Indigenous Australian Youth Futures

Adolescents are at a critical life stage where they will soon be able to contribute to the wellbeing of humankind, or do it great harm. Consequently, it is vital that the challenges and possibilities of adolescence be well understood and addressed. In Australia, such understanding is urgently needed with respect to Aboriginal adolescents. Not only must they adjust to their changing bodies and minds, but they must negotiate these changes within a context usually characterised by racism and poverty. They must also do this within intercultural environments that include the disparate and sometimes incompatible beliefs and practices of their multicultural populations. The chapters in this collection address these challenges to Aboriginal adolescents in the Northern Territory and the intercultural contexts in which they take place. Their discussions include the adolescents’ experiences with health and health care, education, and the criminal justice system. They also address their hopes, dreams, plans and politics, engagement with social media, food preferences and nutrition, engagement with language, family, and changing mores affecting sexual behaviour and marriage. The book aims to provide readers with a greater understanding of the day-to-day lives of Aboriginal adolescents, and some of the adults who care for or neglect them. It seeks to provide readers with a better understanding of the circumstances, processes and factors that affect adolescent health, wellbeing and future prospects in their intercultural environments, and glimpse the multiplicity of these circumstances, processes and factors and the complexity of their interaction.

This is an essential, practical resource for pre- and in-service educators on creating contexts for success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Based on the latest research and practice, this book provides an in-depth understanding of the colonised context within which education in Australia is located, with an emphasis on effective strategies for the classroom. Throughout the text, the authors share their personal and professional experiences providing rich examples for readers to learn from. Taking a strengths-based approach, this book will support new and experienced teachers to drive positive educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Providing an international reference work written solely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors, this book offers a powerful overview of emergent and topical research in the field of global Indigenous studies. It addresses current concerns of Australian Indigenous peoples of today, and explores opportunities to develop, and support the development of, Indigenous resilience and solidarity to create a fairer, safer, more inclusive future. Divided into three sections, this book explores: • What futures for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples might look like, and how institutions, structures and systems can be transformed to such a future; • The complexity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island life and identity, and the possibilities for Australian Indigenous futures; and • The many and varied ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples use technology, and how it is transforming their lives. This book documents a turning point in global Indigenous history: the disintermediation of Indigenous voices and the promotion of opportunities for Indigenous peoples to map their own futures. It is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Indigenous studies, as well as gender and sexuality studies, education studies, ethnicity and identity studies, and decolonising development studies.

The Asia-Pacific region has rich and unique traditions, cultural diversity and common as well as unique challenges, including obstacles of language and geographical separation. As home to over 60 per cent of the world's population, this region has a diverse range of educational issues, which have not as yet been fully explored. This ground-breaking volume considers current perspectives on educational diversity, challenges and changes occurring across a number of countries in the region and provides a closer look at these complexities. Focus has been given to the influence and impact that these complexities are having on policy and practice in leadership, governance and administration structures. Who has been given the agency? What kinds of power currents are in play? What are the hidden political enablers and disablers in these narratives? The authors of chapters in this series have presented some solid examples of what is currently happening, the discourse that is emerging around it, the effects of these changes and their impact within the region. While some of these narratives are a synthesis of literature and policy, other chapters have focused on findings from empirical studies being conducted in this space. As a timely collection of works from active researchers in Education, the book supports and encourages the importance of on-going educational research within the Asia-Pacific region The findings in this book have been drawn from original and current research which is anticipated as being a valuable academic reference as well as a teaching resource in the field of Education. This volume will be beneficial to students and academics of Education around the world as well as a useful reference to educational academics, researchers, policy-makers and administrators across the Asia-Pacific region.The Asia-Pacific region has rich and unique traditions, cultural diversity and common as well as unique challenges, including obstacles of language and geographical separation. As home to over 60 per cent of the world's population, this region has a diverse range of educational issues, which have not as yet been fully explored. This ground-breaking volume considers current perspectives on educational diversity, challenges and changes occurring across a number of countries in the region and provides a closer look at these complexities. Focus has been given to the influence and impact that these complexities are having on policy and practice in leadership, governance and administration structures. Who has been given the agency? What kinds of power currents are in play? What are the hidden political enablers and disablers in these narratives? The authors of chapters in this series have presented some solid examples of what is currently happening, the discourse that is emerging around it, the effects of these changes and their impact within the region. While some of these narratives are a synthesis of literature and policy, other chapters have focused on findings from empirical studies being conducted in this space. As a timely collection of works from active researchers in Education, the book supports and encourages the importance of on-going educational research within the Asia-Pacific region The findings in this book have been drawn from original and current research which is anticipated as being a valuable academic reference as well as a teaching resource in the field of Education. This volume will be beneficial to students and academics of Education around the world as well as a useful reference to educational academics, researchers, policy-makers and administrators across the Asia-Pacific region.

In the public debate about the success or failure of Australia's Indigenous policies, opinions have been grounded more often in personal experience than in social scientists' research. This work asks: What vision of the good life should guide an assessment of policy?

Young People and the Politics of Outrage and Hope explores how young people can make a life and a future in challenging neoliberal social conditions.

This book addresses key issues in the context of the national policy of educating children accused of crimes in Juvenile Courts in Australia. For several decades, National and State Governments in Australia have struggled to define education, constantly seeking to improve the way society applies the concept. This book presents an accurate portrayal of consequences of the education policy of trying to educate troubled children and young people in trouble with the law. It describes the work of juvenile detention centre mathematics teachers and their teaching contexts. It portrays teachers as learners, who ventured with researchers with a theoretical perspective. This book focuses on culturally responsive pedagogies that seek to understand the ways Indigenous children and young people in juvenile detention make sense of their mathematical learning, which, until the time of detention, has been plagued by failure. It examines how the underperformance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are strong determinants of their overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system in Australia. This book presents the argument that if the students’ literacy and numeracy levels can be improved, there is opportunity to build better futures away from involvement in the juvenile justice system and towards productive employment to improve life chances.

Providing an international reference work written solely by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors, this book offers a powerful overview of emergent and topical research in the field of global Indigenous studies. It addresses current concerns of Australian Indigenous peoples of today, and explores opportunities to develop, and support the development of, Indigenous resilience and solidarity to create a fairer, safer, more inclusive future. Divided into three sections, this book explores: What futures for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples might look like, and how institutions, structures and systems can be transformed to such a future; The complexity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island life and identity, and the possibilities for Australian Indigenous futures; and The many and varied ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples use technology, and how it is transforming their lives. This book documents a turning point in global Indigenous history: the disintermediation of Indigenous voices and the promotion of opportunities for Indigenous peoples to map their own futures. It is a valuable resource for students and scholars of Indigenous studies, as well as gender and sexuality studies, education studies, ethnicity and identity studies, and decolonising development studies.