Running head: IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES 1

Improving Educational Outcomes Through Using a Stronger Smarter

Approach for High Expectations

Jayden B. Lach

Western Sydney University

102085: Aboriginal and Culturally Responsive Pedagogies – 2H, 2019

Improving Educational Outcomes Through Using a Stronger Smarter

Approach for High Expectations

Despite the influence of Western culture being only a miniscule portion of Aboriginal

history, the effects have been felt immensely, including in education, with the European

colonisers believing that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were unable to be

educated (Price, 2017). Whilst there has been efforts since the 1967 referendum to improve

the access and quality of education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Price,

2017), there still exists a significant gap in many aspects of education for these students today

(Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet [DPMC], 2019). This difference in

educational achievement, measured mainly by standardized testing such as the National

Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) may be due to the contrasting

structures of education between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander styles of education, and

Western-style education (Hickling-Hudson & Ahlquist, 2003; Price, 2017). Perso (2012)

suggests that by understanding the institutionalised racism prevalent in schools, through

stereotypes and low expectations, it is possible to alter the education system to benefit

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Through the implementation of the Stronger

Smarter Philosophy (Stronger Smarter Institute [SSI], 2017), particularly the High-

Expectations Relationships framework (SSI, 2018), it is possible advance educational

achievements for all students, whilst developing a sense of pride in their cultural identity.

The statement upon to base this paper was not a direct statement from Hickling-

Hudson and Ahlquist (2003), but rather a judgement of their paper based upon four primary

schools across Australia and the United States from another literature review from Perso

(2012). Whilst parts of this statement have merit, Hickling-Hudson and Ahlquist (2003) only

mention violence when suggesting that “most indigenous [sic] peoples live in relative poverty
IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES 3

…. suffer a much greater burden of poor health and social dislocation …. and exposure to the

violence and substance abuse that tends to accompany dispossession” (p. 69). Although

violence may happen in communities with a high Aboriginal population, it may also be

present in other communities that are living in poverty, and cannot be considered as students

experiencing racism in schools from this context. However, they did suggest that by

implementing relevant cultural and contextual curriculum and resources that contest the

Eurocentric curriculum mandated by government bodies, Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander students we able to achieve much higher academic outcomes than those who blindly

follow the set curriculum.

In their paper, Hickling-Hudson and Ahlquist (2003) discuss differing methods of

educating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, as well as Native American students

across four primary schools two from Australia, and two in the United States. Each country

had one school using an Anglocentric approach to schooling, and one school using

“Indigenous Self-Determination” (p. 76). Within the Australian schools, there were

significant differences across the types of curriculum used, absenteeism, the relationships

with the greater community, and as a result, student outcomes. Despite being in a community

that was entirely made up of Aboriginal people, the curriculum in one school was

exceptionally Anglocentric, and had little to no relevance to the students’ daily lives.

Students at this school were exposed to literature and wall coverings that were predominantly

from “mainstream white culture” (p. 72) such as Disney classics, Dr. Seuss, and activities

such as decorating Christmas trees without understanding the traditions of the culture.

Hickling-Hudson suggested that the lack of socially and culturally relevant activities and

resources may have greatly contributed to the issues with absenteeism and lack of academic

achievement in the school. Additionally, students’ preferences were not taken into

consideration, since some classes such as music were not offered despite students enjoying
IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES 4

music within the community. Alternatively, the school that adopted a culturally relevant

curriculum showed a much greater sense of community, with students proud to display their

work for the many occasions parents would visit the school. It was also reported that there

was no issues with absenteeism, due to the support from the school, despite some students

being sent to that school as a result of being asked to leave another for truancy and bad

behaviour. The school also offered support and education to parents also with adult classes to

strengthen the sense of community within the school, as well as additional tutoring for

students in need. In addition to the extra support offered, the curriculum the school used was

designed for the students of the local community by providing relevant learning and

materials, with teachers designing their own resources to ensure relevance to the community,

helping to build cultural identity for the students. By encouraging students to celebrate their

culture and be proud of their work, positive learning environments are fostered, and strong

relationships are formed, which follows the high-expectations framework recommended by

the SSI (n.d., 2017, 2018).

It was shown in the Hickling-Hudson and Ahlquist (2003) case studies, that

embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into the curriculum allowed

students to thrive, whilst also deepening their cultural identities. This was seen as of extreme

importance, and recognised in the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young

Australians (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs

[MCEETYA], 2008) as a goal for promoting equity and excellence. However, prior to the

Australian curriculum beginning development in 2009, this was not mandatory, and many

schools opted to only teach Anglocentric curriculum materials, leading to what Rose (2017)

describes as a “silent apartheid” (p.69). Although Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

histories and cultures is now a priority in the Australian curriculum (Australian Curriculum,

Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2013), many teachers are either unequipped,
IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES 5

or not confident to teach these concepts due to the fear of being politically incorrect (Rose,

2017). Rose also describes schools often displaying “racism by cotton wool” (p. 72) by

setting low expectations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ behaviours and

standards of work. This opposes the SSI philosophy (SSI, 2017), and is in stark contrast to

the New Zealand education system, where Māori culture and language is proudly taught in

schools, that has been described as positively affecting the psyche of New Zealanders (Rose,

2017).

