‘Aboriginal Voices’: An overview of the methodology applied in the systematic review of recent research across ten key areas of Australian Indigenous education.

The ‘Aboriginal Voices’ project is a consortium of researchers invested in seeking
long-term solutions to the many and varied issues that have been identifed as factors
contributing to the underachievement of Indigenous students in education across
Australia. The Aboriginal Voices systematic review project established an agreed
methodology and protocols in order to map ten reviews to an overarching question:
‘What are the issues afecting the underachievement of Indigenous students in Australia and how can research inform solutions to the complex and inter-related issues
needing to be addressed?’ The Project focuses on bringing clarity to the overarching
question by applying a rigorous process with an Indigenous methodology to undertake these unique reviews. This introductory paper outlines the development of a
critical Indigenous methodology used in these discrete but inter-linked systematic
investigations. Using a consistent systematic methodology facilitated the re-aggregation of separate review fndings to achieve new whole-of-systems insights into
the complex issues afecting the educational opportunities of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander students.