Page 440 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

Chapter 35
Australian Torres Strait Islander Students
Negotiate Learning Secondary School Science

in Standard Australian English: A Tentative
Case for Also Teaching and Assessing in Creole

Philemon Chigeza and Hilary Whitehouse

Introduction

My grandfather taught me that the river is the river and the sea is the sea. Each has its own
complex patterns, origins and stories, and even though they come together, they will always
exist in their own right. Non-indigenous Australians cannot be expected to learn or under-
stand the lessons of my grandfather, but simply to respect that they are central to my
identity. (Patrick Dodson writing in The Australian 13.09.96)
At the opening of the 42nd Australian National Parliament in early 2008, the Prime
Minister of Australia, Mr Kevin Rudd, pledged to build new educational opportunity
for indigenous children of Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal descent. The dis-
course used was that of “closing the gap” on both opportunity and academic achieve-
ment. The persistent difference in educational achievement and attainment between
indigenous Australians (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) and non-indig-
enous Australians (immigrants to the continent since 1788 and their descendents) is
a problem with many complexities, including tolerated failure on the part of state and
federal governments over many decades to vigorously address persistent educational
disadvantage. Australia has been described as a “high quality–low equity” country in
that Australian schools, while operating under high-quality policy frameworks, have
found it difficult to address equity issues in teaching, learning and assessment effec-
tively in practice (Klenowski 2009).
We consider “the gap” in relation to indigenous school science education in
Australia. In this chapter, we discuss the findings and implications of a study con-
ducted in two grade 9 science classrooms in a wholly indigenous school in far north
Queensland, Australia. We document the complex reality of students from the

P. Chigeza and H. Whitehouse
James Cook University

D.J. Tippins et al. (eds.), Cultural Studies and Environmentalism, 415
Cultural Studies of Science Education Vol. 3, DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3929-3_35,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010