Science and Aboriginal Education

Authors

  • Peter Edwards

Abstract

In our society success in science is important for students as a means to full participation, empowerment, and access to career/further study options. Science in schools is an area of concern for Aboriginal education because of the low number of Aboriginal students who experience this success. Goal 3 of the Common And Agreed National Goals For Schooling In Australia (May, 1989) speaks of “equality of educational opportunities” and providing for “groups with special learning requirements”. For Aboriginal students, academic success and cultural identity are twin priorities: achievement and success need to go hand in hand with a strengthening and deepening of cultural identity. Students' Aboriginality must not be denied by learning programs which define science purely in terms of the dominant Western culture.

References

Brindon P. R. Science In Aboriginal Culture The Australian Science Teachers Journal, July 1988, Vol 34, No 2.

Christie M.J. : Aboriginal Science For The Ecologically Sustainable Future. The Australian Science Teachers Journal, March 1991; Vol 37, No 1

Coutts et al: Aboriginal Engineers Of The Western District, Victoria. Research of the Victorian Archaeological Survey 7, 1978

The Education Department of S.A.: The Common and Agreed National Goals For Schooling in Australia, May, 1989.

Scott S. (A.W.): Material Culture In Traditional Aboriginal Society: Fiction and Fact The Australian Science Teachers Journal, May 1986, Vol 32, No 1.

White J.P. : Crude Colourless and Uninteresting? in Allen J., Golson J., and Jones R., (eds) Sunda and Sahul, Academic Press, London, 1977, pp 13- 50.

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Published

1993-11-01

How to Cite

Edwards, P. (1993). Science and Aboriginal Education. The Aboriginal Child at School, 21(5), 33–41. Retrieved from https://ajie.atsis.uq.edu.au/acs/article/view/900

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Section

Articles