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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation in Higher Education (HE) is significantly lower than non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander rates (Behrendt et al. 2012). National data indicates that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are less likely to complete Year 12 compared to non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are less likely to gain a Tertiary Entrance Rank (Wilks & Wilson 2015). According to the data Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are less prospective university students; less likely to gain entrance on their prior educational achievement; more likely to be mature age students >25 years); and have completion rates half that of their non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander counterparts (Pechenkina, 2015). More Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrol in Vocational Education and Training (VET) than in HE (Wilks & Wilson 2015), therefore supporting the transition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from VET to HE promises to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HE participation (Anderson 2011; Bandias, et al. 2013). This is crucial for rural and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who have completed a VET qualification (Bandias, et al. 2013). Unfortunately, such pathways are relatively uncommon with only 4.9% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students currently making this transition (Wilks & Wilson 2015). While enabling programs have received significant recent attention, the potential of the VET to HE pathway to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander HE participation remains largely unexplored. Our research project expands on this by moving beyond the investigation of enabling programs, towards a deeper examination of additional practice-based (and evidence-informed) strategies being developed by dual sector universities. This presentation will present the research findings.REFERENCES:Anderson, I. (2011). Indigenous pathways into the professions. A paper commissioned for the Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People.Bandias, S., Fuller, D. & Larkin, S. (2013). Vocational education, Indigenous students and the choice of pathways. National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), Adelaide. Behrendt, L., Larkin, S., Griew, R. & Kelley, P. (2012). Review of Higher Education Access and Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: Final Report. Fredericks, B., Kinnear, S., Daniels, C., Croft-Warcon, P. & Mann, J. (2015). Path+Ways: Towards best practice bridging and Indigenous participation through regional dual-sector universities. Report submitted to the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE), Curtin University: Perth.Pechenkina (2015). Nothing has changed since Indigenous higher ed review. The Conversation (https://theconversation.com/nothing-has-changed-since-indigenous-higher-ed-review-41354Wilks, J. & Wilson, K. (2015). A profile of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander higher education student population. Australian Universities Review. 57 (2), 17-30.

Participatory Action Research (PAR) has emerged as a common approach used in community-based research, including education research. It acknowledges the place of community in defining its own educational trajectory and can be particularly useful in Indigenous research contexts. Developmental evaluation is a more recent concept, which focuses on applying complexity concepts to enhance innovation and use. It has seldom been applied in Indigenous education contexts. We explore the linkages between these two approaches by using a remote Indigenous case-study from the Northern Territory. Charles Darwin University recently embarked on the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Program (HEPPP) – Whole of Community Engagement (WCE) initiative. This involves adopting a bottom-up community engagement approach with six remote Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory. The primary aim is to build a deeper understanding of the aspirations and opportunities of Indigenous learners, in concert with identifying the potential levers for system improvement, to promote Indigenous participation and achievement in higher education. This is a multi-site PAR project involving a combination of interviews, observational techniques, photography, critical reflections and case studies. Priority actions are community-identified and community-driven. Our PAR approach has indicated the importance of valuing local context and acknowledging complexity. The explorative and community-focused nature of the WCE initiative means that linear and phased research and evaluation approaches, such as the use of program logic, are not well suited to the contexts in which we are working. This instigated a need to find an evaluation model that would cater for complexity, contextual and cultural factors. Developmental evaluation fills this niche, and is emerging as a new and innovative approach that may suit Indigenous education research contexts. We argue that there are synergies between developmental evaluation and PAR, which include acknowledging complexity and uncertainty; appreciating change and improvement; valuing new or alternative knowledge systems (such as Indigenous knowledges); and listening to and respecting community viewpoints. We will draw on the research and evaluation data collected and analysed through the WCE initiative to illustrate these points. We argue that there is theoretical, conceptual and practical congruence between PAR and developmental evaluation approaches. We also suggest that this has significant utility for Indigenous education research contexts, particularly those that favour bottom-up community engagement approaches.

