Transformative school leadership that privileges the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian education

Oct 15, 2026

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Transformative school leadership is examined through the lens of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, addressing how negative positioning of Indigeneity and Eurocentric schooling structures continue to hinder educational success. The paper argues that an absence of Indigenous scholarship within school leadership approaches restricts the building of Indigenous futures. It synthesises literature to propose a relationally responsive framework centered on Indigenous axiologies, ontologies, and epistemologies, offering guidance for primary and secondary contexts and a self-reflection tool for leaders.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Positionality, praxis and agency

Positionality

Praxis and agency

Conceptual framework and literature synthesis

Transforming educational leadership

Application and school leader tool

Critical self-reflection tool

Transformative school leadership that privileges the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian education Antoinette Cole School of Education, The University of Queensland, St Lucia QLD 4072, email: [a.cole@uq.edu.au](a.cole@uq.edu.au) The negative positioning of Indigeneity and the dominant Eurocentric structures entrenched in schooling structures in Australia continues to impact educational success for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. This deficit discourse of Indigeneity and imposed structures, such as policy, are key factors in the educational success, or what is defined as success, of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people. This paper argues that an absence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholarship within school leadership approaches impacts the building of Indigenous futures. A relationally responsive approach centres Indigenous axiologies, ontologies and epistemologies, and supports Indigenous futurity praxis. The critical concern is how education as a discipline supports any notions of Indigenous futurity if it lacks Indigenous voice, research and scholarship in educational leadership. This paper synthesises existing literature to develop a conceptual framework, underpinned by existing evidence and gaps, for transforming educational leadership in Indigenous education. Using a transformative school leadership approach, it locates Indigenous voice, research and scholarship in the field of educational leadership with application for primary and secondary schooling contexts, and for government and non-government school contexts. The paper culminates with a tool for school leaders that supports critical self-reflection. Keywords: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, school leadership, culturally responsive pedagogies, transformative school leadership, Indigenous futurity, settler futurity, relationally responsive Introduction As an emerging Indigenous scholar in the field of education, exploring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice and agency in school leadership is critical to responding to the inequity that continues in Australian education for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The underrepresentation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teachers and school leaders contributes to the approaches used in education. McKenzie et al. (2014), in their Staff in Australia’s Schools report in 2013, found that less than 1% of school leaders identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. This poses major challenges with the lack of Indigenous representation, voice and agency into the current reform efforts in educational leadership. The dominant discourse of Western school structures continues to replicate systemic forms of oppression and inequity. Thus, they continue to privilege the dominant discourse of Eurocentric structures, and continue to fail and negatively position disadvantage as part of Indigeneityin Australia. This paper contributes to existing research in school leadership and argues for urgent attention in exploring school leadership approaches, informed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in educational research and scholarship. It analyses and synthesises the literature to identify how current school leadership approaches continue the maintenance of settler-colonial structures in Australian education, rather than support notions of Indigenous futurity. This paper begins with an introduction to my positionality, praxis and agency as an emerging scholar in education in Australia. It locates how I came to approach the research on educational success and its positioning of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australian education. Next, the paper provides an analysis of the relevant literature in the field of educational leadership to describe the gap between school leadership and Indigenous scholarship. This includes the legacy of the historical and socio-polit

FAQs

Why does the paper argue that Indigenous educational success is still impacted in Australia?

It highlights how deficit discourses of Indigeneity and dominant Eurocentric structures within schooling continue to negatively position Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, affecting educational success.

What is the core approach proposed for transformative school leadership?

The paper proposes a relationally responsive approach that centres Indigenous axiologies, ontologies, and epistemologies to support Indigenous futurity praxis in educational leadership.

What role does Indigenous scholarship play in the paper’s argument?

It argues that an absence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander scholarship within school leadership approaches limits the building of Indigenous futures and weakens Indigenous voice in the discipline of education.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Kurz