Transforming the Teacher in Indigenous Education

TED talks is a wonderful online resource, which shares videos from a global set of conferences formed to disseminate “ideas worth spreading”. At the independently organised TEDx conference, “Blood, Sweat and Ideas” held in Darwin in August this year, senior NT school teacher, Chris Garner, talked about just one of these ideas that we at the Honey Ant Readers absolutely believe is worth spreading.

Among many inspiring initiatives, he emphasised the importance of making schooling relevant to the context of the learners.

According to Chris, the missing element in the equation that dominates expectations in Australian education:

potential + effort = success

is “making school relevant to the context”

potential + effort + when content is relevant to learner’s context=success

Indigenous students are talented linguists with enormous potential. Making schooling relevant, with activities that make sense in real life and aligning success with what kids aspire to and their desired outcomes has ensured greater school retention and positive outcomes after school.

Recognition of the need for relevant and appropriate learning material is also a key aspect of the Honey Ant Readers program. The characters, scenery, language and way of story-telling in the books are familiar to the students. Indigenous learners can relate to them and engage easily with the text. Children  often see their own nana in the story, and nominate themselves or their friends as a particular student on the bus.

At the HAR, we believe that success breeds success, and if students feel engaged and confident in their reading, they will enjoy reading, they will want to read.

Following on from Chris’ equation, the Honey Ant Readers formula for reading might be something like:

relevant, fun, engaging  content + gradual scaffolding of vocabulary and decoding skills

=

motivation+ confidence+ success!!

To watch the video click here: Transforming the teacher in Indigenous Education