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Despite increasing representation in higher education, Māori leaders are still seeking to overcome historical inequities and racial discrimination. This study investigates the circumstances of Māor...

Despite increasing calls for systemic change in the Canadian higher education sector, Indigenous leaders continue to be under-represented, under-funded, and overworked. This qualitative study inves...

While the number of Indigenous people holding senior positions across the Australian higher education sector is steadily increasing, understanding the value and subsequent contribution of senior In...

The number of Indigenous Australians engaged in the higher education has risen steadily in recent years. Since the 1970s, several groups have been established to represent issues impacting Indigenous staff and students across the Australian higher education sector. Despite the deep passion and commitment by Indigenous leaders to advance Indigenous education in general, no single group currently provides adequate representation and advocacy on these issues. This article reports on findings from an Australian Research Council-funded study on Indigenous leadership in higher education. In doing so, it shares the perspectives of senior Indigenous leaders, university executive such as Vice-Chancellors and Indigenous academics. Ultimately, this article purports that it is necessary for the Federal Government and Universities Australia to work collaboratively with Indigenous People if we are going to see collective advancement across the sector and that this needs to occur in a more meaningful way than currently exercised.

This paper reports on Indigenous early career researchers’ experiences of mentoring in Australian higher education, with data drawn from a longitudinal qualitative study. Interviews were conducted with 30 Indigenous participants. A consistent theme in the findings and contemporary critical literature has been a reaction against institutionalised and hierarchical cloning and investment models of mentoring that reinforce the accumulation of White cultural capital, in favour of strength-based relational models tailored to build Indigenous cultural wealth in parallel with career development. We write from an equity-based standpoint addressing mentoring as a complex and raced space where individual Indigenous ECRs articulate a desire and will to develop a successful and meaningful career, rich in cultural wealth and with their identity intact. It is our intent that these findings will also have global significance and support the more sustainable and ethical career development of First Nation early career academics in relationally like colonised contexts.

Formal Indigenous leadership within Australian universities has expanded significantly in the last decade. Given this advancement, understanding how to integrate Indigenous leadership into existing institutional governance structures is an area that requires investigation. Recognising the need to further examine Indigenous leadership in the higher education governance structure, the Walan Mayiny: Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education project commenced in 2018. This Australian Research Council funded project specifically aims to examine the roles and subsequent responsibilities of senior Indigenous appointments within the Australian higher education sector and senior Indigenous higher education roles across Canada, New Zealand and the United States. In doing so, it investigates the responsibilities, impacts, key advantages and barriers of senior Indigenous appointments within Australian universities from an Indigenous perspective. The article provides details of the theoretical framework and research methods adopted within the Walan Mayiny: Indigenous Leadership in Higher Education project. Preliminary findings and demographic information pertaining to the participants who have currently contributed to the study will be presented in order to help us gain a better understanding of the role and subsequent value of Indigenous leadership within the higher education sector.

© 2020, © 2020 Association for Tertiary Education Management and the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management. In 2017 Universities Australia initiated their Indigenous Strategy 2017–2020 which outlined a clear commitment for each university to appoint at least one Indigenous person to a senior executive role. Many universities are yet to realise this promise. In some cases, it is a situation of nil intent to do so, while others have an underlying desire to adhere to their commitment but with minimal success. Drawing on a larger study of Indigenous leadership in higher education, this paper focuses on the experiences of three recruiters who have been responsible for recruiting a senior Indigenous appointment. It provides an understanding of cultural complexities, recruitment barriers and key strategies which the sector can incorporate into their business activities to secure the best person for such positions. Notably, this paper argues there is no template for such positions and they are usually diverse in terms of their responsibilities and strategic outcomes.

