non-Indigenous Students Research Articles

‘A lot of catching up’, knowledge gaps and emotions in the development of a tactical collective identity among students participating in solidarity with the Winnemem Wintu

ABSTRACTSettler-colonialism generates significant knowledge gaps and emotional barriers to cross-cultural mobilization, but does not prohibit meaningful solidarity. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with non-indigenous university students in solidarity with the Winnemem Wintu between 2011 and 2013, I observe that during acts of solidarity students recognize colonization as an ongoing phenomenon in which they are implicated. This knowledge acquisition often elicits shame and guilt, feelings that students must manage in order to be effective allies while simultaneously navigating the pervasive concept that guilt has no place in solidarity work. Drawing from sociology of emotions, social movement theories, and social-psychological analyses of collective guilt and shame, I explore how emotions influence methods of settler-solidarity.

Transition from Remote Indigenous Community to Boarding School: The Lockhart River Experience

The transition to boarding school for students from the remote Indigenous community of Lockhart River on Cape York is a fact of life when they complete Year 7. With the transition to boarding school, Lockhart River mirrors remote Indigenous communities throughout Cape York and the Torres Strait, and remote regions in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Access for remote Indigenous students to quality education provision in major urban centres is a key element of government policy in addressing disadvantage in education outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Despite this, there is little in the way of recent research into the transition process in terms of its effectiveness in ensuring the delivery of a quality secondary education. The proposed study will use qualitative methods to examine the transition from a remote Indigenous community from the perspective of the students and their parents and care-givers.

Creating Shared Norms in Schools — A Theoretical Approach

Whilst some improvements to Indigenous education outcomes have occurred in recent years, there remains considerable inequity in the educational experiences and long-term engagement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. One of the factors contributing to the challenging environment for Indigenous students is dissonance of social norms, as a result of ethnic and socioeconomic differences between teacher and student. Many hegemonic culture teachers are unaware of Standpoint Theory and the way in which normative beliefs impact on classroom interactions and student outcomes at the cultural interface. This paper draws on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TBP) to illustrate ways in which schools can identify areas of ethnic and socioeconomic prejudice impacting classroom interactions, and create shared social norms so that Indigenous students are most likely to experience positive educational engagement. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is then applied to discuss the type of classroom environment that best enables students to internalise positive educational behaviours in an autonomous manner. Such internalisation is necessary to improve long-term outcomes and postschool educational engagement for Indigenous Australians. The theories explored indicate that motivation for behavioural change relies on the individual's self-perceptions of competence, autonomy and normative beliefs regarding the value of education, and that integration of new behaviours requires an emotionally supportive environment and provision of a meaningful rationale. This paper argues that good practice in Indigenous schooling will address these areas specifically.

The role of implicit theories of intelligence and ability in predicting achievement for Indigenous (Aboriginal) Australian students

Although researchers have shown that Indigenous (Aboriginal) Australian students perform significantly lower in academic achievement than non-Indigenous students, investigations into the role of motivational processes have been limited. In the current study, we focus on implicit theories of intelligence and ability (or, “implicit beliefs”), which refer to students' beliefs about the malleability (i.e., incremental beliefs) or static nature (i.e., entity beliefs) of intelligence and ability. More precisely, we examine whether students' Indigenous status predicts implicit beliefs and whether both predict academic achievement. In particular, we seek to determine the extent to which implicit beliefs play a mediating role between Indigenous status and academic achievement. We examine implicit beliefs of intelligence and implicit beliefs of mathematics ability. Our sample of 174 high school students comprised n = 87 Indigenous Australian students from 20 schools in grades 7–9 (63% male) and n = 87 randomly drawn non-Indigenous students from the same schools. Path analysis demonstrated that Indigenous status negatively predicted incremental beliefs of intelligence and ability, and that incremental beliefs positively predicted academic achievement. Of note, there was no direct association between Indigenous status and academic achievement; instead the relationship between Indigenous status and achievement operated via implicit beliefs. Combined, the results extend research surrounding Indigenous students' achievement and suggest one possible avenue for intervention.