Genuine community engagement is heralded as an important process when engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in discussion about education. This has been repeatedly emphasised in numerous policy documents, particularly those relating to remote education contexts. Whilst it is broadly acknowledged that community engagement is best approached as a ‘bottom-up’ endeavour that is participatory and developmental in nature, there is relatively little information about what this looks and feels like in a practical sense. Evidence suggests that the physical, social, cultural, economic and political landscapes of remote Aboriginal communities differ markedly and that unique place-based approaches to community engagement are likely to work best. We argue that this understanding is important if community engagement practices are to be effectively implemented across the education continuum, including tertiary education settings. We also assert that community engagement practices that explicitly link early childhood, primary, secondary and tertiary education levels will better support improved education outcomes over the longer-term. This is important as each education sector is approaching the concept of community engagement in different ways. In this paper we draw on current academic scholarship, grey literature, government policies and reflections on recent experiences in education research to explain what is currently known about good practice approaches to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community engagement. We will discuss the respective implications for future research and strategy development, particularly in relation to enhancing community engagement with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through tertiary education settings.

It is well documented that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are under-represented in Australian universities. This was highlighted in the Behrendt Review (2012) with a range of social, cultural, structural and political factors used to explain why. Importantly, this under-representation disproportionately affects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live in regional and remote settings. A need exists for tertiary institutions to address this disparity by implementing strategies that better engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to identify and address their needs on their terms. Over the past two years, Charles Darwin University has been implementing the Higher Education Participation and Partnerships Programme (HEPPP) funded Whole of Community Engagement (WCE) initiative. This has involved working with six remote communities across the Northern Territory to enhance opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to pursue further education. Using a collaborative research approach campus-based and remote Aboriginal community-based staff have co-developed community action plans that clearly define the strategies and activities identified and prioritised by each community. This process has resulted in the development of numerous agreements with local Aboriginal community controlled organisations to strengthen a commitment towards further education, ultimately shifting the power of control to the community level and increasing self-determination. It has also supported a heightened awareness of, and interest in, opportunities to pursue tertiary education pathways within each community. In this presentation we will draw on progress against the community action plans to demonstrate outcomes achieved through the WCE initiative. We will also describe key lessons learned during the planning and implementation phases.

Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the methodical study of social networks. It is increasingly used in a range of interdisciplinary research contexts to examine the relationships between people, groups and organisations. The potential to use SNA for collaborative research projects is increasingly recognised, yet it has seldom been applied in projects set in remote Indigenous contexts, or in education research. We have commenced exploring this potential and will discuss how SNA has been applied through the Whole of Community Engagement (WCE) initiative at Charles Darwin University. This is a multi-site participatory action research project that uses a bottom-up community engagement approach with six remote Indigenous communities across the Northern Territory (NT). The primary aim is to build a deeper understanding of the aspirations of and opportunities for Indigenous learners. This is in concert with identifying potential levers for system improvement to promote Indigenous participation and achievement in higher education. We will explain the explorative process that has taken place to collectively identify the most appropriate and useful application of SNA within our research project. This includes intensive SNA training; consideration of ethical issues and the possibilities and limitations of SNA; data collection techniques to support SNA; and the identification of suitable SNA software (i.e. Gephi). We describe the methods used to map the diverse and emergent relationships developed between the WCE project team and individual people and organisations within the remote Indigenous community contexts. Using SNA diagrams we will show how relationships were mapped at the commencement of the WCE initiative community engagement process based on case studies from East Arnhem, West Arnhem and Central Australia regions of the NT. We will also draw on complementary qualitative research arising primarily from interview data and field notes to provide additional evidence about the nature and quality of these relationships and to show the benefit of combining SNA with other research methods. We argue that SNA used in conjunction with qualitative research methods can provide an important research tool to illustrate the growth and nature of relationships developed during a community engagement process associated with an Indigenous higher education program in the NT. We encourage other educational researchers to consider the utility of SNA, particularly within Indigenous research contexts.

Proving native title in southern Australia can be an arduous task. In some areas of south west Queensland, the country was almost entirely vacated of Aboriginal presence through the forced removal of entire families from camps on pastoral stations to government reserves. Aboriginal claimants often lament the ‘circus hoops’ they feel they are made to jump through in order to prove their connection to the land and waters they are claiming, to the very government that removed them in the first place. In this paper, I explore these issues of performance, authenticity, and (re) connection to country from the perspective of personal interactions between claimants, ‘the state’, and Queensland South Native Title Services staff made possible by a one-off meeting that occurred ‘on country’ as a final measure to convince the Queensland government of connection, and which eventually led to a consent determination.

