Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T21:44:26.111Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘It wasn't just the academic stuff, it was life stuff’: the significance of peers in strengthening the Indigenous health researcher workforce

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2020

Tess Ryan ,
Shaun Ewen  and
Chris Platania-Phung
Tess Ryan*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory2601, Australia
Shaun Ewen
Affiliation:
Melbourne Poche Centre for Indigenous Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria3010, Australia
Chris Platania-Phung
Affiliation:
Australian College of Applied Psychology, Navitas, Melbourne, Victoria3000, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Tess Ryan, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

Health research remains a vital activity of Indigenous health workforces. This paper reports on the main findings of yarning interviews with 14 Indigenous researchers, that was central to a project analysing the role of research training infrastructures in strengthening the Indigenous health research workforce in Australia. The findings highlighted Indigenous researcher peers as core sources of inspiration, moral support and sustenance in academia and in life. Peer generative power arising from peer groups provide a unique enriching to the educational and research experience. Indigenous researcher peers have a strong shared aspiration to champion change to health research and higher education as a key pathway to widespread positive impacting on health and well-being. We suggest the (revived) development at a collective level of a strategic and planned approach to capitalising on the positive outcomes of peer generated leadership and support.

Keywords

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderhealth workforcehigher educationpeersresearch capacity building
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 49 , Special Issue 2: Critical conversations on higher education as an enabler to building an Indigenous health workforce , December 2020 , pp. 135 - 144
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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

