Language Literacy and Numeracy in
Aboriginal Health Worker Training – an Investigation
Researcher
Anne Every
Institute of Aboriginal Development
Manager
Metta Young
Centre for Appropriate Technology, Alice Springs
catcai@ozemail.com.au
How well is the literacy field in Australia meeting the
demands for policy and programs around bringing Indigenous people into recent strategies
and policies in language, literacy and numeracy as well as the broader vocational
education and training policies and strategies for reform.
This paper argues that while national strategies have been
developed to deal with the considerable issues which Indigenous people face, the current
release of strategies in the vocational education and training system identified through
consultation will have to address pressing contradictory forces. These pressures could
well exclude Indigenous people from accessing appropriate resources to support their
learning. Geographic distances and isolation, inadequate basic infrastructure such as
buildings, water, electricity as well as inadequate program resourcing, limited
professional support for teachers working in remote and complex cross cultural contexts
all impact around the interface of literacy and the introduction of training packages. In
addition, the relationships between literacy developments in second, third or fourth
language contexts, limited employment prospects or employment contexts where Indigenous
people learn and are assessed in English are highlighted. The dominant culture must
acknowledge that although the Competency Standards and associated Training Package
development privileges English and enforces its efficacy in delivering training, the
ironic situation is that more often than not the AHW is specifically employed and required
to work using Indigenous languages in such environments as health clinics, schools, local
councils and community.
The introduction of the Aboriginal Health Worker (AHW)
Competency Standards to the Health Sector in the Northern Territory and the low levels of
participation in education for Indigenous groups in Central Australia will need to be
addressed and the literacy field has a lot to offer. Knowing how and where to intervene in
terms of health worker training is fundamental to positioning literacy as underpinning
other Indigenous vocational policy areas such as community and family services, education,
housing, transport, social welfare and the justice system training. Local research
indicates that the AHW Competency Standards will considerably change the fundamental role
of institution based education and training and literacy provision in workplace and
organisations where AHWs are employed. Aboriginal health workers, health educators and
literacy practitioners in Central Australia have critiqued the Competency Standards and
identified improvements and issues and at the same time challenge the interpretation of
advice provided by the literacy field to national policy based on textual analysis rather
than primary data from Aboriginal health workers. They also indicate that cooperation and
collaboration at the local level is required where all stakeholders can evaluate local
programs. Without such approaches, competing and contradictory requirements may exacerbate
the risks and exclusion of Indigenous people from appropriate health care and relevant
vocational training.
When the recent interface between literacy practice and
Indigenous people’s exclusion from Competency Standards and Training Package
development in Australia is considered, it might be timely to take stock. This is a
contribution to working with local Indigenous people around the Training Package regime by
assessing the contribution of the literacy field in Australia to the debate around
Competency Standards and Training Packages – part of the problem or part of the
solution – practice in the "new times".
