Aboriginal Education Archives

The Aboriginal Education Archives consists of material donated by Dr. Bob Teasdale, an education lecturer at Flinders University specialising in Indigenous Australian education. The material is a collection of documents relating to several special projects in this area (detailed below), as well as providing a comprehensive archive of material on Indigenous Australian education, dating from the 1970s onwards.

Go to the Aboriginal Education Archives in findit@flinders. (Add additional search terms in the search box to search within the collection)

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that items in the Flinders University Library collections may contain images, voices, and names of deceased persons. In some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, hearing recordings, seeing images or the names of deceased persons may cause sadness or distress and, in some cases, offend against strongly held cultural prohibitions.

Some material held by Flinders University Library may contain words, descriptions and terms which may be culturally sensitive and that reflect authors’ views, or those of the period in which the content was created but may be considered offensive, derogatory, or racist today and are therefore unacceptable. These views are not necessarily the views of Flinders University. While the information may not reflect current understanding, it is provided in an historical context.

Bernard van Leer Foundation projects

In 1966 the Berhard van Leer Foundation was established in 30 countries. The Foundation aimed to educationally assist disadvantaged (eg. socially, culturally, environmental) children. Projects were set up and financed to study the problems of these children and to develop education methods and supports to compensate for or overcome these problems.

The material in this archive is from the following projects: S.A. preschool project (1970-71), Aboriginal family education project (AFEC), Ernabella and Marree projects (follow ups to SA project). Background material relating to the Foundation is also included.

The Aboriginal early childhood project

The study aimed to discover the nature and availability of early childhood programmes for Aboriginal children around Australia. These included State or Commonwealth funded programmes as well as privately funded organisations. The need for and the effects of preschool education generally were also studied.

A Commonwealth grant was awarded to Keith McConnochie, Robert Teasdale and Alan Russell (staff members from the School of Education at Flinders University in 1981) for the study of the early childhood programmes available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The collection comprises the working papers of the group. The Central Library holds a copy of the research project proposal submitted to the Department of Education (f371.97 M129r).

The Aboriginal post-primary project

The aims of the project were firstly to research the following areas: to locate and case study post primary institutions which were especially successful in their relationships with Aboriginal students; to interiew people with experience and understanding of Aboriginal post-primary education; to collate and summarise existing material. The second part of the project was to develop programmes in schools to facilitate positive change in Aboriginal post-primary education.

The Education Department, the School of Education at Flinders University and the South Australian Consultative Committee worked together on this project. Colin Power and Bob Teasdale (lecturers at the School of Education) were the two Flinders University representatives on the management committee which directed the project. The collection comprises the working papers and reports generated by the project. Copies of the reports are held in Central Library and Special Collections (call nos. 371.979915 F948 f371.29 W529i f373.941 L897 f371.97 L897a f371.97 L897in f371.97 E32i f371.97 L897c).

Bicultural education project

This was a theoretical analysis of the concept of two-way Aboriginal schooling, funded through Commonwealth "Projects of National Significance", 1987-1988.

Material is collected on the subject of bicultural/bilingual education of indigenous people, in Australia and around the world. The value and nature of this type of education is discussed.

Archive material

The collection consists of archival material used by staff members of the School of Education at Flinders University to support Aboriginal education research. There is a card index for some material.

Some of the subjects included are: preschool education, post-primary education, the Aboriginal education foundation (SA), Aboriginal education consultative committees (SA, VIC), the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.

The material not included in the card index covers many of the same subject areas, although not everything is duplicated. The unduplicated material includes: SACAE Aboriginal studies course guides (1981), work from the Aboriginal community college, information from the National Aboriginal Education Committee.

General conditions of access apply.