Keywords

4.1 Introduction

Many Indigenous higher degree by research (HDR) students have reported having a lack of agency in academia and/or a lack of academic capital (Burgess & Lowe, 2019; Crocker & Robeyns, 2009; Kosko, 2013). By agency, we are referring to the ability to navigate within academia by acquiring the necessary capital (i.e. academic capital) to make this possible (Bourdieu, 1977). We posit that academic capital is similar to identity capital, which is defined as “investments people make in who they are, but these investments can be strategically self-generated” (Côté & Levine, 2014, p. 123). Therefore, by referring to ‘academic’ capital, we are specifically referring to the investments people make in an academic context; for example, obtaining a degree, membership of scholarly societies and participation in academic committees.

Indigenous HDR students can also have the unfortunate task of navigating through systemic structural barriers or “structure, rather than being determined by it” (Amundsen, 2019, p. 426), meaning that there are often more obstacles for Indigenous HDR students or indeed any HDR student who are at risk of being impacted by systemic structural barriers within academia. One of these structural barriers is a lack of agency because Indigenous HDR students are often the first in their family to complete a postgraduate degree (Cameron & Robinson, 2014; Gore et al., 2017; O’Shea et al., 2013). The role of agency is vital to embrace once the decision to enrol in higher degree education is made (Amundsen, 2019). By having agency in a higher education context, HDR students can begin to realise their own worth, act independently and make autonomous choices (Amundsen, 2019; Barker, 2005).

Acquiring agency in the higher education context means that Indigenous HDR students may begin to understand that they have choice about who their supervisors are and choice about the research project they undertake. Understanding how academia works may help to shift the power balance between supervisors and students. For instance, knowing that academics need HDR students to supervise may help HDR student understand that it is also in the best interest of academics to be supervising students. Understanding their role as a HDR student may also help students manage their expectations and encourage them to take responsibility for scheduling meetings and setting agendas, as many supervisors often only provide what they are asked for and may not know whether anything additional is required unless it is specifically requested.

In this chapter, we discuss our findings based on interviews via group discussions and written responses of Indigenous HDR students (n = 66) and a survey of supervisors of Indigenous HDR students (n = 33) that explored their needs and experiences. We discuss the role of agency in higher education that an Indigenous HDR student might encounter in the following situations when:

  • navigating the terrain of academia as an Indigenous HDR student;

  • encountering racism in higher education settings;

  • the relationship between student and the supervisor fails;

  • there is a need to reach out for additional academic support.

In the next section, we discuss the terms ‘identity’, ‘agency’, ‘culture’ and ‘capital’ to explore their similarities and differences.

4.2 Identity, Agency, Culture and Capital

Amundsen’s (2019) research with Māori students in higher education settings found that “transitions to higher education for Māori students involve a reciprocal interplay of identity, agency and structure which support or constrain transition experiences” (p. 426). We are focused on how Indigenous HDR students are supported in higher education settings to succeed. As such, we are interested in the role of agency and identity or identity capital in an academic context, which we refer to as academic capital. Amundsen argues that Māori university students “require agency to articulate their own identity positions, values and beliefs through having a voice” (p. 407). Therefore, cultural identity is also an essential component to consider when thinking about the role an Indigenous HDR students has in an academic setting. “Cultural identity comes about as a result of how individuals define themselves in relation to culture(s) to which they belong – an interaction between self and society” (p. 417).

Cultural identity and cultural capital appear to be linked and may enable and/or constrain an individual’s ability to navigate higher education based on how much or how little their culture is valued by the institution. Culture has been previously defined as “symbolic vehicles of meaning, including beliefs, ritual practices, art forms, and ceremonies, as well as informal cultural practices such as language, gossip, stories, and rituals of daily life” (Swidler, 1986, p. 273). Determining whether culture is valued at the university may be ascertained in various ways. For instance, value may be found to be explicit because it is written in the university’s blueprints that outline their strategic plans and vision (see Queensland University of Technology [QUT], n.d.-a). Or ‘value’ may be found in reconciliation action plans, or it may be implicit and stated in informal discipline meetings and/or associations connected to the university. How much your culture is perceived to be valued by the university will likely have an impact on the HDR student’s agency in a higher education context.

