issue 1 09 - APS Member Groups - Australian Psychological Society

Education support programme87With a deeply unsatisfactory and persistgap remaining in retention rates betweenAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studentsand their peers, it is not the time for educationsectors and governments to start pattingthemselves on the back for a job well done.Instead what is clear is that the task at hand hasjust began and the challenge for the future is tofind ways of creating both a more relevant andpositive experience for Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander students so as to better supportmore young people to remain at and besuccessful at school for longer.From the above brief overview, it is clearthe subject of how best to support Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander students from rural,regional and remote regions while at schoolremains firmly located within a social,economic and political context that is fraughtwith many competing antecedents (Beresford& Grey, 2006; Dockett et al., 2007; Johns,2006; Reynolds, 2005). In the followingsection our personal reflections on some of thesalient processes we undertook during theestablishment of an education supportprogramme in a non-government educationsector are shared and how we attempted tobuild inclusive practices into an alreadypredetermined and rigid programme fundingstructure. These reflections are our own as thetwo principle people who were employed todeliver this programme daily and should not betaken to represent other stakeholder views.Contextualising the education supportprogramme: BackgroundThe aim of the programme was to offeradditional support to Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander students from rural, regional andremote regions of WA who were studyingaway from home at sixteen (16) nongovernmentresidential schools across thePerth metropolitan area. At this point it isimportant to note two significant differencesbetween government and non-governmenteducation sectors. 1. Constitutionallygovernment schools remain the responsibilityof state and territory governments, whilefunding distributed to non-governmenteducation sectors is the domain of the federalgovernment. 2. Government education sectorsare systems, which rely on system policy duringthe implementation of new support programmesin schools, whereas in the non-governmenteducation sector participation with newprogrammes by schools, students and parents isvoluntary.In other words, education supportprogrammes provided in the governmenteducation sector are implemented underdepartmental policy or regulation and schoolsare required to comply with this. In the nongovernmenteducation sector, education supportprogrammes tend to be provided and regulatedby the individual schools and their owngovernance boards. In some instances, multiplenon-government schools will jointly identify acommon gap in an education support servicesthey are offering and will collaborate to addressthis issue. Nonetheless, although a school mayadvocate for, support and jointly contribute tothe establishment of a certain education supportprogramme in collaboration with other schools,the decision to engage and the level ofengagement with a programme remains at thediscretion of each individual school.The programme being discussed hereoriginated from the latter pathway and was acollaborative effort involving 16 residentialschools. The concept of the programme derivedfrom one residential school wanting tominimise the dissonance that Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander students experienced withthe transition from rural, regional and remoteremotes areas of WA into the residential (orboarding) school lifestyle. The prevalence ofthis issue was assessed across other similarresidential schools and the non-governmenteducation sector identified that 16 schoolsequally expressed a similar desire to offer bettersupport. Subsequently, an application wassubmitted on their behalf as a group to therelevant federal government department toestablish a shared programme to help assist withthis issue. The submission was successful inThe Australian Community Psychologist Volume 21 No 1 June 2009