Indigenous Literacy and Epistemology

According to results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Australian Indigenous students on average are about two and a half years behind non-Indigenous students (Thomson and De Bortoli, 2007). In reading, mathematical and scientific literacies, it was reported that Indigenous students are about 40 percent below the OECD baseline which is interpreted as being at ‘serious risk of not being able to participate adequately in the 21st century workforce, or to contribute as productive future citizens’. In a wealthy country like Australia with an admired education system, these figures and predictions are extremely disturbing and entirely unacceptable. It is difficult to claim, however, that a high-quality education system that produces such inequitable results for particular student groupings is a high-quality education system at all.

That’s how we live our lives (comment by Australian Indigenous teacher education student when discussing inquiry learning).