Few studies have primarily addressed Indigenous girls’ experiences in contemporary boarding schools in Australia or Aotearoa New Zealand. In response, this research was developed in conjunction with Indigenous students attending boarding schools to look at their school experiences. Fifteen Aboriginal girls attending two non-Indigenous Australian boarding schools and ten girls from one Mãori boarding school were involved in this research. An Indigenous research method termed ‘photoyarn’ was developed as a method students could use to drive and control their own research, on their own experiences, using student photo-graphy, yarning and yarning circles. Underpinned and viewed through the lens of Martin’s (2008) relatedness theory, this research also drew on Indigenous methodologies centred on connectedness and relatedness, such as storywork. Photoyarn allowed participants to lead their own research in ways that many other methods could not, through participant-led data collection, analysis and dissemination.

Each year over 500 Indigenous students from Cape York in Far North Queensland and the communities of the Torres Strait leave their home communities to attend boarding school in a variety of locations in Queensland and interstate. A significant number of these students do not complete their first year of secondary education, let alone their Year 12 studies. For young people from the remote Indigenous community of Lockhart River, 800 kms north of Cairns on Cape York, the transition to boarding school is a fact of life when they complete Year 7. In 2015 the transition will occur at the end of Year 6. With this transition, Lockhart River mirrors remote Indigenous communities throughout Far North Queensland and remote regions in South Australia, Western Australian and the Northern Territory. Access for remote Indigenous students to comprehensive secondary education in major urban centres is a key element of government policy aimed at addressing significant disparities in education outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students. Despite this, there is little recent research into the transition process and its effectiveness in ensuring the delivery of a quality secondary education. A review of the literature reveals that ‘little research has exclusively explored the experience for Aboriginal children of studying away from home at boarding school’ (Mander, 2012, p.9). The research described in this study uses qualitative methods, especially from a phenomenological orientation, to examine the transition from the perspective of the participants: students, parents and caregivers and school and support staff. Interviews and the analysis of relevant documents allow the research to ‘go inside’ the experience and provide detailed participant perspectives on the transition to boarding school. The research is conducted in a manner consistent with the requirements for working with Indigenous communities and is supported through the operation of an Indigenous advisory group. In all, the research works to engage the Lockhart River community and make an important contribution to the literature regarding participant perspectives on a transition process, the success of which is central to maximizing the opportunities for success for Indigenous students who must participate in secondary education well away from their home communities. In giving voice to a range of participants in the transition process , the research focuses on an area which has received little in the way of detailed analysis and scrutiny despite the importance of successful transitions in improving education and life chances for Indigenous children.

This paper examines the effectiveness of a professional learning model designed to support early years teachers to effectively teach mathematics to Indigenous students in, and from, remote and very remote communities in Queensland. All these schools are known to be educationally disadvantaged and to experience the poorest learning outcomes nationally. The situation is not improved by a revolving door of mostly inexperienced graduate teachers who are unprepared for the marked cultural, linguistic and social boundaries that exist between the majority Indigenous community and the predominantly non-Indigenous teaching community. A bank of pedagogical wisdom for non-Indigenous teachers to draw from rarely exists in these communities and access to professional development is often difficult due to the location. Low self-efficacy about their abilities to affect change in student learning can often result in teachers adopting a deficit model of teaching that further cements a cycle of student non-achievement. Effective PD is recognised globally as a key factor in shifting teachers' beliefs and attitudes about themselves and their students, on defining the goals they have for their students, which in turn influences their classroom practices. However, for change to be authentic and enduring a professional development model needs to be longer in duration and provide: extensive learning opportunities, frequent collaboration with an 'expert' in the field, regular opportunities to reflect on classroom practices and student learning, and ongoing classroom support. Data was collected from 35 teachers situated in 15 schools in the first stage of a large, four-year longitudinal study known as RoleM (Representations, oral language and engagement in Mathematics). The specific aims of RoleM are to (a) identify effective pedagogical practices that may assist young Indigenous Australian students to negotiate Western Mathematical understanding, and (b) investigate professional learning models that effectively provide the structure to support the needs and concerns of teachers within their situated context. The findings to date strongly indicate that teacher attitudes and beliefs can be transformed by a model of professional learning that enables teachers to experience repeated success in implementing a rigorous mathematics program and adopting a range of pedagogical practices. Improved student motivation, engagement and learning in mathematics, a result of changing pedagogical practices, increases teacher self-efficacy, and further enhances teacher confidence in their mathematical knowledge, teaching ability, pedagogical practices and understanding of students learning needs.

