Community according to whom? An analysis of how indigenous ‘community’ is defined in Australia’s Through Growth to Achievement 2018 report on equity in education

Lessons to learn, discourses to change, relationships to build: How Decolonising Race Theory can articulate the interface between school leadership and Aboriginal students’ schooling experiences

“…While state and federal government policies have pressed schools to establish collaborations with Indigenous families and partner with Aboriginal communities, the realities of bringing these to fruition are challenging. As Shay and Lampert (2020) note, this renders problematic understandings of what community, engagement and partnerships mean, does not acknowledge the power imbalance in school-community relationships and offers little evidence that this approach will in fact improve Aboriginal student outcomes.…”

Rhetoric vs reality: The disconnect between policy and practice for teachers implementing Aboriginal education in their schools

“…Several researchers (cf. Burgess et al, in press;Maxwell et al, 2018;Patrick & Moodie, 2016;Shay & Lampert, 2020) have applied Bacchi's approach to reveal how Aboriginal peoples, cultures and communities have come to be represented as a problem to be 'fixed' to divert thinking from how the government itself has created the conditions for the disadvantaged circumstances many Indigenous Australians are positioned in. For example, Goodwin (2011) argues that the way in which problems were represented in the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) policy, produced a new category in Australian policy: "prescribed communities" (that is, those communities subject to the wide-ranging set of new policies) based on the assumption that Aboriginal people and communities are irresponsible, unable to govern themselves and therefore needing extensive government intervention.…”

“…A solution identified in most Indigenous government policies is that of engaging and/or partnering with Aboriginal communities to improve outcomes and that these partnerships benefit everyone (cf DEET, 1989;PM&C, 2020;Shay & Lampert, 2020). In the Mparntwe Declaration (Education Council, 2019), developing stronger partnerships is a key commitment to action, stating that "the development of partnerships and connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities will greatly improve learning outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and benefit all young Australians" (p. 6).…”

“…In the Mparntwe Declaration (Education Council, 2019), developing stronger partnerships is a key commitment to action, stating that "the development of partnerships and connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities will greatly improve learning outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and benefit all young Australians" (p. 6). The intent of this is undermined by unproblematic understandings of notions such as community, engagement, and partnerships, let alone the lack of any evidence-base that this solution will in fact improve outcomes (Shay & Lampert, 2020).…”

“…Dudgeon and Ugle (2014) note that initially the term 'community' was imposed to control and assimilate Aboriginal communities as this construction of the term did not recognize the role of language, spirituality, identity, or the diversity of these across Aboriginal communities (p. 258). Moreover, Shay and Lampert (2020) note that "Australia's colonial histories are intertwined with how Indigenous identities are defined" (p. 3) and so this affects how Aboriginal people, and the broader Australian public perceives Aboriginal peoples and communities.…”