Michael Guerzoni

‘Learning her culture and growing up strong’: Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander fathers, children and the sharing of culture

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Date: 06-07-2021

DOI: 10.1177/1440783320934188

Abstract: Indigenous fathers play a central role in the lives of Indigenous children growing up strong. For Australia’s Indigenous people, growing strong includes the possession of heightened levels of health, education and cultural knowledge. This article focuses on Indigenous fathers and how they understand the importance of sharing cultural activities with their children. We argue that the sharing of Indigenous cultural practices, and the subsequent telling of this narrative, are key enablers for Indigenous fathers to assist their families to flourish. We analyse qualitative data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children to explore what components/aspects of Indigenous culture fathers perceive will assist children to strongly mature, how culture is transmitted, and what barriers fathers face in this process. Results show that according to participants, learning about culture, family and identity are components to helping children prosper, with collecting food the most common activity used to achieve this end.

Decolonizing criminological research methodologies

Publisher: Routledge

Date: 22-06-2023

DOI: 10.4324/9781003176619-50

Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Date: 24-09-2020

DOI: 10.1017/JIE.2020.28

Abstract: Abstract This paper argues that a component of increasing the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youths completing their secondary education is having parents and teachers maintain heightened expectations of these children in achieving this goal. To understand this phenomenon, we investigate the importance of, and discrepancies between, primary caregiver and teacher outlooks regarding Indigenous youths completing year 12. For the purpose of this paper, we adopt the term ‘primary caregiver’ in place of parent. This is because the majority (87.7%) of P1s analysed are the biological mothers with the remainder being close female relatives. P2s analysed are all male, 93.3% are biological fathers remainder are step-fathers or adoptive fathers. This paper uses quantitative data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children to measure expectations from parents and teachers of Indigenous children. Results suggest that parents maintain exceptionally high expectations of their children, while teacher's expectations significantly decline over the course of Indigenous children's primary and secondary schooling years. We suggest that relationships and communication between parents and teachers, regarding expectations of students, are important to establishing an equilibrium in expectations of children, and that teachers may benefit from further training to address any underlying biases towards Indigenous children.

Academic self-concepts of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children

Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Date: 27-01-2020

DOI: 10.1017/JIE.2019.26

Abstract: Abstract Self-concept is recognised as useful in facilitating understanding of the development of resilience, academic achievement and social and emotional maturity in children. This framework is valuable for studying minorities such as Indigenous children, for who a positive self-concept is a means of bolstering resilience and mitigating the inherited structural disadvantages of colonisation. This paper aims to understand the academic self-concept of Indigenous children in Australia through analysis of univariate, bivariate and multivariate data of Indigenous children aged 9.5–11 years from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children Wave's 7 K Cohort. Results show overall positive levels of Indigenous children's self-perception at school. Further, factors such as level of relative isolation, teacher perception, peer relationships, feedback from mother and contact with community leaders and Elders is positively associated with Indigenous children's schooling mathematic and reading self-concepts. Ensuring that Indigenous students are supported by community, peers and parents, immersed in their culture and are recognised and supported by their teachers can alleviate the undesirable effects that structural inequalities may have on their academic self-concept.

Virtual tours of Country: creating and embedding resource-appropriate Aboriginal pedagogy at Australian universities

Publisher: Kaplan Higher Education Academy Pte Ltd

Date: 11-05-2020

DOI: 10.37074/JALT.2020.3.S1.7

Linkage Projects - Grant ID: LP220100130

Start Date: 2023

End Date: 12-2025

Amount: $458,348.00

Funder: Australian Research Council