Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:02:54.464Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Enabling Voice: Perceptions of Schooling from Rural Aboriginal Youth at Risk of Entering the Juvenile Justice System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Christine Edwards-Groves  and
With Colleen Murray
Christine Edwards-Groves
Affiliation:
School of Education, Charles Sturt University, Locked Bag 588, Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, 2650, Australia
With Colleen Murray
Affiliation:
Tirkandi Inaburra Cultural and Development Centre, Kidman Way, Coleambally New South Wales, 2707, Australia
Get access

Abstract

In this article the perceptions of school experiences by male Aboriginal youth at risk of becoming in contact with the juvenile justice system are presented. These adolescent boys, from inland rural New South Wales, attend Tirkandi Inaburra Cultural and Development Centre (Tirkandi). Tirkandi is a short term residential centre designed to provide at risk boys with an opportunity to participate in strengths-based culturally appropriate educational, cultural, social and personal programs. In this study, participants give detailed accounts of schooling describing their lives as students. Their voices offer a powerful insight into the situated construction of agency and identity in classroom life, culture and learning among Aboriginal students. They serve as a window in to how perceptions and voice are socially-culturally-politically configured – both in their production and deployment. Further, they show the complexity and deeply problematic nature of how individuals' lived experiences collide across contexts when these contexts operate in isolation. The insider's voices, presented in this paper, are significant because they offer valuable insights that will encourage educators to be challenged by the relational architectures dominating teaching practices. These voices form not just the backdrop but the centerpiece for discussion in this paper.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , 2008 , pp. 165 - 177
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, C. (1991). Classroom literacy events. Australian Journal of Reading, 14(2), 103-8.Google Scholar
Burnett, B. (2004). How does “othering” constitute cultural discrimination? In Burnett, B., Meadmore, D. & Tait, G. (Eds.), New questions for contemporary teachers taking a socio-cultural approach to education (pp. 101-11). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
Clifford, J. (1988). The predicament of culture: Twentieth-century ethnography, literature, and art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Department of Education and Training Professional Support and Curriculum Directorate. (2003). Quality teaching in NSW public school: A classroom practice guide. Ryde, NSW: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Derrida, J. (1982). Differance. In Derrida, J. (Ed.), Margins of philosophy (pp. 3–27). Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Edwards-Groves, C. (2007). The praxis-oriented self: Continuing (self) -education. In Enabling praxis: Challenges for education. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.Google Scholar
Foley, D. (2007). Aboriginality and pedagogy. In Connell, R., Campbell, C., Vickers, M., Welch, A., Foley, D. & Bagnall, N. (Eds.), Education, change and society (pp. 94–126). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Franklin, C., & Streeter, C. L. (2004). Solution-focused alternatives for education: An Evaluation of Gonzah Garza Independence High School. School of Social Work Research Report. Austin, TX: The University of Texas.Google Scholar
Freebody, P., & Dwyer, B. (1992, July). Classrooms as learning environments: The structure of participation. Paper presented at the New South Wales Conference on Learning Difficulties, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.Google Scholar
Freebody, P., Ludwig, C., & Gunn, S. (1995). The literacy practices in and out of schools in low socio-economic urban communities. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth Department of Employment, Education and Training, Curriculum Corporation, Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Freiberg, J., & Freebody, P. (1995). Analysing literacy events in Classrooms and Homes: Conversation-analytic Approaches. In Freebody, P, Ludwig, C., & Gunn, S. (Eds.), The literacy practices in and out of schools in low socio-economicurban communities (pp. 185–369). Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth Department of Education, Employment and Training.Google Scholar
Greene, R., & Ablon, S. (2006). Treating explosive kids: The collaborative problem-solving approach. New York, NY: The Guilford PressGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. (1987). Theory of communicative action: Lifeworld and system: A critique of functionalist reason (Vol. 2, McCarthy, T., Trans.). Boston, MA: BeaconGoogle Scholar
Harrison, N. (2003). Grounded theory or grounded data?: The production of power and knowledge in ethnographic research. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 32, 101–106Google Scholar
Kemmis, S., & Grootenboer, P. (2008). Situating praxis in practice: Practice architectures and the cultural, social and material conditions for practice. In Kemmis, S. & Smith, T. J. (Ed.), Enabling praxis: Challenges for education (pp. 37–64). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.Google Scholar
Lavoie, R. (1989). How difficult can this be? The F.A.T. City Workshop. Washington, DC: A Learning Disabilities DVD and Discussion Guide.Google Scholar
Levine, M. (2002). A mind at a time. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Malin, M. (1994). Why is life so hard for Aboriginal students in urban classrooms? The Aboriginal Child at School, 22(2), 141–154.Google Scholar
Moje, E. (2002). “To be part of the story”: The literacy practices of gangsta adolescents. Teachers College Record, 102, 651–690.Google Scholar
Osborne, B. (2003). Preparing preservice teachers' minds, hearts and actions for teaching in remote Indigenous contexts. The Australian Journal of Indigenous of Educational, 17–24.Google Scholar
Pflaum, S. S., & Bishop, P. A. (2004). Student perceptions of reading engagement: Learning from the learners. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(3), 202–213.Google Scholar
Rubie, C. (1999, November). Kia Kaha: Improving classroom performance through developing cultural awareness. Paper presented to AARE-NZARE Conference on Research in Education, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Google Scholar
Russell, D. (1999). The importance of identity in the retention and attainment of Aboriginal students at secondary school: Some research findings. The Australian Journal ofIndigenous Education, 27(1), pp. 10–19.Google Scholar
Schatzki, T. (2002). The site of the social: A Philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change. University Park, PS: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Triplett, C. F. (2004). Looking for a struggle: Exploring the emotions of a middle school reader. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 48(5), 214–221.Google Scholar
Wenger, E., (1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Willes, M. J. (1983). Children into pupils. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar