Language and Literacy Education in Remote Indigenous Schools

Abstract

<p>Language and literacy education for remote Indigenous communities has been an issue of concern for successive Australian governments and education systems for decades. Students in remote Indigenous communities are the most educationally marginalised in Australia, with many factors contributing to this marginalisation.<br/> Teachers of remote Indigenous students face the complex job of helping their students understand how the Western world operates and of guiding them towards 21st-century participatory citizenship. Literacy plays an essential role in that reorientation. This chapter focuses on language and literacy pedagogies, that is, on teaching and learning approaches used with remote Indigenous students to work on a range of language and literacy goals. To do this, we use a four-quadrant model developed by sociologist Basil Bernstein to make sense of different types of teaching approaches and their potential effect on marginalised students.<br/> After identifying the purpose and goals of language and literacy education in the 21st century, we introduce the remote Indigenous context, with its complexity of social, cultural and health factors that contribute to marginalisation and create challenges for even the most dedicated teacher. We then introduce Bernstein's four-quadrant pedagogic model. Bernstein's model provides a useful frame within which to reflect on some of the language and literacy programs which have been implemented in remote Indigenous schools in recent years. From within each quadrant, we have selected a program which has at some time held sway in remote Indigenous contexts and which exemplifies the approaches and pedagogic goals of that quadrant.</p>