In NAIDOC week we can celebrate some of our nation’s impressive indigenous academics. Dr Chris Sarra is inspiring with his message to educators to maintain high expectations of all students to counter what he calls “the toxicity of low expectations”.
In the Griffith Review annual lecture of 2014 he speaks about the rhetoric of high expectations relationships and the need for educators to understand all the circumstances around why a student may, for example, be swearing at school. “It may result in the student being suspended or it may result in a teacher apologising to a student for backing them into a corner. It may also result in teaching the child that this kind of interaction is not acceptable at school. Within the confines of a high expectations relationship, any range of constructive solutions can be negotiated”.
