Abstract
In this paper, we discuss methodological issues that emerged as we worked through a small empirical research project, ‘Engaging Aboriginal students in education through community empowerment’. Recent national policy statements (see, for example, MCEETYA 2000, NBEET 1995) argue the importance of education/research that keeps the locus of control within the Aboriginal community as a means to further the goal of self-determination and improve educational outcomes. In keeping with these recommendations, our project aimed to challenge assimilationist frameworks and sought to ‘empower’ members of the local Aboriginal community through participation in the project.
‘Research as dialogue’ was a guiding principal and a primary aim was to listen actively to all key stakeholders in the remote community setting, particularly to Indigenous parents, students and teachers, in order to identify current strengths and concerns regarding the provision of culturally inclusive schooling. A proposed second stage of the project is to develop, on the basis of these consultations and in collaboration, community-based education projects that engage non-attending Aboriginal students.
Here we discuss the consultative processes undertaken in stage one of the project, and critically analyse the difficulties as well as potential strengths of trying to form collaborative partnerships as researchers across cultural differences and with diverse community groups.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allard, A. and V. Sanderson (2002) Whose school? Whose community? Paper presented at the Australian Rural Education Research Association National Conference. Brisbane, December.
Burke, C. J., K. Rigbyand J. Burden (2000) Better Practice in School Attendance: Improving the School Attendance of Indigenous Students, Centre for Indigenous Studies, Monash University, Melbourne and University of South Australia, Adelaide.
Colman-Dimon, H. (2000) Relationships with the school: listening to the voices of a remote Aboriginal community,The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 34–47.
Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (2000)National Indigenous English Literacy and Numeracy Strategy 2000–2004, Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.
Fairclough, N. (1992)Discourse and Social Change, Longman, London.
Fine, M. (1994) Distance and other stances: negotiating power inside feminist research, in A. D. Gitlin, ed.,Power and Method, Routledge, New York.
Folds, R. (1987)Whitefella School: Education and Aboriginal Resistance, Allen and Unwin, Sydney.
Freire, P. (1970)Pedagogy of the Oppressed, The Salisbury Press, New York.
Gerstl-Pepin, C. and M. Gunzenhauser (2002) Collaborative team ethnography and the paradoxes of interpretation,Qualitative Studies in Education, vol.15, no. 2, pp. 127–54.
Gitlin, A. (1990) Educative research, voice and school change,Harvard Educational Review, vol. 60, no. 4, pp. 443–66.
Gore, J. (1993)The Struggle for Pedagogies. Critical and Feminist Discourses as Regimes of Truth, Routledge, New York and London.
Grant, M. (2001) ‘Building bridges’ and Indigenous literacy: learning from Indigenous families,Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 1095–1103.
Guider, J. (1991) Why are so many Aboriginal children not achieving at school?The Aboriginal Child at School, vol.19, no. 2, pp. 42–53.
Heaney, T. (1995) Issues in Freirean pedagogy. Online: http://www.nl.edu/ace/Resources/Documents/FreireIssues.html (Accessed February 2001).
Lather, P. (1991)Feminist Research in Education: Within/Against, Deakin University Press, Geelong, Victoria.
Lincoln, Y. S., and E. Guba (1985)Naturalistic Inquiry, Sage, Beverley Hills, California.
Leonard, P. (1997)Postmodern Welfare: Reconstructing an Emancipatory Project, Sage, London.
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (2000) The National Statement of Principles and Standards for More Culturally Inclusive Schooling in the 21st Century. Online: http://www.detya.gov.au/ministers/kemp/july00/ (Accessed February 2001).
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs Task Force (1996)The Collaborative Action Plan for the Education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, 1997–2002, Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs Task Force (1995)A National Strategy for the Education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 1996–2000, Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.
Mojee, E. B. (2000) Changing our minds, changing our bodies: power as embodied in research relations,Qualitative Studies in Education, vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 25–42.
Morgan, D. and M. Slade (1998) A case for incorporating Aboriginal perspectives in education,Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 6–12.
National Board of Education, Employment and Training (1995)Meeting the Educational Needs of Aboriginal Adolescents: Commissioned Report No. 35, Australian Government Printing Service, Canberra.
National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education (2000)Emerging Themes: National Inquiry into Rural and Remote Education, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney.
Northern Territory Department of Education (1999)Learning Lessons: An Independent Review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory, Government Printing Office, Darwin.
Partington, G. (1991) No simple solutions exist: perspectives on education as the key to change, in G. Partington, ed.,Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education, Social Science Press, Sydney.
Popkewitz, T. S. (1998)Struggling for the Soul: The Politics of Schooling and the Construction of the Teacher, Teachers College Press, New York and London.
Smith, L. T. (1999)Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Zed Books Ltd., London and New York.
Theis, K. (1987)Aboriginal view points on education: a survey in the East Kimberley region. Unpublished thesis, National Centre for Research on Rural Education, University of Western Australia.
Wooltorton, T. (1997) Nyangar education in a south west Australian location: a perspective,The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 37–42.
World Indigenous People’s Conference (1999) The Coolangatta Statement on Indigenous Rights in Education, Journal of American Indian Education, Fall, pp. 52–64.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sanderson, V., Allard, A. ‘Research as dialogue’ and cross-cultural consultations: confronting relations of power. Aust. Educ. Res. 30, 19–39 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03216779
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03216779