Title: Enhancing Indigenous Students
1Enhancing Indigenous Students Transitions into
QUT The First Four Weeks
- Bronwyn Ewing, Kym Anderson Susan Willsteed
- Acknowledged contribution of Jean Phillips
2Acknowledgement
- We would like to acknowledge the traditional
owners custodians of the land we are gathered
on today - past, present and future.
3Standpoint situating ourselves
- Myth of objectivity
- need to be aware of own cultural and individual
standpoint and the implications of these. - (See Karen Martin, Aileen Moreton-Robinson,
Martin Nakata) -
4Standpoint
- Bron Ewing is the youngest child in the family
of Peter Henry Grenville Ewing and Daphne Jean
Roberts. I was born and raised in Sydney, Eora
country in NSW. My father is a direct descendant
of the Ewing clan from Galway, Ireland and before
then the MacEwan clan from Glascow, Scotland. My
mother is from England. Therefore, I am from the
Ewing clan of Ireland with ancestral ties with
Scotland and England. I am Irish-Catholic,
female, mother, grandmother, teacher researching
Indigenous issues in Education. - Kym Anderson 22 years old, Indigenous woman from
red desert country, with a mixed heritage of
Finnish European and Aboriginal bloodlines. A
descendant of the Yindindji and Ngawun nations,
and was born and raised on Kalkadoon country, in
the mining town of Mount Isa, left after high
school to pursue tertiary studies. - Susan Willsteed non-Indigenous, Irish Catholic,
late baby-boomer, female, mother, teacher, 20
years involvement with Indigenous people and
researching Indigenous issues and my own cultural
position.
5Synopsis
- This project focuses on the transitions of
Indigenous students into university. In
particular, it focuses on enhancing and improving
the first four weeks of the students
(undergraduate and postgraduate) first year at
QUT, in the Faculty of Education. - The study builds on from a pilot program,
conducted in the Faculty and in conjunction with
the Oodgeroo Unit, in the previous two years
which sought to bring students together in a
formal pre-orientation program full day workshop
and an informal workshop in week four to discuss
their transitional experiences. In the workshops
opportunities were provided whereby students
could raise any concerns and or issues related to
their initial experiences.
6Objectives of the project
- To complement the Oodgeroo Units Pre-orientation
program and provide a Faculty of Education
specific pre-orientation day that encompasses
Indigenous perspectives in formal education - To provide four bridging contact workshops in the
first four weeks of the students transitional
experiences. The workshops will be designed to
assist students with navigating the formal
context of academia in the Faculty a time of
substantial change that is coupled with
developing a sense of belonging and moving from
peripheral participation to active participation
in education studies and addressing individual
issues as they arise in the first four weeks - To work towards improving the retention of
Indigenous students, who undergo substantial
change and adjustment as they navigate into
academia in the Faculty.
7Revised approach using weekly online discussion
forums
- Sought to identify from students experiences the
barriers and protective factors that influenced
their transitional experiences in QUT and the
Faculty of Education courses.
8What the literature tells
- Indigenous students experience culture shock as
they transition into higher education - Refers to the process of crosscultural location
and is precipitated by the anxiety that results
from losing all familiar signs and symbols of
social intercourse (Sonn, Bishop Humphries,
2000, p. 130) - Impact of relocation can be mild disorientation,
bewilderment, anxiety and physical health
problems - Cultural identity is made salient because of
increasing contact with white people after moving
from a segregated context. The move from rural
and remote to metropolitan areas adds another
dimension to the transition experience because of
differences in social and community structures - Impact of the transitional process challenges
deep cultural structures because Indigenous
students cultural systems are intertwined with
the land. Relocation presents challenges to
cultural systems that are defined in term of
connections to the land and Aboriginal ways
(Triandies, 1996 cited by Sonn, Bishop
Humphries, 2000).
9- Support systems play a vital role in enabling
Indigenous students to successfully negotiate
their pathways through education institutions
(Helme, 2007). - The functions of social support systems enable
Indigenous students to come together and to
validate and share experiences with others who
have similar histories providing opportunities
for members to experience a sense of self-worth,
dignity, and a sense of belonging. - Community support for students was identified as
important. The move from remote or rural areas
imposes huge cultural leaps for some students
therefore connecting with local Indigenous
communities was found to be important (Kippen,
Ward Warren, 2006) - A crucial issue for Indigenous students was the
support of their family. Family
support/dependence on students to provide
financial or practical support requires them to
work full-time and/or to care for both older and
younger members of the family (Kippen, Ward
Warren, 2006).
