Presentation by Sam Osborne from the Remote Education Systems project of the CRC-REP, 'Learning Vs Education; Leading Learning in Anangu Schools' at the IRN Forum in Whyalla, South Australia, 24-28 September 2012.

1. Learning Vs Education;
Leading Learning in Anangu Schools
Paper presented by Sam Osborne
Senior Research Fellow UniSA/CRC REP
Remote Education Systems
IRN Forum UniSA Whyalla
September 27th 2012

2. Where do Anangu live?
*note – the term Anangu is also used
by Pintupi/Luritja communities, for
example, which spreads further to the
North and West of this map.
Source: Ara Irititja archive website
http://www.irititja.com/the_archive/aud
ience.html

3. The deficit discourse:
Fear APY school attendance rates falling
(ABC News 2011)
Parents ‘part of’ truancy problem
(The Australian 2012a)
Language skills poor in 40% of APY children
(The Australian 2012b)
Gonski: “more investment needed in remote education”
(the Review of funding for Schooling – Final Report 2011)

4. Source:
How young Indigenous
Australians are faring
Dusseldorp Skills Forum
2009

5. Source: Are we making education count in remote Australian
communities or just counting education? Guenther 2012

6. Five challenges:
The challenge of meaningful measurement
Small and diverse communities – how do we ‘really know?’
The flexibility challenge
Principals are caught between the fish bowl and the toilet bowl
The challenge of making a difference in the classroom
Altruism gives way to cynicism:
“But I thought education was the key?”

7. The power and pedagogy challenge
How do teachers take account of the ‘culture and codes
of power? (Delpit 1993)
The challenge of ‘really knowing’
Significant differences in values, ways of knowing and
being between the teachers/school and Anangu

8. So what do Anangu say about all of this?
Andy Tjilari – Ernabella, Fregon
struggled, resisted the feeling of being different, runs away
His parents force him into two schools, but ultimately, his
autonomy is respected. ‘Couldn’t learn in school’.
Recalls in intricate detail the processes of learning from
his father
Runs away from Hermannsburg school and avoids
detection. Confidence in the Anangu domain,
lacks confidence in school

9. Nganinytja Ilyatjari – Angatja, Ernabella, Amata
Has a wider range of ‘teachers’ than Andy
Intricate knowledge of living from the land,
environmental and ecological knowledge, medicines,
seasons, healing (ngangkari) knowledge
Ernabella mission documents cite her as an
outstanding example of ‘success’

10. Sheila – Angus Downs, Imanpa
Attends school at Ernabella, Areyonga and Hermannsburg
Doesn’t learn literacy/numeracy skills
‘Really Learns’ through working at Angus Downs Station
As a young teen, receives weekly liturgical readings in
Western Aranda and teaches herself to read

11. What does this mean for remote educators today?
An enduring values system
Strongly held, though perhaps less visible in current context
Capacity to Aspire and Imagine futures
Appadurai (2004), Nakata (2007), Lingard et al (2003),
Hayes et al (2006)
Education is a vehicle that builds identity and provides hope (see
Leadbeater 2012) - it has the capacity to transform lives, rather
than constrain them (Appadurai 2004).

12. Three educational failures:
Attendance – poor, (all) missed critical early years
English Literacy and Numeracy -
fail to achieve benchmarks: :
“I couldn’t read or write”, “I taught myself to read after I left
school”
Retention – highly ‘at risk’/disengaged (except Nganinytja)

13. So what did they “achieve?”
Andy:
• Founded the Fregon church and subsequent community in
the 1960s
• Sigmund Freud Award (2011 World Congress for
Psychotherapy)
• 2009 Mark Sheldon Prize awarded by the Royal Australian
and New Zealand College of Psychiatry (RANZCP)
• 2009 Dr Margaret Tobin Award for excellence in the
provision of mental health services to those most in need

14. Nganinytja:
Described in Hilliard (1968):
• Reliable historian (p.81)
• Ground-breaking early childhood educator (p.165-166)
• Skilled craft worker (p.171)
• First Anangu to have been to Adelaide from Ernabella (p.178)
• Pioneer (p.188)
• Founded tourism business at Angatja
• First Anangu woman to invite a (white) sister to assist in giving birth in 1951
(p.138)
• Breaks Anangu tradition and commits to raising a severely disabled child
• Key founder of NPY Women’s Council

15. Sheila:
• Instrumental in founding the Imanpa community
• Instrumental in founding Nyangatjatjara College
• ATSIC representative (Southern NT region) for 13
years
• Ongoing director positions

16. What am I asking remote educators to do
about all of this?
• Understand another ‘reality’ exists in the Anangu context
• Learning is bigger than the education focus on generic
data re: attendance, retention, NAPLAN
• Expect values/disciplines rather than despair their
apparent absence
• Recognise intergenerational knowledge assets of the
students
• Foster high order thinking in the curriculum and in
personal approach to teaching

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18. References
I have provided some copies of my full conference paper (still under peer
review). This can be accessed to view references utilized in this presentation
with the exception of:
Guenther, J. (2012) Are we making education count in remote Australian
communities or just counting education? Conference paper for presentation at
AEU conference, Alice Springs 26th October 2012 and NARU conference,
Darwin 31st October 2012
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