The possibilities and practicalities of professional learning in support of Indigenous student experiences in schooling: A systematic review

The import of professional learning in support of quality teaching is well established. Moreover, demonstrating active engagement with ongoing professional learning is now a requirement of maintaining teacher accreditation. For example, within an education policy climate that monitors the achievements of Indigenous learners closely, the evaluation and efficacy of educators with constructively addressing the experiences of these students is under increasing scrutiny, and hence, the significance of professional learning is further heightened. But, what sort of professional learning is well suited and effective in contributing to this undertaking? This systematic review investigated the veracity of the evidence underpinning professional learning research projects that aimed to make a positive change in the approach and abilities of schools to effectively improve the learning experiences of Indigenous students in Australia over the last 10 years. The themes that emerged from the review emphasise the import of future professional learning practices finding ways to more genuinely ensure that Indigenous peoples contribute to leading these activities, explicitly address issues to do with culture, (anti) racism, power and relationships in schooling, and localise the politics of knowledge construction through the alignment of curriculum, pedagogy and context

Correction to: The possibilities and practicalities of professional learning in support of Indigenous student experiences in schooling: A systematic review (The Australian Educational Researcher, (2019), 46, 2, (341-361), 10.1007/s13384-019-00313-7)

In the original publication of the article, the author group was incorrectly published without the co-authors. The correct author group is “Greg Vass, Kevin Lowe, Cathie Burgess, Neil Harrison, Nikki Moodie”. Kevin Lowe is a Gubbi Gubbi man from southeast Queensland. He is a currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Macquarie University working on an innovative, community focused research project on developing a model of sustainable improvement in Aboriginal education. Kevin has had extensive, experience across the education sector, including teaching, TAFE administrator, University lecturer, and Inspector, Aboriginal Education in the NSW Board of Studies. Kevin has expertise in working with establishing successful programs with Aboriginal community organisations on establishing Aboriginal language policy and curriculum development and its implementation. Over the last 20 years Kevin has led educational projects with Aboriginal communities, schools and education systems that centre on the development of effective school-community learning partnerships. Recently Kevin has worked collaboratively with a team of crossinstitutional academics to review research across key areas of schooling and established the Aboriginal Voices a broad-base, holistic project which is developing a new pedagogic framework for teachers.

Correction to: ‘Aboriginal Voices’: An overview of the methodology applied in the systematic review of recent research across ten key areas of Australian Indigenous education (The Australian Educational Researcher, (2019), 46, 2, (213-229), 10.1007/s13384-019-00307-5)

In the original publication of the article, the author name “Cathie Burgess” was inadvertently missed in the author group. The correct author group is “Kevin Lowe · Christine Tennent · John Guenther · Neil Harrison · Cathie Burgess · Nikki Moodie · Greg Vass”. Cathie Burgess coordinates Aboriginal Studies, Aboriginal Community Engagement and the Master of Education: Leadership in Aboriginal Education programs at the University of Sydney. Cathie’s research involves community-led initiatives positioning Aboriginal cultural educators as experts through projects such as Learning from Country in the City, Aboriginal Voices: Insights into Aboriginal Education and Redfern Cultural Program. The original article has been corrected

A systematic review of pedagogies that support, engage and improve the educational outcomes of Aboriginal students

This review analyses studies that identify pedagogies to support, engage and improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student outcomes. Some studies focus on pedagogies to support and engage, while others describe pedagogies that are designed to improve engagement, attendance and academic skills. The role of context emerges as a key theme, particularly in remote areas. In larger studies, Aboriginal students are often a subset of a larger student group, included because of socio-economic status and achievement levels. Key findings indicate a disconnect between practice and outcomes where links to improved outcomes are by implication rather than evidence. Further, definitions and detail about pedagogies are mostly absent, relying on ‘common understandings’ of what pedagogy means. This review highlights that most of the research identifies effective pedagogies to engage and support Aboriginal students rather than to improve their educational outcomes

Factors affecting the development of school and Indigenous community engagement: A systematic review

School systems and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have long acknowledged the levels of social, cultural and epistemic conflict that has historically existed between teachers and schools, and Aboriginal students, families and their local communities. This relationship is both symptomatic and causal of the broader and highly complex field of issues and policies found to underpin the fraught histories existing between many Aboriginal communities and schools. This systematic review of the research literature reports on findings and insights into the everyday environments of these interactions and the possibilities of Aboriginal communities being able to affect the establishment of genuine and productive interactions with schools. The review looks to focus on those factors seen to either enable or act as barriers to this process, and comment on their impact on Aboriginal communities, their students and schools’ capacity for purposeful engagement

