Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not
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 phenomeno...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of Queensland
2020-09-01
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| Series: | The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://ajie.atsis.uq.edu.au/ajie/article/view/311 |
| _version_ | 1828073654549741568 |
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| author | Huw Peacock Jacob Prehn Michael A. Guerzoni Wendy Aitken Clair Andersen |
| author_facet | Huw Peacock Jacob Prehn Michael A. Guerzoni Wendy Aitken Clair Andersen |
| author_sort | Huw Peacock |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T01:32:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-820ff51281264593ae68b80fd058dbb1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2049-7784 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T01:32:39Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of Queensland |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-820ff51281264593ae68b80fd058dbb12023-01-03T09:23:08ZengAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, The University of QueenslandThe Australian Journal of Indigenous Education2049-77842020-09-0150210.1017/jie.2020.28Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do notHuw Peacock0Jacob Prehn1Michael A. Guerzoni2Wendy Aitken3Clair Andersen4University of TasmaniaUniversity of TasmaniaUniversity of TasmaniaUniversity of TasmaniaUniversity of TasmaniaAbstract 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. https://ajie.atsis.uq.edu.au/ajie/article/view/311Educational achievementIndigenous educationprimary and secondary schoolingquantitativeschooling completion |
| spellingShingle | Huw Peacock Jacob Prehn Michael A. Guerzoni Wendy Aitken Clair Andersen Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education Educational achievement Indigenous education primary and secondary schooling quantitative schooling completion |
| title | Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not |
| title_full | Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not |
| title_fullStr | Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not |
| title_full_unstemmed | Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not |
| title_short | Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not |
| title_sort | upholding heightened expectations of indigenous children parents do teachers do not |
| topic | Educational achievement Indigenous education primary and secondary schooling quantitative schooling completion |
| url | https://ajie.atsis.uq.edu.au/ajie/article/view/311 |
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