scholarly journals The Wilful Character of Indigenous Educational Research

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 92-99
Author(s):  
David Bright ◽  
Elizabeth Mackinlay
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Negative Charge ◽  
Mentoring Programs ◽  
The World ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
The Relationship

In her recent work, Sara Ahmed explores wilfulness as a negative charge made by some against others, thinking about the relationship between ill will and good will, the particular and the general, and the embeddedness of will in a political and cultural landscape. In Ahmed's reading, wilfulness is a characteristic often ascribed to those who do ‘not will the reproduction of the whole’ (2011, p. 246) — those who are deemed wayward, wandering, and/or deviant. Using Ahmed's discussions, in this paper, we report on the successes and failures of a research project exploring mentoring programs in enhancing the recruitment and retention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preservice teachers. We think about the tensions always present between two faces of such a project: the need to reproduce modes of compliance to the expectations of a Western academic institutional regime; and the wilful pursuit of the kinds of wayward resistance and critique that may be potentially undermining and self-sabotaging as well as wholly necessary as attempts at decoloniality. We report on both the successes of the program and the continuing failure to address issues of colonialism. In doing so, we position Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research as a performative doubleness which needs wilfulness in order to ‘stand up, to stand against the world’ (Ahmed, 2011, p. 250) of colonial reproduction in neo-liberal times.

scholarly journals Editorial

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. iii-iv
Author(s):  
Martin Nakata ◽  
Katelyn Barney
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Indigenous Education ◽  
Academic Institution ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Mentoring Programs ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Torres Strait

We are very pleased to bring you Volume 47, issue 2 of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. The theme of this year's NAIDOC week was ‘Because of her we can’ so it is appropriate that the first article in this volume focuses on the gendered stories of pathways through university by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. Using Ahmed's work on ‘wilfulness’, Rennie explores the resilience, resistance and persistence of seven female Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education students and considers the ways they negotiate pathways and success through university. Bright and Mackinlay also draw on the concept of ‘wilfulness’ to report on the successes and failures of a research project exploring mentoring programs for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander preservice teachers. They suggest that tensions are always present between the need to comply with the expectations of a Western academic institution while engaging in a wilful pursuit of the kinds of resistance that may be necessary in attempts at decoloniality. Also drawing on a decolonial lens, McDowall explore how preservice teachers position themselves and how they consider their relationships and ethical responsibilities in the field of Indigenous education. Pre-service teachers in different context are the focus of Torepe and Manning who examine the lived experiences and various challenges confronting this group of experienced Māori language teachers working in English-medium, state-funded schools.

scholarly journals Poverty and mental health in Aboriginal Australia

1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 364-366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Laugharne
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Aboriginal People ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Aboriginal Health ◽  
Aboriginal Australians ◽  
Death Rates ◽  
The World ◽  
Torres Strait

When the Australian Governor General, Sir William Deane, referred in a speech in 1996 to the “appalling problems relating to Aboriginal health” he was not exaggerating. The Australia Bureau of Statistics report on The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (McLennan & Madden, 1997) outlines the following statistics. The life expectancy for Aboriginal Australians is 15 to 20 years lower than for non-Aboriginal Australians, and is lower than for most countries of the world with the exception of central Africa and India. Aboriginal babies are two to three times more likely to be of lower birth weight and two to four times more likely to die at birth than non-Aboriginal babies. Hospitalisation rates are two to three times higher for Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal Australians. Death rates from infectious diseases are 15 times higher among Aboriginal Australians than non-Aboriginal Australians. Rates for heart disease, diabetes, injury and respiratory diseases are also all higher among Aboriginals – and so the list goes on. It is fair to say that Aboriginal people have higher rates for almost every type of illness for which statistics are currently recorded.

scholarly journals EPISTEMOLOGY, CONSTRUCTIVISM, AND DISCOVERY LEARNING IN MATHEMATCS

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 104
Author(s):  
I Ketut Sukarma
Keyword(s):  
Educational Research ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Cognitive Structure ◽  
Discovery Learning ◽  
Philosophical Approach ◽  
Conflict Situations ◽  
The World ◽  
Construction Experience ◽  
The Relationship

This article describes the epistemology of mathematical scholarship, the constructivism view of mathematics and how mathematical learning can achieve the goals of which one is by studying discovery with a philosophical approach that emphasizes its implications on the learning of mathematics. The world of educational research, especially mathematics has shown a shift, which is more emphasize the teaching and learning process and research methods that apply the concept that, in learning someone to construct his knowledge. Humans construct their knowledge through interaction with objects, phenomena, experiences, and the environment. A knowledge is assumed to be true if it can be useful to confront and solve appropriate problems or phenomena. On constructivism view, knowledge can not be transferred from one person to another, but must be interpreted by one person individually. Knowledge is not something that is finished, but a process that develops continuously. In the process that the activity of someone who wants to know, very instrumental in the development of knowledge. Some factors such as limited previous construction experience, and a person's cognitive structure may limit the establishment of the person's personality. Conversely, conflict situations or anomalies that make people forced to think more deeply and situations that require people to defend themselves and explain in more detail, will develop one's knowledge. Constructivism is divided into three levels: radical, hypothetical realism, and the usual. This difference is based on the relationship between knowledge and existing reality.