Factors contributing to educational outcomes for First Nations students from remote communities: A systematic review

Education for Australian First Nations students living in remote communities has long been seen as an intractable problem. Ten years of concerted effort under Closing the Gap and related policy initiatives has done little to change outcomes beyond small, incremental improvements. Programmes and strategies promising much have come and gone, and most have died a quiet death. This apparent failure leaves the context of remote education ripe for the picking. If we can demonstrate what works and why, it may provide an answer to the problem. This systematic review aims to uncover what research reveals about what does make a difference to outcomes for students. The review found 45 papers that provide considerable evidence to show what is and is not effective. The review also found several issues that have little or no evidence and which could be the subject of more research

Towards an Australian model of culturally nourishing schooling

2020 looms large for Indigenous education in Australia, with the ‘Refreshed’ Close the Gap strategy hanging over the collective heads of schools, Indigenous students and their families. After a decade of promises, there is now an acknowledgement within the government that programmes to improve student outcomes in literacy, numeracy and school engagement, as currently implemented, have little possibility in affecting the changes required to sustainably shift Indigenous student’s schooling success. This paper draws together the findings from eleven concurrent systematic reviews of Australian Indigenous education (AER, 2019, 29(1)) and an in-depth analysis of four key underpinning elements of a culturally nourishing education for Australian Indigenous students. It is argued that the four tenets of this model centres on the curriculum construct of Learning from Country, the authentic inclusion of cultural practices and Indigenous languages in both curriculum and school practice, establishing epistemic and pedagogic mentoring for teachers and the development of a robust professional development model to support a transformative shift in teachers’ pedagogic practices. The authors argue that a whole-school approach explicitly negotiated with and supported by Indigenous families, and that centres these key principles are required if the promise of educational success is ever to be met

Environmental pH and a Glu364 to Gln mutation in the chlorophyll-binding CP47 protein affect redox-active TyrD and charge recombination in Photosystem II

In Photosystem II, loop E of the chlorophyll-binding CP47 protein is located near a redox-active tyrosine, Y-D, forming a symmetrical analog to loop E in CP43, which provides a ligand to the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC). A Glu364 to Gln substitution in CP47, near Y-D, does not affect growth in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803; however, deletion of the extrinsic protein PsbV in this mutant leads to a strain displaying a pH-sensitive phenotype. Using thermoluminescence, chlorophyll fluorescence, and flash-induced oxygen evolution analyses, we demonstrate that Glu364 influences the stability of Y-D and the redox state of the OEC, and highlight the effects of external pH on photosynthetic electron transfer in intact cyanobacterial cells

First search for gravitational waves from the youngest known neutron star

We present a search for periodic gravitational waves from the neutron star in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. The search coherently analyzes data in a 12 day interval taken from the fifth science run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. It searches gravitational-wave frequencies from 100 to 300 Hz and covers a wide range of first and second frequency derivatives appropriate for the age of the remnant and for different spin-down mechanisms. No gravitational-wave signal was detected. Within the range of search frequencies, we set 95% confidence upper limits of (0.7–1.2) × 10^(−24) on the intrinsic gravitational-wave strain, (0.4–4) × 10^(−4) on the equatorial ellipticity of the neutron star, and 0.005–0.14 on the amplitude of r-mode oscillations of the neutron star. These direct upper limits beat indirect limits derived from energy conservation and enter the range of theoretical predictions involving crystalline exotic matter or runaway r-modes. This paper is also the first gravitational-wave search to present upper limits on the r-mode amplitude

Search for gravitational waves from low mass compact binary coalescence in LIGO’s sixth science run and Virgo’s science runs 2 and 3

We report on a search for gravitational waves from coalescing compact binaries using LIGO and Virgo observations between July 7, 2009, and October 20, 2010. We searched for signals from binaries with total mass between 2 and 25M_⊙; this includes binary neutron stars, binary black holes, and binaries consisting of a black hole and neutron star. The detectors were sensitive to systems up to 40 Mpc distant for binary neutron stars, and further for higher mass systems. No gravitational-wave signals were detected. We report upper limits on the rate of compact binary coalescence as a function of total mass, including the results from previous LIGO and Virgo observations. The cumulative 90% confidence rate upper limits of the binary coalescence of binary neutron star, neutron star-black hole, and binary black hole systems are 1.3×10^(-4), 3.1×10^(-5), and 6.4×10^(-6)  Mpc^(-3) yr^(-1), respectively. These upper limits are up to a factor 1.4 lower than previously derived limits. We also report on results from a blind injection challenge