Adam Roy Goodes

The discourse of whiteness has severely impacted on the educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (herein referred to as Indigenous Peoples). The discourse is based on an ontology founded on overt racism, discrimination, prejudice, exclusion and dispossession and towards all Indigenous Peoples. Subsequently, the history of Indigenous Peoples experiences in relation to education is extremely negative. They have been denied the right to the same education as non-Indigenous students, frequently expelled and continually forced to deny their cultural identity. The discourse of whiteness has resulted in pedagogies and pedagogical practices that are overly racist and not inclusive of Indigenous Peoples culture. To improve future educational outcomes it is necessary to decolonise Australia and rewrite the curriculum so that it is inclusive for all students.

This essay will analyse the contested concepts of social inclusion and exclusion in education. While there are numerous social groups whom experience the impact of educational inclusion and exclusion the essay will particularly focus on what these concepts entail for indigenous students within the Australian schooling system. The essay will examine the multifaceted nature of social inclusion and exclusion in education by utilising the contested grounds, which substantiate debate surrounding these concepts. Relying on a number of academic literature and evidence to explore discourse surrounding how policy which governs institutions, pedagogy and curriculum, has constituted social inclusion and exclusion within Indigenous contexts. As well as how intergenerational experiences and issues have disadvantaged the outcomes of Indigenous students in engaging in a ‘Eurocentric’ education environment. Concluding the essay will discuss practical suggestions, which would in theory enhance the effectiveness of the current education policy and teacher practice towards including indigenous cultures and learners within the classroom. Considering mechanisms to increase the potential to include and engage a broader scope of indigenous learners across the board.

Adam Goodes is an Indigenous Australian famous for being a player for the Sydney Swans team in the Australian Football League (AFL). Being a well-known AFL player and also winning Australian of the year for his charity work with indigenous youth, Adam Goodes can be considered as a high profile Indigenous person. Throughout his career, he has used his status as a platform to address racial discrimination towards indigenous peoples within Australia, as he himself has received public discriminatory racial slurs. Through sport and community work – Adam Goodes has transformed indigenous culture, by challenging its race relations and empowering the next generation of Indigenous role models. Indigenous Australians continue to have an ongoing resistance to the processes of colonisation and also of emphasizing an indigenous presence within Australia.

Moreover, educators are implicated within this negative sphere, were potential racist behaviour manifests itself through their pedagogy, associated with their attitudes, comments and learning expectations and thus, impacting upon Indigenous students educational outcomes, as well as self wellbeing. Racist attitudes are cast by the stereotyping of students as poor academic achievers, handicapping them from the beginning, were the only avenue out of this cycle is it abandon it and to continue on a path of self destruction. A disproportionate access to resources, in terms of social emotional positive responses from the teachers has the adverse impacts on students self esteem and their ambitions. It has been shown that social exclusion leads to trauma and to states of deprivation of people which in turn generates psychological distress.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

Stan Grant’s speech ‘Racism and the Australian Dream’ (2015) effectively reminds the Australian population of the racism and harsh inequalities indigenous Australians have faced in the past and still face today. In reminding us of this reality, Grant engages us to discover issues of civic participation in Aboriginal people and in doing so perpetuates a need for social change. More?

In this essay we will try to provide a brief overview of educational issues of Aboriginal communities in Australia and Victoria and the elements that influence the educational outcomes of young Aboriginal people, such as culture and contemporary challenges. In addition to this, the inclusion of Aboriginal content in the Victorian curriculum and classroom practices will be explored as well as contemporary government policies.

Chester Alan Arthur was born on October 5, 1829, in Fairfield, Vermont. Arthur and his seven siblings lived in the United States and Canada during their childhood.

Teachers in Australia have the responsibility of catering to the learning needs and abilities of the students in their classroom. Additionally they are also responsible for catering to the unique cultural backgrounds of each student, in particular the cultures of Indigenous Australians. The teacher can cater to the diverse and complex Indigenous cultures by creating a learning environment that is based on effective student engagement for Aboriginal students. Studies have shown that Aboriginal students are currently not academically achieving as well as non-Aboriginal students (What Works: Core Issue 5). Closing the academic performance gap is considered a national priority. As a result, the Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework has been developed to ensure that schools are delivering the best possible education to all students, specifically those who identify as Aboriginal. During term 3, 2017, I completed my final practicum at Baler Primary School in a year 4 classroom. The students in my class came from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds, many of which identified as Aboriginal. Throughout this essay I will use examples from my final practicum at Baler Primary School in South Hedland to discuss how to make learning engaging, accessible and culturally responsive for Aboriginal students.

Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the curriculum has now become a high priority amoungst schools across the nation. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2013), recognises “that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority is designed for all students to engage in reconciliation, respect and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures”. By including this, the curriculum will continue to see Indigenous culture throughout school become part of the norm. Furthermore Indigenous Australian perspectives can and should be included in the classroom and any barriers that arise can be overcome.

This paradox is not just affecting low-income and minority students, but also students in non-minority groups as well. When there is no time for focus on skills that students need to participate in social change, these students will not learn to question practices within society or to work with other students from all different groups and backgrounds in order to effect change. Classes in schools which may contribute to multicultural education, such as social studies and foreign language, are being cut completely in order to spend more time on reading and math (Au, 2009). According to Au (2009), since multi-cultural anti-racist perspectives and content are not deemed legitimate by the high-stakes tests and classroom standards, the end result is that multicultural, anti-racist content and perspectives and not being included in the instruction time or curriculum. This reinforces the notion for white students that they are the dominant group in society, and works against the goals of multicultural education.

Cathy Freeman was born on February 16, 1973 in Mackay, QLD. (The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica, 2017). Cathy has achieved quite a lot in her life thus far, and is an inspirational figure for many Indigenous, and Non-Indigenous Australians. Her legacy is still recognised as a hero today.

In contemporary print media there is an evident support for the various actions taken by Adam Goodes to challenge prejudice. Many images of Adam Goodes show him as a successful and proud man this is seen in an image published in the Herald Sun on the 2nd of August captioned ‘Scenes of support for Adam Goodes at weekend football game.’ In this image we see a non-indigenous man, at the football, holding up an Aboriginal flag. This follows on to the fact that Goodes’ actions are reaching out to the wider community and that he is successfully challenging prejudice. Goodes has been represented fairly in print media through images of the success of his actions

He was born on 15th of July 1836 in Eglin, Scotland. Adams father was James D Leslie he was a tailor in Eglin, Scotland and owed a business. His mother was Margret H Simpson, Adam was one of nine children and his family was very close to a well-known family the Dixsons.

After years of oppression and little change, internalized oppression is becoming detrimental to the growth of the next generation. Society leaves little room for change as these groups’ begin the cycle of self-hate and stereotypes that have been placed on them by society. The youth grow up surrounded by a world that is against them from the beginning. Racism, oppression, and discrimination have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing among these people. A study on how racism has affected the Aborigines in Australia, shows that this group experiences a substantial health disadvantage compared to the rest of the Australian population. Aboriginal youth who experience racism are at