Why this website?
The idea of this website is to explore different aspects related to Aboriginal Studies and to build cultural awareness.
The main raison for this, is that in my two placements I felt that there was little or no emphasize on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders histories and cultures content, even tough it is part of the AusVEL cross-curriculum priorities in these four learning ares: Mathematics, English, Humanities and Science.
Also, I didn't have the opportunity to know or teach any member of these communities and therefore, it was difficult for me to implement most of the recommendations that we can find in the 'What works' work program document entitled 'Improving outcomes for Indigenous students, the workbook and guide for school educators'.
What I have noticed though, is that, except some 'dreaming stories interpretation signs' and the Aboriginal flag, there was almost no trace of acknowledgement of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultures and histories in the schools where I completed my preservice placement. This was not a surprise, in a way, as I have observed the same attitude towards our First Nations in Canada, a weird mixture of formal acknowledgement and day-to-day disregard, but it was still a shock to see that there was no real desire to enter in conversation with the 'other' Australia.
I think that is where this issue can be confronting for me. I was on placement for 5 weeks and, on one side, I had to learn how to teach English as an Additional Language, which is for myself a huge task as I needed to get confidence with myself and the content, and on the other side I could see that in the unit 3, Identity and Belonging, of the AusVEL study guide for EAL/D, there was no mention of Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islanders identity and belonging issues. Moreover, the teachers didn't suggest that I could add it nor did they were really interested when I suggested that we could use a text that explores these issues. I was a little bit reluctant after that to bring back the subject on the table. And yet, I was teaching a subject and topic where Aboriginal histories and cultures are a logical and natural component of the curriculum.
After my placement, I came up with a project to engage future EAL\D students in learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The idea was that there was only one point (from the recommendations of the website 'What Works') that I could work on with EAL students from abroad. That point was my own awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultures and histories. If I knew more about these cultures then I could transmit part of that awareness to my students through different activities such as the collaborative work of making a website that explores and celebrates the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultures and histories. Indeed, by asking my students to build a website, I could work to improve their English literacy and IT literacy while developing their awareness on issues of Belonging and Identity in these communities. It is in that thread of ideas that I decided to build this website as an assignment for the course 'Diversity in the Classroom'.
This website is named after William Edward Hanley Stanner's ABC Radio National Boyer Lecture where, after listing books on Australian history written in between 1939 and 1955, he observed that Aboriginal history wasn't discussed in most of the history books. As I realized that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders histories and cultures wasn't really present in the schools I visited, I decided to echo this lecture by naming this website 'After the Dreaming' and to treat the issues related to teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories content in the context of an EAL class. (Or in any other language class; this website could be translated or produced by the students in another language.) Finally, I could use this type of learning with Indigenous students, but I would have probably to adapt it so that it is relevant to their specific culture(s) and that it's not disrespectful to their culture(s).
The website is particularly adapted to the teaching of EAL/D, as it builds on a range of contemporary text forms and media for cross-curricula exploration of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander histories and cultures. It could also be used as a database of resources (literary, print media, video, musical, film) that could be used as a point of focus for text-based activities.
In other words, this website is a type of scaffold that I could use in my own practice and that students (mainstream, EAL/D or Indigenous) could use in order to build their English literacy and IT literacy as well as their awareness on Indigenous matters. A student could work on one of the different aspects of the website and add content to it or edit some other parts. For example, they could pick a singer or an artist and write their biography, filmography or discography. They could collaborate in the making of this tool that everyone in the school (students and teachers) could use or utilized. By doing so, we also celebrate and acknowledge the culture of indigenous students and ask the students to work together to create a tool that can be useful and meaningful to them. And this even though, there are no indigenous students in the classroom as students can get to know better the other cultures of Australia. It also, provides a nice tool to research texts, videos, audios and images that can be transferred into other subjects or learning areas (i.e. Maths, Humanities, etc.)
Finally, while making this 'website scaffold', I tried to cater for different type of learning by providing a lot of visuals, audio, video that would talk to students that are used to the Aboriginal Traditional way of learning through Art, Music and Story telling and to take advantage of web browsers 'text-to-speech' functions so that I would also cater for different type of learners. When possible, I also tried to put videos that had subtitles which gives a visual support to the language used in those videos and help EAL/D students or students with English learning difficulties. As possible this project would try to blend the two different approach to learning, the Western tradition and the Aboriginal Tradition, that would benefit to EVERY students in the classroom, aboriginal or non-aboriginal, EAL/D or English language as background learner or any variation or mix of these types of learners.
