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1 – 10 of over 9000
Article
Publication date: 2 September 2014

Christopher Bajada and Rowan Trayler

The social and economic disadvantages confronted by many Indigenous Australians are well known. A close look at Indigenous employment highlights that Indigenous Australians are…

1417

Abstract

Purpose

The social and economic disadvantages confronted by many Indigenous Australians are well known. A close look at Indigenous employment highlights that Indigenous Australians are substantially under-represented in the technical and professional areas of business and management. Closing the gap and improving the social and economic outcomes requires a greater focus in these areas. The purpose of this paper is to outline the design of an innovative undergraduate business degree for Indigenous students that: meets the targets set by government, produces the “T-shaped” graduate expected by business (disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and soft skills), addresses the employment needs of the Indigenous community and provides the building blocks for Indigenous students to enrol in post-graduate business courses. Australians is well known. A close look at Indigenous employment highlights that Indigenous Australians are substantially under-represented in the technical and professional areas of business and management. Closing the gap and improving the social and economic outcomes requires a greater focus in these areas. This paper outlines the design of an innovative undergraduate business degree for Indigenous students that: (i) meets the targets set by government; (ii) produces the “T-shaped” graduate expected by business (disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge and soft skills); (iii) addresses the employment needs of the Indigenous community; and (iv) provides the building blocks for Indigenous students to enrol in post-graduate business courses.

Design/methodology/approach

The development of the Bachelor of Business Administration (Indigenous) provided an opportunity to address the needs of Indigenous Australians in a curriculum that is not only interdisciplinary but also taught by indigenous and non-Indigenous academics. The paper outlines how the review was shaped, the innovative mode of delivery and the interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum. Administration (Indigenous) provided an opportunity to address the needs of Indigenous Australians in a curriculum that is not only interdisciplinary but also taught by indigenous and non-Indigenous academics.

Findings

This course provides an integrated approach to business education focusing on the professional, technical and managerial roles in business that is in such short supply in Indigenous communities. The course contextualises the study of business within an Indigenous perspective to demonstrate how Indigenous studies not only contributes to empowering the individual but also how business education plays a critical role in repositioning Indigenous people in their local communities and society more broadly empowering the individual but also how business education plays a critical role in repositioning Indigenous people in their local communities and society more broadly.

Originality/value

This paper demonstrates an integrated approach to business education focusing on the professional, technical and managerial roles in business that are in short supply in Indigenous communities.

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2012

Jeannie Herbert

The purpose of this paper is to explore the educational journey of indigenous Australians since the time of the 1788 invasion through into the modern Australian university. This…

8832

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the educational journey of indigenous Australians since the time of the 1788 invasion through into the modern Australian university. This exploration is intended to clarify the way in which education delivery in this country has been used to position the nation's “first peoples” within a context of centre/periphery thinking.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper established an overview of the educational service provision for indigenous Australians through a review of archival materials, historical texts and education reports. This information was then aligned with the data gathered through face‐to‐face interviews and focus group meetings conducted by the author in her own PhD research, to test the complementarity of the sources in terms of the indigenous experience.

Findings

The paper provides insights into the current positioning of indigenous Australians. The process of viewing the present against the backdrop of the past identified important historical landmarks that were then examined through the diversity of lens provided through interviews/meetings with contemporary students and staff to reveal the critical impact of centre/periphery thinking on indigenous education in this country.

Originality/value

This paper provides an historical overview of indigenous Australian education that, in clarifying some of the connections and ruptures between “centre and periphery”, provides valuable insights into the full diversity of the indigenous historical experience in Australian education.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 41 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2020

Xiao Fan and Peng Liu

This literature systematically reviews articles published in “core” international journals on the topic of Indigenous education leadership over the period from 2000 to 2018 in…

1188

Abstract

Purpose

This literature systematically reviews articles published in “core” international journals on the topic of Indigenous education leadership over the period from 2000 to 2018 in four English-speaking countries, covering Canada, America, Australia and New Zealand, in which all of them have long colonial history and Indigenous population. These reviews provide insights into the nature of this emergent literature and generate many implications that required for further research in Indigenous education leadership.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, a vote counting method was employed and a clearly delimited body of research on Indigenous education leadership was also identified. The vote counting method can enlarge the perspectives on the noticeable heterogeneity of Indigenous education leadership within the four English-speaking countries. This is the basic constitutive element for the development of a comparative literature in Indigenous education leadership. Moreover, this method can clearly calculate the annual number of articles about Indigenous education leadership, and the various methods used in the publications of Indigenous education leadership can be figured out as well, which helps to find out the different patterns of changes on Indigenous education leadership.

Findings

This study identifies the patterns of Indigenous educational leadership research across four English-speaking countries, which will contribute to the development of research in this regard.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies about Indigenous educational leadership in the world. It will not only contribute to education practice but also leadership theory development.