Critical Indigenous Legal Theory Part 1: The Dialogue Within

In this article, I have attempted to outline the ways and means in which I entered my training and understanding as an Indigenous legal scholar. This took me to a Canadian law school, an American law school, and finally to an Indigenous community that took responsibility for educating me in Indigenous lands, laws, and legal orders. The struggles I have detailed here and the stories I have provided serve a few purposes. The first is one that I hope assists Indigenous students attending law school. The purpose in writing this article is to let you know that you do not have to lose the incredibly challenging and beautiful stuff put in us by birth. We come from critical Indigenous legal traditions that allow us to critique, question, and build something better. Canadian law can make our processes of learning this and our substantive knowledge feel like marginalized information. That gut feeling you have that tells you something is not fair is very likely precisely right. Pay attention to it, hone it, and listen to it. It is a part of your critical consciousness, and it is going to make you a very good thinker and potentially an excellent lawyer. The second purpose for, and rationale behind, publishing this article is to provide an understanding for non-Indigenous students about the existence of, and need to ask about, Indigenous laws and legal orders in your legal studies. We are all being short-changed if we do not investigate, inquire, and require discussion. This article also serves as a reminder for faculty and staff at law schools that there is an obligation to address with seriousness and studiousness the reality of Indigenous laws and legal orders in Canada as a multi-juridical entity. Many of our students know this and are living this—we need to catch up with, be informed about, and be respectful of them. The final reason I wrote this piece is to introduce the notion of the praxis of critical Indigenous legal theory. Having taught the course content to a generation of law students and now having had feedback from some of the practitioners, I think that understanding Indigenous law as a praxis/practice, and not just a theory, requires more of us as educators, students, and practitioners.

Relating students’ spoken language and reading comprehension

This paper focuses on a comparison of the degree of lexical and grammatical complexity in students’ spoken language and their reading comprehension scores from the New South Wales Basic Skills Test. The research involved interviews with a broad range of students regarding their comprehension of texts in the Basic Skills Tests for Year 3 and Year 5 students (Daly, 2011). Spoken language complexity was measured according to the number and percentage of dependent clauses and instances of non-core words used by students during interviews. When Pearson Correlation statistics were conducted, significant correlations showed there was a relationship between the students’ reading comprehension scores and complexity in both their spoken words and sentence structure. These findings support the work of Munro (2011) who found that many students with low reading comprehension benefited from a focus on both grammar and vocabulary while developing the students’ expression and reception of oral language. Correlations were also significant when conducted separately for Indigenous students and non-Indigenous students. This paper discusses the possible reasons for the results, their implications and recommendations for improving reading comprehension.

How gendered is ambition? Educational and occupational plans of Indigenous youth in Australia

While educational and occupational expectations of Australian youth are known to differ by gender, its intersectionality with Indigenous status, which shapes these expectations, has received little attention. This analysis of the nationally representative Programme for International Student Assessment data, collected in 2006 and 2009 in Australia, finds similarities in school-related factors that boost ambition of Indigenous and non-Indigenous boys and girls. In contrast, maternal and paternal role models influence Indigenous and non-Indigenous students differently. Compared to boys, girls plan to enter occupations which require higher educational qualifications. Despite that, adolescent girls face lower expected lifetime incomes.

Facilitating online learning activities through the discussion board: a first year university students' perspective

The discussion board as a learning tool has been used widely by educators to facilitate online learning. An internet survey of 109 indigenous and non-indigenous first year students at the University of South Australia was conducted to identify factors which encourage and discourage their use of the discussion board in a learning activity. The findings suggest that clarity of design, purpose and outcome of the learning activity is paramount to students’ participation and engagement in the discussion board. Further, the role of the instructors and students must be clearly articulated from the start and throughout the learning activity. In particular, from the indigenous students’ perspectives, they ranked highly the importance for instructors to understand the social and cultural aspects of their learning needs, which include developing and maintaining a sense of belonging to a learning community, building a good relationship with instructors and peers, and getting timely feedback from instructors.

Academic Staff Perceptions of Factors Underlying Program Completion by Australian Indigenous Nursing Students

An increase in the number of Indigenous health professionals is one way to help reduce the poor health outcomes of Australia’s Indigenous people. However, while Indigenous students are enrolling in Australian tertiary undergraduate nursing courses in increasing numbers, their completion rates remain lower than non-Indigenous students and many barriers hinder course completion. This critical interpretive qualitative study explores academic staff perceptions of factors enabling successful course completions by Indigenous nursing students from universities in Queensland, Australia. Content analysis of data revealed five themes: (a) Individual student characteristics; (b) Institutional structures, systems, and processes; (c) Relationships, connections, and partnerships; (d) Family and community knowledge, awareness, and understanding; and (e) Academics’ knowledge, awareness, and understanding. To increase the number of Indigenous nurses, strategies such as appointing Indigenous nursing academics; partnerships between nursing schools and Indigenous Education Support Units, and the implementation of tailored cross-cultural awareness programs for nurse academics are proposed.

