‘Success’ in Indigenous higher education policy in the Northern Territory, Australia: reclaiming purpose for power

ABSTRACT

The concept of policy ‘success’ has been subject to much contestation. In the Indigenous higher education setting, Indigenous (and non-Indigenous) scholars have brought attention to the relevance of experiential knowledge to understanding the effects of power and race on policy, including how success is theorised. This paper aims to interrogate the notion of policy success by exploring how Indigenous users of higher education policy in the Northern Territory (NT), Australia, conceive the term ‘success’. We conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve (n = 12) Indigenous people with expertise in NT Indigenous higher education policy. Our findings highlight that while some of our participant’s conceptions of policy success align to those within current policy frameworks, there are also differences due to power and race relations. We reflect on the impact on policy outcomes, and discuss how a critical understanding of such relations can advance Indigenous higher education policy in the NT.

KEYWORDS:

• Success
• Indigenous
• higher education
• education
• Northern Territory
• policy

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Programme, which provided funding for some elements of this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Yolŋu is a clan group of the East Arnhem area of the NT.

2. The Aboriginal Teacher Education College was the first iteration of what now exists as Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, Australia’s only First Nations higher education provider.