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Option 3

This essay will examine the relationship between school disciplinary practices, behavioural
problems, and social inequity faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. These will be
discussed in relation to the goals and statements in federal and state documentation – particularly
the National Education Agreement (Council of Australian Governments, 2009). This essay will also
discuss the strategies teachers can utilise in order to genuinely support their Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students, while simultaneously working to fulfil AITSL standards 1.4 and 2.4
(AITSL, 2011)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have faced a history of social inequity, and its effects
continue to have a profoundly negative impact on their lives to this day. Part of this history and its
manifestations include racism, systematic oppression, removal of family members, lack of access to
health care, and lack of – and exclusion from – education (Price, 2015). These factors can combine
to have a devastating impact in the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,
predisposing them to high rates of mortality, mental illness, violence, and imprisonment (Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, 2011; Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011). These rates are significantly
higher when compared to the overall population. For example, AIHW (2011) reported that 33% of
young adults of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background suffered from mental illness
compared to 14% of young adults of other cultural backgrounds.
This pattern of negative predisposition is cyclical; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people tend to experience multiple incidents of trauma, which negatively impact their mental health,
which inhibits their ability to deal with trauma (Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011; Petechovsky, Cord-Udy
& Grant, 2007). The emotional and mental issues which result from this cycle can then manifest in
the misbehaviour of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at school (Dobia & O’Rourke,
2011).
The misbehaviour of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in schools can also be
attributed to the aspects highlighted in Parbury’s (as cited in Dobia & Roffey, 2017) model of
deficit. In summary, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students misbehave because they are
expected to misbehave, expected to be low achievers, and expected to disengage from school
(Stronger Smarter Institute Limited, 2010a; SSIL, 2014).

The ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people tend to communicate are different
to the ways in which people of Western societies tend to communicate (Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011).
These differences can result in misinterpretation of behaviour and social interactions by teachers
and other education professionals. Teachers who are not culturally informed may misinterpret an
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student’s behaviour as misbehaviour, resulting in a negative
and undeserved outcome for that student. In conjunction with the aforementioned deficit model of
thinking, this frequent miscommunication sends a message to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students that the conventions of their culture – and, by extension, Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students themselves – do not belong in the school setting (SSIL, 2014). It is this pattern of
interaction which contributes to their misbehaviour.
In addition, teachers who possess a deficit view of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people may misconstrue certain behaviours of students as laziness, or blame students’ culture for
their disengagement (Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011; SSIL, 2014; Parbury, as cited in Dobia & Roffey,
2017). While some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may not place value in education, it
is important for teachers to recognise that this attitude is the result of historic and ongoing
oppression, and exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from education. It is part

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of a teacher’s role to help make school an inviting and safe space for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students and for their families (SSIL, 2010a). Without this welcoming atmosphere, students
and their families are likely to disengage from the school context.

Despite the necessity for cultural understanding and responsiveness in teachers, cultural ignorance
and deficit thinking persist across schools in New South Wales. This contributes to the pattern of
suspension of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in NSW (Parbury, as cited in Dobia &
Roffey, 2017). The aforementioned pattern of suspension for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students is influenced by ill-equipped teachers who possess deficit views, and thus lack the
knowledge and skills required to engage and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
in a genuine and positive manner (SSIL, 2010a; SSIL, 2014).
The aforementioned trends of historic and contemporary exclusion are especially concerning
when statistics pertaining to the suspension rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
are compared to suspension rates of other students. In 2015, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
students accounted for 23% for short, and 27% for long state-wide suspensions (NSW Department
of Education, 2015a). Even more concerning is the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students in these statistics – they comprised of 7% of the student demographic in
2015 (NSW DoE, 2015b). That is, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are being
suspended more than students of every other background combined across NSW, despite
representing such a small percentage of the overall population. This is troubling as suspension is an
exclusionary practice – whether that is the intention or not – and it works to oppose the goals set by
COAG, and as mentioned in the Closing the Gap Report, both of which aim to enhance the
inclusivity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in schools (Commonwealth of
Australia, 2017; COAG, 2009).

School disciplinary practices such as punishment and suspension are largely exclusionary, and work
to separate a misbehaving individual from their peers. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
tend to favour collective thinking, making this exclusion from their peers a deeply harmful exercise
(Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011). It can thus be inferred that the ways in which punishment is
administered – by predominantly Western-socialised teachers – to Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students can cause students to feel as though they and their culture are not welcome in the
school context (Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011). Yet again, the deficit model of thinking and cultural
insensitivity of teachers negatively influences the behaviour, and engagement of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students at school (Parbury, as cited in Dobia & Roffey, 2017).

