This paper reports the results of a research study which is part of a larger research project entitled Aboriginal Voices: Systematic reviews of research on Indigenous education.

Similar to findings in Canada, New Zealand, Europe and the USA, education of Indigenous students has been seen as a problem for governments for over 60 years. In Australia, different levels of government have tried to address the ‘problem’ with recent strategies including the National Partnership Agreements, specific initiatives such as  “Closing The Gap” and a plethora  of local and state interventions. In spite of these costly initiatives, the four most recent government inquiries have commented on the failures of policies, strategies and practices to positively impact on outcomes for Indigenous students.

One of the reasons for the failures may be that policies are developed as a result of advocacy from powerful groups and other political pressures rather than from research evidence. The larger project, comprised of a consortium of educators, conducted wide ranging Systematic Reviews across a breadth of complex issues relating to Indigenous Education. Systematic reviews distil the evidence that could be used for strategic policy purposes. They can provide evidence to inform interventions and strategies that could lead to stronger outcomes in the area of Indigenous Education globally.

Research Question

The Specific Question that this paper addresses is: What role does school and/or community leadership have on effecting a sustained change in Aboriginal student learning and social outcomes? However, implicit in this question was the impact of school policy, governance and decision-making.

It is the author’s contention that School leadership is paramount in fostering student engagement and improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Since the 1960's there has been a trend toward school-based decision-making and management as an administrative strategy in Australian schools. Governance in education has moved towards decentralization and deregulation to allow schools to respond flexibly to local or regional needs and circumstances. The educational literature reflects the importance of governance models that recognise that policy cannot be applied universally to all schools and circumstances, and leadership approaches that incorporate increased  participation  of community in governance and decision-making. It is long established that having a shared vision and goals for a school has the potential to unite school and its community, and studies have shown that involvement of community is associated with higher achievement in students.

 schools and positive long- term impacts on child development and educational achievement. This review will investigate Australian research over the past decade on how school and community contribute to effecting sustainable change in Aboriginal student learning and social outcomes.

Theoretical Framework

The Cochrane Review guidelines (2015) were used to locate, synthesize and analyserecently published (2006 - 2017), peer reviewed and/or government initiated research of school programs in sites with significant Indigenous enrolments.

Methodology

This presentation outlines the key features of this methodology, focusing on the rigour of the evaluative framework guiding the selection, appraisal and evaluation features.

Findings Then the presentation will highlight the key findings against the focus inquiry of the review topic. The findings will deepen our understanding of those areas seen to effect the development and delivery of relevant, responsive and quality education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

Intended Purpose of the Discussion and European/ International Dimension

 Finally, the presentation will discuss the challenges faced by policy advisors, political and educational leaders across education settings and systems both in Australia and in Europe.  Focussing on research based evidence rather than strident politically based advocacy will allow for more informed responses to ‘problem’ areas in Indigenous education.

A thorough search of the literature was conducted constrained by the following agreed upon criteria • Current research literature 2006 – 2017; • Australian based relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander; • Peer-reviewed and published articles, books and chapters and theses ; • Reporting evidence empirical and effects focused studies about practices/interventions or other demonstrated programs in Indigenous education [primary/secondary education] that have made claims of effectiveness based on primary research; • NGO and government reports – if significant and evaluative and are considered primary sources of data In line with the Methodological Approach suggested Cochrane, with minor variations subject to the specific database’s requirements, a search string incorporating the following focus concepts was used to capture relevant literature. • Concept 1: Educational Leadership – school leaders, principals, depu ty principals, senior teachers, school administration, school based management, school supervision, school improvement, community influence, and community change • Concept 2: Schools – primary, secondary, middle years, primary secondary transition, lower secondary, and upper secondary years/education, developmental continuity and transition education • Concept 3: Aboriginal – Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Indigenous The following electronic databases were searched using available library search tools: A+ Education, ERIC and Psychinfo via OVID, Indigenous Collection via Informit, Business databases, ABI Inform via Proquest, Business Source Ultimate, Web of Science, Proquest Central and Proquest Dissertations, Scopus and APA-FT via Informit. Search alerts were set up in each database to ensure that new items were brought to the team’s attention Based on the searches described previously a final merged database of 458 items was saved to Endnote. Following guidance from the consortium, a filtering process was used to restrict “included qualitative research reports to empirical studies with a description of the sampling strategy, data collection procedures and the type of data-analysis considered”. This review adopted a similar approach for quantitative and mixed methods studies as well. That is, if the paper’s abstract or other bibliographic fields did not describe research, evaluation or empirical evidence, it was excluded. Similarly, if they did not mention or describe a methodology, papers were filtered out of the included studies. Further, if papers were not peer reviewed or did not respond directly to the review question, they were excluded. Application of this filtering processes reduced the number of included articles from 459 to 97.

Each of the 97 papers remaining in the analysis was ranked according to its relevance to the question.A critical analysis of the full text of these remaining items is currently underway. Preliminary findings include the development of three themes. These are 1)Leadership of pedagogy and curriculum, 2)Participation and achievement and 3)Impacts of governance, policy, procedures and accountability requirements on leadership and decision-making. Summary of findings to date are • That there is a range of research methodologies but nearly all studies were qualitative • Collaborative-two ways leadership is essential but needs to be based on knowledge of cultural context • Advocacy role by school leadership is important • More flexible organisational structure is beneficial to engagement and retention of Indigenous students • Impact of leadership on Curriculum and Pedagogy is significant and goes beyond just allocation of resources for professional development particularly in literacy and maths • Curriculum must be culturally responsive • Tension for school leaders between demands of general curriculum and Aboriginal knowledge and pedagogy • Impact of high stakes testing is discriminatory and doesn’t reflect abilities and resilience

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