Engaging Families to Support Indigenous Students’ Numeracy Development Abstract Indigenous children are performing poorly in mathematical skills compared to their non-indigenous counterparts in the classroom. Reasons such as unequal education opportunities and socio-economic factors have been put forward by education scholars to justify this statement. This paper will look at some of the learning and teaching strategies that can be used in Australian education to help indigenous students in improving their numeracy skills. https://yourhomeworkaide.info/2021/06/02/briefly-describe-an-organization-with-which-you-are-familiar-describe-a-situati/ The teaching and learning skills will revolve around engaging the families, improving the relationship between home and school, and bridging the cultural gap. The parents, the community and the educators have crucial roles in implementing these learning and teaching strategies.  Introduction Numeracy skills have been an issue in the academic endeavors of many students in Australia. More so the numeracy skills are relatively poor in indigenous students compared to non-indigenous; the achievement gap between indigenous and non-indigenous widen over time and there is worrying evidence that the size of gap in recent years has been increasing (Klenowski, 2009). Indigenous people have not been recognized in the constitution therefore they are living as immigrants in their own mother land; this means they have been sidelined in national development activities, such as education, making it difficult to close the achievement gap between them and non-indigenous people.  Many people use the word numeracy interchangeably with mathematical skills, even though related, numeracy is a broad field that involves mathematical skills, problem solving and communication skills. Numeracy goes beyond the learning process that is mainly employed in a school setting; numeracy involves the understanding of quantitative techniques that are used to communicate, solve problems, respond to issues and help in the day to day undertakings. It is almost next to impossible to achieve numeracy skills without literacy. Indigenous students have poor numeracy skills that are as a result economic, policy and pedagogical issues. The high levels of truancy and low performance can be attributed to the economic challenges that indigenous students undergo. Educational policies have not been able to provide a level playing grounds for indigenous and non-indigenous children, there has been unequal opportunities in terms of financing, tutelage and the curriculum. All these issues can be solved by engaging the parents and communities in the decision making processes on education issues especially those regarding indigenous students. https://intellectualessay.com/2021/05/08/mgmt2021-business-law-legal-systems-in-the-caribbean/ Literature Review Pre-schooling In order to improve the numeracy achievement gap between non-indigenous and indigenous s.

1. Engaging Families to Support Indigenous Students’ Numeracy
Development
Abstract
Indigenous children are performing poorly in mathematical
skills compared to their non-indigenous counterparts in the
classroom. Reasons such as unequal education opportunities and
socio-economic factors have been put forward by education
scholars to justify this statement. This paper will look at some
of the learning and teaching strategies that can be used in
Australian education to help indigenous students in improving
their numeracy skills.
https://yourhomeworkaide.info/2021/06/02/briefly-describe-an-
organization-with-which-you-are-familiar-describe-a-situati/
The teaching and learning skills will revolve around engaging
the families, improving the relationship between home and
school, and bridging the cultural gap. The parents, the
community and the educators have crucial roles in implementing
these learning and teaching strategies.
Introduction
Numeracy skills have been an issue in the academic endeavors
of many students in Australia. More so the numeracy skills are
relatively poor in indigenous students compared to non-
indigenous; the achievement gap between indigenous and non-
indigenous widen over time and there is worrying evidence that
the size of gap in recent years has been increasing (Klenowski,
2009). Indigenous people have not been recognized in the
constitution therefore they are living as immigrants in their own
mother land; this means they have been sidelined in national
development activities, such as education, making it difficult to

