Community Researchers

Individuals with relevant background and experience are being recruited at specific school sites to work with the research team as community-based researchers. These individuals consist of school staff and students working as co-researchers with the research team, participating directly in data collection with members of their own communities, and providing input and feedback about the data collection and analysis process. The research team will come together with community-based researchers to prepare for data collection and will also focus on ethical practice, effective interviewing/yarning skills, and as required, will work to translate concepts and meaning from English into local language. The employment of local community-based researchers will ensure that local voices are heard and included in the research findings, ensuring place-based research that involves the local community.

The community researchers will be interviewing relatives and community members, using this data to triangulate their own perceptions about school attendance and engagement. This aligns with a key aim of this research project to conduct research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, not on them, allowing the development of partnerships and connections with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This is a fundamental part of our research methodology, which focuses on participation in the research, meaning that community-based researchers can be both informants and researchers, following collaborative processes of reflection, analysis and reporting (Stringer & Aragon, 2021). They bring specialised cultural and language expertise to the research process and they are insiders, meaning that they have an intimate understanding of the research context, which is important in the application of Indigenous Methodologies in intercultural research (Kovach, 2009). From this data, we will develop substantive findings based on what works in these contexts. The project aims to build on existing research that works with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to enhance students’ engagement and learning potential, assisting in the shaping of these students’ futures.

We take seriously the principles set out in the AIATSIS guidelines (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, 2020) relating to principles of self-determination, Indigenous leadership, impact and value, and sustainability and accountability. To take account of these principles we will ensure that:

• The research team, including community-based researchers is comprised of mostly Aboriginal people, and particularly in the case of community-based researchers, they will have a connection to the community, cultures and Country we are working on.
• Community-based researchers will work with the team to facilitate translation of materials where necessary, to conduct interviews and yarns, and to interpret the findings.
• The processes we use will ensure that the voices of Aboriginal people in communities we work with are heard, and they are appropriately relayed to the Funder and disseminated back to the communities involved.
• Benefits to communities and students will be clearly stated and understood (including research training and employment, more responsive schools, improved policies), and risks associated with the research (for example, that nothing will change as a result of the research) will be mitigated.
• Respectful and culturally safe engagement in research processes will be a priority.
• Participation in research will depend on informed consent, where processes to ensure confidentiality, privacy and ability to withdraw from the research are explained and understood.

Non-Indigenous researchers involved with the research will engage in intercultural work reflexively, with decolonising frames of reference to ensure the integrity of the research process (Guenther et al., 2017).