Connection, Challenge, and Change: The Narratives of University Students Mentoring Young Indigenous Australians

Abstract

In this article, we highlighted the stories of university student mentors who are involved in the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME). The AIME program works with young Indigenous school students, at primary and secondary school levels, to encourage continued participation in education and to consider university as a viable life goal. The AIME program is explored from the perspective of the university students who are selected to mentor young Australian Indigenous school students. Adopting a narrative inquiry approach, the article presents richly descriptive insight into the motivations of these mentors and highlights how this experience has impacted upon them. While the research presented focuses on narratives of mentors, the data indicate that the AIME program employs an innovative approach to mentoring that enhances cultural understanding for mentors.

Keywords:

• mentoring
• Indigenous students
• university access and participation
• narrative inquiry

Notes

1. The term “Indigenous” is used in this paper to refer to the Indigenous peoples of Australia, inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

2. Whilst nearly one in five Indigenous teenagers is not studying nor working, this figure increases to one in every three of young adults and 25–29-year-olds (DSF, 2009).

3. In this article, we use Robert’s (1998) definition that perceives a mentor as someone who may “teach, guide, be a role model, coach, counsel, empower, nurture, provide friendship, encourage or display enthusiasm” (pp. 19–20).

4. Digital storying refers to the creation of an individual multimodal, digital text that combines photos and voice, and is created through the use of computer video-editing software.

5. This is an extremely important finding, and the focus of a separate paper on AIME mentoring and pedagogy. For reasons of space, we cannot discuss this in this article.

6. From research by Valerie Harwood, Imagining university education: The perspectives of young people impacted by low socio-economic statues and disengagement from school (Australian Research Council, DP110104704).

7. Australian Research Council, DP110104704. This study forms part of this team’s larger program of work on educational and social inclusion.