In conjunction with the knowledge that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students respond
poorly to exclusion, and the historic exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from
school, it can be inferred that using exclusion as a disciplinary practice is inherently counter-
productive and contradictory to the goals set by a multitude of official documents, agreements, and
statements put forth by different education bodies – specifically the National Education Agreement,
the Closing the Gap Report, and the Melbourne Declaration (CoA, 2017; COAG, 2009; Barr et al.,
2008; NESA, 2008).
Additionally, the fact that statistics pertaining to the suspension of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students have been obscured in the NSW Public School Annual Report in 2015, in
conjunction with the information that the most recent Report of the Review of Aboriginal Education
is thirteen years old, speaks volumes about the priorities of both federal and state governments
when it comes to moving beyond tokenistic methods of support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people, especially pertaining to education (Lowe & Yunkaporta, 2013; NSW DoE, 2004;

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NSW DoE, 2015c). These values are reflected in the lack of teachers and policy makers who
genuinely take on the responsibility in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait students.

The above highlights the profound importance of challenging problematic attitudes and behaviours
– particularly in regards to deficit thinking (Parbury, as cited in Dobia & Roffey, 2017). It also
highlights the importances of positive and respectful relationships between teachers, Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students, and their families (Aboriginal Education Consultative Group, 2015;
AITSL, 2011).
Therefore, the author – a future secondary teacher – will engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students, their families, and local community members in the school context (AECG,
2015). This will be achieved by building a sense of positive student identity, Indigenous leadership,
and high expectations, and; characteristics outlined by the AECG (2015) and AITSL (2011) such as
understanding and engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and communities
(SSIL, 2014; Yamanouchi, 2010).
In terms of pedagogical strategies, Lewthwaite et al. (2015) found that Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students benefited from the use of visual information before text; encouraging
group work when encountering new concepts; encouraging students to code switch between
Aboriginal English and Standard Australian English in the classroom space; providing
representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture in syllabus content;
building positive teacher-student relationships, and; high expectations.
In addition, the author will normalise the ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students interact with others, such as avoiding eye contact when listening, or responding
with silence (Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011).

In particular, positive teacher-student relationships are critical to enabling teachers to better support
and include their students (Lewthwaite et al., 2015). This knowledge will enable the author to better
understand their students and their students’ families, and; to facilitate community connections
between families and the school (AECG, 2015). This is largely cyclical – engagement of Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people in the school context enhances inclusivity of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander students in school, which further enhances the engagement of their families,
and so on (SSIL, 2010b). This engagement of families with the school would empower the author to
work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and their families, and make culturally
informed decisions about how students are taught.
Another important aspect which will be supported by the formation of positive and
respectful relationships is the ability of a teacher to give input into the lives of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander people (AECG, 2015). For example, should a student be absent – for whatever
reason – the author would utilise their relationship with that student’s family to provide support so
that student would remain included in school. Alternately, if a student were frequently absent or late
due to family business, the author would contact the family of that student to collaboratively create
a personalised school schedule (Ockenden, 2014). Critical to the success of this strategy is the
foundation of a positive relationship between teacher and students, fostering respect of the student
involved, and of their family (AECG, 2015).
Additionally, positive teacher-student relationships are critical to the foundation of social
and emotional learning (SEL) (Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011). Dobia and O’Rourke (2011) highlight
the importance of teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students how to regulate their
“social and emotional wellbeing” (p.7). This is especially important given the aforementioned

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trauma, violence and mental illness which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are
significantly more predisposed to compared with their peers.

As a future Science teacher, it is important that the author is aware of, and actively challenges, the
“ethnocentric, racist and culturally imperialistic” (Ninnes, 2000, p.605) nature of the subject. This
would help the author to better support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students by
deconstructing problematic perspectives within content, and engaging students in discussion about
biases in scientific texts and ideas (Ninnes, 2000). Following this notion, it is imperative that the
author openly challenges racist comments and deficit views of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people from teachers and students. SSIL (2010a) states that an important part of engaging
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students is to build their self-esteem, especially in regards to
their cultural identity.
It is also important that the author is critically reflexive of their own attitudes and
behaviours, and how well students respond to their pedagogical strategies. It is imperative that all
teachers work to become culturally responsive professionals so that they can effectively and
positively respond to the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students – this is inherent in
AITSL (2011) standards 1.4 and 2.4 (NSW DoE, 2004).
The utilisation of the above strategies would enable the author to genuinely support
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. This would enhance students’ protective factors, and
decrease the chances of student engaging in behaviours which would result in punishment or
suspension, as well as decreasing the chances that students’ behaviour would be misinterpreted as a
result of deficit thinking (Dobia & O’Rourke, 2011).

Overall, school disciplinary practices impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in a
negative manner. This is due to a multitude of reasons, largely stemming from the historic and
ongoing oppression of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and Parbury’s (as cited in
Dobia & Roffey, 2017) deficit model of thinking (Price, 2015).
Additionally, the well-intentioned statements in government documents pertaining to closing
the gap are largely tokenistic, and genuine support across the profession is lacking (CoA, 2017;
Lowe & Yunkaporta, 2013).
However, the aforementioned negative predispositions faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander students can be alleviated by the formation of genuine relationships between teachers,
students, and their families; culturally responsive teaching, and; challenging deficit thinking. Each
of these strategies is congruent with AITSL standards 1.4 and 2.4 (AITSL, 2011). Above all, it is of
profound importance to help students feel that they and their culture belong to, and are cohesive
with, the schooling context (SSIL, 2010a).

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