We are very pleased to bring you Volume 45 of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education. At this moment in time, we feel that the work of AJIE has perhaps never been more important, particularly as it relates to engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and communities in systems of schooling. In May this year we witnessed the evacuation of school teachers from the remote community of Aurukun, Queensland in fear of violence. A group of 15 disengaged young people had threatened the School Principal and as a consequence of the evacuation, 300 engaged children were subsequently disengaged from School for the remaining five weeks of term following the closure. There is no doubt that teacher safety is paramount, similarly, there should be no doubt that community consultation and engagement in a move like this one equally so. The questions which hang in the air relate to why such levels of disengagement exist. Why are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people disengaged from schooling in Aurukun? What makes it okay that a large number of engaged Indigenous children were forcibly made to disengage from school? Why is there such disengagement from government in engaging local people in the ways in which education business is carried out with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and communities? The papers in this volume of AJIE then, all speak strongly to issues of engagement – the kinds of pedagogy and curriculum that can and should be in place, the kinds of relationships that can and should be in place, and the kinds of outcomes made possible when such educational moves are made. A resounding message from all of the articles in this volume is that the on-going engagement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, parents, and communities is key to defining and achieving what educational success might mean for each individual child, context and classroom. This is by no means a new message, but the recent events in Aurukun remind us that it is one we must keep returning to – the stakes for complacency and forgetting are too high.

This paper presents an Indigenous perspective on the significance of land, culture and Indigenous rights. The United Nations (UN) Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples promote the importance of traditional Indigenous societies, such as Aboriginal Australians. Participating in caring for country methods and having a close on-going relationship to the land is also supported in this Declaration. As well as this, these principles support the notion of Indigenous education for community, and youth in particular, in places of cultural significance and places of longstanding occupation. All of this lends itself to an Aboriginal way of being in terms of cultural teaching and learning. These principles are incorporated into a performative perspective of traditional pedagogy and the incorporation of cultural practices in a best practice model that can incorporate cultural mapping as an exercise that expounds environmental and ecological perspectives within learning places on the land. Through connection to land and community relationships to cultural knowledge and cultural values, this paper will provide an Indigenous standpoint on Indigenous experiences and senses of place and the importance of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in advancing significant principles and initiatives that value Indigenous ways of being and doing.

Social justice is often the primary framework that directs academics to embed Aboriginal perspectives into teacher education programmes. The effectiveness and limitations of social justice as a catalyst and change agent was examined when six school of education academics from an Australian regional university were introduced to Yuin Country as knowledge holder. This paper argues that social justice in Australian education systems can contribute to the colonial control of knowledge production. At the same time, however, social justice may provide a means for non-Aboriginal people to experience Aboriginal ways of knowing and thereby to diversify their thinking. A cultural experience with Yuin Country played a central role in connecting and separating social justice to provide a balance in relatedness, disrupting the colonial emphasis of Western binary thinking that only separates. The academics shared their ideas and feelings in relation to Aboriginal people and culture before, during and after the cultural experience Mingadhuga Mingayung (McKnight, 2015) of two significant Yuin Mountains on the far south coast of New South Wales. The research described in this paper explored the academics’ journey with Country to investigate the role of social justice thinking to unveil and or conceal Aboriginal perspectives as Country.

Aboriginal Australians are entering university in greater numbers than in past decades, yet many struggle to complete their degrees. This paper reports on the qualitative component of a research project aimed at enhancing understandings about this issue by investigating student perspectives about those structures that facilitate or impede their retention. Interview and survey data were gathered from 57 participants at one university and analysed for emerging themes. The findings demonstrate a diverse Indigenous student population in terms of age; comprised personal, professional and university networks; institutional services and resources; and the students’ personal qualities and study practices. Factors perceived to obstruct retention included: a lack of support from some teaching staff, schools and faculties; financial insecurity; and often interrelated issues surrounding university workload, jobs, health, as well as family and community responsibilities. These findings are discussed in the light of relevant literature and recommendations.

This article addresses identity issues among a specific group of Indigenous youth, young Buriat Mongolian students, born in Russia, who struggled to understand their sense of cultural identity while living and studying in Chinese Inner Mongolia. This qualitative research project employed ethnographic methodology. Sociocultural theory, specifically Bakhtin, was employed to analyse findings. Results indicated that ties to the land, family practices and spiritual practices are significant identity markers for the Buriat youth involved in this study and Buriat parents and elders taught young Buriats about the moral dimensions of living upon Buriat lands.

