Insights into the beliefs and practices of teachers in a remote Indigenous context

Abstract

An enduring issue for education in Australia is the poor performance of Indigenous students in mathematics. This is more pronounced in remote locations where many of the teachers are new graduates who are enthusiastic but lack experience and are unfamiliar with the complexities of teaching in remote and/or Indigenous contexts. This paper discusses the beliefs and practices of teachers working in a remote, Indigenous region of Australia. It is proposed that the discrepancy between beliefs and practices found in the reconnaissance phase of a design study is due to the teachers realising that they need to implement changed practices to enable students to learn but have little knowledge of what such practices may look like. As such, the discrepancy forms a powerful space for teacher professional development.