Indigenous students transitioning to school: responses to pre-foundational mathematics.

Australian Indigenous students’ mathematics performance continues to be below that of non-Indigenous students. This occurs from the early years of school, due largely to knowledge and social differences on entry to formal schooling. This paper reports on a mathematics research project conducted in one Aboriginal community school in New South Wales, Australia. The project aimed to identify and explain the ways that young Australian Indigenous students (age 2–4 years) learn number language and processes, specifically attribute language, sorting, 1–1 correspondence and, counting. The project adopted a mixed methods approach. That is, the methodology was decolonising (Smith 1999) in that it collaborated with and gave benefit back to the Indigenous community and school being researched. It was qualitative and interpretative (Burns 2000) and incorporated an action-research teaching-experiment approach where and teachers collaborated with the researchers to try new teaching methods. This paper draws on data pertaining to students’ response to diagnostic interview questions, the pre- and post-test results of the interview and photographic evidence as observations during mathematics learning time. Participants referred to in this paper include one female principal (N = 1), and the transition class of students’ pre- (N = 6) and post-test (N = 3) results of the pre-foundational processes (also referred to as attributes). The results were encouraging with improvements in colour (34%), patterns (33%) and capacity (38%). As a result of this project, our epistemology regarding the importance of finding out about students’ pre-foundational knowledge and understandings and providing a culturally appropriate learning environment with resources has been built upon.

Motivation Matters: Profiling Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Students’ Motivational Goals

This research explored gender and cross-cultural similarities and differences in the motivational profiles of Indigenous Papua New Guinean (PNG) and Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Secondary students (N = 1,792) completed self-report motivational measures. Invariance testing demonstrated that the Inventory of School Motivation (McInerney, Yeung, & McInerney, 2001) measure was invariant across both gender and Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups. Structural equation modelling (SEM) results explicated that males were significantly more performance orientated than females in all three groups examined; however, the disparity between genders was most apparent in non-Indigenous Australians. Diverging from previous findings with non-Indigenous students, the current study found that PNG and Australian Indigenous males endorsed mastery goals more strongly than Indigenous females. In contrast, non-Indigenous females were more mastery orientated than non-Indigenous males. Finally, the two Indigenous groups endorsed social goals more strongly than the non-Indigenous Australians. The current findings highlight the importance of assessing gender and group differences, as broad statements relating to student motivation do not appear to be applicable in all cultural contexts.

Critical Design Features of Pre-Service Education Programs to Enhance Teacher Capacity to Effectively Work in Schools With Indigenous Students

For more than 3 decades governments and education systems have struggled to address the gaps in educational outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Over the past 10 years it has become increasingly apparent that central to redressing these gaps is the development of teachers who are able to effectively engage with Indigenous students, their families and communities. The introduction of National Professional Standards has increased the focus on the development of pre-service teachers’ capacity to effectively teach Indigenous students. In 2008, the New South Wales Department of Education (DET) and four universities implemented an enhanced teacher training program (ETTP) that was delivered to final-year primary pre-service teachers. The success and continuing expansion of this program, coupled with the current national focus on building pre-service teachers’ capacity to teach Indigenous students, suggests it is timely to detail the critical design features of, and rationale for, this program to inform and support development of similar programs within pre-service teacher education. The article reports on four critical elements of the program: knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal history and culture; effective cross-cultural communication skills; holistic understanding of Aboriginal education and strategies required for improving Aboriginal student outcomes; and appropriate pedagogy and classroom management strategies.

