Segregation effects on Australian Indigenous primary school achievement

ABSTRACT

Australia and its Indigenous peoples have experienced what one commentator has called “a juxtaposition of first and third worlds”, manifest, among other aspects, in lower levels of education achievement compared with other Australians. Specifically, profound levels of educational inequality have been observed for Aboriginal Australians because of the colonial experience, and this has resulted in on-going challenges in terms of their collective histories. This paper examines the interrelationship between Indigeneity and socioeconomic status (SES) in the primary school years, and analyzes the association between a school’s location, levels of segregation, school SES and literacy and numeracy achievement. I argue that relatively high levels of school segregation and clustering structure and maintain Indigenous children’s inequality in schooling outcomes in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Characteristics of low SES neighbourhoods and schools are examined, using 2011 Population Census and National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) data to assess the effect on reading and numeracy mean achievement levels of Year 5 students in schools across several states. Analyzes of the data demonstrate relationships between school socioeconomic composition and school segregation, and have important implications for Indigenous people in a majority of low SES communities.

KEYWORDS:

• Australian Indigenous primary school achievement
• literacy and numeracy
• socioeconomic status
• segregation
• low achievers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The terms “Indigenous people”, “Aboriginal Australians”, and “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people” are used in this article to refer to those Australians who identify themselves to be of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status.

2. For example, in NSW in 1882, it was reported that only 9% of Aboriginal children were in any form of schooling compared with 70% of European children (Reynolds, 1990). From the early 1900s, and as late as 1972, Aboriginal children in several states could be excluded from particular schools at the behest of white parents (Campbell & Proctor, 2014). In New South Wales, this was formalized through the “Clean, Clad and Courteous” policy which could enforce daily inspections and send children home if they did not meet certain standards (Fletcher, 1989).

3. SEIFA is a suite of four indexes classifying geographic areas across Australia according to a range of economic and social conditions affecting the people and households within each area. In this study, the SEIFA Index of Relative Disadvantage (IRSD) was used, which is the most widely used metric of disadvantage (Pawson & Herath, 2013). In this index, a low score indicates greater levels of disadvantage, and a high score indicates greater levels of advantage.

4. In some SA2s, there were pockets of Indigenous population within the area. These SA2s were also selected, which generally had a lower ratio of Indigenous to non-Indigenous people than 1 to 5 across the whole area.

5. For example, of the traditional Indigenous communities in the north of Western Australia, Northern Territory, and Queensland, many had a SEIFA ranking of under 30 according to the 2011 Census (see University of Melbourne, 2011).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jenny Dean

Jenny Dean is a PhD candidate at the University of Canberra. She has a long-standing interest in the education and literacy of young Indigenous Australians.