Since mining commenced in Australia, miners have continuously and repeatedly fallen off the wagon. With the prime focus being on commercial prosperity, many promises are made but few are kept. So what does it take now, in the 21st century, to stay on the wagon? In 2011 Western Desert Resources Limited (WDR), a small explorer, commenced its journey to development and production in late 2013 of its iron ore project in the remote Roper and Gulf of Carpentaria regions - in record time for a bulk commodity miner in Australia. Close by, other new mines are also beginning operations. The Northern Land Council (NLC) has negotiated new agreements for these mine and infrastructure developments, and is now focused on employment and training outcomes for local people to help these miners “stay on the wagon” and not revert to decades of repetitive history.

There is considerable uncertainty surrounding population estimates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians at both the aggregate and subregional levels. Given well-documented limitations of efforts to enumerate the existing population at a point in time, the task of projecting future populations is even more problematic, and currently no regular projections are produced below the state level. However, information on future trends in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations at more disaggregated geographical and demographic levels would be of enormous value for policy and planning. This is particularly so for remote Australia and the remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for which there has been ongoing controversy about the provision of services and infrastructure and even their very ‘viability’. Policies, planning and funding models based on inaccurate assumptions of future populations are likely to lead to misallocation of resources and sub-optimal outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This paper sets out a proposed methodology for generating projections of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations in Outer regional and Remote Australia, down to the community (or ‘Indigenous Location’) level. Based on 2006 and 2011 Census data, projections for remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for 2016 are presented by age group and gender, and the implications of those estimates for policy are discussed. These estimates should be considered experimental and are selected from a range of models under development. Release of 2016 Census data will enable validation of the different models and provide a panel dimension that can be used to substantially enhance modelling for generating 2021 projections and beyond.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation’s Remote Education Systems project is midway through a five year research program. The focus of the research has been firstly on understanding the nature of the problems encountered by the system and those living in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as they grapple with how to achieve success for students. In the process of gathering data, the project team has challenged many of the assumptions underpinning the core of the education system. It has also considered how success, aspiration and educational advantage might be reconceptualised if the system was to take into account the voices of those who live in the expansive ‘red dirt’ of remote Australia. Internationally and in Australia, Indigenous academics have called for a shift in the power dynamics that inform what knowledge is valued in Australian schools. Over the last few decades, political policies and priorities have moved through a series of positions on the continuum of the knowledge interface, ranging from two (or both) way learning, the ‘anti-colonial’ knowledge position and more recently, a return to nationally uniform approaches to measuring student achievement and ‘success’. In the current period of federating teacher standards, curriculum and assessment tools, the nation’s attention has shifted away from prioritising how schools might amplify the intergenerational knowledge and values that exist in very remote communities in order to close the achievement gap that exists between very remote Aboriginal students and other Australians in relation to nationally uniform education outcomes. This paper brings together Aboriginal educators from the very remote contexts of Central Australia and poses the question ‘what do young people in very remote Aboriginal schools need to know and why?’ In proposing the concept of a ‘red dirt’ curriculum, we explore the perspectives of senior Aboriginal educators in relation to the knowledge contest that plays out in schools across the very remote regions of Australia. In doing so, we then propose some key considerations for remote educators, leaders and the systems they work in as we pursue quality education and the justice agenda.

Sam is currently conducting a series of interviews as part of his PhD research in tri-state remote communities in Central Australia. This paper examines the methodological challenges in privileging the voices and standpoints of senior community members in the critical conversation about education, young people and the future. Are the voices of senior community members ignored in the education conversation? Are they still relevant in a post-modern world almost unrecognisable to the world they were born into? Or is it simply a matter of remote educators and leaders not knowing how to ‘hear' these voices and take account of the experience, wisdom and potential they offer to the educational experience for Anangu students? This paper highlights key aspects of the methodological approach Sam is undertaking in his study and also explores some of the emerging issues and challenges that are posed from the data and the collection process. In doing so, it also raises discussion in regards to the challenges and the opportunities for Anangu standpoints in tri-state communities to inform educational leadership and the broader system to improve education outcomes for students.

