Aboriginal educators at the intersection - Intimations of greater nuance in both-ways education

Oct 15, 2026

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Whole of Community Engagement (WCE) initiative identified barriers and enablers shaping Aboriginal students’ pathways to post-compulsory education across six remote Arnhem Land and central Australia communities. Findings included factors such as colonial history, low English literacy, employment prospects, and cultural difference, alongside interculturality—the experience of living and working across Aboriginal and other socio-cultural worlds. The authors argue that remote schooling needs a more explicit intercultural refinement to both-ways education and highlights the resilience and capabilities of Aboriginal educators conducting the research.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

WCE initiative and research focus

Complexity in remote schooling and socio-cultural tensions

Limits of cross-culturality and the shift to interculturality

Aboriginal educators at the intersection: Intimations of greater nuance in both-ways education Terry Moore1, Geoffrey Jupurrula Shannon2 and David Scholz3 1 College of Arts, Law and Education, University of Tasmania, Grosvenor Crescent, Sandy Bay, Tasmania, 7005, Australia, [email: Terence. Moore@utas.edu.au](email: Terence. Moore@utas.edu.au) 2 care of Aboriginal Interpreter Service, 25 Chung Wah Terrace, Palmerston, Northern Territory, 0830 Australia 3 Northern Territory Government Department of Health, PO Box 40596, Casuarina, Northern Territory, 0811, Australia The Whole of Community Engagement (WCE) initiative sought to identify barriers and enablers in Aboriginal students’ pathways to post-compulsory education, in six remote communities in Arnhem Land and central Australia. It identified known factors like colonial history, low English literacy, job prospects and cultural difference. Responses often focus on “ both-ways” curriculum and pedagogy, and teachers’ cultural competence. Another factor found was interculturality, the fact of living and working at the intersections of Aboriginal and other socio-cultural worlds. The initiative found that students’ engagement with school and with pathways into further education were troubled by both cultural difference and intersection. The Aboriginal researchers involved in the initiative, living at the intersections in their own lives, exemplified the challenges of, and the capabilities needed to negotiate, cultural intersection. The authors propose an intercultural perspective as a refinement to the both-ways approach to remote education. Key words: Whole of Community Engagement initiative, interculturality, intersectionality, remote Aboriginal education, cross culturality, both-ways education Introduction The WCE initiative1 researched the effectiveness of schools in six remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in building students’ engagement with schooling and motivation to pursue further education. This paper is an account of some of the findings from the initiative, based on data from ethnographic field work, whole-of-team meetings, and formal interviews and informal conversations with the Aboriginal educators who worked on the initiative. The paper focuses on the need to recognise greater socio-cultural complexity in remote schooling than is generally considered. The initiative identified the complexity through its field work, in which it benefited from the participation of 10 Aboriginal educators who had for many years been active in education and other development work in their communities, and who participated as senior researchers in the initiative. These individuals had 1 For detail, go to [https://remotengagetoedu.com.au/about. The](https://remotengagetoedu.com.au/about. The) research was approved by the Charles Darwin University Human Research Ethics Committee (HE14070) . navigated the cultural and social tensions that accompany remote schooling and further education, and enjoyed the fruits of a Western education. The tensions revealed are those of identity-based social pressure to comply with several sometimes-competing norms. The fruits include the ability to live and work successfully in their remote community and in cities and towns around the country, and to sustain their Aboriginal cultural heritage in its increasing interconnectedness with the Australian nation and therest of the world. In doing so, they have negotiated the social, cultural and political dynamics that set education in apparent opposition to Aboriginality, when it is at the same time fundamental to its survival. As researchers and educators, these individuals prove that the apparent opposition is not so. The paper explores these complexities, the individuals’ resilience in negotiating them and the potential of their example. Our claim is that they reveal intercultural realities of remote Aboriginal schooling that are obscured by notions of “cross-culturality” in “

FAQs

What was the Whole of Community Engagement (WCE) initiative trying to determine?

The WCE initiative aimed to identify barriers and enablers affecting Aboriginal students’ pathways to post-compulsory education in six remote communities.

Which factors did the initiative find as influencing students’ education pathways?

It highlighted factors including colonial history, low English literacy, job prospects, and cultural difference, as well as interculturality from living and working at intersections of socio-cultural worlds.

How do the authors propose refining the existing both-ways approach?

The authors propose adopting an intercultural perspective, arguing that increasing intertwinement between Aboriginal and other cultures makes earlier cross-culturality notions less adequate for remote schooling.

Oct 15, 2026

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