Barker (2005) believes that ‘agency’ is better if it is connected to an ‘agent–situation interaction’, suggesting that is ‘done together’ rather than individually acquired. Therefore, “instead of agency existing within individuals, agency is shifted to the capacity of the context for action as shaped by the interaction of those individuals in that context” (Amundsen, 2019, p. 372). There is no doubt that the ability to make change, have action and transform practice is dependent on the values held by the university about Indigenous peoples, which demonstrates the power of the ‘agent–situation interaction’ or context-specific understanding of agency.

The authors of this chapter are all employed by QUT. The values held for Indigenous Australians is explicit and intertwined in everyday practices of the university under Vice-Chancellor (VC) and President of the University Professor Margaret Sheil’s leadership. Changes to QUT since VC Sheil’s appointment include hiring Angela Barney-Leitch as QUT’s first Pro-Vice Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy). Angela was responsible for the ‘Campus to Country’ initiative (QUT, n.d.-b). The Carumba Institute (QUT, n.d.-c) was established to increase Indigenous Australian research focus, continue to develop Indigenous Australian researchers and to meet the needs of Indigenous Australian students and is led by Executive Director, Professor Peter Anderson. A joint initiative between the Carumba Institute and the QUT Academy of Learning and Teaching (QALT) focuses on embedding Indigenous perspectives in curriculum, which is called Indigenous Learning and Teaching initiatives (QUT, n.d.-d). This initiative provides staff members with professional development to embed Indigenous perspectives in their curriculum. Carumba staff, Professor Anderson and Dr. Levon Blue, have also developed two units for undergraduate students that are being piloted before they become implemented across the university. These units have been designed as independent online units that provide the student with an opportunity to engage with Indigenous perspectives in respectful ways that are supported by a rights-based approach (see Anderson & Rhea, 2018). The above initiatives are only some of the visible changes in practices that QUT has undertaken under Professor Sheil’s leadership and her commitment to Indigenous Australians. When core business is aligned with valuing of Indigenous perspectives, it helps to ensure that Indigenous people, including Indigenous HDR students, are valued within QUT.

With Indigenous perspectives valued at QUT, it might be the case that Indigenous HDR students will have agency and/or a better chance at acquiring agency. However, Côté and Levine (2014) write about identity capital resources or assets that also have an impact on an individual’s identity and their ability to acquire agency whether context specific or not. Identity capital resources or assets can be both tangible and intangible. The tangible assets are visible by others and include degrees and memberships of academic societies. The intangible assets “involve ego strengths (synthetic and executive) that entail reflexive-agentic capacities such as an internal locus of control, self-esteem, a sense of purpose in life, the ability to self-actualize, and critical thinking abilities” (Côté & Levine, 2014, p. 144).

Thinking about identity capital in both tangible and intangible terms may help to explain why for some individuals acquiring a research degree is not enough to self-actualise into becoming an academic. Understanding identify capital and the complexities often experienced by Indigenous HDR students navigating systemic structural barriers must be considered by the interplay of all the intertwined concepts, including agency, identity, cultural capital and academic capital. It is easier to place blame on the individual for failing to achieve than to understand how the intangible assets are required to “understand and negotiate various social, occupational, and personal obstacles” (Côté & Levine, 2014, p. 145). In addition to these obstacles for Indigenous HDR students, this often involves facing and confronting racism.

Having a voice in a higher education context is not as simple as it might sound. Let us explain. It involves having agency (individual notion and agent–situation interaction that is context specific and dependent) and academic capital, which includes assets that are both tangible and intangible. Therefore, speaking up does not always equate to agency because it is largely dependent on who is speaking up, the environment where the speaking up is happening and the tangible and/or intangible resources of the individual who is speaking up.