This paper introduces and provides comprehensive detail of a new theoretical framework termed ‘Indigenous Institutional Theory’. In doing so, the paper discusses ‘Western’ and ‘Indigenous’ methodological practices and examines two existing theories that influence the newly developed framework; Indigenous Standpoint Theory (Nakata in Disciplining the savages, savaging the disciplines, Aboriginal Studies Press, Chicago, 2007) and Institutional Theory. Illustrating a conceptual framework for Indigenous inquiry, the framework acknowledges the Indigenous perspective, with the intention of offering a new lens in which the Indigenous experience within institutions can be interpreted and analysed. It is anticipated that the framework will be utilised in the future research by Indigenous scholars as a powerful explanatory tool when examining a variety of organisational phenomena in modern society. While the theoretical framework articulated in this paper has initially been designed for an Indigenous research project, the framework can be adapted and utilised when examining the standpoint of minority groups within Western institutions and addressing the diversity gap in leadership. As such, the paper is also relevant to organisational and leadership scholars investigating ways in which discriminatory (e.g. gendered and racialised) structures are created and culturally challenged within Western institutions.

Higher education has existed in Australia for 170 years, yet Indigenous Australians have participated for only half a century. One key change the Australian higher education sector has witnessed over the last decade is the steady increase of people occupying senior Indigenous leadership roles. These positions are indeed relatively new and have not been empirically investigated until now. Reporting on findings from an Australian Research Council funded study on Indigenous leadership in higher education, this paper highlights some of the discrepancies in how the skills of Indigenous leaders are interpreted by the academy, with a hope to challenge the sector’s next senior non-identified appointments to ensure that Indigenous people become integral architects in designing the future Australian higher education sector.

There is clear evidence that Indigenous education has changed considerably over time. Indigenous Australians' early experiences of ‘colonialised education’ included missionary schools, segregated and mixed public schooling, total exclusion and ‘modified curriculum’ specifically for Indigenous students which focused on teaching manual labour skills (as opposed to literacy and numeracy skills). The historical inequalities left a legacy of educational disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Following activist movements in the 1960s, the Commonwealth Government initiated a number of reviews and forged new policy directions with the aim of achieving parity of participation and outcomes in higher education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Further reviews in the 1980s through to the new millennium produced recommendations specifically calling for Indigenous Australians to be given equality of access to higher education; for Indigenous Australians to be employed in higher education settings; and to be included in decisions regarding higher education. This paper aims to examine the evolution of Indigenous leaders in higher education from the period when we entered the space through to now. In doing so, it will examine the key documents to explore how the landscape has changed over time, eventually leading to a number of formal reviews, culminating in the Universities Australia 2017–2020 Indigenous Strategy (Universities Australia, 2017).

© Australian Council for Educational Research 2019. Whilst Indigenous Graduate Attributes – or the embedding Indigenous cultural competencies within broad graduate attributes – are becoming increasingly popular within some universities, it is essential that universities be held accountable for the realisation of such policies. Considering that Australian Indigenous Studies – an essential component of Indigenous Graduate Attributes – is a highly contested space where colonial and Indigenous knowledges collide, this article presents evidence from analyses, engaging with Indigenous Standpoints, aimed at evaluating critically the degree to which university subjects may contribute to the realisation of Indigenous Graduate Attributes. Results identify not only an array of psychometrically sound factors which measure Student Knowledges and Attitudes to Indigenous Issues as well as Applied Indigenous Learning, but also indicate that the embedding of Australian Indigenous Studies content may vary across disciplines. In addition, results show that the impact of such embedding on student attitudes also varies greatly according to discipline, with positive, negative, and contradicting results across disciplines. These findings strongly suggest that any commitment to embedding Indigenous Graduate Attributes must be monitored very carefully.

