Indigenous Australian Education Research Articles

The development of an evidence based, evidence generating framework for enhancing Indigenous student success at an Australian university.

In 2019, Kurongkurl Katitjin, Centre for Indigenous Australian Education and Research at Edith Cowan University, set up a new Indigenous student support service with the aim of enabling Indigenous students to progress through their degree at rates commensurate with the broader student population. This was an opportunity to design the service on the best available evidence and to embed an ongoing evaluation system that would generate evidence of its efficacy and with that, the capacity of ongoing refinement. The design of the service synthesised material from four discourses; existing literature on Indigenous student success, the demography of students, and best practice for service provision for marginalised and student voices. Key values and a service mission were identified, these underpinned the process of design, and the operations of the service. A framework was developed that enabled the generation of quantitative and qualitative data about the efficacy of the service. This paper demonstrates the significance of the process of design as well as describing the service and its embedded evaluation system.

Editorial

This special issue of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education presents a second volume of papers which specifically address the issue of remote education for Indigenous Australians. ‘Red Dirt Revisited’, edited by John Guenther, presents findings from his team working on the Remote Education Systems (RES) project within the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP). Focusing on a number of remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educational sites in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia, the RES project is now in its final stages and the main intention behind this special issue is to share significant findings from this important research. Much of the work presented here is by postgraduate students and AJIE is very pleased to be able to provide a voice and forum to support and ‘grow’ early career researchers in our field.

Editorial

We are very pleased to bring you Volume 42.1 of the Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. The articles in this Volume collectively address the urgent need to disrupt ‘business as usual’ in Indigenous education in national and global contexts, and in doing so, engage in new ways of thinking and framing policy and pedagogy. Currently in Australia, discussions around what ‘counts’ as ‘good’ policy and pedagogy in Indigenous education are increasingly placed in conversation with one of three agendas: Noel Pearson's ‘radical vision’ for contemporary schooling for Indigenous students, with a renewed emphasis and return to direct instruction; Chris Sarra's ‘stronger and smarter’ strategy, which promotes a commitment to a high-expectation, high-performance and a relational approach to Indigenous education; and initiatives driven by the ‘Closing the Gap’ reform agenda. Indeed, situated within the present climate of neo-liberalism orchestrating policy by numbers, there is ‘serious stuff’ happening at the moment that impacts in very real ways on the experiences and outcomes of our Indigenous children at all levels of schooling, the capacity of teachers to work within an Indigenous Australian education space for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, and the positioning of education as a location of possibility for ‘doing business differently’. The time for us as educators and researchers has never been more urgent — we have to be the ones to talk loud and to talk strong against colonial and neo-colonial moves to silence and exclude the counter stories we have to tell. In conversation as Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators working towards social justice in education, the articles in this Volume bring us these narratives.

“Ceaselessly circling the centre”

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the educational journey of indigenous Australians since the time of the 1788 invasion through into the modern Australian university. This exploration is intended to clarify the way in which education delivery in this country has been used to position the nation's “first peoples” within a context of centre/periphery thinking.Design/methodology/approachThe paper established an overview of the educational service provision for indigenous Australians through a review of archival materials, historical texts and education reports. This information was then aligned with the data gathered through face‐to‐face interviews and focus group meetings conducted by the author in her own PhD research, to test the complementarity of the sources in terms of the indigenous experience.FindingsThe paper provides insights into the current positioning of indigenous Australians. The process of viewing the present against the backdrop of the past identified important historical landmarks that were then examined through the diversity of lens provided through interviews/meetings with contemporary students and staff to reveal the critical impact of centre/periphery thinking on indigenous education in this country.Originality/valueThis paper provides an historical overview of indigenous Australian education that, in clarifying some of the connections and ruptures between “centre and periphery”, provides valuable insights into the full diversity of the indigenous historical experience in Australian education.

Where Do We Look Now? The Future of Research in Indigenous Australian Education

Abstract Research in Indigenous Australian education is at a dead-end. Researchers are still heading out into the field to look for new knowledge to answer old questions. The same epistemology dominates how we look, and where, while the methodology provides the researcher with a forced choice, one where either the student or the teacher is blamed for the lack of outcomes in Indigenous education. Where do we look now, and can we find something that has not been found before? The unequal historical relation that persists across Australia suggests that the process of research itself could be given as much attention as the search for quantifiable outcomes. The paper proposes that this process focus on the production of relations between schools and communities as well as on the search for knowledge.

Grounded Theory and Focus Groups: Reconciling Methodologies in Indigenous Australian Education Research

Abstract This paper captures an ideological moment in time in which I contemplated the methodological approach I was embarking upon. In my search for a more appropriate approach for conducting research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tertiary students at the University of Queensland, I chose focus groups set within the qualitative process of grounded theory. This paper explores the meaning, usefulness and persistence of grounded theory, how it juxtaposes with focus groups, and the implications for the reciprocal integrity of the research for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and me. Within this context and the tenets of grounded theory I ask questions such as, “For how long in the process can your research texts (linking data and theory) about field texts (participants’ narratives) remain purely inductive?” And, “How does the movement between inductive theory development and deductive assumptions fit widi issues of power and authority in an Australian Indigenous context?” I see possibility in the complementary use of grounded theory and focus groups that creates dialogic relationships between the students as both narrators and audience. Through the interaction of retelling, reliving and recreating life experiences in conversations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tertiary students conceptualise their individual subjectivities in a process of self-construction. How perceptive I am in “seeing” developing concepts within the students’ testimonies, and how I interpret those concepts in relation to existing theoretical content, may lead to new theory that influences the ongoing deconstruction of grand narratives often assigned to group identities. Co-research among the participants can provide the opportunity for monitoring the generative process.

