Unearthing Assumptions of Engaged Research About (Indigenous) Engagement Within School Communities

Wegner, A, Lea, T, Holmes, Catherine, McRae-Williams, Eva, Chenhall, R, Thompson, H and Karam, J (2010) Unearthing Assumptions of Engaged Research About (Indigenous) Engagement Within School Communities. In: 2010 AUCEA National Conference: Communities participation and Partnership 5-7 July. Australian University Community Engagement Alliance Inc, Southern Cross University, pp. 157-164. ISBN 978-0-9803610-7-0

[img]
Preview
PDF (Complete conference proceedings)
Proceedings_of_AUCEA_2010.pdf

Download (3MB) | Preview

Abstract

This paper explores engagement through multiple prisms: engagement in the context of community-oriented university research, engagement conducted under the auspices of a research partnership with a community organisation that itself sponsors school-community engagement; and engagement as the subject of research. In the research presented here, we are exploring the dynamics and levels of engagement in school-parent relationships in two urban and one regional primary school in the Northern Territory, with a particular emphasis on the carers responsible for Indigenous students in these community settings.
Prompted by our ‘engagement’ with schools and the not-for-profit community development organisation, this research started with the following assumption – that parental engagement with schools has positive effects on children’s educational outcomes, and that this engagement can be generated through the cultivation of enablers. This paper points to the need to re-conceptualise this assumption and examines the pressures from a variety of community and government organisations for collaborative researcher partnerships or university researchers to engage with industry partners (our relationships of engagement) in shaping a priori assumptions about engagement (our inquiry topic).

Item Type: Book Section
Keywords: levels of engagement; contradictions of engagement; engaged research; parent-school engagement; Indigenous engagement
Field of Research (2008): 13 Education > 1303 Specialist Studies in Education > 130301 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education
16 Studies in Human Society > 1601 Anthropology > 160104 Social and Cultural Anthropology
Subjects: L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2361 Curriculum
Date Deposited: 19 May 2011 03:34
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2015 14:12
URI: https://eprints.batchelor.edu.au/id/eprint/226

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item