10Cultural safety (Bin-Sallik, 2003) was identified
as an essential component of a supportive
environment. Williams (1999, p. 214) describes
cultural safety as an environment that is
spiritually, socially and emotionally safe, as
well as physically safe for people where there
is no assault challenge or denial of their
identity, of who they are and what they need. It
is about shared respect, shared meaning, shared
knowledge and experience of learning
together. Whilst cultural awareness and cultural
sensitivity may be supported by many
universities, culturally safe learning
environments are needed to address underlying and
subtle racism. There is an urgent need for
long-term strategic planning to develop
curricula that incorporate cultural,
contemporary and historical issues from the
Indigenous Australian perspective. Such curricula
would need to be developed in such a way that is
sensitive to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians that will lead to a better
understanding and acceptance. (Bin-Sallik, 2003,
p. 27)
11Legitimate peripheral participation
- In this case, learning the knowledge and skills
required to actively engage in the learning
process attenuated conditions of legitimate
peripheral participation (Lave Wenger, 1991).
This idea indicates a particular form of
engagement of the learner who participates in the
practices of an expert, but only to a limited
degree and with limited responsibility for the
ultimate product as a whole (Lave Wenger, 1991,
p. 14). - Moving towards full participation infers that the
student has a reason to believe that what they
are learning can make a difference (Wenger, 1998
Sinclair, 2004). They also learn that they can
contribute to their learning and that such
contributions are important for learning to occur.
12- Peripheral participation can be a source of power
or of powerlessness (Lave Wenger, 1991). It is
implicated in social structures such as
universities and classrooms and involves
relations of power - the newcomer is exposed to the practices of that
community and the manner of its articulation, and
hence over time, engages with it, ultimately
participating more fully (Lave Wenger, 1991) - movement towards becoming more intensive
participatory member of a community,
peripherality can be empowering - They are provided with access to the communitys
members, their negotiated enterprise and their
repertoire of resources. - This initial degree of participation could end in
exclusion, however. If over time, a student is
kept from participating more fully in a
community, it becomes disempowering - unable to make sense of the content to which they
are exposed they are less likely to develop or
obtain effective explanations of what is going
on - If they cannot negotiate meanings or receive
adequate support for their learningthis lack of
understanding and their ineffective participation
becomes a relation of marginality (Wenger,
1998, pp. 166-167) - consequently, and because of the practices of
that classroom, they may remain in marginal
positions - This experience becomes so dominant that
conceiving of a different trajectory within the
same community (p. 167) becomes difficult or
impossible.
13Participants
- First year Faculty of Education students (early
childhood, primary, secondary and double-degree)
to document their first four weeks at QUT as part
of the "First Four Weeks" Project. - Sample N15
- Discussion Forum Respondents N6
- Survey N1
14Data Collection
- Discussion forum
- Series of questions staggered over 5 week was
chosen as the most appropriate way to obtain the
information needed for this study (Minichiello,
Aroni, Timewell Alexander, 1995) on issues for
which there were no correct responses. Here the
content of the interview focused on the issues
central to the research questions. In being able
to pursue unexpected detail, the researchers
could develop a more valid explication and a
greater depth of understanding of the
participants interpretations of their reality
(Minichiello, et al., 1995) - Survey
- - At the completion of the five weeks to
identify any further issues of significance that
were not evident in the discussion forum.
15Methodologies
- Indigenist methodologies
- Culturally safe and culturally respectful
- Emancipatory
- Privileges Indigenous voices (Beetson et al.
2007) - Critical Discourse Analysis
- CDA begins from some perception of a
discourse-related problem in some part of social
life. Problems may be in the activities of social
practice (Chouliaraki Fairclough, 1999, p.
60). - It chooses the perspectives of those who suffer
most (van Dijk, 2001). - It focuses on issues of social importance, in
particular, those that contribute to reducing
harm and promoting social justice (Wodak, 2001). - It is concerned with finding ways of redressing
these issues (Martin, 2000). - This approach is seen as positive in that it
gives voice to those in less powerful positions
(Martin, 2003).
16The forum
- Posting did not take place until week two of
semester one, this provided time to properly
develop the forum questions and tailor them, this
project was designed to engage in an online
conversation with students and get them to
participate and share their experiences as first
year students here at QUT. - I took the position and conversed with students
as if I was still in my undergrad struggling
alongside with them. - Cultural Issues to minimise and hopefully
avoid misrepresentation, interpretations and
assumptions made of Indigenous ways of knowing,
research approaches and methodologies that
include participants in the research process, are
the key (Adermann Campbell, p76).
17First Round of Posting
- Now that you have been at university for two
weeks, how would you best describe the way you
are balancing university with your home life? - What are your concerns or problems that you feel
might arise during your time at university in the
near future? (For example, time constraints or
assessment deadlines, please elaborate) - Since beginning your studies, can you describe
any situations that have made you feel
uncomfortable? What did you do to resolve them?
