Links between the Bush School Experience and the Indigenous Education in Australia - Movie Review Example

Bush School DVD Analysis Name Institution A) Links between the Bush School experience and the Indigenous Education in Australia The history of Australian government policies and practices, and how it interacts with Aboriginal has depicted inequality of education in Australia. The effort by the Australian government to eliminate the inequality and perception has failed. All Australian have, including those leaving in the remotest parts of the country deserve a right to education. This is because education will allow them to be strong in two ways. The first thing is that education makes the Aboriginal children to be strong in their community culture. Secondly, the students will have sufficient skills that to enable them access equal opportunities with other children in future. Therefore, it remains a challenge for indigenous Australian remains the most principle challenges that face the nation. This is evident in the Bush School DVD where we see a large vast of land with its population lacking basic facilities of learning (Woodward, 2003, p. 278). There are no class rooms, teachers, and books among other learning facilities for the kids to learn. The region is an accessible due to inadequate infrastructures. The DVD depicts long standing issues within the indigenous people of Australia living in that remote area. For example, the mining town of Warrego is deserted after the mineral deposits are exhausted. The foreigners, who built infrastructures in this remote region, deserted the place, leaving the indigenous without resources. For example, kids like Grant have passion of going to school to know how to write and use computer among other skills. However, the learning conditions are unfavorable with no learning resources (Singh & Hoy, 2003, p. 520). This exhibit how there is variation in educational infrastructures and service delivery in Australia. Therefore, the common perception that there is a gap in education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians holds. It is clear that the government is not able to help the indigenous Australians to achieve equality in education. The “Bush School DVD” tries to address this considerable variation in standards of educational infrastructures within the nation. It also calls for the need to relentlessly adopt urgent approaches that can help in achieving the goals like Adelaide Declaration. B) How the Bush School Experience Help Students Physically, Emotionally, Socially and Academically The Bush school in Australia help the students to have healthy physical development. This is depicted in the DVD, where a group of indigenous Australian children play basketball after school. The Australian curriculum promotes both health and physical education under two interrelated categories: personal, social and community health category, and movement and physical category. These two categories provide a balance between the children’s health and movement related knowledge, skills and understanding. Under the category of physical and health development, the first thing the Aboriginal children get from the Bush school is protection against physical danger. Even though there are challenges in the remote areas of Australia, children get adequate nutrition and health care. When kids learn and play together, they build strong both physically and emotionally (Woodward, 2003, p. 278). In terms of social life, there is no child whose lifestyle differs from those of other children due to the geographical remoteness of the area. It is understandable that the geographical remoteness of a location play a significant role in shaping the kids’ experiences and how they spend their time, both in school and out of school. For example, indigenous people of Australian elders such as Mr. Collins Freddie hold firm to their traditions. They tell stories to children of the same age group during their free time. The Aboriginal people believe that culture, respect and family harmony are the fundamental elements of family life. They also believe in what they term, “child rearing and kinship maintenance”. To the Aboriginal, culture consist of a complex systems of obligations responsibilities, which bind kinship system members together through a very strong tradition. In Aboriginal community, respect reflects the belief that everyone within the community is worth of respect and it is required that everyone pay respect to each other. The community premises family harmony on the principle of reciprocity, which is a mutuality of expectation (Singh & Hoy, 2003, p. 522). In doing this, children grow while they are tightly attached to their Aboriginal culture despite acquiring modern skills. For example, Mr. K acknowledges the fact that Bush school is important because it helps their kids to learn how to write and use computers. However, he stresses on their strong culture, which these kids must grow with. After school, the Bush school students would either play in the field or listen to stories from the elders. Due to the harsh conditions in the area, the Bush school Aboriginal students must learn hoe to service in the region. They must learn how to hunt so that they can get their daily bread. Such trainings are mandatory for boy children (Singh & Hoy, 2003, p. 522). C) Comparison of Bush School Experience with Indigenous Education Even though Bush School and Indigenous Education have some aspects of similarities, there are sharp differences eminent between two systems. Indigenous education is applied in both remote and accessible areas. Both Bush school and town school students are exposed to indigenous education. In the Bush School, there are number early child wood risk factors that contribute to poor outcome in learning. These factors relates to the quality of education and care giving environment (Woodward, 2003, p. 277). Furthermore, these risk factors are influenced by the cultural characteristics of parents and the entire community. For example, the DVD depicts a community that have strong belief in cultural practices. Moreover, it depicts adverse conditions of living areas. As compared to normal indigenous education in places, which are accessible by the government, Bush School is completely inaccessible with no resources for the students to learn (Woodward, 2003, p. 200). Other factors include socioeconomic determinants, stress level, and support experienced by the family. The students who attend normal indigenous education in classes have access to resources like books, rooms for learning, and teachers who are paid by the government. Most bush schools are privately sponsored with limited resources. For example, after the mineral deposits at Warrego are exhausted, the company