Claire Jarman

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Studies in English Education 2

Assignment 1 Case Study
Cathy, an indigenous student with close
connections to her local community

Insights into Challenges

For students to succeed in literacy there must be effective learning outcomes for all children.
However, many indigenous students move between indigenous languages, standard forms of
English and Aboriginal English. This means that these children require concentrated
attention, and differentiation (Brim 2012). This case study will look at Cathy, an indigenous
student with close connections to her local community. Cathy did not attend pre-school or
reception, starting school in Year 1. She is currently in year 2 but still behind in literacy. It
has been reported that one in two indigenous children miss out on pre-school across the
nation. This puts indigenous students at a clear disadvantage to their non-indigenous peers
with a difference in their academic performance, and the gap continuing to widen throughout
school years (Brim 2012). Cathy grew up in a rural community where she mainly spoke her
native language, and there was little access to literature. Much is known about the speech and
language of monolingual English speaking children, less is known about children who live in
multilingual and multicultural environments, with even less being know about indigenous
student’s speech and language competency (McLeod 2014).

Focusing on the ACE Literature Strand

The Australian Curriculum identifies three cross-curriculum priorities to equip young

Australians with the skills, knowledge and understanding that will enable them to engage
effectively. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture priority is
organised around the ideas of country, place, people and culture (Winch 2014).). The
literature strand for year 2 represents many challenges and opportunities for Cathy. There are
two content descriptors that include The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and
culture priority. These include ‘Discuss how depictions of characters in print, sound and
images reflect the contexts in which they were created (ACELT1587) (ACARA 2017)’ and
Discuss the characters and settings of different texts and explore how language is used to
present these features in different ways (ACELT1591) (ACARA 2017). Both of these content
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descriptors provide opportunity for Cathy to succeed and feel a part of her literacy learning.
Story is a connector, and all cultures have stories, specifically Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander cultures (Winch 2014). Stories can be incorporated with these content descriptors to
allow children to encounter difference and for creativity engaging with one’s own
differences. Books and materials can be selected to provoke, discuss and challenge ideas
about Aboriginal culture to involve Cathy in discussions. “Story gives opportunities for that
imaginative leap that crosses the boundaries of discipline and culture. Wise teachers can use
story (and by story is meant books and plays and poems and texts about cultures and songs
and picture-stories in all sorts of multimedia) to express community and a sense of ‘home-
ness’—especially when children may be suffering from a sense of homesickness” (Winch
2014).

Inclusive literacy Teaching

inclusive approach to literacy pedagogy involves aiming high for all students. This means
designing curriculum activities where all students can participate in complex and engaging
literacy practices regardless of their ability to break the code of written text. This does not
mean that learning the code is not important but instead that the opportunity to be positioned
as an active critical analyst of texts is also important (Shipp 2011).As a future teacher, I feel I
have a responsibility to work toward the inclusion of all children as developing learners. In
order to uncover student’s strengths and weaknesses, we must dismantle the myth of the
singular path to literacy success (Woods 2015). Literacy education has theories of inclusive
pedagogies. These include culturally responsive pedagogy where children’s communities are
infused into the structure of lessons. This includes children making use of their home, peer
and school knowledge building on the assumption that all children have cultural recourses.
Inclusive literacy begins with the value of all children’s existing knowledge and practices as
the basis for quality literacy learning. “Quality learning for all will only be achieved when the
curriculum is extended to account for the needs of all” (Woods 2015). There are 6 principles
of inclusive literacy teaching. These include Abilities are contextual, expect growth from
every student, articulate each learning outcome in a form that is achievable for every student,
enable a range of pathways towards these learning outcomes, learn acknowledge and work
with every child’s resources and normalise help seeking and resource using. These principles
outline what inclusive literacy involves and how teachers can ensure their classrooms are
inclusive for every literacy learner (Woods 2015).
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Inclusive Strategies for Literature Teaching

There are many strategies that can be used for inclusive literacy teaching. For Cathy as an
indigenous student with close ties to her community and culture, story telling is a great way
to include Cathy in the classroom. not only in the language of words, but in the languages of
rock art and body painting, singing and songlines and song cycles, drama and dance. These
are story arts , multimodal communications that give shape to cultural, educational and
spiritual experience (Winch 2014). Ways to use these in the classroom varies, they could be
seen as narratives expressed through multimodality, including writing, presentations,
performances, dance, singing, and art. If necessary a bi-lingual aid could become a part of the
literacy classroom language experience, as English is Cathy’s third or fourth language, there
should be opportunities for music and dance in the literacy classroom. It is found that
Indigenous children in remote communities are often familiar with popular songs and artists.
This could be incorporated to build on the words Cathy already knows in some songs,
encouraging singing in her own languages and put the words up for others to see (Winch
2014). It helps the Indigenous children who are often not able to read or write in the mother
tongue that they speak fluently to make the sound and letter connections that will also help
them in the learning of English. And non-Indigenous children will be enriched by another
layer of Australian culture. Furthermore, community and Indigenous leaders can be invited
into the classroom to tell local dreamtime stories that the class can then translate to other
modes of literacy and media. In addition, to maximise participation and support achievement
for Cathy, not only the local community and its elders can be beneficial, but the local
environment. A variety of books can simulate ideas and discussion in the classroom (Winch
2014). Aboriginal literacy is a complex area of education with no simple answer; rather, a
multidimensional approach to refining Aboriginal students’ outcomes as needed. Inclusive
literacy for Cathy focuses mainly on bringing Aboriginal perspectives and voices into the
classroom; using the tools of multilateralism and scaffolding literacy techniques. It is also
important for teachers to be cross-culturally aware and establish a good connection to the
family and community (Shipp 2011).

Future challenges
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Achieving inclusion is an ongoing everyday practice and challenge where teachers have to
constantly check that all students are participating, interacting with each other, with complex
ideas, with texts, and in ways that allow them to actively practice all dimensions of literate
practice and form complex ideas (Woods 2015) . Learning about literacy is acknowledged to
occur in any social situation including at home, in the community, school and playground.
The interconnectedness of language, culture and learning in these social situations should
highlighted and I hope to run a classroom where diversity is considered a resource rather than
a problem (Brim 2012).

References

Australian curriculum 2017, https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au, ACARA, viewed 2

April 2019.

Brim R & Mannion, K, 2012. Families as first teachers: Giving Indigenous children a strong
start for a brighter future. Educating Young Children, 18(2), 8-11.

McLeod, S., Verdona, S., & Kneebone, L. B. 2014. Celebrating young Indigenous Australian
children’s speech and language competence. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.

Rowe, KJ. & Rowe, K. (1999). Investigating the relation- ship between students’ attentive–
inattentive behaviors in the classroom and their literacy progress. International Journal of
Educational Research, 31(1–2), pp. 65–80.

Scull, J 2016, 'Effective literacy teaching for Indigenous students : Principles from evidence-
based practices', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 54-63.

Shipp, C. (2011). Why Indigenous perspectives in school? A consideration of the current

Australian education landscape and the ambiguities to be addressed in literacy teaching.
English in Australia, 47(3) 20-24.

Winch, Gordon, et al. Literacy: Reading, Writing and Children’s Literature, Oxford

University Press Australia and New Zealand, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unisa/detail.action?docID=4389152.

Woods, A, Comber, B, Iyer, R. 2015. Literacy Learning: Designing and Enacting Inclusive

Pedagogical Practices in Classrooms, Inclusive Pedagogy Across the Curriculum
(International