The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education (Dec 2024)
Transformative school leadership that privileges the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian education
Abstract
The negative positioning of Indigeneity and the dominant Eurocentric structures entrenched in schooling structures in Australia continues to impact educational success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. This deficit discourse of Indigeneity and imposed structures, such as policy, are key factors in the educational success, or what is defined as success, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. This paper argues that an absence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholarship within school leadership approaches impacts the building of Indigenous futures. A relationally responsive approach centres Indigenous axiologies, ontologies and epistemologies, and supports Indigenous futurity praxis. The critical concern is how education as a discipline supports any notions of Indigenous futurity if it lacks Indigenous voice, research and scholarship in educational leadership. This paper synthesises existing literature to develop a conceptual framework, underpinned by existing evidence and gaps, for transforming educational leadership in Indigenous education. Using a transformative school leadership approach, it locates Indigenous voice, research and scholarship in the field of educational leadership with application for primary and secondary schooling contexts, and for government and non-government school contexts. The paper culminates with a tool for school leaders that supports critical self-reflection.