Details

International Journal of Comparative Education and Development, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2396-7404

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 October 2022

Amzad Hossain, Ying Kong, Harvey Briggs and Kim Laycock

This paper aims to analyze Northern Manitoba employers' indexes of employability skills that influence the UCN (University College of the North) students' employability in…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze Northern Manitoba employers' indexes of employability skills that influence the UCN (University College of the North) students' employability in indigenous contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

This study constructs the employability skills into six indexes from employers' perspective: reading comprehension, numeracy, technology, soft skills, job searching skills and indigenous cultural awareness. Mixed methods have been applied to this research: survey data are used for empirical analysis of the six indexes of employability skills; secondary sources of similar studies together with functional theory in education as a framework is adopted to explore the breadth and depth of employability skills requested by employers; indexing analysis is adopted to validate the necessity of developing such skills in indigenous contexts in Northern Manitoba.

Findings

The correlation analyses and mean values show that employers in Northern Manitoba take the six indexes as influential factors of students' employability. As such, the study indicates that Northern Manitoba employers consider employability in indigenous contexts as a combination of basic skills, professional requirements, soft skills and cultural awareness. The employers' attested employability is in line with the concept of the technical-function theory, which requires education to meet the demand for updated job skills due to a technological change. Moreover, Northern Manitoba employers' emphasis on indigenous cultural awareness as employability skills rationalizes the necessity to integrate indigenous cultural contents into programs and curriculums in UCN and post-secondary institutes with similar attributes. It confirms that indigenous cultural awareness is required by employers in Northern Manitoba populated with indigenous communities. The research findings suggest that the functional theory of education might help UCN and similar institutions globally to offer programs that will reduce employment inequality.

Research limitations/implications

This research is conducted among the employers in Northern Manitoba, and the indexes and their factors are designed to evaluate UCN students' employability in general.

Practical implications

The outcomes of this paper can be applied as a parameter for upgrading educational strategies to integrate essential and professional employability skills such as reading comprehension, numeracy, technology, soft skills and job searching skills with indigenous cultural components into UCN curriculums and programs. It can be applied to other post-secondary institutes with similar attributes to enhance their students' employability. Furthermore, the research findings can be used as a guideline for UCN to tailor their programs for the job market locally and as references for post-secondary institutions with similar student compositions globally.

Originality/value

This paper provides empirical evidence from the employers' viewpoint to support the necessity of integrating essential and professional employability skills with indigenous cultural awareness into the curriculums and programs of UCN, a post-secondary institution in indigenous populated Northern Manitoba. Furthermore, it is also attested that employers consider indigenous cultural awareness as an influential factor of students' employability in indigenous contexts.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. 12 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2005

Lyndon Megarrity

The main focus of the study is education policy issued from “above”: that is, it is largely an examination of the contribution of Canberra officials and politicians towards…

Abstract

The main focus of the study is education policy issued from “above”: that is, it is largely an examination of the contribution of Canberra officials and politicians towards education for future PNG autonomy and/or independence. It will be argued that Commonwealth policy towards PNG education in the colonial period was limited conceptually by the relatively low priority accorded to PNG affairs by the Australian government, as well as the Commonwealth’s overwhelming emphasis on narrow vocational outcomes for Indigenous people. This meant that educational outcomes vital to successful independence ‐ such as civic awareness and a solid pool of professional workers ‐ were neglected, much to the future cost of PNG as a nation.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 November 2020

Sophie Rudolph

The purpose of this paper is to examine the educational impulses and effects of Indigenous dialogue with the settler colonial state. Taking the Uluru Statement from the Heart

Abstract

Purpose:

The purpose of this paper is to examine the educational impulses and effects of Indigenous dialogue with the settler colonial state. Taking the Uluru Statement from the Heart, devised in May 2017 by a convention of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, as a starting point, and contrasting this with the 1967 Referendum campaign for constitutional reform, the paper explores the role of multiple forms and contexts of education during these processes of First Nations dialogue with the settler state.

Design/methodology/approach:

This paper draws on historical accounts of the 1967 Referendum and the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart.

Findings:

The paper demonstrates how education provided by the state has been used by First Nations peoples to challenge education systems and to dialogue with the settler state for Indigenous recognition and rights. It also illuminates the range of views on what education is and should be, therefore, contesting the neat and settled conceptions of education that can dominate policy discourse. Finally the historical cases show the deficiencies of settler state education through its failure to truthfully represent Australian history and its failure to acknowledge and confront the entirety of the consequences of settler colonial practices.

Originality/value:

This paper seeks to bring issues of education, politics and justice together to illustrate how the settler state and its institutions – specifically here, education – are part of an ongoing project of negotiation, contestation and dialogue over questions of justice.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 50 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 March 2023

Janet Davey, Raechel Johns and James Blackwell

Service marketers are increasingly aware of inequalities triggered by service systems and the need to prioritize practical strategies for reducing inequalities. A priority area…

Abstract

Purpose

Service marketers are increasingly aware of inequalities triggered by service systems and the need to prioritize practical strategies for reducing inequalities. A priority area for the Australian Government is reducing university education inequities for Indigenous Australians. This paper aims to examine how Indigenous Australian university students build and leverage their capabilities and strengths, harnessing service providers’ efforts towards enhancing participation (and completion) in university education – an essential transformative outcome for reducing inequalities.

