Education for the 22nd Century
Gudjela is a social/emotional personal-development program designed for students who have disengaged with learning and/or are neurodiverse. We focus on students with adverse childhood experiences including: toxic-stress (e.g. poverty), traumatic backgrounds (e.g. family drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and out-of-home-care), and ongoing complex traumas including the effects of intergenerational trauma.
Students are provided with information about the impact of trauma on brain function in relation to learning. This provides an explanation as to why they may have experienced difficulty focusing, thinking logically, remembering, controlling impulses and self-regulating their behaviours. All of these skills are essential elements needed to enable a person to learn.
Gudjela Indigenous Corporation is a registered charity and runs as non-profit organisation delivering programs in rural and remote communities. This program is dedicated to advancing the education, mental and physical health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youth. Our goal is to build capacity in communities using a future focuses, strength-based, inclusive, cultural and trauma-informed approach. Music, Sound Therapy, Sport and Art activities and experiences are incorporated in Gudjela Programs, as there is more than one language in this country and many ways to express ourselves, share our stories and communicate with others.
Gudjela Services
Student Re-Engagement Program
Designed to improve attendance, self-belief, self-determination, resilience and self-discipline. Focusing on students 'executive function' and ability to self regulate. Our re-engagement program is designed to help individuals & small groups re-engage with meaningful learning. We explore our students identities developing agency, self-regulation, and self-efficacy. We develop one's metacognition (ability to think about how they think and the thinking strategies they use to learn) and how to engage in proper discourse, reflective practices, and evaluative judgement.
Creating Resilient Minds
Resilience enables anyone to succeed in both their education and life in general. Gudjela students learn how their minds perceive challenges and provide strategies to overcome mental barriers. We believe that failure is the greatest teacher because these experiences teach us how to problem solve, think creatively, experiment, adapt to change and develop resilience. We teach our students to become comfortable being uncomfortable, as new opportunities are always met with unease, we provide strategies to overcome these internal barriers.
Youth Leadership
Our programs aim to empower Indigenous youth to become leaders in their communities and in the modern world. Students will learn about compassion, education, resilience, integrity, mindfulness, self-respect, self-discipline and empathy. We provide mentoring, training, and leadership opportunities. We firmly believe that our students can achieve all of their dreams and we provide them with the strategies to make their goals a reality.
Professional Development
Gudjela provides research-based information along with lived experience on the impact of trauma on the brain for school staff and other community-based services. Children and youth who have experienced trauma often have difficulty engaging in and focusing on learning and interacting in positive ways. Gudjela has developed a framework and methodology for understanding, supporting and working with these students.
Advancing Self-Belief and -Discipline
Life is hard, at Gudjela we teach this, that it isn't going to get easier however, if we become accustomed to completing challenging tasks everything becomes easier. We offer different perspectives such as challenges in your life can be seen as gifts, as an opportunity to grow and learn. We believe that you must not wait for motivation to start, that you must use self-discipline to begin, and use motivation as a reward, for your effort.
Education Support
Gudjela is aligned with the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2024) and incorporates trauma-informed research approaches to learning along with Aboriginal Learning Processes.
Our support programs aim to improve educational outcomes for Indigenous children and youth who have suffered from complex trauma. We offer pathways to tutoring, mentoring, and other educational support services. One of our main focuses is teaching students about how to think about their thought processes (metacognition), to develop strategies and processes for understanding how to learn, how to achieve goals and become independent learners.
Connection to Mental Health Services
We offer connection and pathways to mental health services that are culturally safe. Our services aim to support the mental health and wellbeing of students.
Advocacy and Policy
We advocate for Indigenous children and youth at local community and regional levels. We work to influence policy and promote systemic change to improve outcomes for Indigenous children and youth.
Community Capacity Building
We work with communities to build capacity and promote self-determination. Our programs aim to build community leadership, governance, and economic participation. (A long-term objective)
The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating. The paths to it are made, not found, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.
