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Developing Educational Guidance and Counselling Services for Urban Aboriginal Students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

R. Clark
Affiliation:
Inala Family Education Centre Inala, Brisbane
P. Daanen
Affiliation:
Inala Family Education Centre Inala, Brisbane
M. Geelen
Affiliation:
Inala Family Education Centre Inala, Brisbane
V. Hand
Affiliation:
Inala Family Education Centre Inala, Brisbane
L. McIntyre
Affiliation:
Inala Family Education Centre Inala, Brisbane
L. Schloss
Affiliation:
Inala Family Education Centre Inala, Brisbane
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Extract

(Readers are referred to an earlier report on this project – The Aboriginal Child at School, 4,5,1976.. Ed.)

In February 1975, Inala High School was selected as the location for a project to develop guidance and counselling services for Aboriginal students. The source of funding was the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs. Inala was chosen because of the relatively high concentration of Aboriginal families in what is, essentially a working class district of approximately thirty thousand people. There are also significantly high proportions of migrants from non-English speaking countries and single parent families. Staffing has grown from a part-time guidance officer and and full-time Aboriginal counsellor based at the High School, to a guidance officer, a guidance counsellor, two Aboriginal education counsellors, a Secondary teacher and a teacher aide working from a centre within the community and serving all of the primary and secondary schools.

The development of the project has been guided by the philosophy of such educationalists as McConnochie (1973) that the failure of Aboriginals to succeed at school is primarily a result of factors associated with our social institutions rather than the Aboriginal child himself. McConnochie suggests that our institutions tend to debase the black child’s concept of himself and the group with whom he identifies; and it is the child’s consequent lack of self-esteem that contributes significantly to his low vocational aspirations and academic achievement. However, low vocational aspirations and achievement themselves interact, reinforcing the child’s negative self-concept and he becomes caught up in a self-sustaining cycle of increasing school failure and worthlessness.

Type
Across Australia …… From Teacher to Teacher
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

Cass, W.: The ‘Dogs’ of Inala. The Aboriginal Child at School, Vol. 5, No. 3, June 1977Google Scholar
Hoyt, K.B.et al: Career Education: What It Is and Bow to Do It. Olympus Publishing Company, Salt Lake City, 1974Google Scholar
McConnochie, K.R.: Realities of Race: An analysis of the Concepts of Race and Racism and Their Relevance to Australian Society. Australian and New Zealand Book Co., Sydney, 1973.Google Scholar
Mclntyre, L.A. and Clark, A.R.: Family Education at Inala. Quest 21. Queensland Department of Education, 1977.Google Scholar
Mclntyre, L.A. and Clark, A.R. : The Role of Guidance & Counselling in Secondary Education for Urban Aboriginal Students. The Aboriginal Child at School, Vol. 4, No. 5, October 1976.Google Scholar
Mclntyre, L.A., and Clark, A.R.: A Method for Community Consultation in the Development of Educational Services. Research Bulletin No. 4, Guidance and Special Education Branch, Brisbane, 1976.Google Scholar