Androgogy and Aboriginal Australian Learning Styles.

This paper discusses the work of Yooroang Garang: the Centre for Indigenous Health Studies at the University of Sydney (Australia), focusing on professional education of Aboriginal health workers (AHWs). Aboriginal Education Centres in tertiary institutions are challenged to ensure that those institutions impart knowledge that is relevant and appropriate to Aboriginal people's cultural needs and aspirations. Most students at Yooroang Garang come from rural New South Wales, where the health status of Aboriginal people is much poorer than that of Whites. AHW training is critical to improving health conditions in rural Aboriginal communities, as AHWs deliver primary care services, provide health promotion and health education, and act as cultural brokers. However, AHWs encounter many problems: maintaining their own cultural identity; balancing Western and Aboriginal concepts of illness and health; and coping with isolation, confidentiality issues, gender issues, insufficient training, and lack of recognition by other health professionals. Yooroang Garang has developed culturally appropriate strategies to improve Aboriginal students' learning outcomes, including student attendance in 2-week study blocks; consideration of Aboriginal attitudes toward kin, community, and land; structured kits of learning materials to support indigenous adults undertaking off-campus study; supervised cooperative projects in Aboriginal communities; and teaching methods that build on learners' experience, enable students to assess their own learning needs, and are appropriate to the learning styles of Aboriginal adults. (SV)