Pathways to success: AIME\u27s educational mentoring model

The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) is a structured educational mentoring program provided for Indigenous students to access throughout their high school experience. The program is designed to support students to complete high school and transition into university, further education and training or employment at the same rate as every Australian child, effectively closing the gap on educational outcomes. To better understand the impact of the program, AIME has developed a research partnership with a team of researchers from the University of Wollongong (UOW) and the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Comprising researchers with experience in qualitative and quantitative approaches, this research has grown from a small UOW internally funded project, to a large national project. This collaborative research partnership has already spanned five years and has produced several theorised academic papers, based on both qualitative and quantitative research that describes the AIME program and its merits (Bodkin-Andrews et al. 2013; O\u27Shea et al. 2013; Kervin et al. 2014; O\u27Shea et al. 2014; Harwood et al. 2015). Findings from the research to date have reported the success of the AIME program in engaging Indigenous young people in education (Bodkin-Andrews et al. 2013) as well as described the novel ways that the AIME program reorients the focus on aspirations to one of \u27recognition of aspirations\u27 (Harwood et al. 2014). Further analysis continues to be conducted, including the outcomes of an AIME national survey in 2014 and a paper currently under review that explains the different pedagogy used in the AIME program (McMahon et al, under review). All research activities through this partnership are aligned with protocols for research with Indigenous Australians, as described by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. We work collaboratively to discuss, plan and develop research projects and we have adapted data analyses approaches so we can engage in-group analysis so that a range of perspectives and epistemologies are able to be applied the collected data

Recognising aspiration: The AIME program\u27s effectiveness in inspiring Indigenous young people\u27s participation in schooling and opportunities for further education and employment

A strong feature of the widening participation agenda is improving the aspirations of groups that are underrepresented in higher education. This paper seeks to reposition the utility of this as a focal point of educational interventions by showcasing the success of a mentoring program that takes a different approach. The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) significantly and positively impacts Australian Indigenous high school students\u27 aspirations to finish school and continue to further study, training or employment. AIME is not read as a classic intervention program for raising aspirations. Instead, AIME builds upon the cultural wealth of participants and adopts an approach that seeks to inspire individuals rather than remediate them. The paper draws on survey data and fieldwork to present an example case study for resisting the assumption that young people\u27s aspirations are deficit and in need of \u27improving\u27. The paper describes how AIME works within young people\u27s \u27windows of aspiration\u27 to positively impact their engagement in school and further education, training and employment

AIME and the University of Wollongong: The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience

The collaborative research partnership between the University of Wollongong and the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME), an Indigenous community organisation, has grown from internal university funding to national funding. This mutually beneficial partnership has resulted in: outputs to AIME for use in their program; funded educational opportunities for Indigenous students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels; and the design of statistical tools for the collection of quantitative data on the program

AIM(E) for completing school and university : analysing the strength of the Australian Indigenous mentoring experience

Purpose: Generally, theory and research investigating the effectiveness of mentoring has offered little resounding evidence to attest to mentoring programmes being a strategic initiative that make a real difference in reducing the educational inequities many minority students endure. In contrast to this existing research base, the Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME) has often been cited as one of the most successful mentoring initiatives within Australia. It is the purpose of this chapter to examine how AIME may impact on the educational aspirations and school self-concept of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Methodology: A series of multi-group analyses were centred around Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and structural equation modelling techniques that sought not only to explore the psychometric validity of the measures utilized within this study, but also to identify how the measures may be related after accounting for background variables (e.g. gender, parental education). Findings: The results found that the measures utilized held strong psychometric properties allowing an increased level of confidence in the measures used and the conclusion that may be drawn from their use in analyses. Overall, the results suggested that AIME is an effective tool for increasing not only the educational aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students but also their levels (and utility) of School Self-concept and School Enjoyment. Implications: The implications suggest that not only is AIME an essential tool for closing the educational gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Aboriginal students, but also our understanding of mentoring must be extended well beyond simplistic notions of role-modelling

\u27No Shame at AIME\u27: Listening to Aboriginal Philosophy and Methodologies to Theorise Shame in Educational Contexts

Shame is a \u27slippery\u27 concept in educational contexts but by listening to Aboriginal philosophy and Country, we can rethink its slipperiness. This article contemplates how multiple understandings of shame are derived from and coexist within colonised educational contexts. We focus on one positive example of Indigenous education to consider how these understandings can be challenged and transformed for the benefit of Indigenous learners. We discuss a mentoring program run by and for Indigenous young people that is successfully impacting school retention and completion rates: The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience (AIME). AIME has a rule, \u27No Shame at AIME\u27, with the view to minimising shame as a barrier to engaging with Western education. But is this as beneficial as might first appear? Might this erode important cultural understandings of shame necessary in Indigenous education? Instead, could shame be repositioned to better align with original cultural meanings and purposes? We philosophise about the AIME rule with Yuin Country and stories from Country along with our observational and interview data. We argue AIME does not so much \u27remove\u27 shame as reposition it to better align with Aboriginal cultural educational practice, which positively impacts mentees