Abstract
There is a rekindled concern for the achievements of Indigenous learners in schooling in Australia. In part, this focus returned to view within mainstream discourses linked with growing neo-liberal influences and efforts to make education more countable and accountable. The emphasis on ‘Indigenous education’ is given shape and substance by a collection of policy, assessment, curriculum and pedagogic ‘closing the gap’ initiatives. Teachers are on the front-line putting into action practices that may realise these policy aspirations, raising questions for me about how teachers come to know and make sense of this suite of initiatives. In this article I draw on interview data with teachers from a suburban high school as they explain their understanding of the ‘closing the gap’ policy framework. The article is organised into two sections, firstly I introduce Critical Race Theory in education and I put to work some of its ideas to examine the ‘gap’ policy climate. Secondly, I present a ‘creative analytic account’ of the teacher perspectives, prior to mapping out the contours and links between their sense making strategies with broader structural and socio-political frameworks that the initiatives are located within. In doing so, I hope to demonstrate the potential usefulness of Critical Race Theory with developing a better understanding of how to work towards racial justice in education.
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Notes
Fieldnotes, 12th May, 2011.
In (Vass 2013), I explore the confused and confusing uses of ‘Indigenous education’ within academic, policy, and public debates.
Indigenous is used widely in Australia to refer to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. All of these terms remain contested however, as their construction and use in the land now known as Australia is grounded in the ongoing socio-historical and political events that displaced and/or disrupted the sovereignties of diverse groups around this continent. While I maintain this (academic) convention here, it is not my intention to cause offence when using the term Indigenous.
Early in 2008, former Prime-Minister Rudd apologised to members of the Stolen Generation.
Population Distribution, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, 2006, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au.
While I agree with their central argument in support of educators being encouraged to more ‘critically engage with the politics of schooling’, I have reservations regarding the sporting program they advocate here, as greater scrutiny of the history and politics of linking Indigenous (or racially Othered) groups and sporting prowess was required in this discussion.
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Vass, G. Putting critical race theory to work in Australian education research: ‘we are with the garden hose here’. Aust. Educ. Res. 42, 371–394 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-014-0160-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-014-0160-1