After South Australia, and New South Wales, another Australian State gets serious about bringing Indigenous languages into schools.
The Queensland Studies Authority has released a flyer [.pdf] about Indigenous languages, affirming that, among other things:
"understanding the language backgrounds of Indigenous students is a critical factor in the successful learning of Standard Australian English as part of formal education in Queensland schools"
and
"it is valuable for all students to understand the language diversity of Australia's Indigenous peoples"
and finally, the promise..
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community perspectives on valuing, maintaining and reviving local languages will be supported through our products and services."
A start, a start! Good on the many people who have worked to get this up.
And, if you want to see what can be done, consider the British Columbia Education policy, which states that
"All students, especially those of Aboriginal ancestry, should have opportunities to learn an Aboriginal language."
and
"Aboriginal language courses (as with all second language courses) should be developed appropriate to second language learners. As of the 1997/98 school year, only aboriginal languages with provincial curriculum for Grades 5 to 8 will be eligible to meet the second language requirement (see below). The Board of Education and the local aboriginal people should collaborate to develop a language curriculum and resources."
Comments
Congratulations Queensland, and the lobbyists! Yay!
Posted by: bulanjdjan | April 15, 2008 10:29 AM
Deadly. Queensland govt seems to drag its feet on anything to do with language and culture. Let's hope this is the start of something.
Posted by: wamut | April 15, 2008 03:43 PM
In the name of the WA Curriculum Council, here it is:
http://www.curriculum.wa.edu.au/internet/Senior_Secondary/Courses/Aboriginal_Languages/
Here in Geraldton, we’ve got the Wajarri TEE accredited course going in its first semester. It would seem that this may be the only accredited Aboriginal language subject in Australia.
Today, secondary schools; tomorrow, universities!!
Irra Wangga - Geraldton Language Programme
P.O. Box 2603
Geraldton WA, 6531
Posted by: Adriano Truscott | April 17, 2008 09:56 PM
This is great news! It is funny though - the first year I was in High School in QLD (1990) was the first year they got rid of the Aboriginal language course at my state high school. So there must have been some framework in place before now.
Posted by: Felicity | April 23, 2008 09:50 AM
This is wonderful and heartening. In particular the framework for developing a P-12 syllabus by 2010 appears to be a very concrete measure.
Posted by: Ben | April 24, 2008 08:29 AM