(Photo by James Melky)
Research information on Trauma and Executive Function
‘Executive Function’ and the Impact of Trauma on Social/Emotional Skills and Learning’
‘Executive Function’ is a term associated with information processing in our brain. It includes such functions as attention, working memory, regulating emotion, behaviour, impulse control, creativity and some aspects of personality (Diamond, 2013: Zelazo et al, 2016). Extensive international evidence states that a traumatic event, environment, experience or reactions to these can alter the brain – impacting on how humans think, behave, learn and store memory (Bremner, 2006). Substantial evidence also indicates that compounded intergenerational trauma and untreated trauma, can have a devastating impact on one’s behaviours and emotional development (Atkinson et al, 2014).
Individuals who have problems with executive function in childhood or as an adult, may have difficulty with social appropriateness, planning projects, working independently, remembering details, paying attention, or starting and completing tasks. Those individuals who have been impacted by toxic stress (such as poverty), trauma and other adverse experiences (like domestic violence), will need support to develop improved executive functioning skills to learn how to actively engage and successfully participate in social contexts, such as schools and other community activities (Murray et al., 2015: Zelazo et al, 2016).
Window of Opportunity for Improving Growth, Development and Learning
The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (University of Harvard, 2009): ‘Experiences Build Brain Architecture’, has developed this graph to show the brain’s ability to change in the response to experiences versus the amount of effort such change requires. Extensive research has revealed that it is easier and less costly to form strong brain-circuits during the early years of life than it is to intervene or ‘re-wire’ the brain in later life. This research has informed the design and development of the Gudjela program which aims to work with upper primary to secondary students to capitalise on this ‘window of opportunity’ especially for those who have difficulty with their ‘Executive Function’ due to toxic stress, trauma (both personal and intergenerational) and other adverse experiences.
Figure 2. The brains ability to change in response to experiences versus the amount of effort such change requires (University of Harvard, 2009).
References
Atkinson, J., Nelson, J., Brooks, R., Atkinson, C., & Ryan, K. (2014). Addressing individual and community transgenerational trauma. In P. Dudgeon, H. Milroy and R. Walker (Eds.), Working together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mental health and wellbeing principles and practice, 2nd edition (pp.373-382). Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from: https://www.telethonkids.org.au/globalassets/media/documents/aboriginal-health/working-together-second-edition/wt-part-4-chapt-17-final.pdf
Australian Government Department of Education and Training. (2009) Belonging, Being & Becoming. Council of Australian Governments. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Retrieved from:
Bremner, J [MD]. (2006) Traumatic Stress: Impacts on the Brain. National Library of Medicine. National Centre for Biotechnology Information. Pp. 445-461. Retrieved from:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181836/
Cozolino, J. (2014) The Neuroscience of Human Relationships: Attachment and the Developing Social Brain. 2nd Edition. Norton & Company. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=dYUYAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=importance+of+emotional+brain+in+homosapiens+development&ots=klUr9Xq_kT&sig=SWzJoUOat7aEOUP1AoH9v1Y0mGI#v=onepage&q=importance%20of%20emotional%20brain%20in%20homosapiens%20development&f=false
Pugh, Z., Choo, S., Leshin, J,. Lindquist, K., & Nam, C. (2022) Emotion depends on context, culture, and their interaction: evidence from effective connectivity. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. Volume 17, Issue 2, Pp. 206-217. Retrieved from: https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/17/2/206/6324418
Shackerman, A., & Wager T. (2019) The Emotional Brain: Fundamental questions and strategies for future research. National Library of Medicine. National Centre for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6370519/
Traditional Owners of Western New South Wales (2009) Aboriginal Pedagogy: 8-ways of Learning. DET's Bangamalanha Centre at Arthur St in Dubbo, Western NSW. Retrieved from: https://www.8ways.online/about
Virtual Lab School (2021) Sense of Self: An Introduction. Infants & Toddlers. Self & Cultural Understanding. Retrieved from: https://www.virtuallabschool.org/infant-toddler/self-and-cultural-understanding/lesson-1#:~:text=Infants%20and%20toddlers%20begin%20to,and%20relationships%20with%20important%20adults.
Zelazo, P.D., Blair, C.B., and Willoughby, M.T. (2016). Executive Function: Implications for Education (NCER 2017-2000) Washington, DC: National Center for Education Research, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED570880.pdf