This paper presents a number of key findings in a PhD thesis that critically and qualitative investigated the 2008 Northern Territory (NT) school language education policy, 'Compulsory Teaching in English For the First Four Hours of Each School Day’. This policy led to the sustained abandonment of bilingual education policy in the NT as well as the demise or severe compromise of the nine remaining bilingual education programs in remote Indigenous schools. The paper relates some of the critical discourse analysis (CDA) findings of the policy text and policy discourse in addition to the content analysis and CDA findings of interviews on two remote communities in relation to the effects of the policy. The community interviews involved methodology that included critical participatory ethnographic case study research in the field.Given the onus on Fairclough (1989) and Reisigl and Wodak’s (2009) Historical Discourse Analysis, the analysis has been informed by the works of Foucault, Bourdieu, and others. As such, it explores in the policy the influence of neoliberal globalization, the positioning and representation of Indigenous people and how these are related to the nation-state. The strong Indigenous ‘voice’ in the community texts also allows an Indigenous appraisal of key facets of NT education policy formation and implementation.

The term ‘community engagement’ has become common in governmental discourse across OECD countries including Australia. In the context of remote Aboriginal Australia there is a strong evidence base pointing to the importance of local community control and ownership for effective service delivery particularly in sectors such as health and wellbeing, land management, education and employment. Yet the term ‘community engagement’ means different things to different people with recognised tensions between communities, service providers and governments. A call for strengthening and building meaningful relationships which benefit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples residing in remote areas continues to be heard and questions around how true and meaningful engagement is or does occur continue to be asked. Through drawing on qualitative data collected as part of the CRC for Remote Economic Participation Interplay Project, this paper helps to define what is meant by engagement in the context of ‘remote’ Aboriginal Australia. In particular, it draws attention to what it might mean for researchers to ‘engage’ in these spaces and what insights such experiences can provide in terms of service provider and governmental relationships with ‘community’.

The Cape York Aboriginal Australian Academy began operation as part of the government schooling system at two campuses in remote Aboriginal communities in Cape York (Coen and Aurukun) in 2010 as a three-year "pilot". In 2011, the Academy expanded its operations to the Hopevale Aboriginal community. The proposal for the Academy was developed by Cape York Partnerships (CYP), an organisation headed by Noel Pearson, a prominent Aboriginal activist. The Academy incorporates activities across three overlapping "domains": Class - the formal schooling component; Culture - Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultural knowledge; and Club - sporting, cultural, music and physical education activities. The Academy operates over an extended school day. It makes use of the controversial instructional strategy known as Direct Instruction. Unlike other public schools in Queensland the Academy has a "board" that oversees its operation. Implementation of the Academy pilot has been marked by a number of problems but also apparent successes. This year (2012) is notionally the final year of the Academy pilot. Additionally, significant funding to support the pilot was drawn from the Low SES Schools National Partnerships Program, which is due to conclude at the end of the 2012-13 financial year. It is therefore timely to consider what the evidence to date shows about the efficacy of this reform. While a framework for rigorously evaluating the Academy trial has been developed, there have been delays in implementing the evaluation process. It is possible, but unlikely, that some preliminary data will be available from the formal evaluation to inform this paper. The paper draws on the following sources: - Data provided by the Academy, CYP and the Queensland Department of Education, Training and Employment; - Literature reviews relating to Direct Instruction and Indigenous school reform; - Personal observations at the Academy in 2010 and 2011; - Meetings/interviews/discussions with staff at the Academy, DETE and CYP. A significant problem is expected to be the failure to complete the planned formal evaluation within the timelines of the three-year pilot. That said, it is possible to draw some tentative conclusions from the available evidence, which indicates: Literacy, numeracy, behaviour and perhaps attendance have improved; - Disputation about the efficacy of Direct Instruction is not likely to be resolved based on student performance data relating to the above areas; - Sorting through the relative contributions of other factors (e.g. additional funding, a high expectations approach, small classes) will be difficult; - Assessment of the Academy is likely to be coloured by one's position on Noel Pearson's wider Indigenous social policy agenda. In short, debate about the degree to which the Academy provides a model for Indigenous schooling reform will be ongoing

