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Looking forward looking black: making the case for a radical rethink of strategies for success in Indigenous higher education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2020

Chelsea Bond ,
Mark Brough ,
Bryan Mukandi ,
Shannon Springer ,
Deborah Askew  and
Janet Stajic Open the ORCID record for Janet Stajic [Opens in a new window]
Chelsea Bond*
Affiliation:
School of Social Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland4072, Australia
Mark Brough
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland4059, Australia
Bryan Mukandi
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland4072, Australia
Shannon Springer
Affiliation:
Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland4229, Australia
Deborah Askew
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland4072, Australia
Janet Stajic
Affiliation:
Faculty of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland4072, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Chelsea Bond, E-mail: c.bond3@uq.edu.au
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Abstract

This study takes a retrospective look at the educational experiences of Indigenous health professionals who graduated from The University of Queensland's Indigenous Health Program between 1994 and 2005, to understand the enablers for growing an Indigenous health workforce capable of advancing the health of Indigenous peoples. Drawing on the qualitative accounts of 31 students and 9 staff members, this paper examines the enablers to educational success at this time, juxtaposed against current Indigenising agendas in higher education, of aspiration and capacity building alongside the task of embedding Indigenous knowledges within curricula. We look back not as a call to return to Indigenous-specific cohort courses but rather reconsider both the measures of and strategies for success in Indigenous higher education, within health and beyond, interrogating the ideological assumptions that inform them.

Keywords

Health workforcehigher educationIndigenous healthIndigenous knowledgessovereignty
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 49 , Special Issue 2: Critical conversations on higher education as an enabler to building an Indigenous health workforce , December 2020 , pp. 153 - 162
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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