Red Dirt Thinking on Power, Pedagogy and Paradigms: Reframing the Dialogue in Remote Education

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Osborne ◽  
John Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Strong Sense ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Academic Level ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Indigenous Educators ◽  
Red Dirt

Recent debates in Australia, largely led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island academics over the past 5 or so years, have focused on the need for non-Indigenous educators to understand how their practices not only demonstrate lack of understanding of Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing, but even deny their presence. This debate has serious implications for the non-Indigenous remote educator who wishes to support remote students to achieve ‘success’ through their education. The debates on the one hand advocate the decolonising of knowledge, pedagogy and research methods in order to promote more just or equal approaches to research and education, while other voices continue to advocate the pursuit of mainstream dominant Western ‘outcomes’ as the preferred goal for Indigenous students across Australia. This dilemma frames the context for this study. The Remote Education Systems Project, in the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation, seeks to explore these and other questions as part of the broader research agenda being undertaken. This project is particularly focused on large-scale questions such as: ‘What is a remote education for and what would ‘success’ look like in the remote education context?’ We are approaching these research questions from community standpoints and perspectives as a critical starting point for these types of debates and discussions. In doing so, our findings indicate that remote Aboriginal community members have a strong sense of western education and its power to equip young people with critical skills, knowledge and understandings for the future, but also a strong sense of retaining of their ‘own’ knowledge, skills and understanding. This presents a complex challenge for educators who are new to this knowledge interface. Here, we offer the concept of ‘Red Dirt Thinking’ as a new way to position ourselves and engage in situated dialogue about what remote schooling might be if it took into account power issues around Indigenous knowledges in the current policy context. This article questions whether remote communities, schools and systems have, in fact, taken account of the knowledge/power debates that have taken place at an academic level and considers how remote education might consider the implications of stepping outside the ‘Western–Indigenous binary’. It seeks to propose new paradigms that non-Indigenous educators may need to engage in order to de-limit the repositioning of power-laden knowledge and pedagogies offered in remote classrooms.

Red Dirt Thinking on Aspiration and Success

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Osborne ◽  
John Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Red Dirt

This article sets the scene for the series of five articles on ‘red dirt thinking’. It first introduces the idea behind red dirt thinking as opposed to ‘blue sky thinking’. Both accept that there are any number of creative and expansive solutions and possibilities to identified challenges — in this case, the challenge of improving education in very remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island schools. However, the authors believe that creative thinking needs to be grounded in the reality of the local community context in order to be relevant. This article draws on emerging data from the Remote Education Systems project (a project within the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation — CRC-REP) and highlights further questions and challenges we wish to address across the life of the project. It is part of a collection of papers presented on the theme ‘Red Dirt Thinking’. The red dirt of remote Australia is where thinking for the CRC-REP's Remote Education Systems research project emerged. This article will examine the various public positions that exist in regard to the aspirations of young remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and consider the wider views that are held in terms of what constitutes educational ‘success’. We explore the models of thinking and assumptions that underpin this public dialogue and contrast these ideas to the ideas that are being shared by remote Aboriginal educators and local community members through the work of the Remote Education Systems project. We will consider the implications and relevance of the aspiration and success debate for the remote Australian context and propose approaches and key questions for improved practice and innovation in relation to delivering a more ‘successful’ education for remote students. The authors begin by posing the simple question: How would, and can remote educators build aspiration and success? The wisdom of several commentators on remote education in Australia is presented in terms of a set of simple solutions to a straightforward problem. The assumptions behind these simple solutions are often unstated, and part of this article's role is to highlight the assumptions that common arguments for solutions are premised on. Further to the above question, we will also consider the question: In remote communities where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students live and learn, how is success defined? Is there language that corresponds to the western philosophical meanings of success? Having considered some possible alternatives, based on the early findings of the Remote Education Systems project research, the authors then pose the question: How would educators teach for these alternative measures of success? The answers to these questions are still forthcoming. However, as the research process reveals further insights in relation to these questions, it may be possible for all those involved in remote education to approach the ‘problem’ of remote education using a different lens. The lens may be smeared with red dirt, but it will enable people involved in the system to develop creative solutions in a challenging and rich environment.

