Anangu teaching placement inspires and challenges

Five secondary and four primary teaching candidates spent two weeks living and teaching in Anangu communities earlier this year, as part of the new Education, Practice and Place elective subject. Split between five communities, the candidates didn’t just work with the teachers there, they lived with them too.

For Master of Teaching (Secondary) candidate Luke Carter, the teachers he and fellow student Melissa Quintal worked with in Mimili were flexible and creative.

“The teachers I worked with were forced to think outside the box,” he says. “I found their use of the whiteboard particularly impressive.”

The relationship between the teachers and the community also impressed them. “Our Principal, who was white, had a really good relationship with the school’s Anangu co-ordinator, and community trust followed,” says Ms Quintal.

Mr Carter’s fellow secondary candidate, Emily Frawley, found the language barrier wasn’t the only challenge she faced when communicating with students in Indulkana.

“The fact that English is a second language for all Anangu students is one challenge, and another is there is widespread hearing impairment among Anangu children,” she says. “You have to be quite creative to come up with ways of communicating effectively with the students.”

Some of the teacher candidates learned new approaches that will be useful for working with students back in Melbourne. Kathryn Chapman, who is studying the primary stream, plans to use some of the principles she learned from the mandated Accelerated Literacy program in Indulkana.

“The way literacy is taught there is mandated across the lands, and it is a massive change to what we’ve learned about literacy teaching,” she says.

“Here in Melbourne we expect a certain level of literacy from the students we work with, but the approach I saw in Idulkana is completely different.

“I think this way of teaching literacy could be really useful in classrooms in Melbourne too, particularly for English as a Second Language learners, and I’m hoping to find a way I can apply it in the classroom.”

Bern Murphy co-ordinates the Australian Indigenous Education elective in the Master of Teaching. She believes the opportunity this placement provides teacher candidates is important.

“The placements are a great way of encouraging candidates to consider teaching in communities like those on the Anangu Lands when they graduate,” Ms Murphy says.

“But that’s not the only reason why they’re important. The short-term placement tends to make students more passionate about teaching, and that passion can be quite infectious.

“Additionally, it’s really important our teacher candidates learn how to be respectful and mindful of marginalised groups so they can understand the impact of historical disadvantage on equity in the classroom.

The teacher candidates agree the placement was a good introduction to teaching on the Anangu Lands.

“The placement was great for those of us who were interested in teaching in Indigenous communities,” Mr Carter says. “I’d recommend not going into this blind. It can be difficult and isolating.”

For Ms Frawley, her experiences in Indulkana will inform her teaching.

“The cross-curricular practices within the Australian Curriculum mean we can draw on this fantastic experience to integrate an Indigenous perspective with our teaching,” she says.

“Although teaching in communities like Indulkana has its challenges, it also has the potential to be incredibly rewarding.”

Secondary candidate Victoria Bell is considering returning to the Anangu Lands or a similar community once she has gained some experience as a fully qualified teacher.

“The kids I worked with in Pukatja were just beautiful,” she recalls. “I was so impressed by how friendly they were! It was great to get the opportunity to complete this placement. It was a chance for us to dip our toes in the water and see if teaching remotely is something we really want to do.”

As part of this subject, groups of Master of Teaching candidates have also undertaken placements in Thailand, India and Arnhem Land.

This placement was supported by the Anangu Education Service, a unit of the Department of Education and Childrens’ Service, South Australia, and the Valerie and Lawrence Kennedy Scholarship Fund.

www.edfac.unimelb.edu.au