Enhancing Indigenous Students

1
Enhancing Indigenous Students Transitions into
QUT The First Four Weeks

• Bronwyn Ewing, Kym Anderson Susan Willsteed
• Acknowledged contribution of Jean Phillips

2
Acknowledgement

• We would like to acknowledge the traditional
  owners custodians of the land we are gathered
  on today - past, present and future.

3
Standpoint 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)

4
Standpoint

• 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.

5
Synopsis

• 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.

6
Objectives 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.

7
Revised 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.

8
What 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).

10
Cultural 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)

11
Legitimate 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.

13
Participants

• 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

14
Data 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.

15
Methodologies

• 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).

16
The 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).

17
First 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)

19
Second 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

23
The way forward

• Continue, and expand, faculty support of
  Indigenous students.
• University-funded preparation and mentoring
  programmes
• Fully implement commitments of Reconciliation
  statement

24

• References
• Andermann, J., Campbell, M. (2007). Big worry
  Implications of anxiety in Indigenous education.
  The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education,
  36, 74-80.
• Beetson, S. J., Tyhuis, A., Willsteed, S.,
  McLaughlin, J., Whatman, S. (2007). ITAS in a
  virtual environment - quality and efficiacy in
  Indigenous tertiary student support. The
  Australian Journal of Indigenous Education
  Supplementary, 36.
• Bin-Sallik, M. (2003). Cultural safety Let's
  name it! The Australian Journal of Indigenous
  Education, 32, 21-28.
• Helme, S. (2007). From the sidelines to the
  centre Indigenous support units in vocational
  education and training. Journal of vocational
  education and training, 59(4), 451-466.
• Kippen, S., Ward, B., Warren, L. (2006).
  Enhancing Indigenous participation in higher
  education health courses in rural Victoria,
  Australian Journal of Indigenous Education (pp.
  1-10).
• Lave, J., Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning
  Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge
  Cambridge University Press.
• Martin, J. R. (2000). Close reading functional
  linguistics as a tool for critical discourse
  analysis. In L. Unsworth (Ed.), Researching
  language in schools and communities (pp.
  275-302). London Cassell.
• Martin, J. R. (2003). Voicing the 'Other'
  Reading and writing Indigenous Australians. In R.
  W. G. Weiss (Ed.), Critical discourse analysis
  Theory and interdisciplinarity (pp. 199-222).
  Hampshire Palgrave MacMillan.
• Martin, K. (2008). Please know before you enter
  Aboriginal regulation of Outsiders and the
  implications for researchers. Brisbane
  PostPressed.
• Minichiello, V., Aroni, R., Timewell, E.
  Alexander, L. (1995). In-depth interviewing (2nd
  ed.). Melbourne Longman.
• Moreton-Robinson, A. (2000). Talkin up to the
  white women Indigenous women and feminism. St
  Lucia, Brisbane University of Queensland Press.
• Nakata, M. (2007). The Cultural Interface. The
  Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36,
  7-14.
• Oberg, K. (1960). Culture shock Adjustment to
  new cultural environments. Practicum
  anthropology, 7, 177-182.
• Sinclair, R. (2004). Participation in practice
  Making it meaningful, effective and sustainable.
  Children and Society, 18(2004), 106-118.
• Sonn, C., Bishop, B., Humphries, R. (2000).
  Encounters with the dominant culture Voices of
  Indigenous students in mainstream higher
  education., Australian Psychologist (Vol. 35, pp.
  128-135).
• Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice
  Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge
  Cambridge University Press.
• William, R. (1999). Cultural safety - what does
  it mean for our work practice? Australian and New
  Zealand Journal of Public Health, 23(2), 213-214.