Part of my role as a member of a teaching team in the bilingual program at Barunga School (formerly Bamyili) has been to teach English in the early childhood section. These children come from homes where Kriol is the main language. In some cases a traditional Aboriginal language is used at times, mainly by older people.

Children have a fair exposure to English via television and videos, and also from contact with people in Katherine. At this age, however, the children have limited competency in English.

My first teaching appointment to Cunnamulla Secondary Department in 1975 was indeed a humbling experience. I am constantly reminded of my frustrations experienced as a beginning teacher as I see inexperienced teachers grapple with similar problems now, at Murgon High School.

Against this background, I would like to offer some suggestions for establishing and maintaining classroom discipline. Although these suggestions are specifically directed at beginning teachers in schools with significant proportions of Aboriginal students, they may also be helpful to teachers in other settings, since they are well supported in the literature (see references).

The teacher sits on her low stool with the children around her. They are seated comfortably on a piece of carpet. Eyes and faces show intense interest in the story being read. Then -- “Teacher Pam, show me that word ‘wallaby’.”

The teacher is delighted at this interruption from little ------ as it is the first indicator after many weeks that she is making the connection between marks on the page and MEANING - a very necessary step for any child who is going to learn to read successfully and effectively.

Back in early 1982, a mate in New Zealand wrote to me describing, in a very excited manner, his research into cultural aspects of Maori people, especially with respect to the poetry relating to funeral rites. Concurrently, I was completing the Multicultural Education Diploma, and fostering an infant interest in aspects of Australian literature dealing with the immigrant experience and cultural difference (viz. Judah Waten’s Alien Son, and Nancy Keesing’s Shalom). Whilst I had not at that stage successfully made the link between such literature and its effective use in the educational process of students of non-English speaking background, I remember thinking that perhaps I should soon pursue a course which would lead me to an understanding of Aboriginal Australians, in some way similar to Terry’s pursuit in New Zealand.

The Aboriginal learning system is not a functional learning system for everything that needs to be learned in school. Whether a formal or informal style fits the task best is dependent on the nature of what has to be learned, more than on the student’s cultural affiliations. Today Aboriginal children not only need to acquire age-old knowledge in traditional ways but they have to acquire new knowledge...and they need to develop new ways of learning.