Beyond boarding: An exploration of post-boarding school expectations, experiences and outcomes for remote Aboriginal students, their families and their communities
Benveniste, TC ORCiD: 0000-0002-7189-5118Education delivery and outcomes in remote Australia frequently feature in political, educational and research discourses. In particular, improving educational outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, who are largely achieving at lower levels than non-Indigenous, urban students, has been a priority for decades. Recently, boarding schools are being increasingly viewed as a ‘solution’ to the complexities and purported failure of remote education. However, the discourse supporting boarding school models has developed from a limited evidence base. Further, little space has been awarded in such discussions to the voices of those who work in, send their children to, and who access boarding. Therefore, this thesis explored the expectations, experiences and outcomes of boarding for remote Aboriginal students, their families and their communities. The research focus was developed collaboratively alongside boarding providers, community members and past boarding students from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands, and employed a case study approach to a residential program in South Australia. The research was conducted from a Grounded Theory approach, with qualitative methods combining ethnography, narrative and semi-structured interviews. 55 interviews were conducted with families (11), past students (11), community members (9), and boarding staff (24) across six APY communities, Alice Springs, and Adelaide. Findings fall broadly into three meta-themes; (1) the residence, (2) family and communication, and (3) post-boarding life. While boarding staff were clearly able to articulate the goals for the program, Critical Race Theory provided a useful lens through which to highlight underlying tensions between race, rules and relationships. Strategies for communicating with families were also identified, however it was clear that despite useful technologies, families often relied on relationships with local remote schools to support their communication with the boarding program. Further, while many families made an active choice to send their children to board, for some, lack of alternative options or the knowledge and resources to access alternative options restricted their capacity to make informed choices. Many students were found to have left boarding prior to graduating from high school, making transitions post-boarding difficult and dependent on community, family and personal contexts. This thesis makes a significant contribution to a small but growing field, and is the first to holistically explore the implications of boarding for staff, families, remote communities, and for past boarding students. It explores novel applications of theory in the space, and links findings to implications for future research, policy and practice. Key recommendations include; (1) valuing and building unstructured time into residences to create informal learning opportunities and enhance relationships between staff and students, (2) bridging differences between community and residence life through introducing Anangu mentors and staff into the residence, (3) increased efforts for staff to physically visit communities for longer periods of time (for example through exchanges with remote community teachers or youth workers), (4) providing an external supports to help families to make informed choices about boarding and to navigate application processes, and (5) integrating community educators, family support and employment networks to support transitions beyond boarding
