Connecting children, community and curriculum

Abstract

Literacy achievement of Australia's Indigenous youth continues to be a matter of concern. The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which reports internationally on 15-year-olds' reading, mathematical and scientific literacy skills, shows that in 2009 little more than 60 % of Australian Indigenous students achieved higher than proficiency level 2 in reading literacy. These trends are similar in other countries such as the United States where the literacy standards of Black and Hispanic students are well below their White American counterparts. There is a growing body of research that suggests that schools connect best with students of middle class, Anglo backgrounds. Further research into effective literacy instruction suggests that students who were most likely to succeed in school came from home backgrounds where family literacy practices most closely resembled those of school. In this chapter I report on a study that investigated the literacy practices of the home and school communities of 10 Indigenous students in their last 6 months of primary school and their first 6 months of high school. The study found that these students used literacy in their community activities in a variety of ways and that in their communities they were successful learners. In both the primary and high school setting they were less successful and struggled with literacy. Finally, I discuss a number of key ideas that emerged from the data that might facilitate school literacy learning experiences for these students.