Agee, EA and Li, Y (2018) Fighting the leaky pipeline: developing peer support for women in the earth and environmental sciences. Michigan Journal of Sustainability 6, 67–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asmar, C and Page, S (2018) Pigeonholed, peripheral or pioneering? Findings from a national study of Indigenous Australian academics in the disciplines. Studies in Higher Education 43, 1679–1691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Australia and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Advisory Council (2015) Growing the Indigenous academic workforce: ATSIHEAC recommendations to government. Available at https://docs.education.gov.au/documents/increasing-number-indigenous-academics.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics (2018) Census of Population and Housing: Characteristics of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2016. Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Bainbridge, R, Fredericks, B, Clapham, K, Anderson, C, Ball, R, Longbottom, M and Daniels, C (2016) Collaborating for community-engaged scholarship in health and well-being: a co-autoethnographic study of Indigenous self-determined researcher development. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies 9, 2.Google Scholar
Barata, P, Hunjan, S and Leggatt, J (2005) Ivory tower? Feminist women's experiences of graduate school. Women's Studies International Forum 28, 232–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Behrendt, L, Larkin, S, Griew, R and Kelly, P (2012) Review of higher education access and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: Final report. Available at https://www.education.gov.au/review-higher-education-access-and-outcomes-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-people.Google Scholar
Beran, D, Byass, P, Gbakima, A, Kahn, K, Sankoh, O, Tollman, S, Witham, M, and Davies, J (2017) Research capacity building—obligations for global health partners. Lancet Global Health 5, e567–e568.Google ScholarPubMed
Bessarab, D and Ngandu, B (2010) Yarning about yarning as a legitimate method in indigenous research. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies 3, 37–50.Google Scholar
Bessarab, D, Solonec, C, Gibbs, T, Lehmann, D and Wright, M (2009) Not just scholars but leaders: Learning circles in Indigenous health research. Available at https://espace.curtin.edu.au/handle/20.500.11937/45399.Google Scholar
Bond, C, Foley, W and Askew, D (2016) ‘It puts a human face on the researched’—a qualitative evaluation of an Indigenous health research governance model. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 40, S89–S95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheer, K, Lui, FW, Shibasaki, S, Harvey, A, Grainger, D and Tsey, K (2020) The case for a Torres Strait Islander-driven, long-term research agenda for environment, health and well-being. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 44, 147–149. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.12979.Google Scholar
Collins, PH (1986) Learning from the outsider within: the sociological significance of Black feminist thought. Social Problems 33, S14–S32.Google Scholar
Connell, R (2019). The Good University: What Universities Actually Do and Why its Time for Radical Change. Melbourne, Australia: Monash University Publishing.Google Scholar
Diamond, Z and Anderson, PJ (2019). Indigenous doctoral literacy in the humanities and social sciences. In Rennie, J and Harper, H (eds), Literacy Education and Indigenous Australians. Singapore: Springer, pp. 127–145.Google Scholar
Eades, SJ, Sanson-Fisher, RW, Wenitong, M, Panaretto, K, D'Este, C, Gilligan, C and Stewart, J (2012) An intensive smoking intervention for pregnant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women: a randomised controlled trial. Medical Journal of Australia 197, 42–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elg, U and Jonnergard, K (2003) The inclusion of female PhD students in academia: a case study of a Swedish university department. Gender, Work and Organization 10, 154–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elston, JK, Saunders, V, Hayes, B, Bainbridge, R and McCoy, B (2013) Building Indigenous Australian research capacity. Contemporary Nurse 46, 6–12.Google ScholarPubMed
Esposito, J, Lee, T, Limes-Taylor Henderson, K, Mason, A, Outler, A, Rodriguez Jackson, J, Washington, R and Whitaker-Lea, L (2017) Doctoral students’ experiences with pedagogies of the home, pedagogies of love, and mentoring in the academy. Educational Studies: Journal of the American Educational Studies Association 53, 155–177.Google Scholar
Ewen, S, Ryan, T and Platania-Phung, C (2019 a) Capacity building of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health researcher workforce: a narrative review. Human Resources for Health, 17, Article 10. Available at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12960-019-0344-x.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ewen, S, Ryan, T and Platania-Phung, C (2019 b) Further strengthening research capabilities: A review and analysis of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health researcher workforce. Available at https://www.lowitja.org.au/page/services/resources/health-services-and-workforce/workforce/Health-researcher-workforce-review.Google Scholar
First 1000 Days Australia (2020) Projects complete. Available at https://www.first1000daysaustralia.com/projects-complete.Google Scholar
Fleming, T, Creedy, DK and West, R (2019) The influence of yarning circles: a cultural safety professional development program for midwives. Women and Birth 33, 175–185.Google ScholarPubMed
Flores-Scott, EM and Nerad, M (2012) Peers in doctoral education: unrecognized learning partners. New Directions for Higher Education 157, 73–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glass, N and Walter, R (2000) An experience of peer mentoring with student nurses: enhancement of personal and professional growth. Journal of Nursing Education 39, 155–160.Google ScholarPubMed
Gunstone, A (2009) Whiteness, Indigenous peoples and Australian universities. ACRAWSA e-Journal 5, 1–8.Google Scholar
Gwynne, K and Cairnduff, A (2017) Applying collective impact to wicked problems in Aboriginal health. Metropolitan Universities 28, 115–130.Google Scholar
Gwynne, K and Lincoln, M (2017) Developing the rural health workforce to improve Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health outcomes: a systematic review. Australian Health Review 41, 234–238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harfield, S, Pearson, O, Morey, K, Kite, E, Canuto, K, Glover, K, Gomersall, JS, Carter, D, Davy, C, Aromataris, E, and Braunack-Mayer, A (2020) Assessing the quality of health research from an Indigenous perspective: the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander quality appraisal tool. BMC Medical Research Methodology 20, 79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Herbert, J (2012) ‘Ceaselessly circling the centre’: historical contextualisation of indigenous education within Australia. History of Education Review 41, 91103.Google Scholar
