Upholding heightened expectations of Indigenous children? Parents do, teachers do not

Huw Peacock; Jacob Prehn; Michael A. Guerzoni; Wendy Aitken; Clair Andersen

doi:10.1017/jie.2020.28

Authors

Huw Peacock University of Tasmania
Jacob Prehn University of Tasmania
Michael A. Guerzoni University of Tasmania
Wendy Aitken University of Tasmania
Clair Andersen University of Tasmania

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1017/jie.2020.28

Keywords:

Educational achievement, Indigenous education, primary and secondary schooling, quantitative, schooling completion

Abstract

This paper argues that a component of increasing the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youths completing their secondary education is having parents and teachers maintain heightened expectations of these children in achieving this goal. To understand this phenomenon, we investigate the importance of, and discrepancies between, primary caregiver and teacher outlooks regarding Indigenous youths completing year 12. For the purpose of this paper, we adopt the term ‘primary caregiver’ in place of parent. This is because the majority (87.7%) of P1s analysed are the biological mothers with the remainder being close female relatives. P2s analysed are all male, 93.3% are biological fathers; remainder are step-fathers or adoptive fathers. This paper uses quantitative data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children to measure expectations from parents and teachers of Indigenous children. Results suggest that parents maintain exceptionally high expectations of their children, while teacher's expectations significantly decline over the course of Indigenous children's primary and secondary schooling years. We suggest that relationships and communication between parents and teachers, regarding expectations of students, are important to establishing an equilibrium in expectations of children, and that teachers may benefit from further training to address any underlying biases towards Indigenous children.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Ali R (2010) The formation and enactment of teacher expectations of student achievement in private schooling. TEACH Journal of Christian Education 4, 10.

Andersen C (2017) Parent and Teacher Disconnect. Paper presented at the Native American Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) Conference, Vancouver.

Bodkin-Andrews G and Carlson B (2016) The legacy of racism and Indigenous Australian identity within education. Race Ethnicity and Education 19, 784–807.

Bodkin-Andrews G, O'Rourke V and Craven R (2010) The utility of general self-esteem and domain-specific self-concepts: their influence on Indigenous and non-Indigenous students’ educational outcomes. Australian Journal of Education 54, 277–306.

Bornholt LJ and Goodnow JJ (1999) Cross-generation perceptions of academic competence: parental expectations and adolescent self-disclosure. Journal of Adolescent Research 14, 427–447.

Castro M, Expósito-Casas E, López-Martín E, Lizasoain L, Navarro-Asencio E and Gaviria JL (2015) Parental involvement on student academic achievement: a meta-analysis. Educational Research Review 14, 33–46.

Chaffey GW, Bailey SB and Vine KW (2015) Identifying high academic potential in Australian Aboriginal children using dynamic testing. Australasian Journal of Gifted Education 24, 24.

Dandy J, Durkin K, Barber BL and Houghton S (2015) Academic expectations of Australian students from Aboriginal, Asian and Anglo backgrounds: perspectives of teachers, trainee-teachers and students. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education 62, 60–82.

Davis-Kean PE (2005) The influence of parent education and family income on child achievement: the indirect role of parental expectations and the home environment. Journal of Family Psychology 19, 294.

De Boer H, Bosker RJ and van der Werf MP (2010) Sustainability of teacher expectation bias effects on long-term student performance. Journal of Educational Psychology 102, 168.

De Boer H, Timmermans AC and Van Der Werf MP (2018) The effects of teacher expectation interventions on teachers’ expectations and student achievement: narrative review and meta-analysis. Educational Research and Evaluation 24, 180–200.

Department of Social Services (2016) Footprints in Time – The Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children: Wave 7.

Elliott, J. (2011) Blue eyes, brown eyes exercise. Retrieved from https://janeelliott.com/

Gentrup S, Lorenz G, Kristen C and Kogan I (2020) Self-fulfilling prophecies in the classroom: teacher expectations, teacher feedback and student achievement. Learning and Instruction 66, 101296.

Gershenson S, Holt SB and Papageorge NW (2016) Who believes in me? The effect of student–teacher demographic match on teacher expectations. Economics of Education Review 52, 209–224.

