Other Education Assistants
This unit group covers Education Assistants not elsewhere classified. It includes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Officers and Boarding Supervisors.
Bridging school and community
You are an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education officer at a high school, working with students, families and teachers. It is Monday morning. A teacher has a new unit starting next week and wants your help. You also have a list of students whose attendance has dropped, and a parent meeting this afternoon.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I'm starting a unit with a Dreaming story and I'd love you to write the lesson notes for me. You'd know them. Can you put it together by Friday? It'd mean so much to the class to hear it properly.
Agree and write the notes from what you know, to save the teacher time and support the unit
You write it well, but a local Elder sees the notes and says the story belongs to a different community and should not have been shared that way. You are caught in the middle. Not every story is yours to tell.
Explain that stories belong to specific communities, and offer to help contact the right people to ask
Ms Reilly had not thought about this and is keen to ask. You set up a conversation with local Elders, who agree to share a story and visit the class. The unit is stronger for it.
Decline firmly, saying that it is not your job to write lessons for teachers
Ms Reilly feels shut down and may avoid asking again. You were right to be careful, though a bit more explanation would have turned a refusal into a partnership.
My grandson's been missing school and he says he doesn't feel like he belongs there. His teacher rang and was a bit sharp with me. I don't know what to do. Can you come and sit with us at the meeting?
Go to the meeting, listen to everyone first, and help the school and family find a plan together
The meeting is tense, but you help each side hear the other. The grandson agrees to try two weeks with a mentor. It is a start, and it took patient listening.
Tell Aunty Rose you will speak to the teacher on her behalf and fix it without a meeting
The teacher hears only your side of the family's story, and Aunty Rose and her grandson are not part of the plan. Speaking for a family without them is not the same as supporting them.
Agree to come, and offer to chat with the grandson first, so he can say what he wants raised
The grandson tells you he feels invisible in class. At the meeting he speaks for himself, with you beside him. The teacher listens and agrees to some changes.
We have a visitor from the department tomorrow and I'd like you to say a few words about our Indigenous students' achievements. Could you also tell us what the community wants from the school? Just a quick summary would do.
Say you will speak for the whole community's views, since the principal asked and the visitor is important
Your summary is taken as the view of all families, and some feel misrepresented. One person cannot speak for every community. It is a heavy role and a poor idea to carry alone.
Offer to share your own experience, and suggest the principal invite families to speak for themselves
Mr Lawson agrees. Two parents join the meeting and share their own views. The visitor hears a range of voices, not a single summary.
Refuse to say anything at all, because it is not your place to speak to department visitors
Mr Lawson is left without a voice in the room. You avoided misrepresenting anyone, but a clear offer of what you could say, and who else could speak, would have helped.
How it went
The unit now had the right people involved, Aunty Rose's grandson had a voice at the meeting, and the visitor heard from families themselves. This work asks you to build trust between a school and a community, and to know what is and is not yours to speak for. Would that suit you?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The homesick Year 7
A fictional case set in a regional high school with a boarding house and a cultural education team.
The situation
Jarrah was a boarding supervisor at a school where students from remote properties lived during the term. A Year 7 boy named Toby had been in the house for three weeks and was quiet, ate little and refused to join any activities. Every night around nine he asked to ring his mum, who lived on a station with poor phone reception, and the call was often cut off after a few minutes.
What they did
Jarrah sat with Toby at the end of the corridor and talked about the animals on his family's property rather than asking about his feelings. She worked out with the school that calls could be made earlier in the evening when the signal was better, and arranged for Toby to send voice messages to his mum on the weekend. She also paired him with an older boy from a similar background who offered to show him the ropes.
How it turned out
Toby slowly began eating with the group and joined the Saturday cricket. He still had a rough week in the middle of term, and Jarrah told his parents about it honestly. By the second term he told the new boarders it would get easier.
What would you do?
- Why did talking about the farm help more than asking how he felt?
- What would you want from the adults in a boarding house if you were far from home?
- How can a school help a young person who is far from their family?