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    Backboards to blackboards : rebounding from the margins ; a critical auto/ethnographic study of the struggle for culturally-sensitive educational pathways for Aboriginal girls

    160515_McCarthy2010.pdf (2.521Mb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    McCarthy, Helen Christine Dominica
    Date
    2010
    Supervisor
    Prof. Peter Taylor
    Dr Elisabeth Settelmaier
    Type
    Thesis
    Award
    PhD
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    School
    School of Education
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/635
    Collection
    • Curtin Theses
    Abstract

    This PhD research journey describes my personal and professional involvement with the Yolngu, Nyoongar and Wongi peoples, where I consistently observed Aboriginal parents and Aboriginal teachers express dissatisfaction with the way mainstream Anglo-Celtic education was delivered in their schools and communities. This disparity never sat well with me and I had always wanted to write about the unacceptable inequity.As a consequence this doctoral research deploys a critical auto/ethnographic research design within an interpretive paradigm where “the writing process and the writing product are deeply intertwined”. The research became the site of exploration about the struggle for culturally-sensitive educational pathways for Aboriginal adolescent girls.The investigation took place at a metropolitan Aboriginal secondary school, where staff developed an emergent curriculum framework known as the Yorgas Program to re-engage Aboriginal learners in their schooling, through a sporting program known as the “Girls‟ Academy”. As a consequence of the Yorgas Program there were observable improvements in the girls behaviour leading to regular attendance, improved personal hygiene, greater commitment to study, self-regulation and willingness to defer risk-taking social behaviours resulting in a significantly larger number of Year 12 graduates completing their studies with the majority of students going on to traineeships or further studies.

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