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Article scientifique

Batchelor Institute’s “both-ways” journey: 1968-1985.

This brief article came out of recent discussions about the history of the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education. The conversation was initiated after a chance reading of the introductory text on the Batchelor Institute website that is headed ‘History’: Batchelor Institute, formerly known as Batchelor College, began as a small annex of Kormilda College, then a residential school for Aboriginal students on the outskirts of Darwin, in the mid-1960s, providing short training programs for Aboriginal teacher aides and assistants in community schools. In 1974, the college moved to Batchelor, about 100 kilometres south of Darwin, and has occupied its present site in the township since 1982 (BIITE 2005). The discussion focused not on any inaccuracies in the text, but more so on the important historical ‘moments’ that are silenced or omitted in that author’s search for brevity. These ‘moments’ were the times when important ideas were contested at Batchelor. This article attempts to identify some of these ‘moments’ prior to 1986 that informed the early practice and achievements of Batchelor College, allowing the reader to make associations to issues faced in Indigenous education today. This is not a story told through rose-coloured glasses that romanticises the past – hopefully it is not a misremembered one! With any luck it will also engage its readers in a debate about its relevance to their current work in Indigenous education. The account of the events described here will focus on the development of the Teacher Education program at Batchelor and will avoid detailing the development of other courses during the period under focus. The writer acknowledges the development of a number of crucial programs that furthered Batchelor College’s contribution to community development in the NT that are not mentioned here. That is a challenge for another writer! With the above limitations in mind however, the writer urges educators involved in Indigenous education to read and consider this story and the ways that key ideas retold or revisited here might influence the way that they work today. This writer aims to inspire educators to think about the applicability of these ideas to their everyday practice. It is this writer’s observation that many opportunities still exist for ongoing reflection and development of appropriate pedagogy, along the lines suggested here, in the numerous ways that educators and Indigenous students engage in teaching/ learning journeys.