Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/22315
Title: Exploring How Australia's National Curriculum Supports the Aspirations of Aboriginal People
Contributor(s): Parkinson, Chloe Elizabeth (author); Takayama, Keita  (supervisor); Boughton, Robert  (supervisor)orcid ; Jones, Tiffany  (supervisor)
Conferred Date: 2017
Copyright Date: 2017
Open Access: Yes
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/22315
Abstract: A culturally inclusive curriculum has long been considered beneficial to all students. The national Australian Curriculum set out to be so, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures as a cross-curriculum priority. There is an assumption however that inclusion is an unproblematic good, and is a true representation of the 'reality' of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' lived experiences and aspirations. Drawing on a Critical Discourse Analysis of the Australian Curriculum policy corpus and key informant interviews with members of an Aboriginal community, this dissertation explores how the aspirations of Aboriginal people are supported in dominant education discourses mobilised within the Australian Curriculum. The study identified a critical gap between the Australian Curriculum's positioning of Aboriginal knowledges, histories and cultures and the Aboriginal community's aspirations for their children's education. Within the Australian Curriculum policy corpus, 'Liberal Multicultural' and 'Inclusive' Discourses were dominant. Such discourses framed Aboriginal students as being vulnerable to marginalisation and in need of support to ensure equality in education. In contrast, community informants advocated for more critical discourses whereby Aboriginal students are seen as empowered, able to actively participate in mainstream society to engage in a process of community revitalisation. In drawing upon different and at times contradictory discourses to articulate their aspirations within a broader 'Community Revitalisation' Discourse, community members engaged in a creative act of bricolage in a highly contextually-dependent way.
Publication Type: Thesis Doctoral
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 130301 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education
130199 Education systems not elsewhere classified
130205 Humanities and Social Sciences Curriculum and Pedagogy (excl Economics, Business and Management)
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 450299 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education not elsewhere classified
390399 Education systems not elsewhere classified
390106 Geography education curriculum and pedagogy
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 939901 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education
930399 Curriculum not elsewhere classified
Rights Statement: Copyright 2017 - Chloe Elizabeth Parkinson
HERDC Category Description: T2 Thesis - Doctorate by Research
Appears in Collections:School of Education
Thesis Doctoral

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