitely a
last year, my idea After studying this course, students correct great help for
about Australia especially after viewing understanding of about engagement with
history came from the First Australian the history of Australia indigenous parents and
mainstream media video, the speech about and the indigenous indigenous communities
in Vietnam and racism by Stan Grant and people is important to all in my teaching. By
Singapore about the Home delivery teachers, regardless of reflecting on what
countries such as video of Stan Grant, I our key learning area. As happened in the past, I
US or Australia. In realised that the real Stan Grant suggested, was able to clear myths
my perception, history was completely we are better than that that had been added to
these are mostly different and I gained an and it is important for my head about
empty before the entirely new image about future generations to indigenous people. I
European arrived. Australia as a country. understand the history so actually researched online
Although I knew Since my first country, that they can look at for links about correcting
there were some Vietnam, was invaded stereotypes/myths about myths and stereotypes
indigenous people many times throughout Indigenous people under about Indigenous
on this land before the history by China, different eyes. For communities. Being able
the European France and the US, I can example, they need to be to start my interaction
arrived, I thought relate and feel the story aware that racism against with Indigenous parents
there were of the Indigenous people Indigenous people were and communities with a
extremely few of in Australia. After a actively promoted by the head cleared of
them since hunter- thousand years of government, the media prejudices and a modest
gatherer lifestyle occupation by China in and even the education understanding of their
cannot support the first millennium, the system for many years. general history is very
large population. Vietnamese indigenous important for my teaching
My perception was culture existing before To integrate the history of their students. As an
that most of these the invasion was lost. into Mathematics, my example about myths, I
very few There were nobody learning area, I need to was told by my relatives in
indigenous people practicing such culture look for suitable
have been wiped even after Vietnam Mathematics contents
out by the gained independence such as time calculation,
European and the from China in the 938. timeline, etc. I think
number of The Chinese colonial discovery tasks would be
indigenous people government forcefully suitable for such content.
remaining today is erased that culture. And I For instance, I can give
negligible. can see that it was the students a group work of
same process done to the researching and drawing
Indigenous Australian a timeline of Australia
from British invasion in history. Different groups
Australian until recently will be asked to draw the
(or till now?). And later timeline from different
on, Vietnamese could perspectives such as
have experienced the events relating to
same They invaded our Indigenous people,
land and now they tell us events relating to
we are not Australian if population/demographic,
we did not win the two events relating to
independence wars politics, etc. In addition,
against France and the numbers about
US. Watching the videos Indigenous history can be
was very emotional to me included in small tasks in
since I can imagine this various lessons. For
could have happened to example, in a lesson
me, my family and my about average, I can give
people. an example Over 80
thousands years, before
the European came,
there have been 1.6
billion indigenous people
living on this land; If this
is equivalent to 2000
generations, how many
people were there on
this land per
generation?
Australia that Australian
government
acknowledged Indigenous
ownership of the land and
hence pay a sum of
money to the Indigenous
people every month as a
rent of the whole
Australia. I was told that
Indigenous people were
therefore born into an
endless flow of monthly
cash and many of them
were lazy due to lack of
need to support
themselves financially.
And that myth was used
to explain another myth
that Indigenous people
were mostly seen
dancing, singing, getting
drunk, etc. Although I did
not believe these stories
completely, they
influenced my perception
and I did not spend time
to research more into that
since I have never had any
personal interaction with
an Indigenous Australian.
Without learning this
subject, I wondered what
would happen if I interact
with Indigenous parents
and students with such
myths in mind. Having
researched further into
this matter, I came to
know of Pay the rent
movement, which is still
extremely far from
success. Moreover, by
knowing that experience
of Indigenous people
were very diverse and