Red Dirt Education Leaders ‘Caught in the Middle’: Priorities for Local and Nonlocal Leaders in Remote Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Guenther ◽  
Samuel Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Research Education ◽  
Education Leaders ◽  
Red Dirt

Schooling for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in remote or ‘Red Dirt’ communities has been cast as ‘problematic’, and ‘failing’. The solutions to deficit understandings of remote schooling are often presented as simple. But for those who work in Red Dirt schools, the solutions are not simple, and for education leaders positioned between the local Red Dirt school and upward accountability to departments of education, they are complex. Between 2011 and 2016, the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation's (CRC-REP) Remote Education Systems project explored how education could better meet the needs of those living in remote communities. More than 1000 people with interests in remote education contributed to the research. Education leaders were identified as one stakeholder group. These leaders included school-based leaders, bureaucrats, community-based leaders and teacher educators preparing university graduates for Red Dirt schools. This paper focusses on what Red Dirt education leaders think is important for schooling. The findings show school leaders as ‘caught in the middle’ (Gonzalez & Firestone, 2013) between expectations from communities, and of system stakeholders who drive policy, funding and accountability measures. The paper concludes with some implications for policy and practice that follow on from the findings.

scholarly journals Editorial

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. iv-iv ◽  
Author(s):  
John Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Project Team ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Red Dirt

In 2013, the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation's (CRC-REP) Remote Education Systems (RES) project team brought together a collection of papers built around a central theme of ‘red dirt thinking’. This theme reflected a view the authors had, that education and schooling in remote communities should be relevant to the context (that is, the ‘red dirt’) in which it is provided. We proposed this as a conceptual framework in which to challenge conventional wisdom about success, disadvantage and aspiration in remote schools.

Building on ‘Red Dirt’ Perspectives: What Counts as Important for Remote Education?

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Guenther ◽  
Samantha Disbray ◽  
Sam Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Educational Outcomes ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Community Expectations ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Indicators Of Success

The Remote Education Systems (RES) project within the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) has, over the last four years, gathered and analysed qualitative data directly from over 230 remote education stakeholders and from more than 700 others through surveys. The research was designed to answer four questions: (1) What is education for in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities?; (2) What defines ‘successful’ educational outcomes from the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standpoint?; (3) How does teaching need to change in order to achieve ‘success’ as defined by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander standpoint?; and (4) What would an effective education system in remote Australia look like? Based on this data, the paper reveals how perceptions differ for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from remote communities compared with people who come from elsewhere. The analysis points to the need for some alternative indicators of ‘success’ to match the aspirations of local people living in remote communities. It also points to the need for school and system responses that resonate with community expectations of education, and to develop narratives of aspiration and success alongside community views.

scholarly journals Measuring and assessing the impact of using volunteers in UK libraries: issues and methods

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Broady-Preston
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Third Sector ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualitative Approaches ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Third Sector Organisations ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine a range of issues and methods in relation to measuring the impact of volunteer labour on the design and delivery of all types of library services. With the increasing use of volunteers to deliver library and information services in all sectors, managers need to assess their effectiveness and evaluate the impact of their use in relation to operational service design and delivery, and on the development of the profession and professional practice as a whole. Presented here is an initial scoping study, outlining a range of issues, methods and challenges for more detailed future investigation. Design/methodology/approach – A number of methodological challenges and perspectives are identifiable. Contemporary libraries exhibit increasing similarities with Third Sector organisations, namely a complex stakeholder community, and increasing use of volunteers to supplement or replace services delivered by professional staff. Therefore, a starting point for the research is a systematic review and analysis of the methodologies developed by the Third Sector Research Centre, and those studies in the ESRC contemporary Developing Impact Evaluation strand. As a rich picture is required, both quantitative and qualitative approaches are necessary, with the overall study adopting a mixed methods approach. Findings – This paper reports the findings of the preliminary documentary analysis, literature review and scoping aspects of a large-scale study. Originality/value – Research undertaken to date (June 2014) has failed to identify any published systematic review and examination of these issues.

Analysis of National Test Scores in Very Remote Australian Schools

2015 ◽  
pp. 125-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Test Scores ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
National Assessment ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Assessment Program ◽  
Data Support ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
National Test

Based on the current research of the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation, this chapter presents an analysis of the 2012 Australian National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy data from very remote schools across Australia. The data support perceptions of apparent failure in remote education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. The reasons for this failure are often attributed to disadvantage. In this chapter, the author proposes that the perceptions of failure are built on philosophical, sociological, economic, and psychological assumptions that may not be shared by those who are subjected to tests. It is therefore possible to critique remote education, not as a failure, but as a reflection of the values it embodies. That critique allows for different ways of understanding difference framed around the perspectives that come from the context of very remote schools.