Hernandez, K-AC, Ngunjiri, FW and Chang, H (2015) Exploiting the margins in higher education: a collaborative autoethnography of three foreign-born female faculty of color. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 28, 553–551.Google Scholar
Jacelon, CS, Zucker, DM, Staccarini, JM and Henneman, EA (2003) Peer mentoring for tenure-track faculty. Journal of Professional Nursing 19, 335–338CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, R, Crowshoe, L, Reid, P, Calam, B, Curtis, E, Green, M, Huria, T, Jacklin, K, Kamaka, M, Lacey, C, Milroy, J, Paul, D, Pitama, S, Walker, L, Webb, G and Ewen, S (2019) Educating for Indigenous health equity: an international consensus statement. Academic Medicine 94, 512–519.Google Scholar
Kukutai, T and Taylor, J (2016) Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Toward an Agenda. Canberra, Australia: ANU Press.Google Scholar
Liburd, LC, Hall, JE, Mpofu, JJ, Williams, SM, Bouye, K and Penman-Aguilar, A (2020) Addressing health equity in public health practice: frameworks, promising strategies, and measurement considerations. Annual Review of Public Health 41, 417–432.Google ScholarPubMed
Matus, J, Walker, A and Mickan, S (2018) Research capacity building frameworks for allied health professionals: a systematic review. BMC Health Service Research 18, 716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McLennan, V and Woods, G (2018) Learning from mistakes and moving forward in intercultural research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Higher Education Research and Development 37, 88–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meschitti, V (2019) Can peer learning support doctoral education? Evidence from an ethnography of a research team. Studies in Higher Education 44, 1209–1221.Google Scholar
Mishra, S (2020) Social networks, social capital, social support and academic success in higher education: a systematic review with a special focus on ‘underrepresented’ students. Educational Research Review 29. doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100307CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, CL, Manyibe, EO, Aref, F and Washington, AL (2017) Research capacity building: a historically Black college/university-based case study of a peer-to-peer mentor research team model. Rehabilitation Research, Policy, and Education 31, 283–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (2018) Annual Report for the year ending 31 December, 2018. Brisbane, Australia: Queensland University of Technology. Available at www.nirakn.edu.au.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M (2011) Women and Human Development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, K., Schwartzkopff, K., Howard, N., Keech, W. and Brown, A. (2019). National Indigenous Researcher Capacity Building Initiative Report. Adelaide, Australia: Health Translation SA.Google Scholar
Opie, CA, Gibson-Thorpe, B, Lees, C and Haines, HM (2019) ‘Believe in me and I will believe in myself’, a rural Australian health service learns how to mangan dunguludja ngatan (build strong employment) for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people: a qualitative study. Human Resources for Health, 17, Article 44. doi: 10.1186/s12960-019-0384-2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Page, S, Trudgett, M and Sullivan, C (2017) Past, present and future: acknowledging Indigenous achievement and aspiration in higher education. HERDSA Review of Higher Education 4, 29–51.Google Scholar
Pololi, L and Knight, S (2005) Mentoring faculty in academic medicine. Journal of General Internal Medicine 20, 866–870.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prihodova, L, Guerin, S, Tunney, C and Kernohan, WG (2018) Key components of knowledge transfer and exchange in health services research: findings from a systematic scoping review. Journal of Advanced Nursing 75, 313–326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pyhältö, K, McAlpine, L, Peltonen, J and Castello, M (2017) How does social support contribute to engaging post-PhD experience. European Journal of Higher Education 7, 373–387.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roe, YL, Fredericks, B, Coffin, J and Adams, M (2010) Building Indigenous research capacity: a personal perspective. Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal 34, 33–35.Google Scholar
Ryan, T (2018) Its mob that build our capability in health research. @Indigenousx.Google Scholar
Sen, A (1999) Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sherwood, J (2013) Colonisation—it's bad for your health: the context of Aboriginal health. Contemporary Nurse 46, 28–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, LT (2012) Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, 2nd Edn. New York: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Street, J, Baum, F and Anderson, I (2007) Developing a collaborative research system for Aboriginal health. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 31, 372–378.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sweet, MA (2013) Social media: new links for Indigenous health. Medical Journal of Australia 199, 18.Google ScholarPubMed
Sweet, M and McInerney, M (2019) The Inala Manifesto: A call to arms for Indigenous health researchers. Croackey.Google Scholar
Te, M, Blackstock, F and Chipchase, L (2019) Fostering cultural responsiveness in physiotherapy: curricula survey of Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand physiotherapy programs. BMC Medical Education 19, 326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
The Lowitja Institute (2020) Seeding Grants 2020. Melbourne, Australia: The Lowitja Institute. Available at https://www.lowitja.org.au/page/research/seeding-grantsGoogle Scholar
Vass, G (2013) ‘So, what is wrong with indigenous education?’: perspective, position and power beyond a deficit discourse. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education 41, 85–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, M, Fredericks, B and Anderson, D (2013) ‘Yarning’ as a method for community-based health research with indigenous women: the Indigenous women's wellness research program. Health Care for Women International 35, 1116–1236.Google ScholarPubMed
Wright, A, Briscoe, K and Lovett, R (2019). A national profile of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers, 2006–2016. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 43, 24–26.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yager, J, Waitzkin, H, Parker, T and Duran, B (2007) Educating, training, and mentoring minority faculty and other trainees in mental health services research. Academic Psychiatry 31, 146–151.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yap, M and Yu, E (2016) Operationalising the capability approach: developing culturally relevant indicators of indigenous well-being—an Australian example. Oxford Development Studies 44, 315–331.CrossRefGoogle Scholar