Knowing your students: Mobility

Going mobile
Understanding student mobility
Dealing with it

Going mobile

The data below are from a Strategic Results Project:

M. is an 11-year-old girl for whom five school movements have been registered in the past six months.

13/11/98: Left a primary school in Orange (Year 5). Last day of attendance unspecified. Two possible destinations, Bourke or Bathurst. … was only here 2 days.

1/3/99: Re-enrolled in the original school in Orange (Year 6). Her previous school(s) is/are not registered.

18/3/99: Left the primary school to go to primary school B in the same town.

… wasn't here long enough to assess literacy & numeracy levels.

21/4/99: Enrolled in a primary school in Bourke. Previous schools were registered as being in Penrith (2) and Bathurst (2). … the student said she had attended the above schools in term 1, 1999

9/6/99: Left school in Bourke, going to Bathurst or Orange.

Literacy level: Stage 2 … can achieve, provided easy instructions are given in turn

Numeracy level: Stage 2 … often needs concrete situations to work things out.

M.'s whereabouts are presently not registered. She may have enrolled in a school which is not connected to the database, the school she is enrolled in may not have registered the enrolment, or she may not be attending any school.

P. is a 7 year-old boy for whom five movements were registered between November 1998 and May 1999.

9/11/98: Enrolled in a remote central school in the west of the state.

24/11/98: Exited this school. … has demonstrated pleasing potential in numeracy/literacy.

27/4/99: Re-enrolled at this school. Previous school registered as being in the ACT.

19/5/99: Re-exited. Nominated next school in Forbes.

Literacy and numeracy levels: Stage 1.

21/5/99: Enrolled in school in Forbes.

The degree of mobility of the two students in the cases above is not necessarily characteristic. Data from one of the Strategic Results Projects dealing with this topic indicate that from a total enrolment of 793 Indigenous students registered from the 76 schools participating, there were 1039 movements (both in and out and including transition from primary to secondary school) in a nine-month period. Of these, 604 students had moved only once; a small proportion had moved more than twice. These data also indicate that, during the period studied, while the beginning and middle of the year are the busiest time for movement, it occurs throughout the year. They also show that some particular schools have very high levels of Indigenous student transience.

A remote school, where another project related to this topic was conducted, consistently doubles its fairly small population during the period October-April on an annual basis.

Understanding student mobility

But mobility is an issue shaped by the eye of the beholder. In some parts of Australia the mobile population is non-Indigenous. They come for a while, and then they go.

Mobility among Indigenous people can be an important medium for cultural maintenance and cohesion as well as a consequence of dispossession from homelands. Keeping in touch now means moving about.

In an article which contains many helpful insights, Diana Eades notes:

One of the most important obligations or expectations of kin [in Aboriginal families] is that they maintain contact. Although people participate in mainstream Australian social life in many day-to-day activities, they place the highest priority on seeing relatives.

— Eades, D. (1988: 98) 'They don't speak an Aboriginal Language, or do they?' in Keen, I. (ed) Being Black: Aboriginal cultures in settled Australia Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.

There may be a need to travel for family meetings and group activities, while leisure activities and social networks revolve around the very wide network of extended family members. High priority is attached to community cohesion through activities such as funerals, initiations, and other ceremonies, and also to participation in social and cultural activities, such as football or basketball, other community and family business, and in meetings and social affairs organised by Aboriginal organisations.

Dealing with it

Mobility is a fact of life for some Indigenous students, is likely to remain so and should be accepted as such. It is culturally characteristic that children and young people will sometimes move between relations living in different parts of the country. Frequent movement is also characteristic of groups in the population as a whole which are struggling economically.

There have been two large systemic projects in WA and NSW related to the development of student tracking and information exchange systems, with the prospect of eventual operation on a statewide basis, coupled with provision of forms of support for mobile students. You may be involved with or have access to these.

Otherwise you might consider action to provide support which will help to improve the continuity of programs offered to transient students.

If you know the student's destination, with the consent and agreement of the student and his or her carer, a copy of the student profile could be forwarded to that school along with a portfolio of other relevant information.

The portfolio could include:

• a photo of the student, with their name and year level
  
  
• up-to-date samples of his or her work
  
  
• any additional test score or assessment information which is relevant.