This working paper provides a focused review and discussion of literature, research and industry conversations pertaining to the use of native plants of inland central Australia, particularly those procured by Aboriginal people in remote drylands. It integrates key factors from bush foods plant business research with reference to complex systems theories used to (re)frame what we understand about the interrelationships of plants, knowledge and society in this arid region. The customary economic intersections stem from a small research project about the incorporation of customary practice and knowledge that is in everyday community use into social enterprise or other markets, value chains and systems of production. The paper seeks to integrate what we know through such research partnerships with Aboriginal custodians, harvesters and entrepreneurs with theories and policies relevant to the human geographic context of remote inland central Australia, and with a wider industry-focused literature related to horticultural development of agribusinesses. In addition, conversations with industry stakeholders reflect on the current policy discourse and its lack of reflection of remote inland central Australian networks, values and priorities in Australian Government northern development agendas. Formative findings from a research conference paper delivered at the Taiwan Austronesia 2016 conference: Community Economy, Market System and Transnational Trade Agreement (Lovell, 2016) reflect some questions and findings about current Aboriginal native plant use at an intersection with the health of people and the ecology of central Australia. Excerpts are included here, with further analysis towards incorporating central Australian native plants use, and their protection and value as assets of Aboriginal people and lands, into development scenarios based on ecological health and wellbeing outcomes. The public policy context and agenda are discussed in light of how they intersect and reflect the networks, agency and activity. This necessitates reframing the problem of a marginal remote inland that is associated with northern Australian development policy to include a functional remote and networked domain, albeit far away from the coastline-dominated discourse of Australian governments’ northern development agenda.

Building research capacity and achieving positive impacts in remote communities

Being there: Why is fly in fly out research failing remote Aboriginal Australians

Despite concerted effort and expenditure, improving the numeracy outcomes for Indigenous students particularly those in remote regions continues to be a major challenge. There are many factors that impact on the learning of Indigenous students in remote communities. For students, learning mathematics is a complex task when English is their second or third language. Other student factors involve attendance, transience and retention. In Western Australia, many teachers in remote Indigenous communities are new graduates, and as well as being inexperienced in teaching mathematics, they also have little experience being in a remote community with Indigenous people. Some larger schools may have numeracy specialist teachers who can provide mentoring and professional learning support. However in the smaller schools there is an often limited face-to-face professional learning opportunities. In 2010 seven schools in the Kimberley in Western Australia established the Fitzroy Valley Numeracy Project. The project aims to improve the numeracy outcomes of Indigenous students by developing a systematic and co-ordinated approach to teaching mathematics that can be sustained long-term, beyond staff turnovers, transfer of 'expert' teachers, or one-off funding arrangements. A study was commenced to examine the impact of the project on primary teachers' content-pedagogic knowledge and classroom practice. This paper is part of an ongoing larger study. It examines some data from an initial survey and a follow up survey after almost a year of implementation of the project. Twenty one teachers responded to the Initial Questionnaire, twelve teachers responded to the Follow Up Questionnaire, and of that number 8 responded to both. At the end of the year they seemed confident to select a mathematics focus, cater for the range of achievement in their classes, monitor student learning and use classroom management strategies. They seemed less confident in diagnosing student learning, making the mathematics focus of the lesson clear to their students and providing activities that engage their students. The results indicate that dealing with the literacy demands in the mathematics lesson needs more investigation.

This paper interrogates the knowledge reported in current international writing about inclusive education (IE) in regional and remote settings, with explicit reference to Australian considerations, including the emergent National Curriculum. It establishes the types of knowledge reported about IE in minority, marginalized and 'other' inclusive educational settings, and locates the absences of knowledge that the current literature indicates. Finally, future directions for research into IE in minority educational settings are proposed.

Skills for Life' is a strengths-based social and emotional learning program that aims to promote resilience, coping and problem-solving skills for Indigenous youth in remote communities. It has a focus on mental health, wellbeing and help-seeking and aims to help reduce risks of self-harm. It represents a synthesis of the best available evidence-informed research into teaching of social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools. 'Skills for Life' has been developed by a team of researchers at Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin, and is funded by an NHMRC grant (APP1076817). The program was piloted in 2015 in Maningrida, a coastal town West Arnhem Land, and is now being scaled up in a number of Northern Territory schools.Evidence-based resources to support social and emotional learning are now widely used in Australian schools. However to date, SEL materials have not been systematically adapted, much less explicitly designed, for Australian Indigenous youth in remote and very remote communities. An essential consideration in developing the 'Skills for Life' program was that in the target communities lifestyles and social relationships are largely shaped by traditional concepts of kinship and associated relational patterns and social-emotional competencies. In the pilot school, as in most remote settings, it was also necessary to cater for students with a wide range of literacy skills (in this case ranging from Year 3 to Year 9 equivalent).In this paper we discuss some of the measures we took to develop the content and pedagogical approach for Skills for Life in order to best engage with students’ cultural realities and preoccupations, and to match the materials to students’ literacy levels and proficiency in English. These measures included staging activities carefully to help students build language and abstract concepts, and developing short scripts to help teachers frame each activity in an intentional and explicit way. We also designed specific resources, such as cartoons that represent scenarios students can relate to, and that provide a narrative prompt for in-depth discussion.

