Improving educational outcomes for Indigenous Australian students is a key strategy to helping Indigenous people reach their full potential. This has resulted in well-intentioned efforts by Australian educators and governments to ensure Indigenous children have positive school experiences. However, Indigenous students still lag behind their…

The underrepresentation of boys from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian universities continues despite recent gains in widening participation. This article presents a case study documenting the transition of one Indigenous student, Robbie, from an underprivileged school located in the Western suburbs of Sydney to an urban…

This project focused on 45 Indigenous students who attended most often (90-100%) at an Australian urban primary school to identify factors that facilitate high attendance. We analysed student records and to provide student voice, an Indigenous Worker in the school conducted a student questionnaire. Student responses showed friendships,…

This paper details the 'Deadly Gaming' pilot (DG). DG centred research has been designed to exploit the protective value of Indigenous culture, to nurture translational literacies (e.g., cultural capital, academic confidence, teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and 21st century skills) necessary for academic success in an urban…

Urban Indigenous students' school attendance and factors contributing to annual attendance rates are relatively unknown, and yet almost 80% of the Indigenous population resides in non-remote regions. Our longitudinal study evaluated an urban primary school where Indigenous families preferentially enrolled their children because they recognised it…

Formal primary and secondary school education for all students should provide a pathway to overcome inequality and disadvantage. Logically, attending school regularly and often during the compulsory years of school provides the best prospects to achieve educational success and enhance post-school opportunities, particularly for socioeconomically…

This paper draws together data from two projects on schooling dis/engagement in Australia. One project focused on mainstream schools and the strategies employed to retain and engage young people in learning, whereas the other explored the growing sector of alternative/flexible education for similar solutions. We found interesting parallels. For…

The myth that justified the takeover of a continent lives on both in classrooms and in popular media. Drawing from classroom observations in an urban primary school in Australia, this article enters the technology in education conversation, more specifically through the use of videogames for learning. Based on classroom exchanges between teachers…

A doctoral study of a program designed to provide access to secondary education for children from a remote Indigenous community was completed in 2014 (Hunter, 2015). This paper reflects on the ongoing commitment of members of this community to a partnership that uses interstate boarding schools as a means of educating their children. It reviews…

This study investigated the implementation of a primary mathematics initiative in an Australian Indigenous community school designed to improve students' mathematical proficiency. Throughout the 7-month initiative, four classes ranging from Year 2 to Year 6 participated in the initiative. Findings indicated an increase in mathematics achievement…

Challenging the assumption that access to technology is pervasive and globally balanced, this book explores the real and potential limitations placed on young people's literacy education by their limited access to technology and digital resources. Drawing on research studies from around the globe, "Stories from Inequity to Justice in Literacy…

This paper aims to provide some insight into the links between attendance, retention and engagement of Indigenous senior students in an urban environment. A study of 58 students from two urban high schools during the period 2009-14 was undertaken. The study used data from a variety of school records, as well as informal interviews with students.…

This co-authored paper offers Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perspectives on the emergence of urban/nature/child pedagogies in a project to reclaim remnant woodlands. Set in the context of indigenous issues explored in a special edition of the journal on land based education, the paper engages critically with a claim by a group of ecologists, that…

This research explores school attendance rates within the steadily growing population of Victorian urban Indigenous students and challenges for realising high attendance levels. Poverty, pervasive throughout the urban Indigenous community, presents circumstances where it once, and could still, erode regular school attendance. We report one…

This article reports on the findings of an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded research project, "Building the future for Indigenous students", an investigation of the hopes and dreams for the future of over 1,000 secondary students, 733 of whom were Indigenous, living in very remote, remote, and urban locations in the Northern…