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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 July 2015
In this paper I offer an explanation for teacher-held beliefs that contribute to perceptions of school failure by indigenous children and discuss the ends served by these perceptions. Although the validity of using retention rates as an indicator of actual educational outcomes is questioned (Luke, A. et al, 1993:144), there are few other indicators presently available. The figures on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student participation rates-indicate that few children of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent complete secondary school. The following figures, based on data collected in the 1991 Australian Census, show the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander school children of a particular sex and age expressed as a proportion of the population of children of the same sex and age, in Queensland.