Abstract
This chapter discusses a generation of empirical research on Indigenous students’ experience of racism at school. The evidence shows how racism negatively impacts Indigenous students from primary school to high school, and on to later life, when those students become parents, community members and Elders. The impacts on students are harmful, wide-reaching and life-long, and influence academic achievement, attitudes to language, emotional well-being, physical health, self-concept, school attendance and post-school pathways, and eventually school choice and engagement when those students themselves become parents. Based on these findings, this chapter describes implications for research, policy, schools and Indigenous communities. We centre the voices of the Indigenous students, parents and teachers that emerged through our research to consider practical implications for diverse stakeholders and communities.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Unlike other reviews included in this book, this chapter includes research from the period 1989 to 2016. The earlier date is based on the first “National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy”, a joint policy statement endorsed by all governments across Australia that stressed the need to combat racism in education (Department of Employment, Education and Training, 1989, p. 8).
- 2.
In this article, we use the terms ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander’ and ‘Indigenous’ often interchangeably but with recognition both of original source material and the inadequacy of all colonial nomenclature. When referring to specific Indigenous political collectives, we will use their preferred description, such as Wurundjeri People or Kulin Nation, for example.
References
Auld, G. (2018). Is there a case for mandatory reporting of racism in schools? The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 47(2), 146–157. https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2017.19
Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2011). Australian professional standards for teachers. http://www.teacherstandards.aitsl.edu.au/OrganisationStandards/Organisation
Blanch, F. R. (2011). Young Nunga males at play and playing up: The look and the talk. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32(1), 99–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2011.537077
Bodkin-Andrews, G. H., Seaton, M., Nelson, G. F., Craven, R. G., & Yeung, A. S. (2010a). Questioning the general self-esteem vaccine: General self-esteem, racial discrimination, and standardised achievement across indigenous and non-indigenous students. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 20(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1375/ajgc.20.1.1
Bodkin-Andrews, G., O'Rourke, V., Grant, R., Denson, N., & Craven, R. G. (2010b). Validating racism and cultural respect: Testing the psychometric properties and educational impact of perceived discrimination and multiculturation for indigenous and non-indigenous students. Educational Research and Evaluation, 16(6), 471–493. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2010.550497
Bodkin-Andrews, G. H., Denson, N., & Bansel, P. (2013). Teacher racism, academic self-concept, and multiculturation: Investigating adaptive and maladaptive relations with academic disengagement and self-sabotage for Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian students. Australian Psychologist, 48(3), 226–237. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1742-9544.2012.00069.x
Coffin, J., Larson, A., & Cross, D. (2010). Bullying in an Aboriginal context. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 39, 77–87. https://doi.org/10.1375/S1326011100000934
Crawford, K. (2013). Constructing Aboriginal Australians, 1930-1960 projecting false memories. Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 5(1), 90–107. https://doi.org/10.3167/jemms.2013.050106
Dandy, J., Durkin, K., Barber, B. L., & Houghton, S. (2015). Academic expectations of Australian students from Aboriginal, Asian and Anglo backgrounds: Perspectives of teachers, trainee-teachers and students. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 62(1), 60–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2014.984591
Day, A. (1992). Aboriginal students succeeding in the senior high school years: A strengthening and changing Aboriginality challenges the negative stereotype. Australasian Journal of Gifted Education, 1(2), 14–26.
Department of Employment, Education and Training. (1989). National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education policy: Joint policy statement. Author. Accessed May 11, 2020, from http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/81579
Eckerman, A. (1999). Aboriginal education in rural Australia: A case study in frustration and hope. Australian Journal of Education, 43(1), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.1177/000494419904300102
Edwards-Groves, C. (2008). Enabling voice: Perceptions of schooling from rural Aboriginal youth at risk of entering the juvenile justice system. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37, 165–177. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100016203
Edwards-Groves, C. & Murray, C. (2008). Enabling Voice: Perceptions of Schooling from Rural Aboriginal Youth at Risk of Entering the Juvenile Justice System. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37(1), 165–177. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100016203
Foley, D. (2000). Aboriginality? The plight of the fair-skinned indigenous Australian student in the secondary school system. Aboriginal studies: Self-concept for a nation: Collected papers of the 10th annual ASA Conference. University of Western Sydney, 12–14 July.
Gool, S., & Patton, W. (1998). Voices still to be heard. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 26(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100001757
Graham, L. J. (2012). Disproportionate over-representation of Indigenous students in New South Wales government special schools. Cambridge Journal of Education, 42(2), 163–176. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2012.676625
Groome, H. (1990). What do Aboriginal parents think about schools? Kaurna Higher Education Journal, 1, 47–54.
