Aboriginal community perceptions and experiences of engagement with schools

Abstract

Engagement with Aboriginal communities is often claimed by governments and their institutions as the panacea for improving the lives of Aboriginal peoples, including Aboriginal student outcomes in education. This paper challenges these claims by examining Aboriginal communities’ perceptions, experiences and enactments of school engagement that provide critical conditions for these improvements. In the Culturally Nourishing Schooling (CNS) project, five local Aboriginal community case studies prioritised community voices through its Aboriginal community-led committee, the Blak Caucus (BC). Community meetings were held and the accompanying research co-designed with the BC to ensure Aboriginal community protocols, accountabilities and data sovereignty featured in the research process. Data was generated from BC facilitated yarns, which were recorded, transcribed and communicated through visual maps to generate discussion within and between community participants. Four themes were constructed through thematic analysis: the importance of understanding local history and context; the criticality of clear, consistent communication; the role of shared spaces in dismantling barriers between schools and communities; and the protocols required to engage with Aboriginal communities. What became clear was that relationships, collective trust and two-way dialogue can provide promising pathways to building power-equal partnerships between New South Wales schools and Aboriginal communities.