Purpose The focus of this paper is to centre the lived experiences and perceptions of western education held by Aboriginal people who lived at Moola Bulla Native Cattle Station (Moola Bulla) in Western Australia, between 1910 and 1955. Of interest is an investigation into how government legislations and policies influenced these experiences and perceptions. The purpose of this paper is to promote the powerful narrative that simultaneously acknowledges injustice and honours Aboriginal agency. Design/methodology/approach The research from which this paper is drawn moves away from colonial, paternalistic and racist interpretations of history; it is designed to decolonise the narrative of Aboriginal education in remote Western Australia. The research uses the wide and deep angle lens of qualitative historical research, filtered by decolonising methodologies and standpoint theory. Simultaneously, the paper valorises the contributions Indigenous academics are making to the decolonisation of historical research. Findings Preliminary findings suggest the narrative told by the residents who were educated at Moola Bulla support a reframing of previous deficit misrepresentations of indigeneity into strength-based narratives. These narratives, or “counter stories”, articulate resistance to colonial master narratives. Social implications This paper argues that listening to Aboriginal lived experiences and perceptions of western education from the past will better inform our engagement with the delivery of equitable educational opportunities for Aboriginal students in remote contexts in the future. Originality/value This paper will contribute to the wider academic community by addressing accountability in Aboriginal education. Most important to the study is the honouring of the participants and families of those who once lived on Moola Bulla, many who are speaking back through the telling of their story.

This paper provides a snapshot of Indigenous Early Career Researchers in Australia derived from demographic information collected in the first stage of the ‘Developing Indigenous Early Career Researchers’ project. Analysis of the data to date has evidenced much diversity across this cohort. However, one commonality across all Indigenous Early Career Researchers was a commitment to the value and validity of Indigenous Ways of Knowing in the higher education sector. With the use of Tribal Critical Race Theory this paper explores the ways in which Indigenous Early Career Researchers disrupt Western-based academies and schools of thought and proposes that Indigenous Early Carer Researchers grow ‘pearls’ of experience and knowledge within the higher education sector that are essential to the development of a richer academy and stronger Indigenous communities.

Education is a gateway to occupational success for emerging adults. Differences in access and uptake in higher education are thus a primary explanation for social stratification. In this chapter, the authors consider what might explain the Indigenous gap in educational attainment. Using multiple cohorts of the Longitudinal Study of Australian Youth, they show that the typical processes of educational mobility are similar across Indigenous and non-Indigenous emerging adults and have remained fairly constant in recent decades. Rather, educational inequality appears to result from lower attainment in both Indigenous parents and their children. Pursuing this lower level of attainment, the authors show that standard Western models of educational attainment fail to fully explain Indigenous educational inequality. They suggest a need to consider the unique knowledges and experiences of Indigenous people. They also argue that research needs to pay greater attention to the intersection between Indigenous status and other minority or marginalized statuses.

An increasing number of Australian universities are committing to Indigenous Graduate Attributes across a wide range of academic disciplines. This paper critiques not only the slow up-take of Indig...

© 2018, Springer Nature B.V. Globally, rapid technological advancement is creating widespread concern about workforces of the future, and universities are expected to produce highly skilled graduates to meet the unremitting demands of knowledge economies. In this context, graduate attributes are a means for developing employability skills and an avenue for institutions to demonstrate to employers and potential graduates that the requisite skills will be developed during a degree. To meet these needs, graduate attributes tend to emphasise a range of generic abilities such as team work, communicating effectively, or critical thinking. While these soft skills are common in suites of graduate attributes, more recently, a next generation of attributes is emerging. The curriculum has now become a site for critical global issues such as sustainability. Also, globalisation is driving universities to foster graduates’ intercultural and international skills, reflecting a diversifying and internationalised workforce. In Australian universities, and those in other colonised nations such as Canada and New Zealand, there is a growing emphasis on ensuring that graduates engage with Indigenous content and develop the capacity to work effectively with and for Indigenous peoples to address inequities and promote social justice. Using a case example from an Australian university curriculum project, we describe a degree framework developed to guide the institution wide implementation of Indigenous graduate attributes. Although the case context is quite specific, the guiding principles have widespread relevance for embedding graduate attributes into university curricula.

