Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Strategies: What Australian Indigenous Students and Parents Have to Say

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Supporting Students: The Significance of Relationships, Behaviors, Language, and Abilities for Student Learning

Abstract

Australian Indigenous students are overrepresented in every indicator negatively that is associated with student behaviour; such as student suspension, attendance, expulsion, retention and achievement. Alarmingly absent in the effective teaching discourse in Australia is any discussion of the role culturally located teaching practices are likely to have on improving behaviour support for Indigenous students. As asserted by Sarra (2011), enacted curriculum, including behaviour support, must demonstrate links between school and the everyday realities of Indigenous Peoples life practices and cultures. The focus of this mixed methods study is to address the gap that exists in empirical research into strategies to support Indigenous student behaviour based upon what Indigenous students and their parents identify as appropriate behaviour support practices.

Authors

• Linda Llewellyn, James Cook University - Australia

• Brian Ellis Lewthwaite, James Cook University - Australia

• Helen Joanna Boon, James Cook University - Australia