Remote Indigenous Families and Early Childhood Practitioners Working Together Final Report

This is a report of a participatory action research project, Indigenous Families and Early Childhood Practitioners Working Together, undertaken by local Indigenous community members and two researchers from Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education (BIITE) over a 3 month period (April to June, 2010). The project investigated effective community engagement and partnership practices occurring amongst an Indigenous community school, children’s service and the community, in the small remote Indigenous community of Jilkminggan, located 450 km from Darwin.

Much attention in recent years has been given to the early childhood years (0-8) and young Indigenous children’s transition to school as pivotal experiences impacting on their future educational trajectory (Shepherd & Walker, 2008; McTurk et al, 2008). However, the majority of the period defined as early childhood (0-8 years) occurs well before the compulsory school age (6 years old) and a child’s entry to formal schooling. Therefore, school-community engagement processes should commence with families of children engaged in children’s services and preschool, as well as the early years of school. This project targets the community school engagement practices occurring across the early childhood age range in order to learn from the experience of one remote Indigenous community.

The building of strong relationships between Indigenous families, communities and the educational institutions that serve them is critical to children’s successful transition into mainstream learning environments. Indigenous children are often on their own in negotiating the gaps that occur between home and school practices and expectations, many of which may be at odds with each other in terms of children’s behaviour, use of language, cultural norms and background experiences.