Location Matters: overcoming the barriers to education for Indigenous students in rural and remote Australia

Recent research in Australia has identified that there is a serious lack of Indigenous teachers working within educational institutions. Given that attainment levels for Indigenous students across all areas of education are below those of their non-Indigenous counterparts, this is of some concern. While many barriers such as low socio-economic status have been identified, students from rural and remote areas have further identified barriers which include an absence of institutional support, factors of isolation and age, as being some of the reasons for not completing their studies. With this in mind, several universities across Australia have implemented programs aimed at improving retention rates of education students from Indigenous communities. In the first half of 2012, Charles Sturt University piloted the Teacher Education in Community Program (TEC) as a way of addressing this inequity, and although close partnerships were formed between the University, the students and their communities, several students withdrew from the program. There is therefore a need to understand why this occurred. Using a case study approach, and the Indigenous methodology of yarning, this study seeks to determine any unforeseen challenges faced by these students as identified by the students themselves. By way of locating the study within a social justice framework, a greater understanding of these barriers will assist in establishing what more can be done to improve attainment levels for these students.