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Factors affecting the development of school and Indigenous community engagement: A systematic review

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Abstract

School systems and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have long acknowledged the levels of social, cultural and epistemic conflict that has historically existed between teachers and schools, and Aboriginal students, families and their local communities. This relationship is both symptomatic and causal of the broader and highly complex field of issues and policies found to underpin the fraught histories existing between many Aboriginal communities and schools. This systematic review of the research literature reports on findings and insights into the everyday environments of these interactions and the possibilities of Aboriginal communities being able to affect the establishment of genuine and productive interactions with schools. The review looks to focus on those factors seen to either enable or act as barriers to this process, and comment on their impact on Aboriginal communities, their students and schools’ capacity for purposeful engagement.

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Notes

  1. PICo—population, phenomenon of interest and context.

  2. PRISMA—preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW, Australia

    Kevin Lowe & Neil Harrison

  2. The University of Sydney, Camperdown, Australia

    Christine Tennent

  3. Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Batchelor, NT, Australia

    John Guenther

  4. Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

    Greg Vass

  5. The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

    Nikki Moodie

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  1. Kevin Lowe
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  2. Neil Harrison
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  4. John Guenther
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  5. Greg Vass
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  6. Nikki Moodie
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Correspondence to Kevin Lowe.

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Lowe, K., Harrison, N., Tennent, C. et al. Factors affecting the development of school and Indigenous community engagement: A systematic review. Aust. Educ. Res. 46, 253–271 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-019-00314-6

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