4.3 Participants, Data Collection and Analysis

As described in Chap. 1, the participants of this research were Indigenous HDR students enrolled in higher education institutions across Australia. Informing this chapter are datasets 3, 4, 5 and 6, as shown in Table 4.1. Four different forms of data were collected. In 2018, we conducted group interviews and collected written responses from the same 34 participants. We also conducted an online survey in 2020 seeking to understand more about the needs and experiences of Indigenous HDR students (n = 32) and supervisors of Indigenous HDR students (n = 33). Therefore, a total of 66 Indigenous HDR students and 33 supervisors of Indigenous HDR students have informed this chapter. For more information about the methodological approach and/or the data analysis process, see Chap. 1 (p. 13) and Chap. 3 (p. 46).

Table 4.1 Datasets used to inform this chapter
Full size table

4.4 Instances When Agency in a Higher Education Context Might Be Needed

In this section, we discuss four situations when agency might be needed during the HDR degree. The first occurs when navigating higher education as a HDR student. The second is when Indigenous HDR students encounter racism in higher education settings. The third example is about relationships between students and their supervisors and their potential breakdown. The fourth example occurs when Indigenous HDR students need to reach out for additional support relating to research skills.

4.4.1 The Role of Agency Navigating the Terrain of Academia as an Indigenous HDR Student

Universities are keen to increase the number of Indigenous students completing research degrees (Department of Education, 2019). One participant from the group interviews mentioned the importance of explaining what the main purpose of a HDR is when institutions are seeking additional students from varying backgrounds, including from non-traditional pathways:

HDR is an opportunity for you to demonstrate that you can independently do a body of research. I didn’t know that’s what an HDR was. I did a PhD because I knew I needed it to be an academic. I did not know that a PhD was literally an example for you to do that because you come in and you get told your supervisors and that they’ve got power and you have to meet with them and things like that. Until I realised that this was about me demonstrating my ability to do it, I did not know that I had agency to go and do those things (GD_IndigenousHDR).

The participant further described how knowing what their role was as a HDR student meant that they learned to behave differently in academic spaces compared to how they were taught to behave in Community spaces.

So, trying to recognise how to show respect and when I’m used to working in reciprocal community type spaces, then going, ‘Oh, this isn’t about me just listening to them like I would to Elders, this is about me actually bringing stuff to the table. Great, I now have the freedom to do that’, but I think that’s an equity versus equality kind of discussion. It’s not about babysitting Aboriginal students. It’s about saying that six months that I wasted that I could’ve been spending time getting published, that other HDR students, the majority of them who come from those wealthier, more elite backgrounds, have used more productively than me because they came in with knowledges that I don’t have due to these other factors, but it wouldn’t just be Aboriginal students (GD_IndigenousHDR).

The participant from the group interview highlights the insider academic knowledge or academic capital that students with family or friends who have completed research degrees may have access to—knowledge that may help guide the HDR student navigate the space more strategically with regard to publications and opportunities to seek tutoring or research assistant work. The realisation that other HDR students have published and/or are tutoring and/or are employed on other academic projects as research assistants may come as a surprise to students who are actively building their academic CV while completing their research degree. As the participant shared, “they just need to consider that there are assumed knowledges that aren’t there for every student” (GD_IndigenousHDR).

Related to the need to gain academic experience during a research degree, Professor Peter Anderson shared this advice with Indigenous HDR students who participated in the group discussions:

It’s sort of do as I say and not as I did. And don’t go into faculty and let them load you up with work that you will not finish, and then your dean comes to you and says, ‘You know what, you either have to submit or you lose your job.’ And it’s as simple as that. So, they get us in and they load you up, so be mindful – and that’s your own agency. You choose to take that on, and you choose to be in the faculty, in the academy, but you have to take what comes with it. You either get in or get out, is what I say to my students.

