Abstract:The Closing the Gap in Indigenous Disadvantage policy emerged in 2008 following the National Apology to the Stolen Generations. The policy articulates one of its purposes as being to address historical injustices. On the other hand policy reform is naturally oriented to the future in its aims to improve and develop. These temporal tensions are the analytical focus of this article. Through examining the way in which the logic of 'history' is engaged in Australian Indigenous policy and related 'gap' oriented res… Show more
“…Originally coined in relation to race inequity in England (Gillborn, , pp. 65–68), ‘gap talk’ has subsequently been critiqued internationally, including in the USA, Canada and Australia (Lingard, ; Harrison, ; Lingard et al ., ; Martino & Rezai‐Rashti, ; Butler, ; Hollinsworth, ; Rudolph, ; Vass & Chalmers, ). The following examples of gap talk are each taken from official statements that claim significant progress in relation to the race equality in English schools:… there has been a clear expectation that policies aimed at raising attainment levels amongst pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds will disproportionately benefit ethnic minorities … Indeed, some evaluations report that these programmes are already having positive impacts on ethnic minority groups.…”
Section: Discussion: Sustained Race Inequity Over a Quarter Of A Centurymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Originally coined in relation to race inequity in England (Gillborn, 2008, pp. 65-68), 'gap talk' has subsequently been critiqued internationally, including in the USA, Canada and Australia (Lingard, 2011;Harrison, 2012;Lingard et al, 2012;Martino & Rezai-Rashti, 2013;Butler, 2015;Hollinsworth, 2016;Rudolph, 2016;Vass & Chalmers, 2016). The following examples of gap talk are each taken from official statements that claim significant progress in relation to the race equality in English schools:…”
Section: 'Gap Talk' Education Policy and The Stephen Lawrence Inquirymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For critical race scholars there sometimes seems to be a constant requirement to consider ‘one more thing’ as detractors argue that no analysis of racism and race inequity can be trusted, or even voiced, until every conceivable alternative has been exhausted (for a critique, see Preston & Bhopal, ). In view of the international literature on Black/White achievement gaps in education (Ladson‐Billings, ; Taylor, ; Lingard, ; Valencia, ; Rudolph, ) our focus remains a vital concern. This is not to deny the significance of other factors (such as class, gender, dis/ability and sexuality).…”
Section: Framework and Focus: What This Paper Is And Is Not Aboutmentioning
Drawing on a secondary analysis of official statistics, this paper examines the changing scale of the inequality of achievement between White students and their Black British peers who identify their family heritage as Black Caribbean. We examine a 25‐year period from the introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), in 1988, to the 20th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 2013. It is the first time that the Black/White gap has been analysed over such a long period. The paper reviews the changing place of the Black/White gap in education debates and notes that, despite periods when race equality has appeared to be high on the political agenda, it has never held a consistent place at the heart of policy. Our findings shed light on how the Black/White gap is directly affected, often in negative ways, by changes in education policy. Specifically, whenever the key benchmark for achievement has been redefined, it has had the effect of restoring historic levels of race inequity; in essence, policy interventions to ‘raise the bar’ by toughening the benchmark have actively widened gaps and served to maintain Black disadvantage. Throughout the entire 25‐year period, White students were always at least one and a half times more likely to attain the dominant benchmark than their Black peers. Our findings highlight the need for a sustained and explicit focus on race inequity in education policy. To date, the negative impacts of policy changes have been much more certain and predictable than occasional attempts to reduce race inequality.
