Mount Isa will be playing a big role at an upcoming international indigenous education conference in Canada.
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Tammi Webber, indigenous education adviser for Townsville Catholic Education, is attending the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education at Toronto later this month.
The conference showcases world’s best practice and Ms Webber will be presenting the research findings of the innovative “Pedagogy of Difference” program in Mount Isa’s three Catholic schools.
“I will be presenting the fourth phase of our research in front of quite a big audience,” Ms Webber said.
She said the research is about indigenous students and families a voice in the conversation about how to close the gap in education.
“In the millions of dollars poured into indigenous education, there’s a voice missing,” she said.
“It’s our kids and our parents saying when we get to school how do we make sure we maximise the quality of the teaching.”
Ms Webber said the research, funded by an Australia Research Council grant, started four years ago when they asked indigenous parents to talk about what schools can do to enhance education for their kids.
“Parents had never been given that opportunity before,” she said.
“Our families value education and know it is the key to changing a lot of disadvantage and issues people in our community deal with.”
Ms Webber said it was the first time indigenous kids were asked what good teachers looked like.
Their findings that indigenous kids valued being heard and valued their culture being understood were important but it also had wider outcomes.
“There are some specific issues related to indigenous identity but our findings are best education practice worldwide,” she said.
“We were able to pull down the seven main findings of what every teacher needs, so if you have disengaged kids, disruptive or low academically – the parents and kids are giving you the answers.”
Research papers and the video Ms Webber will present in Canada are on the website Pedagogy of Difference.