The High-Expectations Relationships (H-ER) framework (SSI, 2018) is the central

pillar of the SSI’s philosophy (SSI, 2017) for successful schools for Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander students. Implementing H-ER necessitates the removal of deficit thinking and

language, since it has been demonstrated that deficit thinking can influence the acceptance of

harmful stereotypes towards Aboriginal people, which inspires low expectations of

individuals (Sarra, 2005), despite evidence showing that students can thrive under conditions

that cater to their cultural and learning needs (Hickling-Hudson & Ahlquist, 2003). H-ER

allows strong relationships to be built with students, and encourages building partnerships

with parents and the community, to ensure that students develop a strong sense of identity,

whilst also building students’ academic abilities (SSI, 2017, 2018) in line with the Aboriginal

Education Policy (NSW Department of Education [NSWDET], 2008), and the Melbourne

Declaration (MCEETYA, 2008).

Deficit language, can be extremely harmful to the negative sense of self and

accomplishment to Aboriginal students (Sarra, 2005; SSI, 2018). Despite the positive

intentions, governmental documents such as the Closing the Gap report (2019), and the

Melbourne Declaration (MCEETYA, 2008) use language that emphasizes deficit perspectives

of Aboriginal students (SSI, 2018). Negative language and thinking from teachers also

engrains ideas that students are less capable than non-Aboriginal students (McNaughton &
IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES 6

Lai, 2009), which can be seen as reflecting the views of the European colonisers (Price,

2017), albeit unintentional, and to a lesser degree. The H-ER promotes the removal of deficit

language, and “that the same high quality teaching strategies used for all students are relevant

for Indigenous students as well” (p. 4). However, by removing these negative stereotypes and

low expectations of students, teachers may be able to engage students in learning, particularly

when choosing pedagogies that students find relevant to themselves, and their culture

(Hickling-Hudson & Ahlquist, 2003).

One of the main strategies that the H-ER framework (SSI, 2018) suggests is building

strong relationships between the whole school community, including students, parents, and

the members of the local community. At the forefront of this strategy, is admiring and

“honouring the humanity of others” (SSI, 2018, p. 6), and rejecting the restrictions of

‘otherness’ (Sarra, 2014). These relationships foster the strengths of all parties, and offers an

equilibrium of power, whilst cultural discourse is treated with respect in a trusting setting

(SSI, 2018). This allows students to thrive much like in Hickling-Hudson and Ahlquist’s

(2003) case studies, due to the relationships with teachers offering the ability for students to

achieve (Bourke, Rigby, & Burden, 2000). However, an important distinction needs to be

made between high-expectations rhetoric, and high-expectations relationships. Both

command high-expectations of students, however high-expectations rhetoric simply demands

good results and behaviours from students, and high-expectations relationships aims to

recognize why a student might be lacking in an area, and educating them on why their

behaviours were not acceptable (SSI, 2018).

The SSI (2017, 2018) suggests that by developing high-expectations relationships in a

school environment, combined with high-expectations of behaviours, high-expectations

learning environments are formed. To create such an environment, an immense amount of

trust has to be demonstrated, and to recognize and appreciate how others see their place in the
IMPROVING EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES 7

community (SSI, 2018). By enabling these practices, empathy and compassion is developed,

allowing challenging conversations to be had when needed, due to the equity in the power

dynamic (SSI, 2018). Without firm and fair practices, the high-expectations relationships are

unable to develop, since maintaining a school without firmness opens the door to low

expectations, and without fairness, there is no trust and often deficit thinking.

Some challenges that schools may face with implementing the H-ER framework, exist

when the school community is unwilling or unable to understand and appreciate the cultural

differences of others, or when the framework is not implemented in its entirety (i.e. firm but

not fair, or fair but not firm). This will led to low expectations of students and teachers, or

could lead to tensions due to disrespecting the culture of others, or exhibiting “racism by

cotton wool” (Rose, 2017, p. 72) practices because of a lack of cultural knowledge. It is

essential to ensure this does not occur, not only since teachers as professional should be able

to understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and their histories, but

also how to embed culture into their teaching practices (Australian Institute for Teaching and

School Leadership [AITSL], 2011). Another similar issue arising from Hickling-Hudson and

Ahlquist’s (2003) case studies is parents and the community being open to ‘white’ teachers

embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content into their practice for fear of

“teaching illegitimate or ill-informed Indigenous content” (Rose, 2017, p. 71). However, by

developing strong high-expectations relationships with the community, these issues should

not arise. Other issues may be the lack of cultural teaching resources that are relevant to the

community. In Hickling-Hudson and Ahlquist’s studies, teachers were making their own

resources which may lead to overworked teachers. To combat this, a library of resources

developed by teachers and the local Aboriginal community should be created to ensure

students are able to access culturally relevant information when necessary.

Although traditionally seen as being a subject for a white male recluse (Matthews,

2017), even to Aboriginal students themselves (Howlett, Seini, Matthews, Dillon, & Hauser,

2008). To combat these negative stereotypes and assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

students to succeed in their mathematics education, students must be free to express

themselves through mathematics through cultural expressions such as storytelling and

movement (Matthews, 2017). Matthews, Watego, Cooper, and Baturo (2005) recommend

teaching maths by creating a story from simple expressions, creating their own symbols for

the story rather than the mathematical symbols, representing the expression using physical

materials, and then recreating the story with modifications to ensure that students understand

the mathematical principles. This can also be taught using dance instead of storytelling, and

taught from the perspective of cultural dancing, or Dreaming stories. When trialled at a camp

comprised of students from years 5 to 9, Morris and Matthews (2011) reported that students

enjoyed understanding maths through the lens of their heritage.

Through embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and perspectives

into everyday pedagogies, it is possible to engage students in their learning. In addition to

this, schools should develop high-expectations relationships with staff, students, parents, and

the community to ensure that all students develop into culturally respectful and informed

citizens, at the same time as improving their academic outcomes.

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