The idea of this website is to explore different aspects related to Aboriginal Studies and to build cultural awareness.
The main raison for this, is that in my two placements I felt that there was little or no emphasize on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders histories and cultures content, even tough it is part of the AusVEL cross-curriculum priorities in these four learning ares: Mathematics, English, Humanities and Science.
Also, I didn't have the opportunity to know or teach any member of these communities and therefore, it was difficult for me to implement most of the recommendations that we can find in the 'What works' work program document entitled 'Improving outcomes for Indigenous students, the workbook and guide for school educators'.
What I have noticed though, is that, except some 'dreaming stories interpretation signs' and the Aboriginal flag, there was almost no trace of acknowledgement of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultures and histories in the schools where I completed my preservice placement. This was not a surprise, in a way, as I have observed the same attitude towards our First Nations in Canada, a weird mixture of formal acknowledgement and day-to-day disregard, but it was still a shock to see that there was no real desire to enter in conversation with the 'other' Australia.
I think that is where this issue can be confronting for me. I was on placement for 5 weeks and, on one side, I had to learn how to teach English as an Additional Language, which is for myself a huge task as I needed to get confidence with myself and the content, and on the other side I could see that in the unit 3, Identity and Belonging, of the AusVEL study guide for EAL/D, there was no mention of Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islanders identity and belonging issues. Moreover, the teachers didn't suggest that I could add it nor did they were really interested when I suggested that we could use a text that explores these issues. I was a little bit reluctant after that to bring back the subject on the table. And yet, I was teaching a subject and topic where Aboriginal histories and cultures are a logical and natural component of the curriculum.
After my placement, I came up with a project to engage future EAL\D students in learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The idea was that there was only one point (from the recommendations of the website 'What Works') that I could work on with EAL students from abroad. That point was my own awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultures and histories. If I knew more about these cultures then I could transmit part of that awareness to my students through different activities such as the collaborative work of making a website that explores and celebrates the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders cultures and histories. Indeed, by asking my students to build a website, I could work to improve their English literacy and IT literacy while developing their awareness on issues of Belonging and Identity in these communities. It is in that thread of ideas that I decided to build this website as an assignment for the course 'Diversity in the Classroom'.
This website is named after William Edward Hanley Stanner's ABC Radio National Boyer Lecture where, after listing books on Australian history written in between 1939 and 1955, he observed that Aboriginal history wasn't discussed in most of the history books. As I realized that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders histories and cultures wasn't really present in the schools I visited, I decided to echo this lecture by naming this website 'After the Dreaming' and to treat the issues related to teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories content in the context of an EAL class. (Or in any other language class; this website could be translated or produced by the students in another language.) Finally, I could use this type of learning with Indigenous students, but I would have probably to adapt it so that it is relevant to their specific culture(s) and that it's not disrespectful to their culture(s).
The website is particularly adapted to the teaching of EAL/D, as it builds on a range of contemporary text forms and media for cross-curricula exploration of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander histories and cultures. It could also be used as a database of resources (literary, print media, video, musical, film) that could be used as a point of focus for text-based activities.
In other words, this website is a type of scaffold that I could use in my own practice and that students (mainstream, EAL/D or Indigenous) could use in order to build their English literacy and IT literacy as well as their awareness on Indigenous matters. A student could work on one of the different aspects of the website and add content to it or edit some other parts. For example, they could pick a singer or an artist and write their biography, filmography or discography. They could collaborate in the making of this tool that everyone in the school (students and teachers) could use or utilized. By doing so, we also celebrate and acknowledge the culture of indigenous students and ask the students to work together to create a tool that can be useful and meaningful to them. And this even though, there are no indigenous students in the classroom as students can get to know better the other cultures of Australia. It also, provides a nice tool to research texts, videos, audios and images that can be transferred into other subjects or learning areas (i.e. Maths, Humanities, etc.)
Finally, while making this 'website scaffold', I tried to cater for different type of learning by providing a lot of visuals, audio, video that would talk to students that are used to the Aboriginal Traditional way of learning through Art, Music and Story telling and to take advantage of web browsers 'text-to-speech' functions so that I would also cater for different type of learners. When possible, I also tried to put videos that had subtitles which gives a visual support to the language used in those videos and help EAL/D students or students with English learning difficulties. As possible this project would try to blend the two different approach to learning, the Western tradition and the Aboriginal Tradition, that would benefit to EVERY students in the classroom, aboriginal or non-aboriginal, EAL/D or English language as background learner or any variation or mix of these types of learners.