Design/methodology/approach

A three-stage qualitative research process explored student retention/completion and capability building among a sample of Indigenous Australian university students, typically under-represented in the higher education sector.

Findings

Applying a manual thematic analysis, the findings reveal Indigenous students’ value co-creating capabilities (summarized in three dimensions) harness multi-actor processes extending beyond the service provider. Five dimensions summarize the service provider’s transformative service activities that strengthen capabilities for Indigenous Australian university students. Networks of place (a structured Indigenous Centre); processes (university systems); and people (social support), including peer-to-peer networks, are important service assemblages.

Practical implications

The authors present implications for supporting Indigenous students in persisting with and completing higher education. More broadly, the authors provide recommendations for service marketers to resolve barriers to service equality and enhance strengths-based approaches to value co-creation.

Originality/value

Underpinned by a strengths-based approach, the authors contribute towards an agenda of sustainable transformative services. Although considerable research reviews the experiences of Indigenous students, little research has taken a transformative service research perspective. Addressing this, the authors propose a conceptual framework linking consumers’ agentic capabilities with transformative service mediator practices.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 37 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 September 2020

Katarina Parfa Koskinen

The study is an elaboration on how a graduate student discursively navigates a research identity through lived experiences as an Indigenous Sámi and writings on Indigenous, as…

Abstract

Purpose

The study is an elaboration on how a graduate student discursively navigates a research identity through lived experiences as an Indigenous Sámi and writings on Indigenous, as well as other suitable research paradigms informing research on digital technologies in education. The guiding question is how a strategy of inquiry to be used in a PhD study on remote 1–9 Sámi language education can be informed by an Indigenous research paradigm. What philosophical guidelines are needed in navigating a sensitive field of investigation shaped by historical atrocities, discrimination and racist assumptions towards the Sámi people and other Indigenous, marginalised groups?

Design/methodology/approach

A dialogical approach has been used between readings of mainly Indigenous scholars' writings on the topic and anecdotes illustrating personal experiences from a lived life as Sámi.

Findings

Through this process, a researcher identity has developed, informed by the views from an Indigenous research paradigm that humans are ontologically equal to other entities, and epistemologically knowledge constitutes of relationships between different entities. This makes relationality a central feature of an Indigenous epistemology –not only between people but also including, for example, ideas, history, ancestors, future, artefacts and spirituality – which links epistemology to ontology. The axiological issue of accountability works holistically as “glue”.

Originality/value

Elucidating underlying arguments and motives behind both an Indigenous research paradigm and the development of researcher identity when designing and planning research is rarely done, which provides the originality of the present contribution.

Details

The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, vol. 37 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4880

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 June 2019

Rhonda Povey and Michelle Trudgett

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…

Abstract

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.

Details

History of Education Review, vol. 48 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0819-8691

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 May 2014

Carlos Rabasso and Javier Rabasso

How responsible education and “green” learning becomes crucial for survival for the Mamanwa ethnic minority in Surigao del Norte, Mindanao, Philippines. The paper aims to discuss…

317

Abstract

Purpose

How responsible education and “green” learning becomes crucial for survival for the Mamanwa ethnic minority in Surigao del Norte, Mindanao, Philippines. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Ten interviews to teachers and 40 Mamanwa students at the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit School in Palalihan, Surigao del Norte, Mindanao, Philippines. Each interview lasted for 1 hour and had ten questions related to “green” learning, responsible education, ecospirituality and sustainable practices. The teachers' interviews took into account how the students incorporate into their learning process the traditional curriculum being taught in the Philippines in primary schools and the Indigenous People's Core Curriculum (IPCC) which has been implemented recently to indigenous people all through the country. Each interview to the students lasted 30 minutes and was related about the things they leaned, how they learned it and applied it to their daily lives.

Findings

The importance of a Christian approach to indigenous education respects the traditions and sacred knowledge of a marginalised community in the Philippines. The teaching approach of the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (MSSHS) shows the development of “green” knowledge and responsible educational capabilities in their practices as educators.

Research limitations/implications

Tribal cultural values and MSSHS education bring in a kind of “transcultural” learning process which gives Mamanwas greater skills for cross-cultural adaptation in the Pilipino environment.

Practical implications

Non-formal education through the IPCC becomes a key element for the learning process in an environment where sustainable practices are part of the upbringing of the Mamanwa community.

Social implications

The relationship between spiritual values and the environment shows a greater closeness between responsible education and “green” learning.

Originality/value

Thanks to the MSSHS education, the Mamanwa community has learned, through a syncretic educational process, a greater ability for transcultural adaptation in a transitional process for ethnic minorities in the Philippines.

Details

Journal of Global Responsibility, vol. 5 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2041-2568

Keywords

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