Robyn Jorgensen

Challenges for teacher education: the mismatch between beliefs and practice in remote Indigenous contexts

The poor performance of Australian Indigenous students in mathematics is a complex and enduring issue that needs a range of strategies to enable success in schooling for these students. Importantly, large numbers of teachers in remote Indigenous contexts are new graduates who, although full of enthusiasm, lack experience. Similarly, many of them are unfamiliar with the demands and nuances of teaching in remote and/or Indigenous contexts. This paper explores the nexus between the beliefs and practices of teachers working in a remote, Indigenous region of Australia. In particular, it proposes that the discrepancy between beliefs and practices found in the reconnaissance phase of a design study is due to the teachers realising that they need to implement changed practices to enable students to learn but having little knowledge of what such practices may look like. This finding has implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education.

Both ways strong: using digital games to engage Aboriginal learners

Engaging Aboriginal learners in the school curriculum can be quite a challenge given issues of cultural and linguistic differences. Even more so, these differences can be expanded when the students are in their adolescence. Creating learning environments that engage learners, while providing deep learning opportunities, is one of the biggest challenges for teachers in remote communities. This paper reports on a reform initiative that centred on the use of a digital game, Guitar Heroes, in a remote Aboriginal school. It was found that the digital media provided teachers with opportunities for new learning spaces and resulted in additional unintended learning outcomes.

Language, Culture and Learning Mathematics: A Bourdieuian Analysis of Indigenous Learning

Indigenous students in Australia perform poorly on testing measures (MCEETYA, 2009). This is of national concern and a priority for government, as evidenced in the ‘Closing the Gap’ initiative (FaHCSIA, 2009). Geographical location and poverty compound issues of indigeneity, so that Indigenous students in remote locations are most at risk of performing poorly on measures of literacy and numeracy. In this chapter, I seek to challenge the orthodoxy that poor performances among remote/Indigenous students are a consequence of constructs of ability or learning difficulties per se. Rather, I seek to illustrate how the mathematics curriculum delivered to Indigenous students represents a particular cultural form. This is particularly poignant as Australia moves to a national curriculum (National Curriculum Board, 2008). The difficulties in learning mathematics experienced by many Indigenous students can be thought of as a confrontation of language differences (and, by implication, culture). From this perspective, coming to learn mathematics is about ‘cracking the code’ through which mathematical concepts and processes are embedded and relayed, so that learning difficulties are viewed as structural difficulties rather than individual difficulties. By reconceptualising the ‘learning difficulties’ experienced by Indigenous learners in mathematics/numeracy, a more inclusive approach to educational reform can be envisaged and enacted.

Curriculum reform in remote areas: the need for productive leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on research into the challenges for leadership in implementation of a new curriculum in a remote region of Queensland, Australia.Design/methodology/approach – Data for the research were gathered through an online survey and semi‐structured interviews with teachers and principals involved in the reforms.Findings – Results show that there were substantial differences in the views of teachers and principals in their perceptions of the implementation process. The vast differences in the implementation strategies and leadership approaches between the schools suggested that the effect of the reform on leadership practices was more positive in schools in which elements of productive leadership were present.Originality/value – This research highlights the importance of leadership throughout reform processes, particularly in terms of the different experiences and perceptions teachers and principals have during the policy implementation process. As a result, this pap...

Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices in Teaching Mathematics in Remote Aboriginal Schools

The most critical factor in the provision of quality learning is the teacher (Hayes, Mills, Christie, & Lingard, Teachers and schooling: Making a difference. Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, 2006). In the remote Aboriginal schools of the Kimberley, many of the teachers are new or recent graduates. These teachers are generally vibrant and enthusiastic, but they often lack experience and are unfamiliar with the demands and issues of teaching in remote and Indigenous contexts. In our project we found that these teachers had beliefs about pedagogy and mathematics education that were commonly positive and desirable, but they did not regularly demonstrate these beliefs in their classroom practice. Rather than seeing this discrepancy as problematic, we viewed their beliefs as aspirational, and as such they provided the impetus for development and pedagogical reform. Indeed, the data suggest that as the project progressed, the teachers were more able to put into practice some of their espoused educational beliefs.

