Is a 'Western' education what Indigenous children need?

http://theconversation.com/learning-for-the-western-world-the-indigenous-education-dilemma-11326

It is well known that the Australian schooling system is currently failing to meet the needs of Indigenous Australian children all around the nation, particularly those who live in remote areas such as those in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. This in itself seems very hard to believe, considering that the number of Indigenous students in Australia numbers just under 170,000 (Fogarty, 2012b). Why then has Australia failed to meet their needs for so long?

The article in The Conversation begins with an extremely controversial view as to what needs to be done to lift the standards of Indigenous education:

Western Australian Indigenous Labor MP, Ben Wyatt, told a conference in Perth that Aboriginal children in remote communities need a “full Western education” …  He also suggested that parents must compromise on “cultural life” for the sake of their children’s economic futures. 

Ben Wyatt touches on something that is rarely touched on in public forums, especially by politicians- culture. The concept of culture, especially Indigenous vs. Western/white culture, is seen as a private matter. It is abstract, contested, and so sensitive that it is almost always avoided by politicians.

In theory, no matter what your culture, race, gender or socioeconomic status, all students should be able to have equal access to the curriculum. This is a very idealistic (and nice) view of how things should work in Australia, and in fact anywhere- but the reality is that this is not what happens. The suggestion here is that Indigenous culture is not compatible with the Australian ‘culture’, which is enacted and taught through the curriculum in Australian schools. Thus, they must sacrifice their culture and values if they wish to have a chance at educational and economic success.

It is true that Indigenous students may find it difficult to engage with the Australian curriculum, and there are many possible factors to this disengagement. Wyatt though, does not take an intersectional view of the issues at hand. He believes that by Indigenous families performing a singular action (‘compromising a cultural life’- whatever that means…) they will be able to engage with the Australian curriculum and its ‘western’ values.

This view is flawed and narrow-minded. There seems to be much literature being produced recently which promotes a ‘fix’ to Indigenous issues simply by fixing just one problem. For example, the Coalition’s policy for Indigenous Affairs suggests that if you force (or threaten) Indigenous children to go to school (by cutting family welfare payments if children do not attend school) this is going to lift Indigenous educational standards (see footnote 1).  There was also the report ‘Indigenous Education 2012’ released by the Centre for Independent Studies in which the researchers failed to grasp “the well-established causal relationships between systemic neglect, socio-economic disadvantage, geographic isolation and poor health with educational outcomes” (Fogarty, 2012a).

An intersectional approach argues that there are “simultaneously interlocking oppressions” at play in complex problems of society (Brah & Phoenix, 2004: 78). This means in wider society, issues such as power struggles are not attributable to just one ‘problem’, but many interlocking oppressions at the same time, such as race, gender and sexuality. Surprisingly, many politicians and policy makers are failing to take an intersectional approach and realise that you cannot solve educational disadvantage by ‘fixing’ just one singular issue. It is even more harmful and misguided to blame Indigenous culture itself. To say that one’s culture is not ‘compatible’ with western education and is to blame the victim for failing to engage with schooling, and is simply misguided.

Fogarty (2012b) ends with some useful suggestions as to how policy makers could begin to unravel the complex issue that is indigenous student’s educational disadvantage:

First, you need to make learning content engaging, accessible and culturally responsive with a school culture that supports this and builds on high expectations for all students. Second, you need to empower, support and engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to enhance their own learning capacity, while also building and sustaining teacher capacity. Third, you need coherent and localised approaches to evidence-based literacy and numeracy teaching. And finally a profound understanding of the importance of school-community partnerships. None of these observations are new, yet current policy approaches seem consistently unable to support such creative collaborations. (see footnote 2) 

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(1) See the Coalition's policy for Indigenous Affairs:

http://lpaweb-static.s3.amazonaws.com/Coalition%202013%20Election%20Policy%20%E2%80%93%20Indigenous%20-%20final.pdf page 3-5 deals with education

(2) See http://www.whatworks.edu.au/upload/1341805220784_file_SuccessinRemoteSchools2012.pdf 

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References:

Brah, A. & Phoenix, A. (2004). Ain’t I A Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality, Journal of International Women's Studies, 5(3): 75-86.

Fogarty, B. (2012a) Indigenous education report misses the big picture. Accesible at http://theconversation.com/indigenous-education-report-misses-the-big-picture-8024

Fogarty, B. (2012b). Learning for the western world? The Indigenous education dilemma. Accessible at http://theconversation.com/learning-for-the-western-world-the-indigenous-education-dilemma-11326