Knowing and teaching the indigenous other : teachers’ engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures

This is the first empirical study of teacher knowledge and classroom practice in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. It describes the construction of a survey instrument to measure non-Indigenous Australian teachers’ knowledge of Indigenous culture and place, frequency of everyday intercultural exchanges, and attempts to integrate Indigenous knowledge into classroom practice. Many teachers reported low levels of knowledge of Indigenous cultures, and limited encounters outside of school. While the cohort expressed dissatisfaction with pre-service training, exposure to pre- and in-service courses in Indigenous education correlated with higher levels of cultural knowledge and cultural engagement. Teachers with higher levels of cultural engagement were more likely to attempt to integrate Indigenous knowledges in curriculum and pedagogy

A formative evaluation of the Stronger Smarter Learning Communities Project. 2011 report.

This report is a formative evaluation of the operations of the DEEWR funded Stronger Smarter Learning Community (SSLC) project from September 2009 to July 2011. It is undertaken by an independent team of researchers from Queensland University of Technology, the University of Newcastle and Harvard University. \ud \ud It reports on findings from: documentary analysis; qualitative case studies of SSLC Hub schools; descriptive, multivariate and multilevel analysis of survey data from school leaders and teachers from SSLC Hub and Affiliate schools and from a control group of non-SSLC schools; and multilevel analysis of school-level data on SSLC Hubs, Affiliates and ACARA like-schools. \ud \ud Key findings from this work are that: \ud • SSLC school leaders and teachers are reporting progress in changing school ethos around issues of: recognition of Indigenous identity, Indigenous leadership, innovative approaches to staffing and school models, Indigenous community engagement and high expectations leadership; \ud • Many Stronger Smarter messages are reportedly having better uptake in schools with high percentages of Indigenous students; \ud • There are no major or consistent patterns of differences between SSLC and non-SSLC schools in teacher and school leader self-reports of curriculum and pedagogy practices; and \ud • There is no evidence to date that SSLC Hubs and Affiliates have increased attendance or increased achievement gains compared to ACARA like-schools. \ud \ud Twenty-one months is relatively early in this school reform project. Hence the major focus of subsequent reports will be on the documentation of comparative longitudinal gains in achievement tests and improved attendance. \ud \ud The 2011 and 2012 research also will model the relationships between change in school ethos/climate, changed Indigenous community relations, improved curriculum/pedagogy, and gains in Indigenous student achievement, attendance and outcomes. The key challenge for SSLC and the Stronger Smarter approach will be whether it can systematically generate change and reform in curriculum and pedagogy practices that can be empirically linked to improved student outcomes

Densities of Wintering Scoters in Relation to Benthic Prey Assemblages in a North Atlantic Estuary

During winter, molluscivorous sea ducks often form high density feeding flocks in association with patchily distributed prey, although few studies have documented the substrate and prey characteristics where sea ducks (tribe: Mergini) aggregate and thus what constitutes high-value sea duck foraging habitat. Sea duck surveys were conducted and benthic grab samples collected at sites with different benthic substrate characteristics to compare macroinvertebrate community assemblages in relation to densities of three species of sea ducks: (Surf (Melanitta peispicillata), Black (M. americana), and White-winged (M. fusca) scoters (hereafter oscoters when combined) during winter (2010-2011) in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, an urbanized estuary in the Northwest Atlantic. Overall, the highest densities of scoters (104 ± 17 per 0.5 km2) were found over sand substrates with homogeneous assemblages of infaunal prey. Significantly lower densities of scoters (21 ± 4 per 0.5 km2) were associated with mixed sand-gravel-mud substrates that supported epifaunal assemblages and patchily distributed infauna. Mean energy densities (kcal/g) were higher among infaunal (0.64-4.49) vs. epifaunal (0.17-0.53) prey. Overall biomass (g/m2) of polychaetes was higher in mixed substrates, and biomass of infaunal bivalves did not significantly differ among habitat type. However, infaunal prey may have been less accessible to scoters at sites with mixed substrates due to a barrier effect created by high-densities of epifauna with low energetic value. Thus, sand-substrate sites supporting infaunal benthic communities may provide high-quality feeding habitat for scoters wintering in the Northwest Atlantic. Understanding the influences of benthic habitat characteristics and macroinvertebrate prey assemblages on distribution of feeding scoters is particularly important for managing sea ducks in areas with increasing anthropogenic development in the coastal zone