This advice underscores the need for Indigenous HDR students to be in control of their workload and the importance of gaining additional experiences while remembering that completing the research degree is of prime importance.

4.4.2 The Role of Agency When Indigenous HDR Students Encounter Racism in Higher Education Settings

I don’t think any of our institutes of higher education are culturally safe for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. At the HDR level I have found that even more so. There seems to be added scrutiny and expectation with the racism (OLS3_Supervisor25).

It is not just Indigenous HDR students who notice and mention racism in academia. As stated earlier by a supervisor of an Indigenous HDR student, there is concern about academic institutions being a culturally safe place for Indigenous HDR students. One supervisor elaborated on the racism experienced ‘at all levels’ throughout academia:

All HDR students are entering a neoliberal institution and precarious economy. My Indigenous students also deal with tremendous racism at all levels – from peers, academics, institutions and in disciplinary scholarship. I worry I am not as effective as I could be in fighting this. The balance between preparing students for the institution, warning them, and respecting that their experiences and politics may differ a lot from mine is tricky to strike sometimes. Universities need to deal with the extent of the racism and eurocentricity/white supremacism so that the supervision relationship doesn’t have to constantly strategise/heal this stuff (OLS3_Supervisor26).

Another supervisor of an Indigenous HDR student echoed the concerns above by focusing on how academia still challenges Indigenous research methodologies and/or methods:

The academy is not well suited to support Indigenist research, making it challenging for Indigenous students – timelines don’t factor in or support true community partnership, Indigenous knowledges and methodologies still questioned etc.; institution needs to have supports in place (family leave, cultural leave, peer support networks and mentoring etc.) also zero tolerance to racism and better awareness among non-Indigenous scholars about Indigenous scholarship (OLS3_Supervisor22).

This concern was also connected to another comment by a different supervisor about the need for the Graduate Research Centres to adjust their practices, which might be done by having the supports in place as mentioned in the previous quote: “Graduate Research Office – not understanding what it takes to have Indigenous students in HDR. Their timelines are unrealistic and inflexible” (OLS3_Supervisor21).

Indigenous HDR expressed their concerns about racism in higher education in other ways. For instance, this HDR student turned the gaze to supervisor’s practices: “Aside from the more obvious concerns such as racism and white supremacy present in the academy, I often worry that there are not enough supervisors who employ culturally sound methods into their practices” (OLS2_IndigenousHDR4).

Another Indigenous HDR student shared their frustration about dealing with white fragility when arguing about systems and structures in place that perpetuate inequalities for Indigenous peoples:

My biggest concern is receiving drafts of my chapters back with tracked changes that completely change my writing to make it more palpable for a non-Indigenous audience. This isn’t something that non-Indigenous students experience. But in my experience, I need to be constantly aware of not offending white sensibilities because my supervisor can take some of my critiques of systems and structures personally and get offended by them (hello white fragility). I wish my supervisor would just step back and realise that this is my thesis – not theirs – and view my arguments for their merit, rather than watering down my arguments because they make my supervisor uncomfortable (OLS2_IndigenousHDR1).

The ability to listen to each other in the student and supervisory relationship is essential. At times, the student is learning from their supervisors and at other times the supervisors may be learning from their students. As another HDR student stated, the belief that you can change unjust practices is important for HDR students:

If you are someone who is diligent and methodical when it comes to solving different problems or issues then give higher research a go. I don’t consider myself the smartest person but I have found a topic I’m passionate about and it has driven me to get the best out of myself particularly because I think my topic could contribute to systemic change for blackfellas (OLS2_IndigenousHDR3).

In order to pursue a passion for a HDR project to work towards systemic change, it is vital to transform unjust systems, structures and practices in academia and replace these with just ways of being, doing and knowing. We would argue that the more an Indigenous HDR student is able to exercise their agency, the greater the likelihood that the student will be able to convincingly argue their position with supervisors and push forward with their progress.

