Thinking Outside The TankRed Dirt Curriculum: Reimagining Remote Education

Alice Springs, 19 September 2013

Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation

Goals:

1. To develop new ways to build resilience and strengthen regional communities and economies across remote Australia.

2. To build new enterprises and strengthen existing industries that, provide jobs, livelihoods and incomes in remote areas.

3. To improve the education and training pathways in remote areas so that people have better opportunities to participate in the range of economies that exist.

Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation projects

• Regional economies• Population Mobility and Labour Markets• Enduring Community Value from Mining• Climate Change Adaptation and Energy Futures

• Enterprise development• Aboriginal Cultural Enterprise• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Economies• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product• Carbon Economies in Remote Australia• Plant Business• Precision Pastoral Management Tools

• Investing in people• Pathways to Employment• Interplay Between Health, Wellbeing, Education and Employment• Remote Education Systems

http://crc-rep.com/research

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Remote Education Systems sites

Red Dirt Thinking

• Thinking grounded in the context of remote Australia• Thinking which reflects the vast openness of possibilities• The utopian of the ‘blue sky’ versus the pragmatic reality of the ‘red dirt’

• Today, we’d like you to get your minds dirty with some red dirt thinking!

Attendance vs NAPLAN Year 3 Reading Score, 2012very remote schools >80 per cent Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students (n=80)

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Our intention is to draw on the knowledge of those who have a stake in remote education….

• That’s you!• Before we begin (10 mins)

• Consent forms and information sheets• Authority to use image

• Structure of the session• Brief intro to the workshop and topics (15 mins)• 30 minutes of facilitated 4 discussion in groups• Report back (15 mins)• Q&A (15 mins)

We’re not looking for the magic bullet solution!

Key themes from the lecture

• ‘Anangu way’• Teaching language and culture• Anangu control• Learning deep in spirit, building confidence• Closing different gaps• Relevance: identity and belonging, histories• Knowledge exchange

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Four discussion groupsGroup 1: Power and strength

• If education opens doors, what do they open to and how could a RDC empower parents and students?

Group 2: Spirit and confidence• Is RDC at odds with the values and content of Australian

Curriculum, and is it possible for school teachers to build confidence and spirit?

Group 3: Immersion school• What would an immersion school look like and is it

achievable?

Group 4: Knowledge exchange• If experts are required to deliver a RDC, how should local

communities be included, and how could reciprocal relationships be nurtured?

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Overarching questions

• If RDC is a good idea, what do we need to do to make it happen?

• Consider each question from the point of view of:• Communities• Families and their children• Teachers and teaching• Schools• School leadership• Departments of Education and other administrative systems• School governance

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More about the RES project

Web• http://crc-rep.com/remote-education-systems

Would you like to receive our 6 monthly project update?John Guenther 0412 125 661John.guenther@flinders.edu.au

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