responsible for mining close their operation in the area. As a result, people desert the town including business men in the area. The Aboriginal, who are the indigenous people of the area become vulnerable without resources. If not for the voluntary work of Mr. Collins Baker and Sandra Baker, it would be difficult for the kids to access formal education in the Bush School. This depicts how the government of Australia have completely neglected the Aboriginal living in remote areas of the nation, despite the clear policies to protect the rights of everyone. On the other, the Aboriginal students receiving normal indigenous education get access to resources that the government offer to schools (Trigwell, 2000, p. 68). In terms of early learning experience, the students undergoing indigenous teaching practices are better placed as compared to their counter parts in Bush Schools. Since the former have sufficient resources, the Aboriginal students in such institutions are able to integrate their culture with modern education system. Contrary to this, their counterparts in the bush School have more exposure to culture than normal education system. Most of them are just struggling to know how to write and read. Some of the kids in the Bush School would like to know how to use computers, but they cannot because computers are not available. The Aboriginal kids learning in the Bush School interact more with the community’s cultural practises than how they do with their learning (Lovett & Parker, 2001, p. 270). From the statistical data of governmental and non-governmental inquiries such as SCRGSP 2003, all the indications show that the Indigenous Australians, especially the Aboriginals and disadvantaged. Furthermore, the indications show that these people are poorer than the normal poor people in Australia in terms of nature and the extent hardship experienced in most of their communities (Trigwell, 2000, p. 78). There poverty level is not only measurable in terms of income but also to access of adequate health care facilities, housing, roads, education, and justice among other essential infrastructures. Comparing normal indigenous learning with the Bush School as depicted in the DVD, the situation is worse owing to the fact that the Bush School have neither classrooms nor adequate learning facilities. Even though the image painted from the statistical data suggest a bleak future for the Indigenous Australians, other protective information such as those from the Centre for Communication Health in the year 2000 offer hope. These potential protective factors come from the consideration of the Aboriginal cultural practices and values, especially those regarding to family and childhood (Trigwell, 2000, p. 88). D) Recommended Support for Indigenous Students Learning in Class It is evident that there is a problem with accessibility of some Indigenous communities. However, most of the Indigenous communities in Australia are talented in different ways. Some of these people live in area where their children can access local school. Due to their strong cultural believes, as a teacher, one should respective the cultural perspective of Indigenous people in order to have mutual understanding and benefits. There are a number of indigenous people of Australia who have undergone through education system to become role models in the country’s universities. In order to increase the number of the Aboriginal students in the public universities, teachers should be friendly to them and the community at large so that they can have the vigour of learning (Woodward, 2003, p. 298). As a teacher, one should provide the indigenous people with a platform to exhibit the people’s culture in an environment that commands respect, since this is what their culture hold high. One should use the collaborative power of the Indigenous community to develop a cultural festival in order to showcase their cultural perspectives. One should try to obtain funding for an event, which can develop the indigenous community and their cultural perspective within the learning institutions in the area. In order to draw more students to the school, one should assist local school in learning more about the culture of Indigenous culture, and create new networks of support services in local schools. Teachers should demonstrate to the Indigenous community about extensive prior knowledge of the facilitators, and the significance of their culture and place in the nation. They should also develop the sense of respect for indigenous knowledge amongst the local community. This will trigger the parents to help their kids to understand the importance of learning (Doyle, 2004, p. 100). Within the Aboriginal community, schools and teachers need knowledge and skills to celebrate Indigenous cultures, thereby empowering local schools and teachers to embed their cultural perspectives in class rooms. Furthermore, local community need to see university as a welcoming and viable option for their future learning pathways. Consequently, this will develop the sense of connectedness to further their education. On the other hand, whole community fraternity should understand and respect the Aboriginal cultural practices in order to raise self-esteem and learning opportunities. This will also enhance pathways to reconciliation. By neglecting the Indigenous people of Australia, the country is wasting huge human resource with variety of talents. Despite their culture perception, the Aboriginal and other Indigenous communities in Australia deserve fair treatment from the government (Singh & Hoy, 2003, p. 492). References Doyle, S 2004, The Western Australian Aboriginal child health survey: the health of Aboriginal children and young people, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Perth. Lovett, A, & Parker, L 2001, ‘Victorian programs for young Indigenous people “at risk”’, paper presented at the Best Practice Interventions in Corrections for Indigenous People Conference, Sydney. Singh, GR & Hoy, WE 2003, ‘The association between birth weight and current blood pressure: a cross-sectional study in an Australian Aboriginal community’, Medical Journal of Australia, Trig well, J 2003. Childcare models and options in rural and remote Indigenous Communities, WA Council of Social Service, Western Australia Trigwell, J. 2000, Childcare models and options in rural and remote Indigenous Communities, WA Council of Social Service, Western Australia Woodward, R. 2000. ‘Families of prisoners: literature review on issues and difficulties’, Occasional Paper No. 10, Department of Family and Community Services, Canberra. Woodward, R. 2003, ‘Families of prisoners: literature review on issues and Difficulties’, Occasional Paper No. 12, Department of Family and Community Services, Canberra Read More