ITAS in a virtual environment – quality and efficacy in Indigenous tertiary student support
Susan Beetson, Annie Tyhuis, Susan Willsteed, Juliana McLaughlin, Sue Whatman
Oodgeroo Unit
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, Australia
August 8, 2007
Author Biographies
Susan Beetson
I am a Koori woman from Kamilaroi. I have worked in Information Technology for 20 years and a Bachelor of Information Technology honours graduate. My honours thesis was concerned with information systems that support and encapsulate Indigenous Australian peoples and cultures within online environments. My role with the Oodgeroo Unit is as an Academic Website Developer/Project Officer.
Annie Tyhuis
I am a Torres Strait Islander, originally from Darnley Island, Eastern Torres Strait. I have lived in Brisbane for thirty seven years. I attended Business College in Brisbane and on completion started working for a privately owned Toy & Novelties company in Brisbane starting as a Office Junior and progressing to Administration and staying with the company for twenty six years. I started at Oodgeroo Unit Kelvin Grove on the 10 June 2003.
Susan Willsteed
Susan Willsteed is a non-Indigenous associate lecturer who was born and grew up in Turrubal country (Brisbanes north side), and is a graduate of QUT. Susan has an early childhood teaching background, but has for many years been involved in supporting Indigenous students at all levels of education, and in advocating for the incorporation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives at all levels of education and within the wider community. Susan currently teaches Indigenous studies in the Education and Humanities Faculties at QUT, and is the liaison lecturer for Indigenous students enrolled in the faculty of Education.
Juliana McLaughlin is from Manus Island in Papua New Guinea. She attended primary and secondary schooling on the island prior attending a primary teachers college in Rabaul. She moved on to complete a BEd from the University of PNG (UPNG) prior to working as a lecturer in a teachers' college. She later completed a BA (Honours) and worked as a teaching fellow in Education and Language and Literature at UPNG. Juliana completed a PhD at QUT in 2002. The study focused on Australian aid to PNG education and unpacked legacies of colonisation, and the economic, social, cultural, political complexities of postcolonial times. Research interests are driven by a commitment and responsibility to Indigenous knowledge systems, decolonising methodologies and embedding Indigenous ways of knowing in university programs. Sue Whatman
Sue Whatman is non-Indigenous lecturer who was born in Murwillumbah, Minjungbal country, in far northern NSW, and is a graduate of QUT. Sue has worked in different faculties of QUT and Central Queensland University before commencing her job here at the Oodgeroo Unit in 1993. Sue is currently the liaison lecturer for Indigenous students enrolled in the faculty of Creative Industries and she teaches Indigenous studies in the Education Faculty and at QUT Carseldine. With a health and physical education teaching background, Sue has an active research interest in health education for Indigenous girls and a strong commitment to incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, content and pedagogies into QUT courses. Sue completed doctoral studies in 2004 into community participation in health education decision-making for girls in the Torres Strait and is looking at ways to address issues raised from the research, particularly in relation to pre-service HPE teacher education.
Abstract
Comprehensive reviews of the last four decades of Commonwealth funded support mechanisms for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, including the history of the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS) are well documented by Watts (1982), Bin Sallik (1991), Tripcony (2001) and Morgan (2003). Designed as a “supplementary” tuition scheme, Nakata (2001, 2007) argues that this is premised upon Indigenous students having had a deficient preparation for each stage of schooling. However, delivery of ITAS to Indigenous students continues to require enormous administration and commitment by the staff of Indigenous education support centres.
This paper begins with a general overview of the history of ITAS across Australia and a specific overview at one Australian university. The paper reports on a research-in-progress which interrogated ITAS from the position of its Commonwealth-mandated bureaucratic workload, the inherent question of pedagogy, and the benefit to student outcomes that ITAS is intended to enhance.
We will showcase some of the preliminary findings of this research into the quality and efficacy of ITAS by demonstrating process design and delivery improvements in the administration of ITAS at our university. We also provide some analysis of the evaluations provided by important stakeholders in ITAS, including first year and ongoing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, ‘first-timers’ and experienced ITAS tutors, and the academic and professional staff who administer and monitor the scheme.