Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T03:32:23.784Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Why is Life so Hard for Aboriginal Students in Urban Classrooms?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2016

Merridy Malin
Get access

Extract

This paper is a report on a recent study of urban Aboriginal children at home and at school, in Adelaide. It will mostly describe the situation for just three of the students in one reception / Year one classroom, as they are representative of many Aboriginal students in the other classroom which was closely studied, and in classrooms whose teachers I interviewed, or who were observed by me. In other words, the situation that I am describing for Naomi, Jason and Terry is, I believe, similar to the situation for many young Aboriginal students in urban classrooms in South Australia. Naomi, Jason and Terry were three physically attractive, energetic, bright and curious five year olds. Outside the classroom they were articulate and confident but inside the classroom, by the end of the year, they were in the lowest academic group for their age, considered troublesome by their teacher, and were largely ostracised by their non-Aboriginal peers.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 9 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Coombs, H.C., Brandl, M.M. & Snowdon, W.E. (1983): A Certain Heritage: Programs for and by Aboriginal families in Australia. Canberra: Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies.Google Scholar
Eades, Diana M. (1982): “You gotta know how to talk…”: Information seeking in south east Queensland Aboriginal society. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 2, 61–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erickson, Frederick D. & Shultz, Jeffrey, (1982): Counselors as gatekeepers: Social interaction in interviews. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Harris, Stephen G. (1980/84): Culture and learning: Tradition and education in north-east Arnhem Land. Darwin: Northern Territory Department of Education, and also Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.Google Scholar
Kuper, Adam, & Kuper, Jessica (Eds). (1985): The Social Sciences Encyclopedia. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Malin, Merridy (1989): Invisibility in success, visibility in transgression for the Aboriginal child in the urban classroom: Case studies at home and school in Adelaide. University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.Google Scholar