ATSIRIC Research Online

Only 60% Aboriginal students reaching National benchmarks compared to 93% of the rest of the population Why is there a need to ask students, Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, about their educational experiences? By drawing upon Aboriginal student voice and their standpoint some greater insight can be drawn upon what is best for them in their educational situation and what forms of change could the Aboriginal students understandings and identity suggest in a 21st century learning environment Indigenous epistemological understandings were at the centre of the design & practice of this study from asking the Aboriginal community if this work was needed through to using a narrative methodology to collect the student’s stories & Aboriginal researcher to analysis materials and interpret from an Aboriginal standpoint

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the outcomes of online learning, the theoretical basis and function of embedding cultural standards into online teaching and learning in relation to the cultural learning journey of students. With this focus in mind, the entire project draws upon Grounded Theory and Indigenous methodology, which aims to ensure that the process, and importantly the outcome, of the research project is the cultural learning experience of students. Given that the topic under investigation is broadly online teaching and learning within a tertiary environment, and that Indigenous research is a cultural construct, the research project is provided with an appropriate and important contextual foundation. The research methodology has also been designed from a qualitative approach, using staff yarning sessions, student work samples and student surveys, of who were enrolled in first year online courses at The Wollotuka Institute. This qualitative approach allows the thesis to more fully explore the underlying rationale and meaning of students cultural learning journeys.

Governments have attempted to correct these past policies by being proactive in promoting Indigenous education and employment, and by putting policies into place to redress the disadvantage that Indigenous peoples face. This chapter considers a range of employment issues that relate particularly to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s employment and some of the employment strategies utilised by governments and organisations to manage diversity and to reduce labour market disadvantage for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

“Mentoring” was a term largely unknown until the 1970’s. Since then, mentoring has received immense coverage in both popular and academic literature and has become the subject of a great deal of research especially in the United States (Clutterbuck 1985, Hansford et al 2003, Murray 1991). In Australia however, research on mentoring is very limited despite the fact that mentoring programs are used in a variety of organisational settings, which include large and small corporations, government departments, universities and schools (Carruthers 1991, Hansford et al 2003).

This thesis focuses on "Closing the Gap" on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander disadvantage in the workplace.

This thesis results from the question often posed why claim Aboriginality as you identity if you were taken away from your family as raised as if you were not Aboriginal. This is my attempt to answer this question for myself.

In Australia there is great uncertainty when estimating the frequency of major floods because gauging of floods is only a relatively new practice, introduced slightly over 100 years ago. With such a limited data set, it is difficult to design water engineering projects intended to withstand floods with Average Exceedance Probabilities (AEP) of even 200 years or more. Pre-gauged data can reduce this uncertainty on the assumption the past is representative of the future. Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for an estimated 40,000 years prior to the First Fleet arriving in 1788. In this time, Aboriginal people would have witnessed extreme or rare flooding events within their respective tribal lands. Recollection of these floods captured in stories and memories passed down within tribes from where they originate could potentially hold useful evidence of flooding in that region. By exploring these Aboriginal stories and extracting the information that can be used to model floods, this can then be used to create improved estimates of flood frequency. Using Aboriginal Knowledge in an engineering context is a pioneering study; this project will evaluate the value of this ancient knowledge in a modern world.

Knowledge gap: Reproductive health research within Aboriginal populations has focused largely on sexually transmitted infections, with limited information available on male reproductive health. Aims: 1) To develop, implement and assess strategies for improvements in reproductive health to overcome barriers to service uptake by generating new knowledge and understanding of: Aboriginal definitions of safe, effective, affordable, accessible and client-centred reproductive health care, Contraception use, including facilitators and barriers to access plus the context and outcomes of intended/unintended pregnancies, Characteristics of successful and unsuccessful reproductive healthcare services, 2) Evaluate the strengths and limitations of the Participant Action Research (PAR) approach to community-level research with an Aboriginal community on reproductive healthcare topics. Methods: Interviews and focus groups with community members (men and women), elders and health service providers. Outcomes: 1) Improved reproductive health, including, service delivery, uptake and health outcomes within the community. 2) Development of a PAR model with the intent, if successful, for it to be applied in any community.

The aims of this research are to describe Aboriginal English (AE) used by local preschool children, and investigate whether the use of AE affects their communicative interactions at preschool. 21 Aboriginal preschool children and 21 non-Aboriginal preschool children were videotaped during naturalistic communicative interactions with their educators at preschool. Linguistic transcription and analysis are currently in progress. Preliminary results indicate that the verbal and non-verbal communication of the Aboriginal children differs from that of the non-Aboriginal children. Many of the features identified in the Aboriginal children’s speech are consistent with AE features. Some implications of these findings will be discussed.

Enabling education has an established place in opening access to undergraduate study for groups of students traditionally under-represented in higher education. Enabling education offers tertiary preparation with no cost to the student and often with no or limited entry requirements. A recent research project, which has produced the first comprehensive mapping of university enabling programs across Australia, has identified enabling education as a field that can be characterised as broad and fragmented, yet simultaneously flexible and creative (Baker & Irwin, forthcoming). We contend that the situation is likely to be similar — disparate and unmapped — for enabling programs designed specifically for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. This project intends to add to the knowledge base by auditing the existing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enabling programs offered across the country. Through engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enabling practitioners and program developers across the country, this project will address gaps in knowledge, identify good practice and develop a sustained conversation within and across the Australian higher education sector: both within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander institutes and with enabling programs not specifically targeted at, or designed for, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.