2. close the achievement gap between them and non-indigenous
people.
Many people use the word numeracy interchangeably with
mathematical skills, even though related, numeracy is a broad
field that involves mathematical skills, problem solving and
communication skills. Numeracy goes beyond the learning
process that is mainly employed in a school setting; numeracy
involves the understanding of quantitative techniques that are
used to communicate, solve problems, respond to issues and
help in the day to day undertakings. It is almost next to
impossible to achieve numeracy skills without literacy.
Indigenous students have poor numeracy skills that are as a
result economic, policy and pedagogical issues. The high levels
of truancy and low performance can be attributed to the
economic challenges that indigenous students undergo.
Educational policies have not been able to provide a level
playing grounds for indigenous and non-indigenous children,
there has been unequal opportunities in terms of financing,
tutelage and the curriculum. All these issues can be solved by
engaging the parents and communities in the decision making
processes on education issues especially those regarding
indigenous
students. https://intellectualessay.com/2021/05/08/mgmt2021-
business-law-legal-systems-in-the-caribbean/
Literature Review
Pre-schooling
In order to improve the numeracy achievement gap between
non-indigenous and indigenous students, it is imperative to find
the source of the poor performance. Indigenous children do not
receive early education or pre-school education compared to
their non-indigenous counterparts. According to Levine et al

3. (2010) quality pre-schooling experience helps in fostering
numeracy development. The numerical practices by indigenous
families are scarce during pre-school and research on
indigenous pre-school activities is scarce. Non-indigenous
students engage in many pre-school numeracy activities mainly
due to their socio-economic status; some of the activities that
they engage in are numerical talk, counting and labeling of
objects. It is believed that indigenous children do not begin
school with the same level of number understanding as other
children (Warren & de Vries, 2009).
According to McTurk et al (2008) in order to improve the
effectiveness of transition from home to school in children, and
to improve their success, the indigenous children need to have
access to formal ‘school-like’ setting. Children from indigenous
backgrounds need to be introduced to early education and pre-
school teachings. The indigenous families are the ones that can
make this possible by engaging their children in numerical
activities.
Equal opportunities
Numeracy skills are affected by motivation, school attendance
and engagement. For the low income earners, indigenous being
the majority, have low school turnouts. There are various
problems that are associated with indigenous children that are
poverty related such as lack of basic learning materials that are
important in understanding mathematical concepts, but
regardless of the problem, known or unknown, the fundamental
numeracy skills underlie the development of subsequent skills
(Baturo & Cooper, 2006); this may be the explanation behind
the growth of numeracy gap between the two groups when they
transition from primary to secondary school.
Implementation of policies might assist in reducing the number
of absentees in indigenous students. Some policies have

4. partially helped in the past. Welfare payments and parents’
responsibility to their children are some of the policies that
have tried to reduce absenteeism in schools (Purdie & Buckley,
2010). If students can interact more with the teachers and have
more learning hours, then they can reduce the numeracy skills
gap between them and the non-indigenous students.
Rich-poor gap should be reduced to improve education of the
underprivileged. One problem that is common to the poor is
health and an improvement in indigenous health will improve
their numeracy skills. Reduced illnesses will decrease instances
of absenteeism and increase concentration level in classroom.
According to King, Smith & Gracey (2009), the
Close the Gap
campaign that was initiated in 2007 is intended to improve the
health of indigenous people and close the life expectancy gap
between the two groups. An equal platform should be provided
for both the indigenous and non-indigenous children to foster
equal education opportunities.
Poor policies
The third reason for poor numeracy skills in indigenous children
is non-inclusive programs that discriminate on indigenous
students. Indigenous children and families speak Aboriginal
English which is not similar to Standard Australian English
(SAE) that is used in a school setting. Failure to incorporate and
to include student’s home language in the classroom may lead to
indigenous children feeling that their identity is being
threatened, therefore reinforcing the notion that school is a
foreign and unfriendly environment (Sharifin, 2008).
https://educatoressay.com/2021/05/08/sbm1201-project-scope-
time-and-cost-management/ It has been difficult for indigenous
learners because they are learning to speak Standard Australian
English and at the same time they are taught to read and write
it. There is lack of specialized educators who understand the

