‘Home-grown gifts’Our Victorian story.

Identifying and catering for the Gifts and Talents of Indigenous Students in

Victoria.October 23, Adelaide 2009

Presenters

• Delsie Lillyst is a Gunditj-Mirring Traditional Elder through her mother’s people, the Gunditjmara in south-west Victoria. Her father’s people are the Boonitj-Iwaidja clans from the East Alligator River area of north-west Arnhemland.

• Dr Susan Nikakis (Catholic Education Office Melbourne) Gifted education officer.

Outline

• Acknowledgement of Caurna

• Identification measures specifically related to indigenous students

• How many indigenous students are formally identified in Victoria? Deficit model

• Issues in assessment of gifted Indigenous Australians

Outline continued

• The underachieving gifted Aboriginal student. (Coolabah)

• Correlation between international research on minority groups (use Cathcart)

• Optimizing the learning of gifted Aborigininal students. Initiatives for the future.

Opening philosophy

• Giftedness is not the prerogative of any racial, ethnic, social class, or any residential area. It may lie untapped in some and under some conditions, but no populatiion has either monopoly on or any absenvce of talent. (Passow, 1972)

Challenges

• Aboriginal students throughout Australia are chronically underrepresented in programs for the gifted.

• Victorian teacher are not being made ware of the specific learning styles of Indigenous students.

History

• Before European settlement, Aboriginal people lived in undisturbed isolation for a staggering period of time. During that period or time a rich culture and unique intelligences evolved, with aptitudes shaped by environments and lifestyles.

• From the beginning, the various Indigenous tribes valued gifts in their people and prepared their special dskills and knowledge in areas such as healing, lore, storytelling, religion. Music. Crafts, hunting tracking, navigation and kinship.

Identification measures specifically related to indigenous students

• Research has shown us beyond any doubt that similar numbers of students with exceptional abilities are found in all cultural groups. ( NZ Treaty of Waitangi Network)

• Yet very few of our Indigenous students are recognised in our schools as having exceptional abilities.

Traditional Identification methods failing our Indigenous

students.

• To identify gifted students from a minority culture we need to;

• Discover the skills and knowledge valued by their culture and then

• Look for these students who are displaying high levels of ability in those areas.

Cartoon

• What generalized conclusions can we draw from the following NAPLAN graphs in relation to Indigenous students?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Year 3 Literacy Quartiles

Year 3 Literacy Quartiles 2007

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Low est

Third

Second

Highest

Year 3 Numeracy Quartiles 2007

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

Low est

Third

Second

Highest

(Mark Rose) called this the ‘silent apartheid’.

• It is time for the knowledge apartheid gap to be recognised and then consigned to history. It is time for the place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders culture and tradition in this country to be acknowledged through the curriculum –to be brought back from the fringe, into this millennium.

Interesting African American correlation

Something to think about

Our traditional identification procedures have failed abysmally in identifying the aboriginal students with exceptional abilities. This is because ‘People are most likely to display high levels of ability in skills that are highly valued by their culture.’

Therefore;

To identify gifted students from a minority culture we need to; discover the skills and knowledge valued by that culture and then use the bicultural and multicultural inventories which have already been developed for this purpose.

Case study

• An example of good practice at Parade College

Something to ponder

If our concern is to bridge the gap between cultures, it may help us to remember that a bridge is always designed to be crossed in two directions, even if not always at the same time.

Checklists for the Identification of Gifted and talented

Aboriginal Students.

• (Acknowledgement: Renzulli et al, 1976)

• See hanouts attached

Interesting African American correlation

• Schools in the USA have difficulty attracting and keeping the best and brightest teachers as the indigenous schools are often geographically isolated.

• These teachers often use the ‘Ravens Coloured Progressive Matrices’. (chosen as it is non verbal nature)

How is the Coolabah different?

It seeks ‘to determine the learning potential of an individual. Rather than to establish long term cognitive change’.

Test notion replaced with sense of fun.

Feedback is given leading to self efficacy development.

Identification/Testing

• The NSW Coolabah dynamic testing is one outstanding example of appropriate identification for Indigenous students.

• Victoria does not differentiate between gifted identification tests so we are comparing apples with oranges.

Definition hindering identification

• Gifted Aboriginal communities understanding the term giftedness in a variety of ways.

Identification for all gifted students must be multifaceted.

Melbourne Declaration

Challenges

• One way understandable, but undesirable outcome of the unrecognised masking of gifts and talents id that teachers may develop unrealistically low expectation of a students academic potential and abilities.

Something to ponder

• If our concern is to bridge the gap between cultures, it may help us to remember that a bridge is always designed to be crossed in two directions, even if not always at the same time.

Therefore;

To identify gifted students from a minority culture we need to; discover the skills and knowledge valued by that culture and then use the bicultural and multicultural inventories which have already been developed for this purpose.

Something to think about

Our traditional identification procedures have failed abysmally in identifying the aboriginal students with exceptional abilities. This is because ‘People are most likely to display high levels of ability in skills that are highly valued by their culture’.

Masking Aboriginal Giftedness

• Aboriginal students often present differently from the stereotype. They need different checklists for identification of Gifted and Talented Aboriginal students.

Identification

• The Harslett Rating Scales and Peer Nomination Inventory was developed through extensive consultation with Indigenous adults and students in Western Australia.

• Non verbal tests are used occasionally in Victoria (Ravens Standard Progressive Matrices) has international support as culturally sensitive.

• Provision of targeted support to address the learning and developmental needs and mobilize tailored services from outside the school

And by;

• Attracting high quality principals and teachers to remote Indigenous areas,

• Establishing an intergraded child and family centre where there is a significant Indigenous population.

Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for young Australians (December 2008)

Committed to:

• Improving educational outcomes for indigenous youth…How you might well ask? By:

• Providing increased access to quality early childhood education programs for Indigenous students.

Culture specific information and community participation

• Teachers must be made aware of culturally related issues and information and they must design appropriate curriculum and delivery strategies.

Learning is:- Informal- Person orientated- Imitative