© 2019, © 2019 Association for Tertiary Education Management and the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management. In 2017 Universities Australia (UA), the peak body representing Australian universities released its Indigenous Strategy 2017–2020. The document unites universities together in common goals for Indigenous achievement, filling a notable gap in the Australian higher education landscape. The Strategy outlines a comprehensive plan for enhanced Indigenous outcomes in critical areas of higher education including student access and success, graduate research, and community engagement. This paper focuses on the implementation of Indigenous curriculum for all Australian university graduates which is a key aspect of the Strategy. The changing Indigenous higher education landscape invites the nuanced analysis that critical examination of universities, as organisations, might elicit. Drawing on de Certeau’s notion of tactics and strategies, the paper examines the policy and cultural climate of an Australian university which supports an Indigenous Graduate Attribute curriculum project.

© The Author(s) 2017. Cinema is an art form widely recognised as an agent to change the social condition and alter traditional norms. Movies can be used to educate and transform society's collective conscience. Indigenous Australian artists utilise the power of artistic expression as a tool to initiate change in the attitudes and perceptions of the broader Australian society. Australia's story has predominately been told from the coloniser's viewpoint. This narrative is being rewritten through Indigenous artists utilising the power of cinema to create compelling stories with Indigenous control. This medium has come into prominence for Indigenous Australians to express our culture, ontology and politics. Movies such as Samson and Delilah, Bran Nue Dae, The Sapphires and Rabbit-Proof Fence for example, have highlighted the injustices of past policies, adding new dimensions to the Australian narrative. These three films are just a few of the Indigenous Australian produced films being used in the Australian National Curriculum. Through this medium, Australian Indigenous voices are rewriting the Australian narrative from the Indigenous perspective, deconstructing the predominant stereotypical perceptions of Indigenous culture and reframing the Australian story. Films are essential educational tools to cross the cultural space that often separates Indigenous learners from their non-Indigenous counterparts.

© 2014, © 2014 HERDSA. The number of Indigenous Australians completing doctoral qualifications is disparately below their non-Indigenous contemporaries. Whilst there has been a steady increase in Indigenous completions in recent years, significant work remains to redress the imbalance. Supervision has been identified as a primary influencer of the likely success of Indigenous doctoral students, yet very little research has been undertaken in this area. This paper examines the experiences of 11 Indigenous Australians who hold a doctoral qualification. It also provides the experiences of five non-Indigenous supervisors who were an integral part of the supervision team of one of the successful doctoral graduates. A best-practice framework for supervision is offered as a guide for how supervisors, universities and national bodies can contribute to building the number of doctoral qualified Indigenous Australians.

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. Indigenous Australians represent 2.2% of the working age population, yet account for only 1.4% of all university enrolments. In relation to higher degree research students, Indigenous Australians account for 1.1% of enrolments, but only 0.8% of all higher degree research completions. This paper reports on findings that emerged from an Australian Research Council-funded study which aimed to establish a model of best practice for the supervision of Indigenous doctoral students. The project identified the dissertation examination as one of the critical factors underpinning the success of doctoral candidates. Whilst research into the examination process for doctoral students is limited, the research that specifically explores the examination of dissertations submitted by Indigenous students is entirely inadequate. Our research identified key epistemological concerns that impact approaches to the examination process, to demonstrate how the dominance of Western methods of research impact the examination process for Indigenous doctoral students. This paper explores the experiences of 50 successful Indigenous Australian doctors with a specific focus on their examiner preference and disciplinary requirements. It highlights the limitations that some Indigenous students and their supervisors experience in finding an appropriate examiner.

Within the Australian and international research literature the likely importance of how schools and teachers relate to and interact with Indigenous parents and children has been identified. Despite this, there is as yet little Australian research in this area. This chapter addresses this question. The results find that Parent 1s’ perception that the teacher of the study child was sensitive to the needs of Indigenous families was regularly and positively linked to good relationships with the school. This finding strongly suggests that the relationships between teachers and parents are not only of great importance, but that the nature of this relationship must move beyond a homogeneous and Eurocentric understanding of what constitutes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parents and their families.

