Persevering, educating and influencing a change: a case study of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander narratives of academic success

ABSTRACT

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ experiences in Australian higher education continue to be influenced by the sociopolitical narratives of alterity which locate the students as more likely than their nonIndigenous peers to struggle academically and need support. These western-centric perceptions of indigeneities not only affect Indigenous students’ everyday university experiences but can even influence their decision whether to persist with their studies or not. Drawing on data collected in a large, metropolitan Australian university, this article presents a case study of Indigenous students’ ways of perceiving and resisting their positioning by the dominant university systems as ‘problematic’, at risk of failure and needing support. Specifically, the article explores educational pathways of three Indigenous students, their narratives exemplifying primary strategies of enacting and articulating resistances to the dominant education structures in order to fuel academic success.

KEYWORDS:

• Indigeneity
• Indigenous education
• cultural capital
• habitus
• inequality and social exclusion in education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Northern Territory intervention refers to a ‘national emergency response’ enacted on 21 June 2007 by the Australian Government to ‘protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory’ from sexual abuse and family violence, following the publication of Report of the Northern Territory Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse, Ampe Akelyernemane Meke Mekarle: ‘Little Children are Sacred’; www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/social-justice-report-2007-chapter-3-northern-territory-emergency-response-intervention

2. (Bush) tucker (used here as a modern colloquialism) denotes native Australian food that historically sustained the Indigenous peoples of Australia.

3. Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is a framework for organisations wishing to take steps towards reconciliation; www.reconciliation.org.au/raphub

4. Welcome to Country is an Australian practice of inviting a representative of a local Indigenous group to ‘welcome’ the audience of an event to Indigenous country. If no Indigenous representatives are available, a nonIndigenous person can do Acknowledgement of Country. Emma Kowal’s essay Welcome to Country? (Meanjin 69(2), 2010, 15–17) gives more information.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Postgraduate Award.

Notes on contributors

Ekaterina Pechenkina

Dr Ekaterina Pechenkina is research fellow based at the Office of the Senior DVC & Provost Learning Transformations Unit, Swinburne University of Technology. She is also ex officio research fellow with Swinburne Institute for Social Research. A cultural anthropologist and education researcher, her research interests encompass race, gender, Indigeneity, education and technology. Most recently, Ekaterina’s work has been published in Race, Ethnicity and Education; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and UNESCO Observatory Multi-Disciplinary Journal in the Arts.