4.4.3 The Role of Agency When the Relationship Between the Indigenous HDR Student and the Supervisor Fails

One supervisor I had completely ignored me all the time, would not respond to emails and would not address me in a room (while addressing other PhD students). I changed him as a supervisor this year (OLS2_IndigenousHDR21).

As discussed in Chap. 2 (see Sect. 2.3.3), the student–supervisor relationship does not always last the duration of the candidature. Some students might feel locked into the relationship and be uncertain about how to fix the situation:

I felt shame keeping up with deadlines and shame around my writing. It was paralysing me. Eventually after talking with Elders and other HDR students I got the courage to speak with him. The relationship and the writing got better (OLS2_IndigenousHDR31).

Seeking advice and counselling from others was key to improving the relationship that the Indigenous HDR student previously described. Knowing that you have options and that others have likely navigated something similar may help to ensure the HDR student does not give up:

My primary supervisor circulated an email saying I was incompetent to the other supervisors and research assistants. This was a blatant act of bullying and not true or helpful in any way. I was forced to report the supervisor for inappropriate behaviour and then rebuild the working relationship without an apology or acknowledgement (OLS2_IndigenousHDR5).

The example quoted here demonstrates that this HDR student knew the relevant policies and reported the supervisor’s behaviour. It is conceivable that this supervisor has learned not to behave in this manner despite the student not receiving an apology or an acknowledgement; we argue here that this HDR student used their agency to seek out the appropriate way to report this behaviour:

… your supervisor allowing you to take responsibility for your studies and giving you the tools to have agency within how you approach your study and being kind of open and receptive to how you work and how they work as well. So, two-way communication I guess for me is really important (GD_IndigenousHDR).

The above quote highlights what a sense of agency about their project may result in. This sense of direction and progression to the end goal seems possible when the HDR student feels like they are supported and encouraged by their supervisor along the way.

4.4.4 The Role of Agency When Indigenous HDR Students Need to Reach Out for Additional Academic Support

If you think because you are around lots of intelligent and well-intended people that the environment will systematically support you as an Aboriginal academic you might be in for a rude awakening (OLS2_IndigenousHDR24).

This student also mentioned the importance of seeking supervisors with the expertise that are needed in your studies. This could be a supervisor with the theoretical expertise, the methodological expertise and/or the discipline expertise. The need to learn from experts along the way was viewed as an essential part of the research degree. However, Indigenous HDR students also reported situations where they were educating their supervisors about Indigenous ways of conducting research (see Chap. 7 for more details).

It’s really been around educating them [about] Indigenous ways of doing in research, or ways of viewing the world, and having that make them feel deeply uncomfortable to the point where they try to change the way you want to do things. That really stifles your willingness to keep working with someone who just can’t critique their assumptions and be open to seeing another way of doing (OLS2_IndigenousHDR1).

An Indigenous HDR student also mentioned the need to be told and/or shown the ropes in academia as there is a lot of academic jargon that is not common knowledge:

Find an Indigenous group or mentor who can explain or translate a lot of the academic terminology. Have them walk you through study tips, back-up files, and learn what a systematic review is all about. Lockdown is exactly what HDR studies is all about – to some degree (OLS2_IndigenousHDR26).

Comparing completing a research degree to being in lockdown is a timely comparison that illustrates the sense of isolation students can feel throughout their candidature.

4.5 Summary

In this chapter, we shared why and how acquiring agency in a higher education context may contribute to an Indigenous HDR student successful experience completing their research degree. We highlighted the four situations when both Indigenous HDR students and supervisors of Indigenous HDR students mentioned agency might be helpful. These situations included when an Indigenous HDR student navigating academia, when they encountered racism, when their relationship with their supervisor failed and when there was a need to reach out for additional academic support.