Talking knowledge, doing learning: the early years

An enduring problem in Indigenous schooling is the discrepancy in outcomes compared to mainstream children, but little is known about one crucial factor: the role of Indigenous ways of speaking and their ways of engaging with knowledge and learning. In this groundbreaking project, Prep students are compared in two urban settings: a mainstream school and a school with high Indigenous enrolments. The project also examines learning in children¿s homes to establish how the flow of knowledge is managed in Indigenous and mainstream families. By investigating these four settings, the project will provide important evidence for understanding the role that language and cultural ways of knowing contribute to the discrepancy in schooling outcomes.