A Â鶹ֱ²¥ study has found Aboriginal parents view education as very important for their children\u2019s future, but also feel it is essential for children to have a strong connection to their family and community history.<\/p>\n
The study by Associate Professor Mike Dockery and Doctor Simon Colquhoun from Curtin\u2019s Centre for Labour Market Research, examined the link between Aboriginal culture and wellbeing.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cThe results from the survey show that Aboriginal parents believe it is vital that children have a strong connection to their culture \u2013 that they understand it, know about it, have pride in it, know who they are and where they are from,\u201d Associate Professor Dockery said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is this \u2018enculturation\u2019 that is seen to provide a source of strength and resilience for the challenges ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study was prepared using qualitative data made available from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children and focused on 1,167 survey responses from 11 locations across Australia. Key themes to emerge from the parents\u2019 comments relating to culture included family, knowing or learning about culture, and a sense of pride and belonging.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of the common responses that emerged were that it is important for children to \u2018know where they are from\u2019 \u2013 to know about their ancestors and their connection to country, and to know their traditional languages and stories,\u201d Associate Professor Dockery said.<\/p>\n Apart from health and happiness, education was the main theme that arose from parents\u2019 comments on what they wanted for their children.\u00a0<\/p>\n Education related to achievement in mainstream society, a good career, money and success.\u00a0 However, the parents of Aboriginal children clearly saw a tension between mainstream success and maintenance of their culture.\u00a0 Tellingly, many parents simply wished for their children to have a better life than their own.<\/p>\n \u201cThe results suggest that it is important for Australian policy and institutions \u2013 particularly educational institutions \u2013 to recognise, accommodate and respect Indigenous culture if there is to be any improvement in the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians from that experienced by the current and previous generations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The report was prepared by the Centre for Labour Market Research and is available online here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Contact: Gracie Daniel, Public Relations Consultant A Â鶹ֱ²¥ study has found Aboriginal parents view education as very important for their children\u2019s future, but also feel it is essential for children to have a strong connection to their family and community history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-17866","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","hentry","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":false,"author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Â鶹ֱ²¥"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17866"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=17866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe responses from the two questions, \u201cApart from health and happiness, what do you want for your child?\u201d<\/em> and \u201cWhat is it about Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander culture that will help your child grow up strong?\u201d,<\/em> were evaluated using text analytics software Leximancer to reveal key themes.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Associate Professor Mike Dockery, Centre for Labour Market Research
\nTel: 08 9266 3468, Email: m.dockery@curtin.edu.au<\/a>
\nWeb: http:\/\/www.business.curtin.edu.au\/business\/research\/research-centres\/centre-for-labour-market-research<\/a><\/p>\n
\nTel: 08 9266 3353, Email: gracie.daniel@curtin.edu.au<\/a>
\nWeb: http:\/\/curtin.edu.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"