South Australia’s Contribution to 1000 Teachers by 1990 - - New Targets for the Year 2000?

Abstract

Preparation and support programs for teacher trainees were instituted in South Australia in 1978. By that time, only thirteen Aboriginal/Islander people had ever graduated as teachers in South Australia. Since that time, and by the end of this year, over one hundred awards will have been completed in South Australia, eighty percent by people who had been prepared and enrolled through special entry preparation and support programs such as ATEP (Aboriginal Teacher Education Program) at Underdale and the Magill Early Childhood Education Program. Graduates now work across the range from pre-school to tertiary education. Around seventy percent of graduates are in classrooms, with another fifteen percent otherwise involved in education. Very few, if any, are employed.

Counter stories: The voices of Indigenous peoples undertaking educative roles in flexi schools

“…Recognised as a way forward in addressing some of the concerns in the literature on IEWs and in acknowledging the importance to Indigenous students of having positive role models (Malin, 1994), increasing the numbers of Indigenous teachers has been the focus of two major government-supported initiatives. The first systemic push to increase the numbers of Indigenous teachers emerged in the late 1980s with a call for 1000 teachers by 1990 (Lane, 1991). The target was not reached but the idea was regenerated again in 2011 through a large funded project called MATSITI-the More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Teachers Initiative.…”