“…Originally coined in relation to race inequity in England (Gillborn, , pp. 65–68), ‘gap talk’ has subsequently been critiqued internationally, including in the USA, Canada and Australia (Lingard, ; Harrison, ; Lingard et al ., ; Martino & Rezai‐Rashti, ; Butler, ; Hollinsworth, ; Rudolph, ; Vass & Chalmers, ). The following examples of gap talk are each taken from official statements that claim significant progress in relation to the race equality in English schools:… there has been a clear expectation that policies aimed at raising attainment levels amongst pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds will disproportionately benefit ethnic minorities … Indeed, some evaluations report that these programmes are already having positive impacts on ethnic minority groups.…”
Section: Discussion: Sustained Race Inequity Over a Quarter Of A Centurymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Originally coined in relation to race inequity in England (Gillborn, 2008, pp. 65-68), 'gap talk' has subsequently been critiqued internationally, including in the USA, Canada and Australia (Lingard, 2011;Harrison, 2012;Lingard et al, 2012;Martino & Rezai-Rashti, 2013;Butler, 2015;Hollinsworth, 2016;Rudolph, 2016;Vass & Chalmers, 2016). The following examples of gap talk are each taken from official statements that claim significant progress in relation to the race equality in English schools:…”
Section: 'Gap Talk' Education Policy and The Stephen Lawrence Inquirymentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For critical race scholars there sometimes seems to be a constant requirement to consider ‘one more thing’ as detractors argue that no analysis of racism and race inequity can be trusted, or even voiced, until every conceivable alternative has been exhausted (for a critique, see Preston & Bhopal, ). In view of the international literature on Black/White achievement gaps in education (Ladson‐Billings, ; Taylor, ; Lingard, ; Valencia, ; Rudolph, ) our focus remains a vital concern. This is not to deny the significance of other factors (such as class, gender, dis/ability and sexuality).…”
Section: Framework and Focus: What This Paper Is And Is Not Aboutmentioning
Drawing on a secondary analysis of official statistics, this paper examines the changing scale of the inequality of achievement between White students and their Black British peers who identify their family heritage as Black Caribbean. We examine a 25‐year period from the introduction of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), in 1988, to the 20th anniversary of the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 2013. It is the first time that the Black/White gap has been analysed over such a long period. The paper reviews the changing place of the Black/White gap in education debates and notes that, despite periods when race equality has appeared to be high on the political agenda, it has never held a consistent place at the heart of policy. Our findings shed light on how the Black/White gap is directly affected, often in negative ways, by changes in education policy. Specifically, whenever the key benchmark for achievement has been redefined, it has had the effect of restoring historic levels of race inequity; in essence, policy interventions to ‘raise the bar’ by toughening the benchmark have actively widened gaps and served to maintain Black disadvantage. Throughout the entire 25‐year period, White students were always at least one and a half times more likely to attain the dominant benchmark than their Black peers. Our findings highlight the need for a sustained and explicit focus on race inequity in education policy. To date, the negative impacts of policy changes have been much more certain and predictable than occasional attempts to reduce race inequality.
“…Islander people as deficient in multiple ways has been a highly successful vehicle for exerting government control over Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Rudolph 2016). The social and political impacts of government practice of constructing and homogenising Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples' identities are significant (Rowse 2009).…”
Section: The Process Of Establishing Problematisations That Representmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The purported rationale for the CCP has taken years to surface, with a social justice impetus bolted on in V.8. This deficit theorising has a long history within discourses associated with the education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Australia which fail to acknowledge the non-Indigeneity of policy and curriculum (Fforde, Bamblett, Lovett, Gorringe, and Fogarty 2013;Rudolph 2016). This conceptualisation of cultural difference on both policy and practices of schools, whereby Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-white peoples are different and the white, non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander majority is normal, has been shown to be pernicious in impact on student, teacher, and parent expectations by naturalising the view that schooling is culturally neutral, and that adherence to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural identity and practices is a cause of educational underachievement (Gray and Beresford 2008;Harrison 2007;Patrick and Moodie 2016;Rowse 2009).…”
This paper focuses on the 'problem' of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education represented in the Australian Curriculum's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures cross-curriculum priority. Looking beyond particular curriculum content, we uncover the policy discourses that construct (and reconstruct) the cross-curriculum priority. In the years after the Australian Curriculum's creation, curriculum authors have moulded the priority from an initiative without a clear purpose into a purported solution to the 'Indigenous problem' of educational underachievement, student resistance and disengagement. As the cross-curriculum priority was created and subsequently reframed,the 'problem' of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education has thereby been manifested in policy; strategised as curriculum content and precipitated in the cross-curriculum priority. These policy problematisations perpetuate contemporary racialisation and actively construct Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, histories and knowledges as deficient.
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