Glock S and Krolak-Schwerdt S (2013) Does nationality matter? The impact of stereotypical expectations on student teachers’ judgments. Social Psychology of Education 16, 111–127.

Good TL, Sterzinger N and Lavigne A (2018) Expectation effects: Pygmalion and the initial 20 years of research. Educational Research and Evaluation 24, 99–123.

Harrison N and Greenfield M (2011) Relationship to place: positioning Aboriginal knowledge and perspectives in classroom pedagogies. Critical Studies in Education 52, 65–76.

Hartley BL and Sutton RM (2013) A stereotype threat account of boys' academic underachievement. Child Development, 84(5), 1716–1733.

Hattie JA (2009) Visible Learning: A Synthesis of 800 + Meta-Analyses on Achievement. Abingdon: Routledge.

Jacoby-Senghor DS, Sinclair S and Shelton JN (2016) A lesson in bias: the relationship between implicit racial bias and performance in pedagogical contexts. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 63, 50–55.

Juang LP and Silbereisen RK (2002) The relationship between adolescent academic capability beliefs, parenting and school grades. Journal of Adolescence 25, 3–18.

Jussim L and Harber KD (2005) Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies: knowns and unknowns, resolved and unresolved controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review 9, 131–155.

Kickett-Tucker C and Coffin J (2011) Aboriginal self-concept and racial identity: practical solutions for teachers. Two Way Teaching and Learning, 155–172 ACER Press.

Kneebone LB, Christelow J, Neuendorf A and Skelton F (2012) Footprints in time: the longitudinal study of indigenous children: an overview. Family Matters 92, 62.

Koshy P, Dockery AM and Seymour R (2019) Parental expectations for young people's participation in higher education in Australia. Studies in Higher Education 44, 302–317.

Langdridge, D., & Butt, T. (2004) The fundamental attribution error: A phenomenological critique. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43(3), 357–369.

Ma X (2001) Participation in advanced mathematics: do expectation and influence of students, peers, teachers, and parents matter? Contemporary Educational Psychology 26, 132–146.

Martin KL and Walter M (2017) The story of LSIC: it's all about trust and vision. In Walter M, Martin KL and Bodkin-Andrews G (eds), Indigenous Children Growing Up Strong. London: Springer, pp. 41–60.

Mau WC and Bikos LH (2000) Educational and vocational aspirations of minority and female students: a longitudinal study. Journal of Counseling & Development 78, 186–194.

Mirels, H. L. (1980). The avowal of responsibility for good and bad outcomes: The effects of generalized self-serving biases. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 6(2), 299–306.

Oostdam R and Hooge E (2013) Making the difference with active parenting; forming educational partnerships between parents and schools. European Journal of Psychology of Education 28, 337–351.

Owens K (2015) Changing the teaching of mathematics for improved Indigenous education in a rural Australian city. Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education 18, 53–78.

Page S, Trudgett M and Bodkin-Andrews G (2019) Creating a degree-focused pedagogical framework to guide Indigenous graduate attribute curriculum development. Higher Education 78, 1–15.

Pantaleo S (2016) Teacher expectations and student literacy engagement and achievement. Literacy 50, 83–92.

Patton MQ (2014) Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice. Sage Publications USA.

Peters N (2016) Learning shame: colonial narratives as a tool for decolonization. M. Battiste, Visioning a Mi'Kmaw humanities: Indigenizing the Academy, 149–164.

Prehn J, Peacock H and Guerzoni MA (2020) Academic self-concepts of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander children from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 1–10. doi: 10.1017/jie.2019.26

Priest N, Slopen N, Woolford S, Philip JT, Singer D, Kauffman AD and … Williams D (2018) Stereotyping across intersections of race and age: racial stereotyping among white adults working with children. PLoS ONE 13, e0201696.

Prout Quicke S and Biddle N (2017) School (non-) attendance and ‘mobile cultures’: theoretical and empirical insights from Indigenous Australia. Race Ethnicity and Education 20, 57–71.

