ERIC Number: EJ990229
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2004
Pages: 8
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1478-8497
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Indigenous Alienation from School and "the Embedded Legacy of History": The Australian Experience
Beresford, Quentin
International Journal on School Disaffection, v2 n2 p6-13 2004
Australian governments at both federal and state levels have collaborated for the past 15 years to lift Indigenous students from their position as the nation's most educationally disadvantaged group. The introduction in 1989 of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Plan was accompanied by an ambitious target of achieving educational equity by the year 2000 (Beresford and Partington, 2003). Not only has this target not been achieved, but actual progress, while showing some upward trends in levels of achievement, participation and retention, continues to lag significantly behind rates for non-Indigenous students. Despite unprecedented levels of funding, policy development and cross-government coordination, the failure to attain anything like educational equity for this group highlights state governments' underestimation of the intractable nature of the problem. In turn, this failure reflects flaws in the policy formation process in Indigenous education. This article contends that state governments have not systematically applied a clear understanding of causation to policy development and especially the historical legacy created by past racial policies affecting Indigenous people.
Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Indigenous Populations, Equal Education, Educationally Disadvantaged, Alienation, Policy Formation, Foreign Countries, Educational Policy, Policy Analysis, Program Effectiveness, Program Evaluation, Outreach Programs, Social Influences, Racial Discrimination, Achievement Need, Educational History, Social History, Educational Development, Educational Theories, Generational Differences
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A