Hardy, I. (2016). ‘Capitalising’ on community? Understanding and critiquing instrumentalist approaches to Indigenous schooling. Oxford Review of Education, 42(6), 661–676. https://doi.org/10.1080/03054985.2016.1203302
Healy, S. (2015). Race, citizenship and national identity in The School Paper, 1946-1968. History of Education Review, 44(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1108/HER-01-2015-0003
Helme, S. (2005). Indigenous students and vocational education and training in schools: Ladder of opportunity or corrugated iron ceiling? Australian Journal of Education, 49(2), 169–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/000494410504900205
Hewitson, R. (2007). Climbing the Educational Mountain: A Metaphor for Real Culture Change for Indigenous Students in Remote Schools. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36(1), 6–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100004373
Hickey, C. (2010). Racism at school. Independent Education, 40(3), 19–20. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.189203
Hogarth, M. (2017). The power of words: Bias and assumptions in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education action plan. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 46(1), 44–53. https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2016.29
Hogarth, M. (2019, October 13). Into this silence the children said – We are not the problem we are the solution. https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=4587
Kaplan, G., & Eckermann, A.-K. (1996). Identity and culture shock: Aboriginal children and schooling in Australia. McGill Journal of Education, 31(1), 7–24.
Keddie, A. (2011). ‘Much more than a basic education’: Supporting self-determination and cultural integrity in a non-traditional school for Indigenous girls. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 15(9), 1001–1016. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110903490713
Keddie, A. (2013). Schooling for self-determination through a justice politics of indigenous representation. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(1), 21–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2011.604651
Keddie, A., & Williams, N. (2012). Mobilising spaces of agency through genealogies of race and gender: Issues of indigeneity, marginality and schooling. Race Ethnicity and Education, 15(3), 291–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2011.619005
Keddie, A., Gowlett, C., Mills, M., Monk, S., & Renshaw, P. (2013). Beyond culturalism: Addressing issues of Indigenous disadvantage through schooling. Australian Educational Researcher, 40(1), 91–108. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-012-0080-x
Long, A. F., & Godfrey, M. (2004). An evaluation tool to assess the quality of qualitative research studies. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 7(2), 181–196. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000045302
Macedo, D. M., Smithers, L. G., Roberts, R. M., Paradies, Y., & Jamieson, L. M. (2019). Effects of racism on the socio-emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal Australian children. International Journal for Equity in Health, 18(1), 132. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-019-1036-9
Malin, M. (1990). The visibility and invisibility of Aboriginal students in an urban classroom. Australian Journal of Education, 34(3), 312–329. https://doi.org/10.1177/000494419003400307
Mander, D. J., Cohen, J., & Pooley, J. A. (2015). A critical exploration of staff perceptions of Aboriginal boarding students’ experiences. Australian Journal of Education, 59(3), 312–328. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944115607538
Mansouri, F., & Jenkins, L. (2010). Schools as sites of race relations and intercultural tension. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 35(7), 93–108. https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2010v35n7.8
Mansouri, F., Jenkins, L., Morgan, L., & Taouk, M. (2009). The impact of racism upon the health and wellbeing of young Australians. The Foundation for Young Australians. https://www.fya.org.au/app/theme/default/design/assets/publications/Impact_of_Racism_FYA_report.pdf
Mansouri, F., Jenkins, L., & Walsh, L. (2012). Racism and its impact on the health and wellbeing of Australian youth: Empirical and theoretical insights. Education and Society, 30(1), 75–94. https://doi.org/10.7459/es/30.1.06
Martino, W. (2003). ‘We just get really fired up’: Indigenous boys, masculinities and schooling. Discourse, 24(2), 159–174. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596300303037
Matthews, J., & Aberdeen, L. (2004). Racism, racialisation and settler colonialism. In A. Hickling-Hudson, J. Matthews, & A. Woods (Eds.), Disrupting preconceptions: Postcolonialism and education (pp. 193–209). Post Pressed.
McGloin, C. (2014). Tone it down a bit!: Euphemism as a colonial device in Australian indigenous studies. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 36(2), 156–167.
Michaelson, M. T. (2006). A measure of the strength of the relationship between the indigeneity and desirability of Queensland state schools. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 35, 54–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100004166
Mills, K. A. (2006). ‘Mr Travelling-at-will Ted Doyle’: Discourses in a multiliteracies classroom. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 29(2), 132–149.
Mohajer, N., Bessarab, D., & Earnest, J. (2009). There should be more help out here! A qualitative study of the needs of Aboriginal adolescents in rural Australia. Rural and Remote Health, 9(2).
