Table Of ContentBronwyn Ewing
Grace Sarra
Educating
Indigenous
Children in
Australian Juvenile
Justice Systems
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in
Mathematics
Educating Indigenous Children in Australian
Juvenile Justice Systems
·
Bronwyn Ewing Grace Sarra
Educating Indigenous
Children in Australian
Juvenile Justice Systems
Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
in Mathematics
Bronwyn Ewing Grace Sarra
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education Faculty of Creative Industries, Education
and Social Justice and Social Justice
School of Teacher Education School of Early Childhood and Inclusive
and Leadership Education
Queensland University of Technology Queensland University of Technology
Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia Kelvin Grove, QLD, Australia
ISBN 978-981-19-8683-3 ISBN 978-981-19-8684-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8684-0
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Foreword
I consider it a great honour to be invited by Prof. Grace Sarra and Assoc. Prof.
Bronwyn Ewing to write the Foreword for their co-authored book titled: Educating
Indigenous Children in Australian Juvenile Justice Systems: Culturally Responsive
Pedagogy in Mathematics.
At a time when the development of a more culturally astute interactional frame-
work around the engagement of Australia’s First Nations People is being espoused
as a priority by Governments at all levels, this book provides a unique and timely
opportunity for a new dialogue to take place. This dialogue is around the development
and implementation of social policy, program management and service delivery with
regards to the over-incarceration of Indigenous Australians, and most specifically,
Indigenous youth.
While the authors utilise their cultural and professional experiences to provide
the reader with an analysis and articulation of issues that align with the appalling
statistics of Indigenous youth in the justice system, its impact on the engagement of
Indigenous People within the context of Australian education, justice, child safety,
health and human services more broadly cannot be underestimated.
From the outset, the authors fill the reader with a sense of enquiry as they astutely
adopt both a professional and cultural framework to explore an ideological, episte-
mological, cultural and theoretical overview of social policy, education and reform
as it pertains to the engagement of Indigenous young people within the Australian
justice system.
The authors provide the reader with a unique overview of matters pertinent to youth
justice within Australia’s jurisdictions and challenge the stereotypic meanderings that
have been espoused by social and political proponents about the over-incarceration
of Indigenous Australians for too long and put paid to the ability of current systems
to evidence an ability to effectively meet the needs of Indigenous families, their
communities and, most pointedly, Indigenous youth.
The authors take the reader on a socio-political and intellectual journey of histor-
ical and contemporary confrontation, cultural and systemic impediments and viable
pathways to reform. They reveal the inadequacies of a system that for too long has
retained a flawed operational framework that has proven to be culturally inapt and
v
vi Foreword
ineffective in its capacity to evidence proactive and measurable remedies to break the
cycle of Indigenous disadvantage, impoverishment, youth offending, disengagement
and self-harm.
While the authors skilfully and sensitively discuss the issue of Indigenous youth
engagement in the juvenile justice system as an integral component of the text, they
also speak to issues of resilience and determination, culturally inclusive curriculum
and pedagogy that builds upon the scholarship of Indigenous knowledge and world-
views enunciating the critical role that these principles play in the development of
policies and programs pertinent to Indigenous Australians.
The authors’ use of social action research, culturally responsive curriculum and
critical discourse has highlighted the need for appropriate standards to be applied,
as a measure of successfully addressing the cultural nuances that have continued
to impede change as it pertains to the rehabilitation, education and transitioning of
youth within the juvenile justice system. The research accomplished by the authors
provides a renewed and reinvigorated understanding of systemic and sociocultural
issues, human rights and social justice, which, for many advocates, has become a
matter of serious public concern.
Refreshingly, the authors have provided a review of historical and contemporary
sources pertinent to a much-needed process of systemic transformation and change in
the development of social policies, programs and services for Indigenous Australians
and, most specifically, Indigenous youth. This presents the reader with a compre-
hensive overview of controversial and sensitive social and political issues that have
emerged in the wake of social concerns pertaining to youth justice. In so doing, the
authors have highlighted the need for Governments to urgently take proactive and
strategic steps, which give life to the commitment to justice reinvestment and reform
initiatives as a means of breaking the overwhelming presence of social indicators in
the lives of Indigenous Australians and incarcerated youth.
In accomplishing this task, the authors have provided a compelling account of a
flawed system that has done little to move beyond the historical rhetoric to one that
can evidence the practical adoption of measures that give credence to Australia’s
commitment to the principles of reinvestment and reform across a wide range of
social indicators, as they pertain to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth.
While a history of Reports has identified many of the substantive issues facing
Aboriginal young people in the youth justice system, the authors have expanded this
by examining variables deemed to have been pertinent to the failure of successive
Governments to successfully implement restorative justice principles and culturally
inclusive and respectful education as they apply to the engagement of First Nations
young people in the youth justice system.
Aptly, the authors have duly profiled socio-political and systemic variables seen to
support the ongoing reliance on a “one size fits all” model of program development,
service delivery and policy management as the vehicle of choice adopted by Govern-
ments in addressing the ongoing over-incarceration and engagement of Indigenous
youth in the Australian youth justice system. This is despite the proclamation by
Governments of a commitment to restorative justice, systemic transformation and
change.
Foreword vii
Woven throughout the text of this book is a unique and courageous examination of
the systemic, political, social and cultural barriers that were deemed to have impeded
the ability of successive Governments and service providers to successfully address
the appalling statistics pertaining to Indigenous young people in the Australian justice
system.
