Yellow Brick Roads in Aboriginal Education

Abstract

The idea of two-way education has great appeal because it holds out the promise that schools can achieve something that historically they have found extremely difficult; encompassing Aboriginal cultural maintenance while providing needed white knowledge. However, it will be argued here that while two-way theories are part of the current widely adopted rhetoric of educational change they are not practical curriculum alternatives for Aboriginalising Central Australian schools because they do not make sense in terms of real interaction between the cultures. For this reason, attractive as these two-way theories are, they are also hazardous. Their danger lies both in that they build up expectations for outcomes of Aboriginal schools and they associate these outcomes with Aboriginalisation, a process which will not be assisted by unworkable theories.