Abstract
This introductory chapter focuses on children and young people who have been placed in juvenile detention in Queensland, Australia. Research has documented that these children and young people, particularly those from low socioeconomic backgrounds and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, have experienced education failure and disadvantage. We discuss why the laws that prosecute children are imprecise tools for deterring juvenile crime because they do not consider holistically the natural development differences of children. The chapter draws on Rule 11a of the United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (1990) to explain the terms used to describe children, establishing the foundation for presenting an overview of data on children and young people under supervision—community-based or detention. Critical discussion about the need to consider socioeconomic and policy development when looking at the crimes that these children commit is provided. We explain the provision of education for detained children and young people and in doing so, propose a culturally responsive approach to supporting them in their mathematics learning while detained. The chapter also overviews our project’s purpose, research design and excerpts from the data gathered.
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Ewing, B., Sarra, G. (2023). The Proposition: Towards Culturally Appropriate Education in Juvenile Detention. In: Educating Indigenous Children in Australian Juvenile Justice Systems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8684-0_1
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