Cultural background

The biennial Narragunnawali Awards recognise Australian schools and early learning services that are implementing outstanding reconciliation initiatives. The 2021 winner in the schools category was St Virgil’s College in Tasmania. In today’s article Bridget Jenkins, the college's Aboriginal Student Support Teacher, shares some of the significant moments in the school’s reconciliation journey.

Little J, Big Cuz and their teacher Miss Chen are heading back to class for a third season of their Logie-award winning animated children’s series, which supports the transition from home to school for Indigenous children and their families.

In her final Teacher column of the year, Dr Sue Thomson explores data from a new large-scale survey of young people’s social and emotional skills that reveals significant differences between students from advantaged and disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds.

A secondary school English teacher in Maryland, United States, who is passionate about supporting low-income students to access tertiary education has just been named the 2021 winner of the US $1 million Global Teacher Prize. In this article, we share the impact she’s having in her community.

Australian students report greater levels of respect for people from other cultures and more positive attitudes towards immigrants than the OECD average, according to a new report from the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Find out more in today’s article.

What is excellence in Indigenous education? And, how is it conceptualised in practice? In this article, researchers from the University of Queensland, Dr Marnee Shay, Dr Jodie Miller and Dr Suraiya Abdul Hameed, share details of their pilot study in Queensland schools that explored these questions.

Today’s article, written by Professor Fiona White from the University of Sydney, explores the research pilot she led as a consultant for the new television series airing in Australia on the ABC, The School That Tried to End Racism. The pilot involved 20 students in Year 6 completing a range of activities to challenge their racial biases.

‘Racism impacts profoundly on the lives of children and young people with major effects on health and wellbeing, and on education and social outcomes.’ In this Q&A, the lead author of a rapid evidence review on the prevalence of racism and racial discrimination experienced by young people in Australia, shares the findings and implications for educators.

Families will often engage in the shared reading of picture books about starting Kindergarten to help children with their transition. But, how are Kindergarten teachers demographically represented in the books that children read during this time? And importantly, who is missing from these representations?

NAIDOC Week is a chance for schools in Australia to celebrate the rich histories, diverse cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The official celebrations run from 4-11 July, but there are lots of teaching and learning resources that can be used throughout the year.