5. plight of indigenous children who assist them in the swift
transition from Aboriginal English to Standard Australian
English.
Watson, Partington & Gray (2006) singled out some attributes
that are associated with culturally inclusive schools that have
high achievement in indigenous numeracy skills. These
attributes include; motivating the students to take risks,
allowing students to make mistakes without victimizing them,
providing tasks to the children to build on what they already
know rather than introducing foreign tasks, valuing of both
Western and Indigenous mathematics, teaching and appreciating
diversity and conducive learning environment for all students.
Teacher preparedness
The education system in Australia is not responsive to culture
therefore compromising on the numeracy skills of indigenous
students. Culturally responsive teaching assumes that learning
will be promoted when concepts taught are placed within a
frame of reference that is meaningful to the student (Hayes,
2006). Some schools in Australia have disregarded cultural
differences in their system and this has alienated the indigenous
students. Enydedy & Mukhopadhyay (2007) state that theories
about culturally relevant teaching approaches in relation to
mathematics include a consideration of: content, purpose or
process. The parents should be included in the children’s
education as co-educators to help integrate the children’s
culture and build on their congenital strength; this will improve
on the process and reinforcement on the content taught.
Training teachers is one of the possible solutions to this
problem. Baturo & Cooper (2006) developed
Train a Maths Tutor Program
to train AIEO’s to support students’ learning in mathematics.
The program has enhanced self-efficacy and mathematical

6. knowledge relevant to indigenous numeracy teaching. Goos,
Lowrie & Jolly (2007) assert that investing in developing
partnerships between home and school can facilitate learning by
strengthening teacher-student relationships. A culturally
inclusive school environment should build the relationship
between parents, students and educators in order to understand
the cultural backgrounds better so as to implement better
teaching strategies for indigenous students. Success in
numeracy skills requires learning the specialized language of
mathematics which must be taught to students explicitly if they
are to progress further in mathematics (McDonald, Warren &
DeVries, 2011). Educators should close the gap in indigenous
language diversity to enable them to better understand concepts
taught in mathematical classes.
Critiques
There are few scholars who argue that there is equal
opportunities in Australian education system and the poor
numeracy skills in indigenous children should not be blamed on
this. For instance Rennie (2006) claims that indigenous children
participate in a number of numerical activities before joining
school such as hunting which requires a sense of position and
direction. The indigenous communities learn quantitative
concepts such as equality which they learn during sharing of
hunted preys. Butterworth et al (2008) claims that mathematical
skills are independent on the development language; for
example, children speaking Walpiri language are able to match
a number of disks to a number shown then hidden by an
experimenter.
There is no evidence that indigenous teachers are better teachers
for indigenous students (Penman, 2006). There should be a
campaign on better understanding of indigenous students and
culture instead of employing more indigenous teacher to assist
the indigenous students. As much as learning the culture of the

7. indigenous families is important, it is imperative to ensure that
the required numerical skills are imparted to the students to
improve their numerical skills.
A study carried out by Willis (2000) on learning outcomes
relating to numbers found out that Aboriginal students were
able to distinguish the number of items in a small collection
without being able to count. The research was inconclusive
because of a low significance level due to the small sample size.
Nevertheless, this research leads to the question of nature and
nurturing in learning. Some indigenous students are
mathematically talented from their birth while others are not;
this rule also applies to non-indigenous students. Therefore,
indigenous children are not that disadvantaged as people
perceive.
Analysis and Discussion
Speilman and Mitchelmore (2000) conducted a study on the
attitude of Aboriginal adult learners towards mathematics. The
study monitored the attitudes of adult Aboriginal students in a
year-long mathematics unit. One of the important results that
contributed to positive attitude towards mathematics was
community visits by the teacher. Students with positive
attitudes towards mathematics will have better numerical skills.
Educators should interact closely with the indigenous
community because there is a positive correlation between the
engagement and improvement in numeracy skills. The positive
correlation can be as a result of factors such as teachers better
understanding the culture and the hands-on approach with the
community.
Language needs for students are important in ensuring that
students understand whatever they are being taught in the
classroom. Many mathematics classrooms comprise students and
teachers from varying cultural backgrounds with potentially

