This document discusses remote education systems in Australia. It outlines several key organizations that aim to address economic and social disadvantages in remote regions, including Ninti One and the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation. It describes the decentralized nature of Australia's government school system and contrasts it with Catholic and independent school systems. It argues that existing education systems may not be optimal for very remote Australia and advocates shifting from thinking about remote areas to thinking locally. It provides an example from Warlpiri country that illustrates an indigenous framework called Ngurra-kurlu that centers the key cultural elements of land, law, language, ceremony and kinship.

1. Red dirt thinking on education
systems: from remote to local
Melodie Bat
(presented by
John Guenther)

2. Ninti One Objectives
• Address social and economic disadvantage of
people in remote regions of Australia
• Find solutions to economic exclusion
• Increase economic participation of peoples
• Improve understanding of Australia’s remote regions
• Increase the skills and capacity of people
• Enhance and protect the natural environment
• Understand the impact of climate change on
environment and people
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3. 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.

4. 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

5. Remote Education Systems sites

6. ‘Remote’ is all about where you stand: red dirt thinking
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7. What is an education system?
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8. A national education system
• Early childhood
Before education and
care
school • 0-5 years
Primary • 5-12 years
• Transition/Prep
school to Year 6*
Secondary • 12-18 years
• Year 7-12
school
• VET
Tertiary • Higher
Education
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9. Australia’s education systems: The Government schools
system
Federal
bureaucracy
Federal
government
State/Territory
Government
State/Territory
Bureaucracy
Community Schools Parents
Orange = policy and funding
Blue = reporting and accounting 9

10. The decentralised Government schools system
Federal Federal
government bureaucracy
State/Territory
Government
Independent Parents
Public school
State/Territory
Bureaucracy
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11. Australia’s education systems: The Catholic schools
system
Federal Federal
government bureaucracy
CEC
State/Territory State/Territory
Government Bureaucracy
Diocese
Catholic Education
Offices
Community Schools Parents
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12. Australia’s education systems: The Independent schools
system
Federal Federal
government bureaucracy
Independent
Authority
State/Territory State/Territory
Government Bureaucracy
Community Schools Parents

13. The Independent schools system: small community
schools
Federal Federal
government bureaucracy
State/Territory State/Territory
Government Bureaucracy
Community
Schools
Parents

14. Which system is the most successful?
• All
• Or…
• None
• For very remote Australia
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15. The ‘remote’ education system
• Solutions to these issues still prove evasive, so new paradigms may be
needed to help address them.(Thomson et al., 2011, p. 299)
• Shift from ‘remote’ to ‘local’
• Think about people not money
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16. Thinking about innovation
Leadbeater, C. and Wong, A. 2010. Learning from extremes, Cisco, San Jose.
Retrieved April 2012 from http://www.cisco.com/web/about/citizenship/socio-
economic/docs/LearningfromExtremes_WhitePaper.pdf.
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17. Thinking about innovation
Hannon, V., Patton, A. and Temperley, J. 2011. Developing an Innovation Ecosystem for Education.
White Paper, December 2011, Cisco. Retrieved August 2012 from
http://gelpspace.org/sites/default/files/related_documents/developing_an_innovation_ecosystem_for
_education_cisco-iu.pdf.
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18. Or…. Shift away from categorisation modelling to sense-
making modelling
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19. Complex adaptive systems: The Cynefin Framework as a
sense making model: next steps
cognitive-edge.com
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20. Community of practice
• The domain: schooling and education
• The community: families, children, teachers, members of other
organisations, community leaders, education advisers and managers etc.
• The practice: the shared experience of learning
• (E Wenger, 2009)
Image source: http://orgnet.com/emergent.html
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21. Local design: one example
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22. Ngurra-kurlu: A way of working with
Warlpiri people
• Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu (Steven
Jampijinpa Patrick)
• Miles Holmes
• (Lance) Alan Box
• Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu WJ, Holmes M and Box L. 2008. Ngurra-kurlu: A way
of working with Warlpiri people, DKCRC
• Report 41. Desert Knowledge CRC, Alice Springs.
• http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/resource/DKCRC-Report-41-
Ngurra-kurlu.pdfy
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23. Warlpiri country
(Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu WJ, Holmes M and Box L. 2008. Ngurra-kurlu: A way of working with
Warlpiri people, DKCRC, Report 41. Desert Knowledge CRC, Alice Springs,
http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/resource/DKCRC-Report-41-Ngurra-kurlu.pdfy, p. 1)
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24. Ngurra-kurlu is a representation of the five key elements of Warlpiri culture:
Land (also called Country), Law, Language, Ceremony, and Skin (also called
Kinship). It is a concept that highlights the primary relationships between
these elements, while also creating an awareness of their deeper
complexities. Understanding ngurra-kurlu has many benefits for Warlpiri and
also for those who work with them. It can be thought of as:
• a template for the whole of Warlpiri culture
• an efficient pedagogy (way of teaching)
• a process for building identity and self esteem
• a way of looking after the health of people and the health of country
• a framework to create successful projects that are relevant to Warlpiri
people.
(Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu WJ, Holmes M and Box L. 2008. Ngurra-kurlu: A way of working with Warlpiri
people, DKCRC, Report 41. Desert Knowledge CRC, Alice Springs,
http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/resource/DKCRC-Report-41-Ngurra-kurlu.pdfy, p. 1)
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25. Ngurra-kurlu: A way of working with Warlpiri people
Kuwarri
the Law
Jaru
Language
Juju/manyuwana Walya
Ceremony/dance the Land
Warlalja-yapa
Family
(Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu WJ, Holmes M and Box L. 2008. Ngurra-kurlu: A way
of working with Warlpiri people, DKCRC, Report 41. Desert Knowledge
CRC, Alice Springs,
http://www.desertknowledgecrc.com.au/resource/DKCRC-Report-41- 25
Ngurra-kurlu.pdfy, pp 3-4)

26. What would a Local Education System look like?
• Building the new paradigm from the ground up
• Red Dirt Thinking
• Don’t establish it and then evaluate it
• Rather, map it and watch it evolve
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27. Contact
Melodie Bat
melodie.bat@cdu.edu.au
0427 226 561
John Guenther
john.guenther@flinders.edu.au
0412 125 661
Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation
http://www.crc-rep.com
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