Moodie, N. (2019). Learning about knowledge: Threshold concepts for Indigenous studies in education. Australian Educational Researcher, 46(5), 735–749. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-019-00309-3
Morgan, G. (2006). Memory and marginalisation: Aboriginality and education in the assimilation era. Australian Journal of Education, 50(1), 40–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/000494410605000104
Nelson, A., & Hay, P. J. (2010). “I don’t want to grow up and not be smart”: Urban Indigenous young people’s perceptions of school. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 39, 54–64. https://doi.org/10.1375/S1326011100000910
Paki, D. (2010). What do primary school principals from the Yamaji region or Mid West Education District say about their school’s bullying prevention and management guidelines and practices and how they support the strengths and needs of Aboriginal students and their families? Edith Cowan University.
Partington, G., Godfrey, J., & Richer, K. (2001). The principal is hopeless. She needs a good boot in the rear end: Cultural diversity and conflicting school agendas. Paper presented at the AARE Annual Conference, Fremantle. http://www.aare.edu.au/data/publications/2001/par01107.pdf
Priest, N. C., Paradies, Y. C., Gunthorpe, W., Cairney, S. J., & Sayers, S. M. (2011). Racism as a determinant of social and emotional wellbeing for Aboriginal Australian youth. Medical Journal of Australia, 194(10), 546–550. https://doi.org/10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb03099.x
Purdie, N., Oliver, R., Collard, G., & Rochecouste, J. (2002). Attitudes of primary school Australian Aboriginal children to their linguistic codes. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 21(4), 410–421. https://doi.org/10.1177/026192702237957
Riley, T. (2019). Exceeding expectations: Teachers’ decision making regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students. Journal of Teacher Education, 70(5), 512–525. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487118806484
Rudolph, S. (2019). Unsettling the gap: Race, politics and indigenous education. Peter Lang Publishing.
Russell, D. (1999). The importance of identity in the retention and attainment of Aboriginal students at secondary school: Some research findings. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 27(1), 10–19. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100001496
Salmon, M., Skelton, F., Thurber, K. A., Kneebone, L. B., Gosling, J., Lovett, R., & Walter, M. (2019). Intergenerational and early life influences on the well-being of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children: Overview and selected findings from Footprints in Time, the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 10(1), 17–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S204017441800017X
Sanderson, V., & Allard, A. (2003). ‘Research as dialogue’ and cross-cultural consultations: Confronting relations of power. Australian Educational Researcher, 30(1), 19–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03216779
Sarra, G. (2008). Cherbourg state school in historical context. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37, 108–119. https://doi.org/10.1017/S132601110001615X
Simpson, L., McFadden, M., & Munns, G. (2001). ‘Someone has to go through’: Indigenous boys, staying on at school and negotiating masculinities. In W. Martino & B. Meyenn (Eds.), What about the boys? Issues of masculinity in schools (pp. 154–168). Open University Press.
Smith, L. T. (2012). Decolonizing methodologies: research and indigenous peoples (2nd ed.). Zed Books.
Tarbetsky, A. L., Collie, R. J., & Martin, A. J. (2016). The role of implicit theories of intelligence and ability in predicting achievement for Indigenous (Aboriginal) Australian students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 47, 61–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2016.01.002
Tong, A., Sainsbury, P., & Craig, J. (2007). Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ): A 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 19(6), 349–357. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzm042
Vass, G. (2014). The racialised educational landscape in Australia: Listening to the whispering elephant. Race Ethnicity and Education, 17(2), 176–201. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2012.674505
Wall, K., & Baker, M. (2012). Race and education: Hidden links between media and Indigenous academic self-concept. Journal of Student Engagement: Education Matters, 2(1), 54–63.
Welch, V., Petticrew, M., Tugwell, P., Moher, D., O'Neill, J., Waters, E., White, H., & the PRISMA-Equity Bellagio Group. (2012). PRISMA-equity 2012 extension: Reporting guidelines for systematic reviews with a focus on health equity. PLoS Medicine, 9(10), e1001333. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001333
Wilkinson, E. L. (2005). Audacious leadership: One school’s journey to achieve educational equality for Indigenous students. James Cook University.
Wooltorton, T. (1997). Nyungar education in a south west Australian location: A perspective. Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 25(2), 37–42. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100002763
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Moodie, N., Rudolph, S., Maxwell, J. (2023). Understanding the Evidence on Racism and Indigenous Schooling. In: Moodie, N., Lowe, K., Dixon, R., Trimmer, K. (eds) Assessing the Evidence in Indigenous Education Research. Postcolonial Studies in Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14306-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14306-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-14305-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-14306-9
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)