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Students help promote cross-cultural education

12 March 2008

Student placements in Aboriginal schools and settlements are helping promote cross-cultural education amongst tomorrow's teachers.

Study placements don't get more hands-on than Monash's Indigenous education program where students are invited to live and work in traditional Aboriginal communities.

The program, which aims to foster cross-cultural understanding among non-Indigenous students, has seen final-year Bachelor of Education students spending up to six weeks in local Indigenous communities in Victoria, but also remote Aboriginal settlements in Queensland and the Kimberley in the Northern Territory.

Though many of the placements are standard, offering students the chance to hone their newfound teaching skills in real-world schools, placements within traditional Indigenous communities offer the students a rare and privileged glimpse into life of Indigenous Australians.

Last year's three-week placement in Maningrida, a remote Indigenous community in Arnhem Land, saw students being taught to hunt by the traditional owners of the land.

As members of the community, even temporary ones, they were allowed to help find food, everything from crabs and fish to mussels in the nearby mangrove swamps.

Another final-year, Bachelor of Education student, music major Jo Powell, undertook her placement at Yirara College in Alice Springs. In addition to learning the skills needed by teachers in every classroom - from creating lesson plans, to creating discipline - Powell also had the opportunity to "jam" with local desert musicians and watch, first hand, the collaboration process involved in putting together traditional Pitjantjatjara music.

Monash's Indigenous education program is one of the country's most respected with such staff members as Yorta Yorta elder Henry Atkinson.

For more information, visit the Indigenous Education in a Changing World website.