Indigenous Australian Perspectives in Early Childhood Education

A personal account of life experiences and research in relation to the concepts of respect, identity, relatedness and education offered by an Indigenous Australian woman reared by a non-Indigenous family in a non-Indigenous community. Western education philosophies—the goal of becoming the ‘self-realised individual’: the independent self who succeeds as powerful and autonomous—are comparatively analysed with Indigenous Australian education philosophies—the goal of becoming the ‘related individual’ to family, community and environmental resonance. Drawing on recent research initiated and conducted by Indigenous community organisations, Indigenous models for early childhood education are positioned as highly desirable for informing the future development of mainstream early childhood education policies.

Estimating the Social Rate of Return to Education for Indigenous Australians

The present paper compares estimates of the social rate of return to education for Indigenous Australians with those for non-Indigenous Australians. The social rate of return measures the net benefits to society of educating its citizens. If education is treated as an investment by society in its people, then Australian society will be made better off by an increase in educational investment as long as the social rate of return is higher than that for other public investments. This paper provides a discussion of the concept of the social rate of return to education and some estimates for Indigenous Australians. Higher levels of education, in general, lead to an increased probability of finding employment and higher levels of income in employment. Hence, an increased level of education for an Indigenous person would be of advantage in economic terms; the private rate of return to education is likely to be quite high. In addition, we argue that increasing education has important social benefits (so-called 'externalities') for Indigenous people, and society in general: improved education would lead to better nutrition, to better living conditions, to better access to health services, and hence to a longer and healthier life. This means that productivity would be higher for Indigenous people and they would have higher incomes over a longer period of time. In addition, we argue that improved levels of education have the capacity to contribute to a decrease in the numbers of Indigenous people who are imprisoned, and thus lead to a direct reduction in the costs of imprisonment. Thus, increased education increases the earnings span, decreases prison costs and hence increases the social rate of return. We find that the social rate of return for education is generally higher for Indigenous Australians than for non-Indigenous Australians. This suggests, from a public policy perspective, that government should allocate increased funding for the education of Indigenous people since this social rate of return is greater than the Department of Finance recommended cut-off rates for government investment projects.

Indigenous Australian Education and Globalisation

This article focuses on the impact of colonisation and its associated impact on Indigenous teaching and learning. Western European institutions have dominated Indigenous ways of knowing and in Australia this has led to barriers which restrict the participation of Aboriginal people in education systems. Globally Indigenous people are attempting to bring into the introduced educational systems culturally appropriate teaching and learning practices so that a more holistic approach to education can become the norm rather than the exception. The relationship between Indigenous knowledge and western European concepts of knowledge and knowing need to placed in a framework of mutual interaction so that not only do Indigenous people benefit, but so do non-Indigenous educators and students.

Indigenous Australians and Legal Education: Looking to the Future

Indigenous people are under-represented in the Australian legal community. Some Law Schools have attempted to address the issue by increasing the opportunities for Indigenous students to obtain places in law schools. However, the high attrition rates among Indigenous students continue to undermine the efforts of these Law Schools While providing increased access to Indigenous students is an important starting point, the continued high rates of attrition highlights the fact that addressing access issues is not in itself sufficient. If law schools provide alternative entry programs to Indigenous students they must also provide a system of support for those students. In order to give Indigenous students the opportunity to succeed, formal access issues must be tackled at the same time as the more substantive issues of on-going support. The Pearce Report notes that experience in law schools has shown that merely to admit Indigenous students without more is unsatisfactory. This is reinforced by experience in American Universities which suggests that special admission programs have resulted in high attrition rates where the students are left unsupported after entry In most Australian law schools affirmative action programs in relation to access are an integral part of the university and the focus in Australia has gradually shifted from emphasising access issues to improving success rates in students’ studies through on-going support programs. The objectives of this article are twofold. The first objective is to discuss the theoretical justifications for structural and institutional reforms that may be needed to improve legal education for Indigenous Australians. Secondly, this article aims to identify the steps that might be taken by law schools to improve opportunities for access and to reduce attrition rates for Indigenous law students. The relevant steps may be classified as structural (such as pre-law programs and tutorial support) or institutional (for example, curriculum initiatives).

Administration in Aboriginal Education

Administration of Aboriginal education can perhaps be defined as the “management of affairs” associated with education for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Such management is placed in the hands of individuals who form part of a system, an entity that seeks to meet the needs and aspirations in education of the indigenous people of this country. The task therefore for the administrator is a massive one and involves a tremendous amount of responsibility. Administrators in education for indigenous Australians are the catalyst in an environment embracing all school-age Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander children – children of all ages, mentalities, skills, talents and aspirations.