8. different values (Bishop, 2002). Some Aboriginal students
speak their native language and Aboriginal English as their first
language which is not consistent with the Standard Australian
English (SAE) that is used for schooling purposes in Australia.
A mathematics class is more or less a linguistic class and the
indigenous students can understand it if it is related to
something they know or they are used to. Indigenous students
should be Standard Australian English in phases without any
hurry to complete the syllabus. Standard Australian English
should be taught with care and concern of the children rather
than accomplishment of the curriculum. Teachers should use
cultural symbols and activities that the Aboriginal people can
relate to; this creates a sense of confidence and a sense of
belonging.
The involvement of the community approach can be helpful by
the implementation of an Early Learning Initiative (ELI). A
good example of an ELI is the National Early Years Access
Initiative (NEYAI) in Ireland. NEYAI had a project which was
meant to help improve the numeracy skills of socially and
economically disadvantaged students. The project concentrated
on pre-school children that were 0-6 years. The project proved
that family characteristics largely influence the numeracy skills
of the children. Lalor (2013) stated that the children who were
in the program (NEYAI) performed at par with economically
advantaged students after a year in the program. Australia
should adapt and implement programs that enable indigenous
children access to pre-schools so that they can start developing
their numeracy skills early in life. The government, educators
and parents should join forces in coming up with initiatives that
will enhance numeracy skills of indigenous students early in
life.
A study by Stewart, Wright & Gould (1998) was carried out on
866 Kindergarten children on their arithmetic skills, 47 of the
children were indigenous. The results of the study showed that

9. students who joined the Kindergarten with high level of
numerical skills met or exceeded the syllabus expectations. This
study stressed the need for pre-schooling activities that enhance
numerical skills for indigenous children. This can only be
achieved through empowering of the families and community
members to teach their children while they are young.
Teachers should use appropriate mathematics curriculum and
teaching strategies to enhance the mathematical learning
outcomes of Aboriginal students (Howard, 2001). Teachers
should employ the use of small group work instead of individual
work especially to young children. Working in groups can be a
great component for success especially for the disadvantaged
students such as the indigenous students. The advantages of
group work far outweigh individual work in improving the
numeracy skills of indigenous students. The interaction of
students from different social and cultural backgrounds
increases the confidence, creates a sense of belonging and
enhances the different groups to appreciate each other’s culture.
Indigenous children are able to learn Standard Australian
English easily through interaction with non-indigenous students
which will improve their numeracy skills.
Non-threatening yet challenging pedagogy, combined with a
culturally inclusive curriculum should be used to enhance
Aboriginal students’ numeracy acquisition (Munns & Connelly,
1996). The teachers need to be aware of complex cultural
contexts that their indigenous students learn numeracy skills.
The tutors should be able to focus on the culture and activities
of indigenous people to identify how they can enhance their
mathematical abilities. To better understand the culture of
indigenous people then there should be collaboration between
the learning institutions and the wider indigenous community.
Indigenous students should be presented with numeracy subjects
that they are well acquainted with and these can only be derived
from their culture. The use of Aboriginal words and symbols

10. can evoke familiar concepts in the mind of indigenous children
if used in mathematics classes. Teachers should have high
expectations on the indigenous students in the classroom. To
develop the numeracy skills for indigenous children, the
educators need to combine both hands on and traditional
teaching methods.
Conclusion
In summary it is evident that indigenous children in Australia
have fallen behind their counterparts when it comes to
numeracy skills. Numeracy skills are involved with quantitative
techniques such as computational skills that can help students in
their employment and problem solving skills. Numeracy skills
are important and they affect the career choices of indigenous
children. Indigenous children are not able to choose favorable
careers and attain good pay due to their low numeracy skills.
The low numeracy skills are caused by inequality in the
education system where the curriculum does not favor
indigenous or underprivileged students. Teachers are not
adequately prepared and they are not able to inculcate the
indigenous community culture in teaching. Teaching and
learning strategies should be changed into student –centered
strategies: student centered strategies pursue individuals’
strengths and weakness, uses wide teaching approaches instead
of a single approach and gives the students’ equal opportunities
regardless of their ethical background. The tutors should
include parents and the community at large, of the indigenous
children, in the quest of improving the numeracy skills of the
children. There should be an improved relationship between the
parents and the learning institution; this will enhance a
collaborative effort in improving the numeracy skills of
indigenous children.