This project is an exploration of factors which have historically contributed to Aboriginal marginalisation in Australian society. These factors perpetuate the contemporary position of an underclass occupied today by Aboriginal people. During my years of teaching I observed at first hand the disproportionate lack of engagement with the education system by Aboriginal students. As a result, I started exploring both the theoretical frameworks which attempted to explain the situation and the various policies related to methods of education delivery. This led to looking at the underlying social structures which contribute to the situation. Colonialism and associated dispossession are identified as the main contributors to historical and contemporary marginalisation of Aboriginal people in Australia. Inherent in colonialism were scientific racism, institutional racism, structural violence and cultural violence. These remain embedded in the fabric of Australian society and continue to influence not only the daily lives, but also the long term life chances of Aboriginal people. The impact of these factors on Aboriginal participation in policy formulation and education is examined within a critical theory framework. Discussion of education includes both policy related to Aboriginal education in general and issues related to higher education participation by Aboriginal people. Literature and information from interviews and ongoing email correspondence with participants informs the discussion. Methodology suited to critical theory proposed by Smith (1999: 149-150) involves reading, writing and representing from an Aboriginal perspective, and was used in this research. Cultural Safety, a concept developed in New Zealand in relation to health service delivery, offers a different approach to improving service delivery to Aboriginal Australians. The practice of Cultural Safety can reduce the power imbalances created by colonialism and its application to Aboriginal education is a major focus of this portfolio.

The thesis examines a selected number of women's voluntary organisations in New South Wales, Australia, to find what learning takes place in them, and how their members learn from the organisations and from each other. It uses the framework of conventional adult learning theory to establish whether the way women learn in the environment of a voluntary organisation complies with those conventions or deviates from them. As well, it uses a feminist approach that adopts multiple methods of amassing relevant information. Organisations examined include creative guilds and service organisations, the Country Women's Association and a number of church organisations. Research was carried out through the use of recorded interviews with members, informal conversations and attendance at meetings of the organisations, some of which the researcher joined or already held membership in. In addition, primary records, newsletters and histories published by the organisations were consulted, as were sources such as women's magazines within the sphere of interest of the organisations. Theorists in the field of adult education have only quite recently begun to look more deeply at the way learning occurs outside educational institutions, and whether this learning is of significant value to the individual and society. This scrutiny has been particularly neglected in the case of women's learning in social situations such as women's voluntary organisations. This research addresses this void.

This thesis examines the effectiveness of Community Participation (CP) in relation to people's engagement in Community Development (CD) activities with respect to establishing a sustainable community in the Meegahahena Resettlement Unit. Meegahahena is an agricultural resettlement situated in System 'C' of Sri Lanka's Mahaweli Development Project. The recent Accelerated Mahaweli Development Project (AMDP) included a river basin development project incorporating dam construction, irrigation and biggest human resettlement project undertaken in the history of Sri Lanka, a CD approach for settlers has been implemented by government authorities but many problems remain with respect to promoting CP. Researchers indicate that the reason for the relative failure of many development projects like the AMDP is the lack of effective CP in CD activities. This research focuses on these issues. Examination of an existing CD model is undertaken to develop a wider theoretical context along with an empirical study. The 'four-stage theoretical framework' for sustainable resettlement after Scudder (2005) was adopted as a model and standard in this study. The methodology used is a qualitative case study. Data were collected using both anthropological and sociological methods involving focus group discussions, observation, document analysis, semi-structured interviews and a survey. The data were analysed by themes, using a grounded theory 'thematic analysis' method.

This thesis is a phenomenological study of the lived experience of 13 Year 12 students appointed as prefects (a formal leadership position) at an independent (non-government) school in urban Australia. Five staff members also provided details of their experience of prefects' student leadership. Whilst leadership has been studied extensively, student leadership has received relatively little attention. Two research questions were addressed: (1) How do student leaders experience being prefects? and, (2) How do teachers and school administrators experience student leadership? The first research question had three subsidiary questions: (i) How do prefects understand leadership? (ii) How do students experience the selection process, training and support they receive in their role as prefects? (iii) What impact does being a prefect have on the students themselves, and their relationships with their peers and teachers? Two subsidiary questions supported the second research question: (i) How do teachers experience the selection process, training and support of the prefects? (ii) How do teachers view the activities of the prefects? Synergetic focus groups, where groups self-facilitated a discussion rather than had a moderator, were used to gather data of the participants' experience of student leadership. Student participants also provided written anecdotes and artistic representations of their experiences of student leadership. A five-step process was used to analyse the data obtained from the participants. After listening to sound recordings of the sessions and reading the transcripts, units of meaning were identified from the data and grouped into clusters. Themes and meta-themes were then identified and linked to the research questions. The four meta-themes which emerged from the student data were:(i) traits of leaders, (ii) understandings of leadership, (iii) selection, training and functioning of prefects, and iv) the experience of being a prefect. Two meta-themes,(i) selection and training of prefects and (ii) understanding student leadership, emerged from the staff data. Recommendations to the school included that the training and supervision of prefects should be ongoing and that a more formalised mentoring program should be provided. Future research could consider how young people who are not leaders experience the leadership of their peers.