What should you do when students and parents respond to the curriculum with racism, disbelief and resistance to different attitudes?
Some students, or their parents, react very negatively to references to Aboriginal experiences and viewpoints. The students will be blatantly racist and provocative or might try to 'set up' confrontations by asking you seemingly 'innocent' questions which are designed to put the worst construction upon Aboriginal people and make you uncomfortable (especially if you are dealing with new content and are not really sure of yourself). Some parents might echo that type of behaviour.
Older students might discount what they are learning, particularly if they are confronted with information about non-Aboriginal behavior which they find uncomfortable.
The following strategies are ones which other teachers have used. (Note: we have made an editorial decision to maintain teacher anonymity for the purpose of this discussion).
One student asked me how come so many Aboriginal people get drunk in the park every day? It was done with a bit of a smirk on the face and didn’t seem too genuine a question to me. I didn’t let the conversation get side tracked by this one. ©apacsa Secondary Teacher
One strategy I have used is to say, "If you would like to talk about that '’ll be happy to discuss that with you after this lesson" or, "You might like to invite me back to discuss those issues with you at a later date." You must be honest with the students or they will see through you and see that you're just trying to block them and think you don't really know what you're talking about. This would give them fuel to be disruptive and could even perpetuate racist attitudes and behavior
If you are inviting an AIEW or HPI into your class then consult with them; be clear about the reasons that they are coming to the school and do not inadvertently set them up to experience racism in the type and tone of the questions which students might ask. Ask for a list of questions from the students themselves, in advance, so that you and the visitor can decide together what questions they will answer — you remain in control of the session, not the students, and the visitor is not uncomfortable about 'what might happen' so can concentrate on what is happening.
If asked a difficult question, the best way is to answer as truthfully as possible. If you don’t know the answer to any question that's being put to me, I'm honest with the students and let them know that I don't know about that particular subject. Secondary Teacher
Invite interested and supportive parents, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to join in your Aboriginal Studies program. Parents can also learn a lot from Aboriginal speakers and by attending excursions that celebrate Aboriginal people and their culture. Their learning can very much support that of the children
In the days before I was fortunate enough to work with AIEWs I had many children ask me after I had read a Dreaming story "Is that really true?" And I would say, "Aboriginal people, the Ngarrindjeri (for example if we were doing Thukeri) believe this to be true. I am not asking you to believe it, what I'm asking you to do is to respect their belief and realise that different groups of people have different spiritual beliefs." Primary Teacher
One strategy I used was to look at other indigenous cultures first as a lead into looking at Aboriginal Cultures. For instance, some of the Indian groups in Brazil to see how their land has been taken away, the forests destroyed and the effect that colonization had on these people. As the students developed empathy for other indigenous groups, I brought it back to the Australian situation and looked at the effect of some of those same issues for Aboriginal people. Secondary Teacher
Aboriginal Perspectives Across the Curriculum, South Australian Department for Education ©apacsa