This action research project explores how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation is addressed in higher education and, in particular, at a regional university campus in Australia. As a non-Indigenous person, I structured the research to involve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at every stage. This involved engaging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the data collection stage, framing the research questions and providing feedback on the data analysis. The research participants also made suggestions and provided the impetus for the action research aspect of the project. My aim was to work with local Indigenous people to develop, implement and evaluate strategies to increase the participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in higher education opportunities at the campus.

This research comprises a portfolio with three pillars: policy, people and place. One overarching research question was developed: What strategies can be effective for enhancing the experience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at a regional higher education campus? The policy pillar explored how government policies over the last 50 years have affected individual Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s involvement and participation in higher education, the practices that resulted from these policies and the effect of the practices on individual Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ participation and success at the regional university campus. The people pillar focused on the influence of personal and interpersonal aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ lives on their learning experiences at the regional university campus. As part of examining students’ learning experiences, the place pillar explored local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s sense of belonging at the regional university campus.

This research showed that policy approaches during the 1970s and 1980s effectively created greater participation by Indigenous people and a culturally safe and affirming higher education experience. This thesis discusses what can be learnt from the policy settings at that time to inform contemporary educational practices. Importantly, this research also identified and implemented changes to practices. In keeping with the participatory action research approach, the research participants highlighted opportunities to improve educational practices, implement new strategies and challenge existing university policies. The strategies generated from this research focused on educational pathways recruiting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into mainstream courses, partnerships with Indigenous organisations to provide educational opportunities for their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees, developing cultural understandings for university staff and students, incorporating Indigenous knowledge into mainstream curricula, the significance of upholding conciliation values and recognising Indigenous sovereignty and committing to Indigenous decision-making within the university campus. The actions implemented as part of the research positively affected the educational experiences of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students at the regional university campus. This research provides insights for policymakers and educational practitioners into strategies for enhancing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students’ participation in university contexts.

This paper details the lived experience of the author as an education consultant from the mainstream of Australian education, attempting to assist a remote Aboriginal corporation establish its own secondary school, in its own cultural context on its own land. It is about the experience of an Anglo Australian servant of an Aboriginal corporation. The perspective is that of an outside employee. The paper is not a treatise on Aboriginal education. It does not seek to advance an Aboriginal point of view.

In many western countries, identifiable populations of children read below age-expectations, and the need for effective interventions remains pressing. Indigenous populations across the globe tend to have reading outcomes lower than comparative general populations. This is a critical issue in Australia's Northern Territory where Indigenous students are far less likely to meet minimum reading standards. There is some evidence to suggest that computer-based instruction may be of particular benefit to struggling readers. To redress reading disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students, a multisite single-blind randomized controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of the ABRACADABRA web-based reading tool, http://abralite.concordia.ca, on reading, letter knowledge, and phonological awareness was conducted in Northern Territory, Australian primary schools with 164 intervention and 148 control (regular instruction) children. The total sample was 28% Indigenous. Results revealed that all intervention group students made significant gains in phonological awareness (d = .37) and phoneme-grapheme knowledge over control group peers (d = .37). Indigenous students gained significantly more per hour of instruction than non-Indigenous students in phonological awareness and early literacy skills. Results suggest that ABRACADABRA prevents lags in foundational literacy experienced by poor readers including Indigenous students.

This paper reports on a study examining the use of ABRACADABRA (ABRA), a Canadian web-based tool for supporting early literacy instruction that was trialled in the Northern Territory of Australia over the period 2008–2010. The three year trial established ABRA's effectiveness in urban and remote primary schools with a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students under quasi-experimental and experimental conditions. Both this Australian trial and preceding studies in Canada demonstrated ABRA's capacity to generate significant student outcomes against a range of literacy measures. These studies further found student effects are greatly enhanced when teachers confidently integrate ABRA content into their broader literacy program" and conversely, that ABRA has reduced impact when teachers are less confident with integrating the technology into their teaching. Given ABRA is freely available on the internet, we additionally felt it was important to consider ABRA's likely implementation fate in non-research circumstances. The study reported here examines four north Australian primary schools which implemented ABRA outside of trial conditions, and was conceived as something of a pre-emptive strike against premature uptake of this otherwise promising program. We develop our analysis from classroom observations and interviews with practitioners, and explore how ABRA might fare if it were implemented with minimal support" or rather, with a level of support equivalent to that typically offered in Northern Territory schools for other literacy programs. Our findings confirm a universal education truism about the importance of carefully targeted training and support to ensure optimal outcomes for program effect" a truism which arguably has greater import in the turbulent school environments facing socially disadvantaged students in north Australian schools. This study has implications for how educational interventions, particularly in remote and cross-cultural settings, might be implemented and sustained at scale.

More equitable pathways to university have been recently implemented in Chile. An alternative entrance pathway program was launched in 2009 at a Santiago-based university. This study aimed to describe the personal and academic journeys of the first three cohorts of students under this scheme, with a focus on the qualitative features that underpinned unexpected positive retention and program completion rates. Informed by a mixed methods methodology, using descriptive statistics and 26 interviews, 20 with graduates and six with their lecturers, the study suggests that such successful academic performance, remarkable retention and graduation rates relate to the participants' early inner drive to pursue university studies, wherein university epitomised a journey to professionalism and a way out of financial scarcity. The participants placed emphasis on the need to be assisted through a scholarship scheme and placed much value on their family support, the learning environment, and on their lecturers in particular. From the lecturers' data, it emerged that central to graduates' performance and overall academic achievement was their tenacity and determination to sustain their motivation to successfully accomplish their academic goals.

The COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly tested the resilience of academics in higher education. Many universities were severely affected by reduced student enrolment, with widespread job losses reported across universities. For many academics, the impact of the pandemic has been worrying, financially crippling and overwhelming.

The virus has also exposed academic inequalities and impacted heavily on vulnerable people. The individual and collective heroic spirit of many academics has been nothing short of extraordinary. Overcoming the initial hurdles of COVID-19 takes one kind of energy; the resilience needed to remain engaged despite the continuing changes and uncertainties is quite another challenge. It is one that demands sustained resilience.

This timely book provides perspectives across disciplines, career stages and global contexts on how to develop resilience in academia. These personal stories may empower others not only to survive, but to thrive in times of adversity.