Most importantly, the book’s uniqueness rests in the authors’ ability to transcend
the inability of many Indigenous Australians to articulate their traumatic experiences
within the education and justice systems, and for Governments to re-examine the
retention of archaic structures and systems that have been viewed as culturally biased,
ineffective and ill-aligned.
Uncompromisingly, the authors have provided an account of systemic and struc-
tural racism, segregation and isolation, as experienced by Indigenous youth, and
afford the reader with a courageous and articulate insight into matters seen as perti-
nent to the inadequacies of contemporary policies and services in meeting the needs
of the youth more effectively, within the justice and education systems.
This book provides an easy-to-read enunciation of issues and experiences of
young Indigenous people, their families and how their lives have been impacted
by colonisation. Although maths is used as a critical mechanism of engagement for
the young people involved, the adopted theoretical and epistemological principles
have a broader social and systemic application as they take the reader on a cultural
and intellectual journey of confrontation, cultural alienation and reform, providing a
much-needed challenge to stereotypic meanderings that have for too long supported
the imposition of colonial practices and the over-engagement of Indigenous people
within the adult and youth justice systems.
Whether by design or default, this book will help transcend social, systemic and
cultural boundaries by providing the reader with an insight into the plight of Indige-
nous people in their struggle to overcome the manifestations of colonial influences
frequently evident in the lives of Indigenous youth. The authors have provided a
concise and articulate analysis of Indigenous engagement in the youth justice system
within a framework that articulates the value of the interconnectedness of Western and
cultural theoretical provisions and discourse that has emanated from the successful
engagement of Indigenous young people themselves, their Elders and communities.
This book will prove to be a milestone in the development of a new political,
systemic, cultural and ideological dialogue between Governments, service providers
and First Nations people, where Western and cultural knowledge can be seen as
neither dominant nor subservient to each other in the quest to successfully accomplish
the principles of justice reinvestment, Closing the Gap and other policies espoused
by all levels of government over the last 50 years, with little, if any, evidence of
impact or reform.
The authors respectfully profile the variances, intersections and nuances between
two distinct theoretical and operational frameworks, treating the reader to an intricate
analysis of colonisation from within a cultural lens, affording them an insightful
understanding of the contemporary manifestations in the lives of Indigenous young
people and their families.
viii Foreword
Whether the reader is a professional or layperson, scholar, Elder, student or
Government representative, this book will prove to be an inspirational and inno-
vative source for those committed to addressing inadequacies in current structures
charged with the responsibility of developing initiatives to support the psychosocial,
cultural and familial development of First Nations youth.
The historical and contemporary prominence of this book will be evidenced by
its impact as an important educational tool for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous
people alike, raising awareness of the systemic barriers that can be overcome through
the adoption of practices and programs that profile and value the unique scholarship
of bi-cultural knowledge, theoretical frameworks and worldviews.
In highlighting the historic and contemporary anomalies in Indigenous Affairs, the
authors provide a critical framework that will stand as an influential guide for govern-
ments and allied professions committed to the development and delivery of more
culturally aligned, inclusive and proactive social policies, programs and services for
Indigenous young people and their families in youth justice, education, social justice,
health and human rights.
The imposition and confluence of punitive-driven policies and practices adopted
by successive Governments since colonisation have contributed to a protracted
history of programs and policies that have failed to effectively address the needs
of Indigenous Australians. The current crisis across adult corrections and youth
justice has many questioning the capacity of the current systems and structures to
successfully address the psychosocial and systemic variables required to rehabilitate
young offenders.
The authors provide a compelling account of a proactive approach to supporting
Indigenous youth in the education and justice system that moves beyond the histor-
ical rhetoric, to one that can evidence the practical adoption of a more cultur-
ally and systemically inclusive approach to breaking the back of Indigenous youth
incarceration.
At a point when the Australian Government has committed to working more
collegially with Indigenous people to negotiate social and systemic change, this
book echoes the sentiments of many Elders and social analysists, who over many
years have advocated that a more concise and culturally apt assessment of social
policy practices and programs for Indigenous Australians is not only warranted, but
urgently required.
This book will prove to be a challenging and yet cathartic resource for govern-
ments, service providers, industry providers and the broader community committed
to addressing the historical and contemporary injustices experienced by Indigenous
people, families and communities, and those who seek to advance more proactive
ways in which to address social determinants that for too long have been recognised
as a critical trajectory to the ongoing over-incarceration of Indigenous people in the
adult and youth justice systems.
Australia is at an important juncture in its progression as a lead nation that prides
itself on embracing humanitarian values and in taking ownership of historical and
contemporary injustices that have contributed to the over-incarceration of Indigenous
people in the justice system.
Foreword ix
From a cultural, systemic, social and political perspective, this book will prove to
be a powerful vehicle in the development of a more proactive approach for any level
of government willing to commit to the transformation required in systems pertinent
to the engagement of Indigenous youth in justice, health, education and aligned areas,
and as such, it has the promise of becoming a resource of national influence.
Prof. Boni Robertson
Adjunct, Macquarie University
Sydney, Australia
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge that the project reported in this book was funded by
the Australian Research Council—Indigenous Discovery Project IN150100045:
Unlocking the learning potential of incarcerated Indigenous and low SES young
people: Mathematics outcomes for future success.
xi
