Year: 1983
Type: article
Abstract: The theories upon which the main institutions concerned with Aboriginal education rest are characterised by delusion and ethnocentrism.When we describe such institutions as 'Aboriginal', we tend to lose sight of the fact that they are essentially European creations.Most of the problems we hear about in Aboriginal education are, in this sense, European rather than Aboriginal.This position paper is taken from a longer essay on what seems to be central to such delusion and ethnocentrism, namely the pervasive concept of assimilation.I have tried to deal with some of its meanings and relate them specifically to teacher education for Aborigines.Part of my interest in this subject comes from watching the careers of Aboriginal students who have attended white tertiary and subtertiary institutions.Young people may enrol in a course, the very first stated aim of which is "to enhance the self-image of the student".Yet, so often, the opposite happens and the student ends up graduating to jail.Most of this immense disaster, and it is truly immense, stems from the assimilationist reality of the educational offering imposed upon students.Assimilation as attitude, as covert policy, as hidden curriculum, as reality constructed by majority to define minority existence, is resilient in Australia.Different forms of it are evident.The "symbolic universes" (Berger § Luckmann, 1967, p.2)treated by majorities to define the realities of migrant groups are of a different order from the social reality imposed by whites upon black groups in this country.When policies for Aborigines and migrants coincided, as they did under the banner of assimilation ten or fifteen years ago, different meanings were manifested in different legislation for Aborigines as compared with migrants, different attitudes towards each, and the imposition of different sorts of educational programs.Today, with the policy of multiculturalism, there are numerous attempts to theorise on a general applicability to all minority groups.
Source: The Aboriginal Child at School
Author: P. Roberts
Language: English
Subfield: Health
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2483218092