Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m8s7h Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-17T00:22:44.664Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Finding Meaning in Maths: an Introductory Program for Aboriginal Children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Beth Graham
Get access

Extract

Many teachers involved in school education of Aboriginal children have, for a variety of complex reasons, found it difficult to design programs that begin with the things children know and move to those things that children have to learn. All too frequently school education offered to Aboriginal children has been conceived in Western terms and delivered in our language. Programs designed for children from mainstream Australia have simply been transposed with minimal adaptation into Aboriginal schools. In many curriculum areas the results have not been exciting. In the area of mathematics they have been dismal if not disastrous (see Williams, 1979). The introduction of bilingual education into many of the remote traditionally oriented communities of the Northern Territory has made it possible for educators to re-examine the assumptions on which many of our mathematics offerings have been based. This paper outlines some of the initiatives that have been taken in the Northern Territory to enable children to formally organise and classify local Aboriginal mathematical knowledge as well as begin to acquire some ideas related to the Western view of the world and so provide more meaningful introductory mathematics programs for Aboriginal children.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , September 1984 , pp. 24 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baratta-Lorton, M., 1976: Mathematics Their Way. Addison Wesley Publishing Co., California, 1976.Google Scholar
Graham, B.E., 1979: Group interaction for team teaching. Developing Education, Vol.6 No.5, April. N.T. Dept of Education.Google Scholar
Graham, B.E., 1981: Wangkami: A Handbook for Aboriginal Teachers Involved in Early Childhood Education. N.T. Dept of Education.Google Scholar
Graham, B.E., 1981: Starting where they are: rethinking Aboriginal early childhood education. The Aboriginal Child at School, Vol.9 No.1. Dept of Education, University of Queensland.Google Scholar
Harris, J., 1979: Ethnoscience and its relevance for education in traditional Aboriginal communities. Unpublished M.Ed. thesis, University of Queensland.Google Scholar
Harris, S., 1980: Culture and Learning: Tradition and Education in Northeast Arnhem Land. N.T. Dept of Education, Darwin.Google Scholar
Harris, P., 1980: Measurement in Tribal Aboriginal Communities. N.T. Dept of Education.Google Scholar
Harris, P., 1984: Talking About Money in Tribal Aboriginal Communities. Mathematics in Tribal Schools Project Series, Book 2. N.T. Dept of Education, Darwin.Google Scholar
Hiatt, L.R., 1965: Kinship and Conflict – A Study of an Aboriginal Community in Northern Arnhem Land. The Australian National University, Canberra.Google Scholar
Thompson, etal., 1978: Language in the Classroom. Applied Linguistics Assoc, of Australia, Language Centre, University of Melbourne.Google Scholar
Tough, J., 1976: Listening to Children Talking – A Guide to the Appraisal of Children’s Use of Language. Ward Lock Educational, London.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L.S., 1962: Thought and Language. The M.I.T. Press, Mass. U.S.A.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Western, H., 1979: Mathematics for Young Children. Richard Lee & Associates, Melbourne, 1979.Google Scholar
Williams, B., 1979: Education, Training and Employment. Volume 1. Australian Government Printing Service.Google Scholar
Williams, B., (n.d.): Mathematics in Aboriginal Schools T-3. Part One: Transition. Maths Unit, Professional Services Branch N.T. Dept of Education.Google Scholar