Indigenous People and Cultures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Indigenous People and Cultures - Essay Example The internationalization of the English language is the most powerful tool for ruling the world that has taken universal and homogenous mandates. A section of critiques and writers of postcolonial literature like Fairclough, Jenkins, McLaren, and Lankshear, among others, argue that the English language curriculum, especially in Aboriginal schools, needs critical studies and reforms as the current imposition and usage reflect the colonial relations (Clarence and Renshaw, 2009). With reference to the Aboriginal communities and the English language, there have been numerous schools of thoughts and ideologies that require an in-depth study and reform of the current English curriculum. From a personal perspective, the education system is becoming more based on policy prescription and arbitrary then being real. With emphasis to English teachers, the latter have had to widen their views and perceptions regarding the English study. Similar to other educational institutions, teachers are cont inuously changing roles from dispensing of knowledge to facilitating learning and aiding acquisition of knowledge by students. The wider teaching practices in New South Wales Higher School Certificate seem to be limited to examination prosperity (Alberta Education). Much less is done to extend the gained knowledge from prescribed texts into exploring the ways in which texts depicts interpretation and reading positions in the world around them. In addition, these texts further marginalize and subjugate indigenous and aboriginal literature and language (Garcia and Kleifgen, 2010). The basis of the critique will be the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Education and Training reform initiative, with the Quality Teaching pedagogy that incorporates the three dimensions of Significance, Intellectual learning, and quality learning environment. An analysis and critique of the current (postcolonial) English curriculum requires a presentation and review of the works of some English curriculu m specialists in indigenous Australia in order to justify the critique approach and highlight the fact that the English curriculum needs to be reformed. The focus of the critique are the numerous suggestion presented in Australia and other countries that host aboriginal communities by these writers and other researchers. Among the notable writers and researchers, include Lankshear and his argument that the goal of literacy is to pursue and achieve a universal literate population that employs literacy in the persuasion of their economic, social, and cultural purposes (Hooley, 2009). According to Green, another researcher, the review of the available rhetoric meanings is fundamental in an English class. The argument behind his observation is that the English language has a cultural construction, thus its form has different meanings to the users. The arguments of Green follow the knowledge that people acquire linguistic skills through the first language and its dialect, and that these dialects are transferrable to the second language easily (Clarence and Renshaw, 2009). To understand the above concept, there is need to understand the Aboriginal English. According to Aboriginal English researchers, the language is linguistically complex, has a cultural embedding, follows rule governance, and is widely acknowledged by most teachers, regardless of the fact they do not know the exact form of the English langu