Middle leaders have a professional responsibility to ensure they are culturally responsive, and that the curriculum supports all learners to engage in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, living cultures and contemporary impacts of colonisation. They are reflexive in practice, both by self-reflecting and taking actions to improve. They consider how their interactions with others reflect their own beliefs and change them where required.
Middle leaders ensure culturally safe, high-quality learning environments free from discrimination and racism. With the principal and other school leaders, they actively identify Elders and leaders who can act as valued advisors to school leaders even in schools where there are few or no identified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. They understand that quality relationships with community are crucial in achieving reconciliation and successful outcomes for all students, so they build and nurture these relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities over time. When demonstrating capabilities across the standards, middle leaders should specifically consider and plan for the potential impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who are members of the school community.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students should experience rich cognitively complex ideas in all curriculum areas and highly effective teaching. Middle leaders should ensure there is a continued and constant focus on the impact of teaching to ensure students are accelerating in their learning. In collaboration with the principal and other school leaders, they critically evaluate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning data, schooling processes and strategic plans, and inquire into how any other aspects of schooling may impact and/or create barriers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
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Focus areas
3a: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories
Promoting opportunities for all students to truthfully learn about and respect complex Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, living cultures and contemporary impacts of colonisation.
Table: A continuum of increasing leadership capabilities
- Demonstrate cultural responsiveness informed by a deep understanding and respect for the histories and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in their area.
- Continually educate themselves on those histories and their intergenerational impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, including languages, cultures, and worldviews
| - Lead teaching colleagues to identify evidence-based resources and teaching materials that include the accurate history of communities from their local area.
- Emphasise the importance of student wellbeing that recognises historical legacies such as, intergenerational impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Embrace reflexive opportunities to learn and engage with communities, their languages, cultures, and ways of understanding the world
| - Emphasise the importance of this cross-curriculum priority and promote the incorporation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, histories, and contemporary contributions into curriculum across all learning areas. This includes leading the integration of contemporary impacts of colonisation into lesson plans and teaching materials
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3b: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
Modelling teaching that validates respect for and builds positive relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and leaders even where there are few or no identified Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
Understanding and appreciating the privileges, roles and responsibilities of living and working on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander lands and convey this to all staff and students.
Table: A continuum of increasing leadership capabilities
- Understand and develop positive relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, local to the school where possible.
- Actively research local community protocols and languages and engage community members in the educational process, valuing their input, and collaborating to support all student learning
| - Work collaboratively with other school leaders to identify local Elders and leaders and create and maintain positive, reciprocal and meaningful relationships with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
- Foster active community engagement in educational processes, including co-designing the implementation of curriculum to explore local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and languages.
- Draw on other school leaders' and teachers' demonstrated expertise in this area and obtain critical feedback and teaching evaluations
| - Demonstrate proactivity, respect, cultural sensitivity and a genuine commitment to understanding and addressing the complex issues of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, wellbeing and the challenges faced by these local communities.
- In consultation with the principal, encourage all teachers and other staff to engage with Elders and leaders to build positive, reciprocal relationships
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3c: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous reconciliation
Promoting practices and attitudes that support reconciliation by dismantling biases, stereotypes, and promoting anti-racism strategies in educational settings.
Table: A continuum of increasing leadership capabilities
- Proactively promote reconciliation and encourage teachers to pursue reconciliation resources, workshops, seminars and other professional learning opportunities to learn about issues of bias, stereotypes, and racism in education, and their implications for teaching, learning and leadership. Align reconciliation actions with any existing school plans
| - Model and manage anti-racism best practice by challenging inappropriate comments, stereotypes, or discriminatory behaviour exhibited by students, staff and the wider school community. Ensure integrity when implementing anti-racism and other relevant policies, taking effective action aligned to policy when racism occurs
| - Lead the use of student voice and other data to monitor and discuss progress towards an inclusive, anti-racist school culture.
- Advocate and lead effective work towards dismantling racism within the whole school by actively challenging institutional racism.
- Advocate for the incorporation of diverse external perspectives, guest speakers and counter-narratives to support a whole school approach to challenge racism
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3d: Monitoring learning progress
Monitoring the learning progress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to better guide and support them in their learning so that they will achieve their full potential. This should be completed in conjunction with using evidence-based teaching strategies and applying insights from cognitive science and other research on how students learn to optimise systematic deep learning through effective pedagogical practices. This is directly related to
Standard 4, focus area 4b.
Table: A continuum of increasing leadership capabilities
- Work with teachers to specifically monitor learning progress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
- Optimise deep student learning using evidence-based teaching strategies.
- Connect teachers with experts in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, to identify other opportunities for teacher learning to facilitate enhanced student learning outcomes
| - Using evidence from student progress monitoring, collaborate with experts in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education and teachers to identify any classroom barriers to student learning and collaboratively design actions with classroom teachers which will address identified barriers for students.
- Review existing processes to regularly collect and collaboratively analyse evidence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student progress to refine teaching practice and enhance processes to improve
| - Working with other leaders, use critically evaluated student learning data to reflect on how to enhance outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
- Use this information to advocate for improvement to school processes or plans so that they more effectively address barriers to the learning progress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students
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Source: Professional Standards for Middle Leaders © 2024 Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL). Used with permission.