The Aboriginal voices project: findings and reflections

ABSTRACT

Beginning in 2017, the Aboriginal Voices project brought together 14 researchers from 11 Australian universities to conduct the first systematic review of empirical research on Indigenous education. Collectively, the project has now reviewed more than 13 000 publications in 10 areas that address the experiences and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners in schooling. As a result of these reviews, we can critically engage with claims about “what works” and what doesn’t, what enjoys a burden of proof and what doesn’t. Beyond the weight of evidence however, this work allows us to clarify that what counts as knowledge, what counts as success, and what counts as proof, which are rarely defined by Indigenous people. The project allows us to make some claims about what is working well: where teachers are supported to engage in robust professional learning, and families and communities are meaningfully involved in the life of schools and decision-making, outcomes for Indigenous students improve. Yet we find there is still some distance between practice and perceptions of practice, between mapping cause and effect, and between the aspirations of Indigenous students and families, and the ability of settler colonial education systems to meet those aspirations.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigenous
• education
• evidence
• self-determination

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, families, communities, educators and school leaders who have shared their stories, experiences and knowledge with researchers for many generations. We believe it is our collective responsibility to play whatever role we can to heal the damage of extractivist research, to amplify the aspirations of Indigenous young people and their communities, and to recommit ourselves to the project of Indigenous self-determination. We offer this work in the hope that the stories of the past are heard, and we can move beyond questions that have already been answered – by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people – many times over.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nikki Moodie

Nikki Moodie is a Gomeroi woman from northern New South Wales, whose research focuses on social policy, trust and identity.

Greg Vass

Greg Vass is a non-Indigenous scholar focused on the cultural politics of knowledge production and schooling, particularly teaching and learning practices that raise socio-political consciousness.

Kevin Lowe

Kevin Lowe is a Gubbi Gubbi man from southeast Queensland, working on community and school-focused research to develop on model of sustainable improvement in Aboriginal education.