Exploring anomalies in Indigenous student engagement: findings from a national Australian survey of undergraduates

Increases in participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in higher education across Australia continue to be promising. However, it is also known that Indigenous students' attrition, retention and completion rates remain areas of concern. In this paper, we report our findings from an analysis of Indigenous student responses to the 2009 Australasian Survey of Student Engagement. Overall, Indigenous Australian students express positive responses in relation to engagement, but are more likely than non-Indigenous students to be planning to depart. We explore this somewhat unexpected anomaly, whilst also suggesting that much more needs to be known about our Indigenous students, including, for example, whom they may interact with at university; where they turn for support; and why they may decide to leave. Our findings strongly indicate that better national and institutional data are needed to address the current gaps in knowledge relating to Indigenous student populations in Australia and around the world.

Contextual factors influencing leisure physical activity of urbanized indigenous adolescents.

Indigenous populations suffer from disparities in socioeconomic resources and health status. One approach to addressing these disparities is by targeting modifiable risk factors such as leisure physical activity (LPA). This study investigated and compared factors related to LPA among urbanized indigenous and nonindigenous adolescent students. This cross-sectional survey comprised fifth to ninth grade indigenous and nonindigenous students (n = 733). The nonindigenous students were matched with indigenous students on sex and academic achievement and used as a reference group. Data were collected through telephone interviews using structured questionnaires. Major items included: demographic characteristics; average time spent watching television per bout; participation in LPA; and stress and depression experiences. With the exception of the duration of television watching per bout, Chi-square and independent t tests demonstrated that there were no significant differences between indigenous and nonindigenous adolescents in the selected LPA-related factors. Multiple logistic regression analysis including terms investigating interaction between ethnicity and the contextual factors included in this study indicated that the following factors were correlated with LPA participation: age [odds ratio (OR) = 0.82, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.71-0.94], male sex (OR = 1.77, 95%CI = 1.19-2.61), total hours spent watching television in the past 2 weeks (OR = 0.79, 95%CI = 0.63-0.99), life satisfaction (OR = 2.25, 95%CI = 1.04-4.90), and exercise enjoyment (OR = 3.40, 95%CI = 1.71-6.74). However, neither indigenous status (OR = 1.03, 95%CI = 0.19-5.79) nor any of the interaction terms reached the significant level. No significant ethnic differences were found in LPA participation. LPA was significantly correlated with age, male sex, total time spent watching television, life satisfaction, and enjoyment of exercise.

Self-concept of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students: Competence and affect components and relations to achievement

Previous research on differences and similarities in self-concept of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students did not consider the possible differentiation between competence and affect components. As a result, it is unknown whether previously found differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students' self-concepts are the result of their beliefs about their abilities or their feelings about specific domains. Thus, the present study aims to examine and compare the structure, the mean levels, and the relations to achievement measures of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students' self-concepts in academic and non-academic domains when taking the competence–affect separation into account. Self-concepts in math, English, school, physical ability, and art were measured with 1809 secondary school students including 343 Indigenous students. For Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated that all self-concept facets measured could be separated into competence and affect components although the correlations between competence and affect components were high, particularly for art and physical ability self-concepts. Non-Indigenous students demonstrated higher levels of school competence, English competence, English affect, and math competence self-concepts. Indigenous students displayed higher levels of physical ability competence self-concept while no group differences could be found for school affect, math affect, physical ability affect, and art competence and art affect self-concepts. Invariance tests revealed an invariant factor structure and invariant relations between the multiple self-concept facets and achievement factors across Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Hence, the present study adds to our understanding of the similarities and differences regarding Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students' self-concepts.

Explaining the achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students: an analysis of PISA 2009 results for Australia and New Zealand

This study investigates the relative roles of home and school variables in accounting for achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in Australia and New Zealand. Using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2009, our findings show that achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students are associated with both home and school resources, not only in terms of unequal allocations but also in relation to differences in the rates at which home and school affordances are converted into positive educational outcomes. In both countries, home resources accounted for more of the achievement gap than differences in schooling resources. However, the achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students is substantially larger in Australia than in New Zealand, apparently related to greater inequity in the allocation of school resources. We suggest that education policymakers in Australia ensure a more equitable allocation of school resources between Indigenous students and their non-Indigenous peers.

