Applying Decolonising Race Theory to the Aboriginal Voices project

The Aboriginal Voices project has sought to understand how Aboriginal students and parents tackle pervasive discourses that largely characterise these students as failures, disinterested in education, or without aspiration. This paper presents the conceptual and methodological approach to a multi-site case study of six whole-school communities, adding to the 10 systematic reviews of literature provided in the first phase of this project. Working through Moodie's Decolonising Race Theory framework, we describe the methodology, research questions and methods adopted in this empirical extension of the project. This paper emphasises the perspectives of Aboriginal students and their communities on schooling structures, common pedagogical and curricula practices, as well as the importance of cultural activities and connection. Moodie's framework enables us to provide a holistic analysis of daily classroom discourses, how these discourses impact young people and their families, and contributes to the interruption of settler colonialism in Australian schooling systems. [Author abstract]