High-ability Aboriginal Australian students’ reasoning about source of effort

ABSTRACT

This study investigated how high-ability Australian Aboriginal adolescents reasoned about sources of effort in their transition to secondary schools. High-ability Year 7 Aboriginal adolescents (n = 4) participated in interviews on three occasions: Term 1 Year 6 (primary); Term 1 Year 7 (secondary); and Term 4 Year 7 (post-transition). Parents (n = 5) and staff (n = 20) were interviewed on one or two occasions. The longitudinal, mixed-methods design included: longitudinal analysis of multiple case studies; discourse analysis; frequency tables; and content analysis of key themes pertaining to the research questions. Results indicated that effort investment was associated with class-average ability. High-ability Aboriginal students found difficulty transitioning to secondary school when placed in classes where the average-ability levels were higher than theirs, forcing upward comparisons, adversely impacting their academic self-concept. Schools should consider targeting academic skills and self-concept simultaneously and encouraging cooperation to enable a successful transition.

KEYWORDS:

• Tracking
• secondary education transition
• Indigenous

Disclosure statement

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

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2022.2161475

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Australian Research Council [140100481]