Schools in very remote Australia, where the students are mainly Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders, are often characterised as failing or behind with intractable problems. The recent Northern Territory Review of Indigenous Education makes just that point: "These children, who have been the focus of improvement efforts for a decade and more, are still left irretrievably behind almost as soon as they start school" (Wilson, 2014, p. 11). A critical examination of that statement and several more like it, would show that ‘behind' is inevitably a judgement based on a set of assumptions and values that are not necessarily shared by those they talk about. But what do the students and families themselves say about their vision and expectations of their future, how they see success and how they view their experiences of school? This paper reports on the findings and implications emerging from an evaluation of 31 very remote Australian schools with 80+ per cent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander enrolment. It is based on a series of ‘Collegial Snapshots' conducted by Dare to Lead (a project of Principals Australia Institute) between 2009 and 2013. The Snapshots sought the perspectives of 672 participants as either school leaders, Aboriginal Assistants, classroom teachers, students or parents and carers. Analysis of the data looking through a lens of aspiration, success and school experience, carried out with the support of the Australian Council of Educational Research adds to the findings of the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation's Remote Education Systems project. The findings presented here, provide valuable insights into the perceptions of local people in remote communities and how they compare with the non-locals. Not surprisingly there are some marked differences in the way that locals and non-locals view their experiences and expectations of schools and their views about the future. The paper considers the implications for educators, school leaders and education systems as they grapple with the challenges of working with remote communities to get the best outcomes for students and families. In particular the diverging opinions point to a careful examination of the claims of disadvantage and who has the intractable problem.

The Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation's Remote Education Systems project is midway through a five year research program. The focus of the research has been firstly on understanding the nature of the problems encountered by the system and those living in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as they grapple with how to achieve success for students. In the process of gathering data, the project team has challenged many of the assumptions underpinning the core of the education system. It has also considered how success, aspiration and educational advantage might be reconceptualised if the system was to take into account the voices of those who live in the expansive ‘red dirt' of remote Australia. At this phase in our research, we are ready to put forward some tentative models that could pave the way for stakeholders to explore alternative forms and structures that better reflect the needs of students, their families and their communities. In this paper the authors present these models in the frame of a developing theory of educational engagement in remote Australia, based on a set of co-constructed philosophical assumptions that both build on mainstream aims of education (for example as expressed in the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians) and at the same time reflect the realities of life in very remote Australia. The models are generated at the ‘cultural interface', situated in the ‘red dirt' of remote Australian communities. The models consider issues of governance, curriculum, reporting and pedagogy. The authors' intentions are not to provide definitive solutions, but rather options that can be debated and considered for practical use by the key stakeholders in very remote communities.

Schooling for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in remote or ‘Red Dirt’ (Guenther, Disbray and Osborne, 2016) communities has been cast as ‘problematic’, and ‘failing’. The solutions to deficit understandings of remote schooling are often presented as simple. But for those who work in red dirt schools, the solutions are not simple, and for education leaders positioned between the local ‘red dirt’ school and upward accountability (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010) to departments of education they are complex. Between 2011 and 2016, the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation’s (CRC-REP) Remote Education Systems project explored how education could better meet the needs of those living in remote communities. More than 1000 people with interests in remote education contributed to the research. Education leaders were identified as one stakeholder group. These leaders included school-based leaders, bureaucrats, community based leaders, and teacher educators preparing university graduates for ‘red dirt’ schools. This paper focuses on what ‘red dirt’ education leaders think is important for schooling. The findings show school leaders as ‘caught in the middle’ (Gonzales and Firestone, 2013) between expectations communities, and of system stakeholders who drive policy, funding, and accountability measures. The paper concludes with some implications for policy and practice that follow on from the findings.