In terms of Initially, through the anti-
experience with racism speech of Stan
Indigenous Grant, his schooling
students, I was experience in Home
lucky to have a Delivery and Terrys
very good schooling experience, I
indigenous student came to recognize that
during my Indigenous students
practicum last year. encountered a lot of
Therefore, I held challenges and difficulty
critical eyes toward in Australia school. Later,
myths of lazy through data of
Indigenous indigenous people in Face
students. the Facts, I gained a
better understanding of
many disadvantages that
indigenous students have
to face. I came to know
that indigenous students
were more likely to have
physical and psychological
health problems; to
experience discrimination
in general public and
justice system; and to
grow up in families with
poverty, unemployment,
difficult housing
conditions and
sometimes lack of
parents presence. I
realised that these
disadvantages have
resulted in a large
number of school drop-
out and a high percentage
of young native Australian
each
people/family/community
had a different story, I am
motivated to learn more
about their specific
circumstances and am
less leaning to generalise
about their cultures.
Having analysed the
issues, I think that
important actions include
breaking negative myths
about indigenous people
and promote respect for
indigenous culture and
cultural diversity in
general. To make these
progress during a
Mathematics lesson is
not difficult if I can be
creative and gain more
understanding of
indigenous cultures. For
example, in a lesson
about analysing,
interpreting and
presenting data, data
about indigenous people
can be used to break
popular myth about
danger of indigenous
people. As mentioned in
Face the Facts,
indigenous prisoners are
less likely to be convicted
for serious crime such as
homicide, sexual assault
and drug offences than
non-indigenous
prisoners. This is contrary
to a popular myth that
indigenous men are likely
to attack women and
children. This prejudice
was demonstrated in the
in juvenile detention. As First Contact program
poor education when a European female
achievement may celebrity said she would
produce low socio- be scared if she was
economic, I think that alone in a shopping
addressing the centre with many
disadvantages of indigenous men. As
indigenous students in another example,
classroom is also reducing indigenous arts can also
disadvantages of be included in
indigenous people in the mathematics lesson
society. From my view, about geometry.
this is an issue of high Students can do exercises
importance since to recognise geometric
Indigenous Australians shapes and patterns
are not only the most available in an
disadvantaged in indigenous artwork or
Australia but also one of symbol. In addition,
the most disadvantaged students can also have
indigenous group in the occasional outdoor trips
world (Australian during which they have
Government, as cited in chances to interact with
Mooney, 2016; Biddle and indigenous communities.
Taylor, as cited in For instance, practicing
Mooney, 2016). and understanding of
data collection, data
To understand this sample, census, types of
problem further, I have data can be learned
been reading about hands-on in a survey at
engagement and an indigenous
motivation of Indigenous community in an urban
students in Australia area. Such trips can be
classroom. On one hand, also be organised under
this progress revealed a interdisciplinary efforts
new misconception I so that students can
formed during learning learn about various
the initial part of the subjects in one trip.
subject. Since I saw
Indigenous people talking
about their experience of
discrimination in schools
and their negative feeling
about the past
indoctrination of Western
culture and cleansing of
Indigenous culture, I
thought Indigenous
students concept about
school, which is a
Western institution, and
academic performance
will be negatively
influenced. However,
after reading a few
articles about current
indigenous students in
school, I recognised that
their academic self-
image, engagement and
motivation to learn in
school were not different
to those of non-
indigenous students if
effect of socio-economic
factors is removed
(Mooney, 2016). Hence, I
came to conclusion that
low engagement and
attendance of indigenous
students were caused by
socio-economic
disadvantage rather than
by a cultural conflict
about perception of
schooling. On the other
hand, the study
suggested that
Indigenous students are
highly sensitive to
promotion of indigenous
perspectives, cultural
identity and cultural
diversity in school and
that these later two
factors have positive
influence on every
students engagement in
general. Therefore, I
noticed that I need to
foster understanding of
various cultures, including
Indigenous culture, and
make students feel good
about their culture in my
class.
Having understood that
low engagement of
indigenous students are
mostly associated with
their socio-economic
background, I did some
further research into the
impact of this factor,
especially in the case of
indigenous students. I
was shocked by the
circumstances mentioned
in the article because I
have never experienced
or heard about students
skipping schools because
of inability to pay for
home-to-school transport
(Baxter, 2016). I was also
not aware of families in
financial crises that stop
them from sending the
kids to school.
Beside the design of
classroom lesson, I will
also need to pay attention
to other efforts to support
students from families of
low socio-economic
status. This effort will be
beneficial for indigenous
students who are
disadvantaged by such
factor and also helpful for
students of other culture
group with similar
difficulty. Firstly, I will
advocate for strategies
that need to be
implemented as a whole-
school approach. These
include many methods
mentioned in the study by
Baxter (2016) such as
provision of breakfast,
snack and lunch,
uniforms, educational
equipment, permanent
transport for students in
need and financial
support. I will also
support involvement of
local communities,
including Indigenous
community, in these
programs. Secondly, I will
focus on things that I can
do on my own as a
teacher. For example, I
can call parents of
students who has low
attendance my class to
 know more about their
situations and the reasons
of the students low
attendance. Based on the
circumstance, I can act on
my own or ask for school
support. With these calls,
I can also support the
students self-study to
follow the class. To help
students with low
engagement due to
achievement gap in class,
I intend to have a free
tutoring session after
class in Friday afternoon
for students who struggle
with Mathematics
content. Small study
groups where capable
students/volunteers
support struggling
students can also be
organised if I can gather
volunteers. If
circumstances permit, I
will also provide sweet
snacks and transport for
students in need. As
mentioned in the Baxter
(2016), crises in students
family can sometimes be
short-term but low
attendance is habitual.
Support during occasional
crises will help students
to avoid such detrimental
habits.
Having read about My support for students
indigenous English as the literacy during
proud main language of Mathematics lesson may
indigenous Australians come in the form of a
and the low perception of few different strategies.
the dialect in official They may include
education system in preparation activities
 Eades (2013), I thought such as Frayer model,
that indigenous students in which students in
might have some pair describe an old
language difficulty in the concept with words and
classroom. Although such graphics. This is an
difficulty may not be as effective way to have
large as those who student refine their
learned English as a comprehension of
second language, I concepts through
thought it had writing down
contributed to definitions,
disadvantage of characteristics,
indigenous students. Such examples, and non-
thoughts were reinforced
examples of the
by my reading about the
concept in their own
NAPLAN reading gap
words (Urquhart and
between indigenous
Frazee 2012).
students and non-
Moreover, explicit
indigenous students in
teaching of
Baxter (2016). Therefore,
Mathematical
I believe that I need to
provide better literacy
vocabulary is also very
support during my important since
Mathematics lessons. Mathematical terms
often have meanings
that are different to
everyday meaning of
the words.

REFERENCES

Urquhart, V. & Frazee, D. (2012). Teaching Reading in the Content Areas : If Not Me, Then

Who? (3rd ed.). Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.