A CASE STUDY OF A CARBON DIOXIDE WELL TEST

2007 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
J.Q. Xu ◽  
G. Weir ◽  
L. Paterson ◽  
I. Black ◽  
S. Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Surface Flow ◽  
Phase Changes ◽  
Co2 Production ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Well Test ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Gas Well

This paper reports on the planning, procedure, results and analysis of a carbon dioxide (CO2) well test performed on Buttress–1, a well located in the Otway Basin, Victoria, Australia. A large-scale pilot study of CO2 sequestration is planned by the Australian Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies (CO2CRC) in this area, which will involve, inter alia, taking CO2 from the Buttress reservoir and injecting it into a nearby depleted gas field. Understanding the production characteristics of this well is important to the success of this pilot, which forms part of a more extensive study to establish viable means to mitigate CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. This general backdrop forms the motivation for this study.Testing comprised of a standard suite of draw-downs and build-ups to determine reservoir/well characteristics, such as the well deliverability, the non-Darcy skin coefficient and the average reservoir permeability and volume.Compared to the wealth of experience developed over many years in testing oil and gas wells, the collective experience in CO2 well testing is extremely limited. The distinguishing features between this test and those of a typical natural gas well test need to be emphasised. Although, in general, flow testing a CO2 well should be similar to testing a natural gas well, differences in the thermodynamic properties of CO2 affect the analysis of the well test considerably. In particular, the non-Darcy skin effect is more pronounced and the wellbore and surface flow can involve dramatic phase changes, such as the formation of ice. Also, since CO2 is more compressible than a typical natural gas, the accurate measurement of the flow rate becomes more challenging. It is also apparent that the use of pseudo pressure, as opposed to simpler methods of dealing with the pressure dependency of key properties, is essential to the successful analysis of the pressure response to the CO2 production.

scholarly journals Editorial

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. iii-iii
Keyword(s):  
Classroom Teacher ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Indigenous Studies ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Education Systems ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Educational Administrator ◽  
Indigenous Schooling

It is with pleasure we present this Special Issue of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, which is devoted to the research being conducted by the Remote Education Systems (RES) project in a range of sites in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia. The RES project is a 5-year project and represents one theme within the larger research program of the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP). The AJIE welcomes the chance to circulate the progress of this important work to our readership, many of whom are committed to improving Indigenous schooling. We particularly welcome the chance to devote an entire edition to remote Indigenous education, for the challenges in this context are not well understood, but are often the subject of public comment and opinion from all quarters. The RES project is investigating and challenging the assumptions that underpin the current rationales of Indigenous remote education systems. The AJIE is also pleased to welcome John Guenther and Melodie Bat as our Guest Editors for this volume. We also thank Professor Jeannie Herbert, Foundation Chair of Indigenous Studies at Charles Sturt University, for her Introduction to the journal articles. Born in the remote Kimberley, Jeannie has been a classroom teacher and educational administrator. She is best known as an Indigenous academic who has been an active Indigenous education advocate, researcher, author and speaker for many years. We look forward to your engagement with the themes and issues contained in this special edition and in future editions of AJIE.

scholarly journals Editorial

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. iii-iii
Author(s):  
Martin Nakata ◽  
Elizabeth Mackinlay
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Education ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Remote Education ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Team Working

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.

Design and role of an information nucleus in sheep breeding programs

2010 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 998 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. J. van der Werf ◽  
B. P. Kinghorn ◽  
R. G. Banks
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Breeding Programs ◽  
Sheep Breeding ◽  
Genome Association ◽  
Current Design ◽  
Australian Sheep ◽  
Whole Genome Association ◽  
Design Factors

The Australian sheep Cooperative Research Centre has initiated an information nucleus with the aim to estimate genetic parameters for new traits, to undertake a large-scale whole-genome association study and to enhance the breeding values of breeding animals in commercial studs. This paper presents the rationale behind the current design factors to meet the main objectives. It then discusses the potential design of an information nucleus if it were a sustainable part of commercial sheep-breeding programs in the long term. Advantages of such an information nucleus are summarised and quantified where possible.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document