A lack of teacher awareness of the cultural and historical background of Aboriginal students has long been recognised as a major causative factor in the failure of Australian schools to fully engage Aboriginal students and deliver equitable educational outcomes for them. Using Wenger's communities of practice framework, this paper analyses the effectiveness of the Connecting to Country (CTC) program in addressing this issue in New South Wales (NSW) schools whereby Aboriginal community members design and deliver professional learning for teachers. Qualitative and quantitative data from 14 case studies suggest that the CTC program has had a dramatic impact on the attitudes of teachers to Aboriginal students, on their ability to establish relationships with the local Aboriginal community and on their willingness to adapt curriculum and pedagogy to better meet the needs of their students. As Aboriginal community members and teachers developed communities of practice, new approaches to Aboriginal student pedagogies were imagined through a sense of joint enterprise, mutuality and shared repertoire, empowering all participants in the CTC journey. Implications from this research highlight the importance of teacher professional learning delivered by Aboriginal people, Aboriginal community engagement in local schools and addressing deficit discourses about Aboriginal students and their families.

Whilst some improvements to Indigenous education outcomes have occurred in recent years, there remains considerable inequity in the educational experiences and long-term engagement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. One of the factors contributing to the challenging environment for Indigenous students is dissonance of social norms, as a result of ethnic and socioeconomic differences between teacher and student. Many hegemonic culture teachers are unaware of Standpoint Theory and the way in which normative beliefs impact on classroom interactions and student outcomes at the cultural interface. This paper draws on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TBP) to illustrate ways in which schools can identify areas of ethnic and socioeconomic prejudice impacting classroom interactions, and create shared social norms so that Indigenous students are most likely to experience positive educational engagement. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) is then applied to discuss the type of classroom environment that best enables students to internalise positive educational behaviours in an autonomous manner. Such internalisation is necessary to improve long-term outcomes and postschool educational engagement for Indigenous Australians. The theories explored indicate that motivation for behavioural change relies on the individual's self-perceptions of competence, autonomy and normative beliefs regarding the value of education, and that integration of new behaviours requires an emotionally supportive environment and provision of a meaningful rationale. This paper argues that good practice in Indigenous schooling will address these areas specifically.

Drawing on demographic data collected from interviews with 50 Indigenous Australians with a doctoral qualification and 33 of their supervisors, this paper provides the first detailed picture of Indigenous doctoral education in Australia, with the focus on study modes, age of candidates, completion times and employment. It also analyses data produced through interviews with supervisors including age, employment levels and academic background. The study confronts a number of common perceptions in the higher education sector, to find that many Indigenous Australians are awarded their doctoral qualification in the middle stages of their career. This particular cohort is more likely to be studying in the arts and humanities, employed in higher education and enrolled on a full-time basis. This Australian Research Council (ARC) funded research provides new and important data to inform government policy, and to allow universities to implement strategies and recommendations arising from the Behrendt Report of 2012.

With the introduction of the Australian National Curriculum containing the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures Cross-Curriculum Priority (CCP) and Intercultural Understanding General Capability, there has been a renewed push to embed Indigenous content into secondary school subjects. This paper considers the attitudes and beliefs of a group of secondary school science teachers to the current imperative to include Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in classroom practice. Through a Participatory Action Research (PAR) cycle, teachers contextualised and conceptualised the CCP in terms of social justice, pedagogy, and student engagement. The PAR process allowed them to develop a personal and intellectual engagement prior to attempting to teach Indigenous knowledges in their classrooms. Teacher attitudes and beliefs are identified in terms of their vision of a science education inclusive of Indigenous content, their hopes for the inclusions and the impediments they perceive to implementation in classroom practice. Allowing teachers the opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue resulted in the articulation of a path forward for their teaching practice that aligned with their political and social justice concerns.

School science aspires for students to develop conceptual, procedural and nature of science understandings as well as developing scientific literacy. Issues and complexities surrounding the development of science curriculum for Indigenous schools in New Zealand is a concern as little is known about these aspects of science learning in wharekura (Māori Indigenous School). This paper draws upon the findings of an empirical study to address the call for research into effective practices for supporting Indigenous students in learning science. The study is part of a larger project investigating and extending our understanding about how New Zealand teachers’ conceptualise science and science inquiry (investigation). Two Māori teachers participated in the research as well as their class who were supported by two researchers. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with teachers. This research reports the findings of how participating teachers’ conceptualise science inquiry and describes their perceptions of how and why their students should learn science and science inquiry. The paper also presents teachers’ views about their own development as science teachers and suggests two models to address the issue of science teaching in wharekura.

Health professionals must understand Indigenous perspectives to deliver effective health services. This study set out to determine the amount, type and effectiveness of current Indigenous content in an occupational therapy curriculum at an Australian regional university and the progress in meeting the National Aboriginal Health Strategy (NAHS) minimum standards for Indigenous content for Australian Universities. Twenty-one academic staff teaching at an Australian University were surveyed with five follow-up interviews. Findings suggest that while educators saw the importance of Indigenous cultural content, they lacked confidence in delivering this content. The need for a strategic and planned approach to embedding Indigenous content throughout the curriculum was identified. Future research evaluating the effectiveness of cultural competency initiatives is suggested.