What Queensland Indigenous students and parents say about effective teaching practices: a Catholic Education intiative

Despite the often quoted characteristics of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and the plethora of untested 'good ideas' in the Australian literature, no systematic and empirically-based research provides any conclusive indication of ‘what works' in influencing Indigenous students' learning (Price & Hughes, 2009). As Rowe (2003) laments, there is a growing uneasiness related to how little is known about teacher quality from Indigenous students' own perspectives. This is echoed by Price and Hughes (2009) who claim that there is [still] astoundingly little known about what Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students see as the qualities of effective teachers, and the impact this has on educational outcomes. Considering the significant contribution in Canada and New Zealand made by government-funded, evidence-based studies in culturally responsive teaching grounded in Indigenous communities and their students' voiced identification of influences upon their learning (for example, Lewthwaite et al in Canada and Bishop et al in Aotearoa-New Zealand), it is disturbing that no similar empirically-based research exists in the Australian context. As Craven asserts (2007, p. 4) "there is astoundingly little known about what Aboriginal students see as the qualities of effective teachers and the impact this has on educational outcomes." As well, she states, "There is a need to critically validate the generalisability of the commonly cited claims [for example, by Hattie and Rowe] to Aboriginal students to tease out facets of quality teaching that are salient to Aboriginal students; elucidate their perspectives of teacher quality; and test the influence of specific facets of quality teaching on academic outcomes and the consequences of the findings for developing interventions for Aboriginal school students." The research described herewith focuses on addressing this imperative. This study presents the outcomes of the first phase of a three phase Australian Research Council research initiative which focuses on identifying through the voices of Aboriginal students, teachers and community members, the teaching practices that influence Aboriginal student engagement and learning. The study is associated with the Diocese of Townsville Catholic Education schools in northern Queensland, primarily in the Mount Isa area, a small rural city in northern Queensland, Australia. Through phenomenological aligned interviews, students, teachers and community members express their views of the characteristics of effective teachers and effective teaching. Considering that the national discourse in Australia is monopolised by discussion on teaching quality, we problematize this discourse based upon what the Aboriginal community asserts as characteristics of such practice