© 2017, © Australian Council for Educational Research 2017. This article engages with an Indigenous Quantitative Methodological Framework to examine links between a positive sense of cultural identity, future aspirations, and academic motivational tendencies. Utilising a sample of Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal and First Generation (Migrant) Australian students in years 7–10, results showed strong psychometric properties across the three groups for the measures utilised. Whilst few differences were identified between the First Generation and non-Aboriginal Australian students, Aboriginal students consistently had lower future aspirations and less adaptive motivational tendencies than the two other student groups. Importantly though, Aboriginal students held a stronger sense of cultural identity. Key links between motivation and cultural identity were identified, and both were associated with stronger educational and life aspirations. The implications suggest that researchers and teachers need to recognise the importance of cultural identity as a positive driver for schooling motivation and future aspirations, and that First Nations theory and research should be engaged to override the erasing effects of Western epistemological standpoints when utilising statistical methods.

Supervision is arguably one of the most important support mechanisms provided to higher degree research students. Research into the role of supervision is emerging, with many scholars arguing the importance of establishing a connection between the supervisor and the student. However, problems can emerge when this relationship is overlaid with cultural differences and the supervisor has little knowledge of the student's cultural positioning. This paper will draw on findings of a doctoral research inquiry to explore the supervision provided to Indigenous Australian postgraduate students. Recommendations for change will be offered in the course of the discussion. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

Indigenous Australians participate in higher education at a rate significantly less than non- Indigenous Australians. This disparity becomes increasingly evident according to the level of study undertaken, with postgraduate study revealing the greatest difference. In response to such disparity, Indigenous units were established and are now common place in Australian universities, with their roles and responsibilities varying from one unit to the next. Some units have failed to evolve from their original enclave formation existing for the sole purpose of providing personal, cultural and academic support to students, whilst other units have flourished into larger departments or schools with addi- tional responsibilities that are inclusive of teaching and research. This paper explores the various roles attributed to Indigenous units whilst arguing the need for all units to support the learning needs of their students through a model that centres on understanding through experience.

This paper presents a detailed study of the knowledge of the Kamilaroi and Euahlayi peoples about the Emu in the Sky. This study was done with ethnographic data that was not previously reported in detail. We surveyed the literature to find that there are widespread reports of an Emu in the Sky across Australian Aboriginal language groups, but little detailed knowledge available in the literature. This paper reports and describes a comprehensive Kamilaroi and Euahlayi knowledge of the Emu in the Sky and its cultural context., 13 Pages

Purpose: Whilst there has been some growth in the number of Indigenous Australians completing Higher Degree Research (HDR) over the past decade, the parity rate remains significantly behind that of other domestic Australian students. The bulk of research which investigates strategies to improve Indigenous Higher Education participation and completion tends to focus on undergraduate students, leaving a significant void of knowledge in how the sector can better cater for, and support, Indigenous postgraduate students. Approach: This chapter proposes a set of strategies to seed the success of Indigenous HDR students. It draws on the findings of three separate studies undertaken during 2006 to 2013 in order to provide a detailed overview of the current challenges Indigenous HDR students regularly face. Value: It outlines various support mechanisms available to this cohort as well as those that are desired, but not necessarily available. An important component of the chapter is the inclusion of the voices of Indigenous Australians who were undertaking their postgraduate studies at the time they were interviewed, as well as a group of Indigenous Australians who had successfully completed their doctoral degrees. Through generously sharing their postgraduate experiences, participants provided important insight into this area which remains significantly under-investigated. Copyright © 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

THIS PAPER PRESENTS THE findings from semi-structured interviews with six Indigenous Australian early childhood workers who were asked about how Indigenous families might be better supported to engage with early childhood education and care services. The workers identified three key barriers to family participation: transport difficulties, family embarrassment or ‘shame’, and community division. Facilitation of family engagement was argued to require an acceptance of individual families as well as the embracing of culture and the wider Indigenous community. In addition, the interviewees stressed the importance of ongoing and appropriate training and support for Indigenous early childhood professionals. This paper contributes to the growing body of research to inform practice in early childhood settings that serve families with complex support needs, and highlights the importance of cultural knowledge and respect.