This research explores media reporting of Indigenous students’ Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results in two national and 11 metropolitan Australian newspapers from 2001 to 2015. Of almost 300 articles on PISA, only 10 focused on reporting of Indigenous PISA results. While general or non-Indigenous PISA results featured in media reports, especially at the time of the publication of PISA results, there was overwhelming neglect of Indigenous results and the performance gap. A thematic analysis of articles showed mainstream PISA reporting had critical commentary which is not found in the Indigenous PISA articles. The three themes identified include: a lack of teacher quality in remote and rural schools; the debate on Gonski funding recommendations and the PISA achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. This study concluded the overwhelming neglect is linked to media bias, which continues to drive mainstream media coverage of Indigenous Australians.

Yarning scholarship is emerging in the Australian context. There are a growing number of Indigenous scholars who advocate for using yarning in research and this paper aims to contribute to this methodological discussion. In this paper, I outline the development of a methodology, which I have named Collaborative Yarning Methodology (CYM). CYM extends on the current yarning scholarship available to researchers through critically addressing the issue of data collection and analysis. The methodology was developed in undertaking my doctoral study in alternative school settings. In developing CYM, I discuss and analyse the implications of using Indigenous methodologies in institutionalised education settings and some of issues that may arise, and some explicitly for Indigenous researchers. Through analysing the current discourses that exists when undertaking Indigenous-focused research in education institutions, there are clearly connections in how Indigenous people are positioned politically, racially and socially when assuming the role of a researcher. I propose that in Indigenous education focused research, there continues to be an over-reliance of positivist ways of collecting yarning data, such as audio recording. I offer an alternative to audio recording, which incorporates collaborative approaches to data collection with participants underpinned by the principle of self-determination.

‘Riawunna’ is an Aboriginal word meaning ‘a place of learning’ for Aboriginal people, from entry level to tertiary studies, at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) and operates on Hobart, Launceston and Burnie campuses. The Riawunna Centre was established to encourage Aboriginal people to aspire to higher levels of education, and to support them to be successful in their chosen course of study. One strategy developed to support the participation, retention and success of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is the Murina program. During the four year period between 2010 and 2013 every student at UTAS who graduated from the Murina program and chosen to enrol in undergraduate studies has been successful in completing their courses. One of the tools used to achieve this result is the strong use of narrative and images in our teaching. This whole-person approach to teaching resonates culturally with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, but is also applicable to any student of any culture, especially those who come to university tentatively and with low expectations of what they can achieve.

A lack of teacher awareness of the cultural and historical background of Aboriginal students has long been recognised as a major causative factor in the failure of Australian schools to fully engage Aboriginal students and deliver equitable educational outcomes for them. Using Wenger's communities of practice framework, this paper analyses the effectiveness of the Connecting to Country (CTC) program in addressing this issue in New South Wales (NSW) schools whereby Aboriginal community members design and deliver professional learning for teachers. Qualitative and quantitative data from 14 case studies suggest that the CTC program has had a dramatic impact on the attitudes of teachers to Aboriginal students, on their ability to establish relationships with the local Aboriginal community and on their willingness to adapt curriculum and pedagogy to better meet the needs of their students. As Aboriginal community members and teachers developed communities of practice, new approaches to Aboriginal student pedagogies were imagined through a sense of joint enterprise, mutuality and shared repertoire, empowering all participants in the CTC journey. Implications from this research highlight the importance of teacher professional learning delivered by Aboriginal people, Aboriginal community engagement in local schools and addressing deficit discourses about Aboriginal students and their families.

For more than 3 decades governments and education systems have struggled to address the gaps in educational outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Over the past 10 years it has become increasingly apparent that central to redressing these gaps is the development of teachers who are able to effectively engage with Indigenous students, their families and communities. The introduction of National Professional Standards has increased the focus on the development of pre-service teachers’ capacity to effectively teach Indigenous students. In 2008, the New South Wales Department of Education (DET) and four universities implemented an enhanced teacher training program (ETTP) that was delivered to final-year primary pre-service teachers. The success and continuing expansion of this program, coupled with the current national focus on building pre-service teachers’ capacity to teach Indigenous students, suggests it is timely to detail the critical design features of, and rationale for, this program to inform and support development of similar programs within pre-service teacher education. The article reports on four critical elements of the program: knowledge and understanding of Aboriginal history and culture; effective cross-cultural communication skills; holistic understanding of Aboriginal education and strategies required for improving Aboriginal student outcomes; and appropriate pedagogy and classroom management strategies.

A federal report released by the Department of Families and Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA, 2009), entitled Closing the Gap on Indigenous Disadvantage: The Challenge for Australia, highlighted the inequality that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students based on a restricted access to resources, issues of isolation, staff and student retention, and cultural differences and challenges. In New South Wales (NSW), the Department of Education and Training (DET) and the Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) in 2003/2004 undertook their own review of Aboriginal education in NSW Government schools that revealed significant concerns about the outcomes being achieved by Aboriginal students in NSW DET schools, confirming the more recent FaHCSIA (2009) findings. In 2006 the NSW DET implemented the Enhanced Teacher Training Scholarship Program (ETTSP) to empower 20 final-year education students to successfully engage with Indigenous students in schools and their wider community during their internship period. Using themes, this article explores the experiences of 10 University of New England scholarship holders at the end of their final year of teacher training and immersion/internship experience in 2010. The article puts forward useful recommendations for both teacher universities and students intending to teach in schools with high Indigenous student populations.

As part of strategies to improve dog and community health in rural and remote Indigenous communities, this study investigated preferences and impacts of dog health education programs. Semistructured interviews with 63 residents from five communities explored learning preferences. Though each community differed, on average yarning was preferred by most (68.4%) respondents, followed by visual (65.0%) and practical learning (46.9%). Text-based and computer/screen-based learning were important to 16.2% and 14.6% of respondents respectively. With paper-based visual and text resources, respondents reported a preference for locally made (28/36 or 78%) over mainstream resources. Twenty eight residents involved in the creation of locally made resources reported satisfaction, knowledge exchange, and displayed enthusiasm for the process. Colour resources were more successful than black and white resources or word of mouth in terms of program advertising, alerting 67% (10/15) of respondents compared to 6% to 24% for programs using word of mouth. Dog health programs that incorporated education programs based on these identified preferences achieved significantly better results in terms of improvements in mange prevalence and average condition score, partly through increased community understanding and engagement with the program. Thus, culturally appropriate and locally relevant education programs can significantly improve the success of dog health programs.