Riley T and Ungerleider C (2012) Self-fulfilling prophecy: how teachers’ attributions, expectations, and stereotypes influence the learning opportunities afforded Aboriginal students. Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l’éducation 35, 303–333.

Riley T and Pidgeon M (2019) Australian Teachers voice their perceptions of the influences of stereotypes, mindsets and school structure on teachers’ expectations of Indigenous students. Teaching Education 30, 123–144.

Rimkute L, Hirvonen R, Tolvanen A, Aunola K and Nurmi J-E (2012) Parents’ role in adolescents’ educational expectations. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 56, 571–590.

Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom. The urban review, 3(1), 16–20.

Rubie-Davies CM, Peterson E, Irving E, Widdowson D and Dixon R (2010) Expectations of achievement: student teacher and parent perceptions. Research in Education 83, 36–53.

Ryan C (2017) Secondary School Teacher Effects on Student Achievement in Australian Schools. Retrieved from

Spillman D (2013) Towards a framework of dispositions, capabilities and cultural practices for developing and enacting high-expectations relationships. University of Western Sydney unpublished paper.

Steele CM and Aronson J (1995) Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 69, 797.

Stronger Smarter Institute (2014) High-Expectations Relationships: a foundation for quality learning environments in all Australian schools. Stronger Smarter Institute: Limited Position Paper.

Tatar M and Horenczyk G (2000) Parental expectations of their adolescents’ teachers. Journal of adolescence 23, 487–495.

Timmermans AC, Rubie-Davies CM and Rjosk C (2018) Pygmalion's 50th anniversary: the state of the art in teacher expectation research. In: Taylor & Francis.

Trudgett M, Page S, Bodkin-Andrews G, Franklin C and Whittaker A (2017) Another brick in the wall? Parent perceptions of school educational experiences of Indigenous Australian children. In Walter M, Martin KL and Bodkin-Andrews G (eds), Indigenous Children Growing Up Strong. London: Springer, pp. 233–258.

Van den Bergh L, Denessen E, Hornstra L, Voeten M and Holland RW (2010) The implicit prejudiced attitudes of teachers: relations to teacher expectations and the ethnic achievement gap. American Educational Research Journal 47, 497–527.

Vaught SE and Castagno AE (2008) ‘I don't think I'm a racist’: critical race theory, teacher attitudes, and structural racism. Race Ethnicity and Education 11, 95–113.

Visser D (1987) The relationship of parental attitudes and expectations to children's mathematics achievement behaviour. The Journal of Early Adolescence 7, 1–12.

Walter M (2013) The nature of social science research. In Walter M (ed.), Social Research Methods, 3rd Edn. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press 3-24.

Walter M (2014) The race blind: denying Australian Indigenous rights. In Green J (ed.). Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing, pp. 43–56.

Walter M, Dodson M and Barnes S (2017) Introducing the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children. In Walter M, Martin KL and Bodkin-Andrews G (eds), Indigenous Children Growing Up Strong. London: Springer, pp. 15–40.

Wang S, Rubie-Davies CM and Meissel K (2018) A systematic review of the teacher expectation literature over the past 30 years. Educational Research and Evaluation 24, 124–179.

Watson PWSJ, Rubie-Davies CM, Meissel K, Peterson ER, Flint A, Garrett L and McDonald L (2019) Teacher gender, and expectation of reading achievement in New Zealand elementary school students: essentially a barrier? Gender and Education 31, 1000–1019.

Wentzel KR (1998) Parents’ aspirations for children's educational attainments: relations to parental beliefs and social address variables. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 44(1), 20–37.

Yamamoto Y and Holloway SD (2010) Parental expectations and children's academic performance in sociocultural context. Educational Psychology Review 22, 189–214.

Zhang, Y., Haddad, E., Torres, B., & Chen, C. (2011) The reciprocal relationships among parents' expectations, adolescents' expectations, and adolescents' achievement: A two-wave longitudinal analysis of the NELS data. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 40(4), 479–489.

Zubrzycki J, Green S, Jones V, Stratton K, Young S and Bessarab D (2014) Getting it right: creating partnerships for change. Integrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges in social work education and practice.