The tyranny of remoteness: Changing and adapting pedagogical practices in distance education

Abstract Distance education (DE) learning environments are considerably different to those of typical classrooms where students engage on a face-to-face basis with their teachers and peers. In remote settings these face-to-face opportunities are limited and sometimes non-existent. This investigation focuses on the infl uence of new technologies on the pedagogical practices of teachers and their students in remote DE settings. A place pedagogy framework was utilised to consider the changed practices of DE teachers using satellite communications for lesson delivery. Findings of the study detail the initial hopes and aspirations of these teachers, the realities of their new practice and the challenges and demands of teaching in DE settings.

Exploring Scholastic Mortality Among Working-Class and Indigenous Students

Using Bourdieu’s theoretical framework, it becomes possible to theorise the ways in which school mathematics operates to create a form of symbolic violence for those students who do not speak the dominant discourse of mathematics. By providing a number of examples, the chapter explores the nuances of school mathematics discourse and how it operates to exclude students from participating in the discursive interactions that make up the teaching practices, and how this ultimately limits access to the field. In so doing, the myth of ability prevails so that those who enter the field with the forms of culture recognised and validated within the field are more likely to be constructed as effective learners of school mathematics

Innovative and Powerful Pedagogical Practices in Mathematics Education

Powerful and innovative pedagogical practices are necessary for all students to learn mathematics successfully and equip them for the future. In this chapter, we review Australasian studies that provide evidence of pedagogical practices that support creative and flexible mathematical thinkers for the 21st century. The review is structured around three key themes that were evident in the research literature. The first theme is the need to develop innovative learning environments that benefit all learners. The second theme is centred on how both tasks and tools can be used to support powerful pedagogical practices. Finally, the third theme reviews the challenges of developing innovative mathematical learning environments. We argue for the need for effective pedagogy for all learners and a need for ambitious, future-focused teaching in mathematics education.

Digital Games and Mathematics Learning

Digital games offer enormous potential for learning and engagement in mathematics ideas and processes. This volume offers multidisciplinary perspectivesof educators, cognitive scientists, psychologists and sociologistson how digital games influence the social activities and mathematical ideas of learners/gamers. Contributing authors identify opportunities for broadening current understandings of how mathematical ideas are fostered (and embedded) within digital game environments. In particular, the volume advocates for new and different ways of thinking about mathematics in our digital ageproposing that these mathematical ideas and numeracy practices are distinct from new literacies or multiliteracies. The authors acknowledge that the promise of digital games has not always been realised/fulfilled. There is emerging, and considerable, evidence to suggest that traditional discipline boundaries restrict opportunities for mathematical learning. Throughout the book, what constitutes mathematics learnings and pedagogy is contested. Multidisciplinary viewpoints are used to describe and understand the potential of digital games for learning mathematics and identify current tensions within the field. Mathematics learning is defined as being about problem solving; engagement in mathematicalideas and processes; and social engagement. The artefact, which is the game, shapes the ways in which the gamers engage with the social activity of gaming. In parallel, the book (as a textual artefact) will be supported by Springers online platformallowing for video and digital communication (including links to relevant websites) to be used as supplementary material and establish a dynamic communication space.

Language, culture and access to mathematics: a case of one remote Aboriginal community

For many students, coming to learn mathematics is as much about the pedagogical relay through which concepts are conveyed as it is about the mathematics per se. This relay comprises social, cultural and linguistic norms as well as the mathematical discourse. In this study, I outline the practices of one remote school and how the teaching practices scaffold Indigenous learners whose home language is different from the language of instruction (Standard Australian English) as they come to learn mathematics. Through various strategies, teachers have created positive learning environments that celebrate the home languages of the students while supporting the transition into Standard Australian English and the discourse of mathematics.