The role of academic buoyancy in Aboriginal/Indigenous students’ educational intentions: Sowing the early seeds of success for post-school education and training

Abstract

Purpose

Aboriginal students experience disproportionate academic disadvantage at school. It may be that a capacity to effectively deal with academic setback and challenge (academic buoyancy) can reduce the incidence of academic adversity. To the extent that this is the case, academic buoyancy may also be associated with positive educational intentions. This study explores the role of academic buoyancy in Aboriginal students’ post-school educational intentions.

Methodology/approach

The survey-based study comprises Aboriginal (N = 350) and non-Aboriginal (N = 592) high school students in Australia.

Findings

Academic buoyancy yielded larger effect sizes for Aboriginal than non-Aboriginal students’ educational intentions – particularly in senior high school when educational intentions are most likely to translate into post-school educational behaviour.

Social and practical implications

Post-school education is one pathway providing access to social opportunity. Any thorough consideration of students’ passage into and through post-school education must first consider the bases of students’ academic plans and, by implication, their decision to pursue further study. Identifying factors such as academic buoyancy in this process provides some specific direction for practice and policy aimed at optimizing Aboriginal students’ academic and non-academic development.

Originality/value of chapter

Academic buoyancy is a recently proposed construct in the psycho-educational literature and has not been investigated among Aboriginal student populations. Its role in relation to post-school educational intentions is also a novel empirical contribution for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students alike.

Citation

Martin, A.J., Ginns, P., Papworth, B. and Nejad, H. (2013), "The role of academic buoyancy in Aboriginal/Indigenous students’ educational intentions: Sowing the early seeds of success for post-school education and training", Seeding Success in Indigenous Australian Higher Education (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 57-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3644(2013)0000014003