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What to pack - The principal of Cherbourg State School runs through the list of essentials for teachers when heading to an Indigenous community (available free online) |
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As the summer holidays come to an end, most teachers and children are contemplating a return to school. Some teachers have to pack their bags and move to new schools, and some have to pack to move to new communities. This year, several teachers are packing their bags to commence 2005 teaching at Cherbourg State School in Queensland. Cherbourg State School is an Indigenous community school, and this would get some wondering about whether or not there is something different they should pack into their teaching bags. It is hoped that this article will provide some insight into the ‘essential items' teachers should bring in order to be successful in an Indigenous community school. This information is not terribly scientific, but rather is based on very practical advice given to new teachers to Cherbourg State School over the last six years. Given the good progress of the school in that time, it seems quite valid.
Firstly, it might be good to start with what not to pack. You should not worry about packing in an extensive knowledge of Indigenous culture and Indigenous cultural issues. In fact, it doesn't even matter if you have never met an Indigenous person. You must, however, be prepared to pack this in when you get to the community. It is crucial to develop an understanding of where children are coming from if we are going to develop a productive teaching and learning relationship. Like many schools in the country, a teacher must be prepared to get out of the classroom, out of the school, and into the community. As I have said to teachers coming to Cherbourg, there is no university, or professional development session, or textbook, that can provide a meaningful insight into the context of Cherbourg and its children. The only place one can get such an insight is in the Cherbourg community itself.
Teachers should also leave well behind any sense of belief that underachievement, school absenteeism and poor behaviour is somehow an ‘Indigenous thing', because it certainly is not. Often though, many teachers have found it easier to explain such issues by laying the blame on the cultural and social complexities of Indigenous children and their communities. In our school, teachers made significant progress by refusing to point the finger outwards, and rather, reflecting inwards and asking themselves the hard questions like, ‘What is it that I'm doing that is contributing to such underachievement and what is it about my classroom that I must change to improve outcomes, attendance and behaviour?'
These are daunting questions and sometimes it's easier to think, ‘Well if they are not going to make an effort, why should I?' The answer is this: we, as educators, have a responsibility to be in a relationship with these children; therefore it is clearly incumbent upon us as professionals to ask such difficult questions and respond to what we discover.
So what do we pack then?
Here are a few items that are ‘absolute essentials'. They are quite simple, yet quite complex.
First and foremost, we must pack in the belief that Indigenous children can learn and achieve the same educational outcomes as any other child from any other school. If we genuinely do not have this belief, then, quite frankly, we should not be going in the first place.
We should also pack in high expectations of the Indigenous children we will teach. Implicit within this is high expectations of ourselves as educators and what we can achieve with our children. As Michelangelo said:
Having high expectations and not achieving them is much less tragic than having low expectations and achieving them.
Even if you aim for the moon and miss you still land amongst the stars!
In Indigenous communities and their schools, it's always crucial to pack an open mind. Often the students will be quite different to what many educators are accustomed to, and we must be careful that we don't measure them with the yardsticks that we use to measure non-Indigenous communities. As new teachers to Cherbourg quickly discover, the children are extremely inquisitive about their personal lives and ask many questions that non-Indigenous children wouldn't think to ask. Many teachers have been disarmed by little dark faces with big brown eyes looking up and asking questions like:
Have you got a woman/man?
How many kids have you got?
How come you haven't got a woman/man?
As you will discover, there is no hint of malice in such questions, but rather a genuine curiosity about you and, more importantly, a process of ‘sussing you out', to see just how receptive you are to them.
We should also be open minded enough to embrace Indigenous education workers as co-teachers in our classrooms with a wealth of knowledge about the children and the community context. Such knowledge is of potentially more value than the knowledge we bring in with our flash tertiary degrees. Sadly this is one mistake that many new teachers make, particularly when both schools of knowledge, when blended together, make for an extremely powerful teaching and learning combination.
If you were sent to teach in our school, you would also be required to bring with you a sense of boldness. As we say, if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. It is time that we got something different in Indigenous education. As principal of our school, I tell my teaching colleagues that I would rather see them try something different and fail, than do the same thing over and over to get the expected results that we know are questionable. I would also prefer to see teachers that are prepared to completely throw their planning out and start again if they know it is just not working. This is a hard, but essential thing to do sometimes.
Actually, teaching in any Indigenous community is really hard work. The most crucial nexus though is always the teacher–student relationship. If the relationship is mutually respectful and positive, and each knows where the other is coming from, then there is significantly enhanced scope for learning. In fact, sometimes it's as simple as: if a teacher decides that a child will learn, the child will learn.
So there you have it. A few simple, yet complex things to pack on your way to an Indigenous school. It is worth reiterating these ‘essentials': a belief that Indigenous children can learn; high expectations; an open mind; and a sense of boldness. (It wouldn't hurt to throw in some professional integrity, lots of passion, and preparedness to do ‘whatever it takes' to make that thing go ‘clunk' inside a child's head.)
On reflection, these are things that a great teacher would pack, regardless of where they are going. So if you're a teacher packing to go to an Indigenous community, don't go there to ‘save', to nurture a sense of victim status, or to feel sorry for Indigenous children. Go there to enjoy the privilege that it genuinely is. And most importantly, go there to be a great teacher.
Chris Sarra
Principal
Cherbourg State School
Queensland
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Last Updated ( Monday, 12 September 2005 )
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