Indigenous Schools and Schooling: Policies, Practices, and Problems in New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji

Abstract

This chapter describes schools and the schooling process historically in relation to three countries, namely, Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand. It sets out a concise historical context for each setting in relation to elementary and postprimary schooling emergence, provision, and change, with specific reference to Indigenous schooling arrangements, developments, and subsequent controversies. In so doing some of the more important and far-reaching consequences of the dominance of non-Indigenous people’s thoughts and actions over Indigenous persons in the schooling arena also are analyzed. The chapter further demonstrates the latent emergence of critical perspectives from affected parties about what was being delivered to them as either appropriate, relevant, or essential to their children’s education, citizenship, and future success in a given society or community. In each of the three environments, what it meant to be an Indigenous person was subjected gradually to closer scrutiny and critique by Indigenous people themselves, with the result that it was no longer acceptable – politically, socially, and educationally – for policy makers to act unilaterally in the education policy and practice domains. The chapter outlines some initiatives taken by Indigenous people to bring about the kinds of reforms they value in their respective countries. These reforms relate usually to the revitalization of Indigenous persons’ language(s), to their philosophy concerning the form(s) that a worthwhile education should assume, and to the positive prospects for their people’s greater self-determination and sovereignty. Some contemporary challenges within the three Western-oriented schooling systems are identified and assessed.