Indigenous female leaders speak “we were breaking new ground” : biographic narratives as a way of exploring school and community partnerships in Northern Territory Indigenous remote community schools

Indigenous female leaders speak “we were breaking new ground” : biographic narratives as a way of exploring school and community partnerships in Northern Territory Indigenous remote community schools Journal Article

Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues

• Author(s): Kamara, M. S.
• Published: 2009
• Publisher: Federation University of Australia
• Volume: 12
• ISBN: 1440-5202

Link to resource Report broken link

Abstract: This paper is a work in progress of an aspect of a PhD research. The study investigates Indigenous female principals and issues involving school and community partnerships in remote Indigenous community schools in Northern Territory in Australia. As a data collection strategy the author has drawn upon the work of Rosenthal and Fisher-Rosenthal’s biographical narrative interpretive method (BNIM) developed in the early 1990s. The study adopts modifications of the approach by Wengraf. In recent years, there have been calls for Indigenous communities to have greater involvement in education as a way of improving Indigenous education. In the Northern Territory, Indigenous women in remote communities have been aspiring to leadership positions in education in their respective communities. These Indigenous female leaders are “breaking new ground” into a terrain that for a long time was the domain of non-Indigenous educators. The women narrate stories about their experiences in building school community partnerships, the journeys to their positions as school principals, as well as the day-to-day battles they face as women in leadership positions. The researcher interviewed each of the Indigenous female study participants in November and December of 2007. The methodology intends to privilege the voice of study participants. In achieving this aim, extensive interviews were conducted with study participants to capture their perspectives. The outcome of these discussions has provided rich and informative data on which this paper draws. Through biographical narratives, which employs a single question inducing narrative (SQUIN) the researcher elicits these stories and uses the principles and procedures of the Biographic-Interpretive Method to interpret their meaning. [Author abstract, ed]

• Urls: https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/aeipt.176884, https://search.informit.org/doi/full/10.3316/aeipt.176884
• Keywords: Australia, Northern Territory, Aboriginal teachers, Females, Geographic isolation, Leaders, Personal narratives, Principals, Rural schools, School community relationship