Teaching Secondary Mathematics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory Hine ◽  
Judy Anderson ◽  
Robyn Reaburn ◽  
Michael Cavanagh ◽  
Linda Galligan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Mathematics Teachers ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Secondary Mathematics ◽  
Australian Curriculum ◽  
Australian Education ◽  
Mathematical Problems ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Short Answer Questions

Secondary mathematics teachers working in the Australian education sector are required to plan lessons that engage with students of different genders, cultures and levels of literacy and numeracy. Teaching Secondary Mathematics engages directly with the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics and the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers to help preservice teachers develop lesson plans that resonate with students. This edition has been thoroughly revised and features a new chapter on supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students by incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and ways of knowing into lessons. Chapter content is supported by new features including short-answer questions, opportunities for reflection and in-class activities. Further resources, additional activities, and audio and visual recordings of mathematical problems are also available for students on the book's companion website. Teaching Secondary Mathematics is the essential guide for preservice mathematics teachers who want to understand the complex and ever-changing Australian education landscape.

Indigenous–Settler Relationships

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Strakosch
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Nation Building ◽  
Australian Context ◽  
History Of ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter argues that the relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous societies in Australia is complex and conflictual, and that the nature of that relationship is itself a site of conflict. It identifies and elaborates the dominant ways of understanding the relationship in the Australian context: policy, rights, nation-building, and sovereignty. Different registers have been more influential at different times, but all have been present throughout the history of Indigenous–state interactions. While the policy register is dominant in academic and public discourse, this chapter suggests that viewing the relationship in terms of sovereign political orders is more useful.

Mobile Devices for Tertiary Study – Philosophy Meets Pragmatics for Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Mobile Devices ◽  
Mobile Learning ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Remote Communities ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
Tertiary Study

This paper outlines PhD research which suggests mobile learning fits the cultural philosophies and roles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are preservice teachers in the very remote Australian communities where the research was conducted. The problem which the research addresses is the low completion rates for two community-based Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs in South Australia (SA) and Queensland (Qld). Over the past decade, the national completion rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in teacher training was 36 per cent, and in these two community-based programs it was less than 15 per cent. This paper identifies the perceptions of the benefits of using mobile devices by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who are preservice teachers in very remote communities. They report ways in which mobile learning supports their complex roles and provides pragmatic positive outcomes for their tertiary study in remote locations. The paper describes the apparent alignment between mobile learning and cosmology, ontology, epistemology and axiology, which may underpin both the popularity of mobile devices and the affordances of mobile learning.

Australia—golden soil and wealth for toil

2019 ◽  
pp. 104-111
Author(s):  
Mark Britnell
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
New World ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Life Index ◽  
Better Life Index ◽  
The World ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
The Right

Australia has set a new world record by enjoying 27 consecutive years of economic growth. It is on the right side of the world at just the right time in history, as Asia rises. It consistently ranks highly in the OECD Better Life Index which looks at the level of well-being in society. Indeed, the title of this chapter takes some of the lyrics out of the Australian national anthem, Advance Australia Fair. Its healthcare staff are well paid and looked after and clinical facilities are often good, but Australia’s workforce challenges are shaped by the vastness of its land and the enduring inequalities in health outcomes of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In this chapter, Mark Britnell takes a closer look at the Australian healthcare system and how it affects the country as a whole.

Challenges in Evaluating Aboriginal Healing Programs: Definitions, Diversity and Data

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilse Blignault ◽  
Megan Williams
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
Full Range ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Knowledge Work ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Cultural Frameworks ◽  
The World ◽  
Torres Strait

Indigenous people around the world have long healing traditions. Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing projects are designed to empower individuals, families and communities; strengthen connections to culture; and reduce the damaging effects of colonisation and government policies such as the forcible removal of children (the Stolen Generations). Evidence on the conditions necessary for healing to occur, and how healing works for different people and in different contexts, is limited. Evaluations that will help identify good practice and document the full range of outcomes are sorely needed. This paper is based largely on experiences and learnings from Stolen Generations projects around Australia funded by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation, and the reflections of experienced scholar-practitioners. It argues that evaluations that are responsive to, and ultimately owned and led by, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities need to be designed and implemented differently to mainstream evaluations. Timeframes, methods, relationships between evaluators and stakeholders, and the identification and measurement of outcomes all need to be carefully considered. Challenges include definitions of healing, diversity of landscapes and programs, and data collection. Qualitative methods that preference and support Indigenous cultural frameworks and ways of creating and sharing knowledge work well. In addition to ensuring culturally sensitive methodologies and tools, working ethically and effectively in the Indigenous healing space means emphasising and enabling safety for participants, workers and organisations.

Women Released From Custody: Investigating Risk Factors and Reoffending

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (13) ◽  
pp. 2239-2263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen De Rooy ◽  
Sarah Bennett ◽  
Michelle Sydes
Keyword(s):  
Torres Strait Islander ◽  
First Year ◽  
Time To Failure ◽  
Administrative Dataset ◽  
Older Offenders ◽  
History Of ◽  
Incarceration History ◽  
Torres Strait ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Observation Period

This article draws on life-course and desistance theory to explore the relationship between the factors of age, ethnicity, offence type, and incarceration history for a sample of 1,035 women released from custody between January 2013 and January 2014, data gathered from the Australian Queensland Corrective Services administrative dataset. It also explores their impact on recidivism and the time between release and reoffending (known as “time to failure”) until September 2017. The data indicate substantial rates of reoffending with 70% of the sample reoffending (a return to custody/parole/probation) within the 2- to 4-year observation period. Notably, 50% of women reoffended in their first year post-release, 36% within 6 months, and 23% within the first 3 months. Regression results show that violent offenders are considerably more likely to be recidivists and older offenders are less likely to be recidivists; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander offenders were also more likely to reoffend. Incarceration history is significantly associated with reoffending and “time to failure”. It is clear that there needs to be increased intervention and support for female offenders during the first 2 years post-release from custody. This is particularly important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and those with an extensive history of incarceration.

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