More than cultural celebrations: Indigenous identities in school settings

Abstract

Australian research on Indigenous education has been based on deficit notions of cultural difference as the inhibitor to educational parity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people. Research from the 1970s focused on ‘why’ Indigenous young people were not succeeding in conventional school settings, and ‘how’ schools could engage and improve outcomes for Indigenous young people. In the following four decades, there has been limited research on the types of learning within which Indigenous young people have subsequently re-engaged after being disengaged. The research presented in this chapter focuses on the specific Australian schooling site termed ‘flexi schools’. The term describes a model of schooling outside conventional education addressing the needs of disenfranchised young people. There is an array of flexible schooling programs operating in Australia with the distinct aim of re-engagement (te Riele, 2007). Given the high numbers of Indigenous young people disengaging from conventional schooling and the disparity in educational outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people (Australian Government, 2013), it is not surprising that there are high numbers of Indigenous young people engaged in flexi schools (Shay, 2013).