A Study on the Effects of Interactive E-Books on Taiwan High/Vocational School Studentss Reading Comprehension

This study explores Taiwan high/vocational school students’ reading comprehension using different media, and further discusses functional requirements of interactive e-books, as well as the possibility of application in teaching reading comprehension. As new e-books are constantly being produced, we can learn how to design e-books suitable for teaching by first understanding students’ reading comprehension using e-books. This study designs an interactive e-book and reading comprehension scale to determine the ability of Taiwan high/vocational school students’ to read e-books. Contents of the book are related to Taiwan’s indigenous culture. Students’ reading comprehension and their ability to “access and retrieve,” “integrate and interpret” and “reflect and evaluate” when reading an interactive e-book and online e-book are observed and compared. Results show that the experimental group (interactive e-book) had better reading comprehension than the control group (online e-book), and also had better “access and retrieve” and “integrate and interpret” abilities. Indigenous students in the experimental group had significantly better reading comprehension at all levels compared with non-indigenous students. This can be interpreted as being related to contents of the e-book.

Science Engagement and Literacy: A retrospective analysis for students in Canada and Australia

Given international concerns about students' pursuit (or more correctly, non-pursuit) of courses and careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, this study is about achieving a better understanding of factors related to high school students' engagement in science. The study builds on previous secondary analyses of Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) datasets for New Zealand and Australia. For the current study, we compared patterns of science engagement and science literacy for male and female students in Canada and Australia. The study's secondary analysis revealed that for all PISA measures included under the conceptual umbrella of engagement in science (i.e. interest, enjoyment, valuing, self-efficacy, self-concept and motivation), 15-year-old students in Australia lagged their Canadian counterparts to varying, albeit modest, degrees. Our retrospective analysis further shows, however, that gender equity in science engagement and science literacy is evident in both Canadian and Australian contexts. Additionally, and consistent with our previous findings for indigenous and non-indigenous students in New Zealand and Australia, we found that for male and female students in both countries, the factor most strongly associated with variations in engagement in science was the extent to which students participate in science activities outside of school. In contrast, and again for both Canadian and Australian students, the factors most strongly associated with science literacy were students' socioeconomic backgrounds, and the amount of formal time spent doing science. The implications of these results for science educators and researchers are discussed.

Working together to make Indigenous health care curricula everybody’s business: A graduate attribute teaching innovation report

Previously there has been commitment to the idea that Indigenous curricula should be taught by Indigenous academic staff, whereas now there is increasing recognition of the need for all academic staff to have confidence in enablingIndigenous cultural competency for nursing and other health professional students. In this way, Indigenous content can be threaded throughout a curriculum and raised in many teaching and learning situations, rather than being siloed into particular subjects and with particular staff. There are many sensitivities around this change, with potential implications for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and staff, and for the quality of teaching and learning experiences. This paper reports on a collaborative process that was used to reconceptualise how Indigenous health care curricula would be positioned throughout a programme and who would or could work with students in this area. Effective leadership, establishing a truly collaborative environment, acknowledging fears and perceived inadequacies, and creating safe spaces for sharing and learning were crucial in effecting this change.

Amazingly resilient Indigenous people! Using transformative learning to facilitate positive student engagement with sensitive material

If health professionals are to effectively contribute to improving the health of Indigenous people, understanding of the historical, political, and social disadvantage that has lead to health disparity is essential. This paper describes a teaching and learning experience in which four Australian Indigenous academics in collaboration with a non-Indigenous colleague delivered an intensive workshop for masters level post-graduate students. Drawing upon the paedagogy of Transformative Learning, the objectives of the day included facilitating students to explore their existing understandings of Indigenous people, the impact of ongoing colonisation, the diversity of Australia’s Indigenous people, and developing respect for alternative worldviews. Drawing on a range of resources including personal stories, autobiography, film and interactive sessions, students were challenged intellectually and emotionally by the content. Students experienced the workshop as a significant educational event, and described feeling transformed by the content, better informed, more appreciative of other worldviews and Indigenous resilience and better equipped to contribute in a more meaningful way to improving the quality of health care for Indigenous people. Where this workshop differs from other Indigenous classes was in the involvement of an Indigenous teaching team. Rather than a lone academic who can often feel vulnerable teaching a large cohort of non-Indigenous students, an Indigenous teaching team reinforced Indigenous authority and created an emotionally and culturally safe space within which students were allowed to confront and explore difficult truths. Findings support the value of multiple teaching strategies underpinned by the theory of transformational learning, and the potential benefits of facilitating emotional as well as intellectual student engagement when presenting sensitive material.