(e.g., problems with group communication) - If you had an opportunity to share your current
skills with other students that experience
similar difficulties in their first year, what
would you let them know? - Balancing Home and Uni Life
- Key themes presented were prioritising
time-management between home-study-work
orientation not having familiar faces being an
external student
18- The first round of questions allowed the students
to reflect on their experience with prioritising,
time-management between home-study-work,
orientation, and not having familiar faces to
feel comfortable around and being part of a
community - I guess the disadvantage of doing the course
externally (teaching) is the lack of contact and
being unable to have face to face talks (Email
Extract, 15 March 2008) - Culture shock and relocation is precipitated by
anxiety that results from limited or no access to
familiar signs and symbols experienced through
involvement in social contexts (Sonn, Bishop
Humphries, 2000 Oberg, 1960) - I am finally getting used to everything and am no
longer getting lost. (Discussion forum, Jessica) - Being at uni everyday doesnt help the balance
between my life outside of uni, also working
every weekend makes it hard. However acquiring
excellent time management skills is something
Ive learnt to do very quickly. (Discussion
forum, Stacey) - For many people who come straight from school,
the work force or stay at home parents, it is
such a culture shock, scores of people dont make
it as far as the end of the first semester
(Discussion forum, Thomas). - Legitimate peripheral participation (Lave
Wenger, 1991) - Im not at home that much... Im always at Uni, I
come early in the morning to start on
Assignments. Then during the day I have classes
or Tutor lessons - I have classes every day of
the week. (Discussion forum, Nola)
19Second Round of Posting
- Now that it is week four, we would like to find
out a bit more about different types of support
that you have. What kinds of support do you
receive? (Family, or through uni like ITAS or
Scholarships). - How do you think that these types of supports are
benefitting you and will benefit you and your
study? - Do you receive ITAS tutoring? If not, what do
you think has prevented you from doing so?
(Limited access to information, not enough
contact with the Oodgeroo Unit etc). - This question relates to those students who are
receiving ITAS assistance. Since beginning uni,
and now that we are in week four, how long have
you been accessing tutoring? What have you found
that is helping you with your units/core subjects
of study? - If you had the opportunity to suggest types of
support for students, and ways that we could
improve them, what would you suggest? - community benefit should be considered and
subsequently inform design, conduct and
evaluation (Vicary Bishop 2005 cited in
Adermann Campbell, p77), where good practice
in Indigenous research is based upon building
quality relationships with participants who are
seen as being partners in the research (Adermann
Campbell, p77).
20- The responses received from this round of
questions were limited in the diversity of
participants, however it still allows for some
insight into what students feel are their
greatest supports and stressors, there are only
a few more weeks until assignments a due (Online
Forum, 4 April 2008), and uni is starting to
get a bit hectic (Online Forum, 4 April 2008). - Support systems - The functions of a support
system can include coming together to validate
and share experiences with others who have
experienced a similar history (Helme, 2007
(Kippen, Ward Warren, 2006) - I would let them know that even though Uni life
is difficult in most areas, its best to hang in
there because there is are others who are
facing the same challenges and they dont have to
go through them alone... there is a lot of
support. You just have to use it!! (Discussion
forum, Nola) - If I met a first year student not going through
these rough patches trying to find there feet in
the first couple of weeks I want to know how they
do it!! But for all those normal people, there is
a variety of people out there wanting you to
succeed and be successful, you just need to ask
and be willing to take the help from others when
it is offered, dont feel stupid if you need that
help its all apart of learning. (Discussion
forum, Stacey)
21- This form of communication can be beneficial to
students as they are given the opportunity to
really develop and reflect on their way of
knowing, learning and doing. - Cultural safety is identified as essential for
incoming students. That is, a learning
environment that is spiritually, socially and
emotionally safe and where there is no denial of
their identity, of who they are and what they
need. It is about shared respect, shared
knowledge and experience of learning together
(Bin-Sallik, 2003 William, 1999) . - I receive support from my family, people I met on
orientation day and thankfully ITAS. (Discussion
forum, Stacey) - I think what makes it worse, particularly for
students straight out of high school is
the knowledge that you are left on your own to
work many things out for yourself, and that
whenever you ring the student centre for help,
the standard response for any question is "its on
the net on the QUT website". Thanks for that, Im
totally new to uni and have no idea whats going
on, but ill be sure to spend hours looking for a
needle in a hay stack. (Discussion forum, Thomas)
22 Conclusions
- Challenges for students
- Relocation physically, socially, culturally
- Family responsibilities
- Learning environment not culturally safe
- Lack of study skills
23The way forward
- Continue, and expand, faculty support of
Indigenous students. - University-funded preparation and mentoring
programmes - Fully implement commitments of Reconciliation
statement
24- References
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