Self-Determination through Technology: A Teacher Education Program for Australia's Indigenous Remote Communities

Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Max Lenoy, Ed.M. '95 GSE, Lecturer/ Director of RATEP (Remote Area Teacher Education Program), James Cook University, Queensland, Australia
Co-sponsored by the International Education Policy Program

Australia's Indigenous people, who were recognized as citizens only in 1967, continue to suffer "fourth" world conditions in one of the world's most developed countries. Life expectancy for Indigenous people is 15-20 years less than non-Indigenous people; only 10% complete high school, compared to 41% for non-Indigenous people. The Remote Area Teacher Education Program (RATEP), based at James Cook University in Queensland, is built on a social justice framework to remedy these conditions.

At this TIE seminar, Max Lenoy, Director of RATEP, discussed how and why RATEP has developed teacher education programs for Indigenous people using flexible technologies in small schools within the remote communities themselves. This seminar explored how principles of self-determination and technology-based pedagogy have produced successful outcomes, including RATEP's 100th graduate.

Since the late 1970's, James Cook University was the first institution of higher education to target the development of teacher education programs for Aboriginal People and Torres Strait Islander People. However, after about 12 years as an on-campus project, the high drop-out rate for students from remote and isolated locations showed the program was not meeting their needs. A change of focus was needed -- the result, a flexible delivery program using computers at small schools right in the isolated communities. Through a partnership among the University, the State Education Department, and a technical and further Education College, RATEP was born.

Lenoy described these modular programs as technologically based, using interactive multimedia which are mainly learner controlled. For many students (most of whom are female and older), English is a second, third, or even fourth language. Many have never been to a large city. One challenge has been for lecturers to develop learning materials that are sensitive to cultural differences and to Indigenous students' learning styles. These materials include online courses, CD-ROM, teleconferencing, audio, video, email, graphics, written text, fieldwork, and face-to-face contact. The multimedia approach encourages interactive learning, at a pace controlled by the student. Weekly or biweekly teleconferences with lecturers bring students in contact with students at other locations. Each site has a Teacher Coordinator (TC), usually an experienced classroom teacher with a strong commitment to helping RATEP students with both academics and socio-cultural issues. TCs receive twice yearly training to help them understand and work with cultural differences.