Background and Aims

As the number of Black African diaspora youth increases in Australia, their sense of belonging becomes an increasingly urgent social issue. On the one hand, many Black African diaspora youth now struggle to belong in hegemonically white Australian schools and society. Yet ‘belonging’ is an aspirational demand of policies that reflect the norms of an Australian national identity based on cultural diversity and multiculturalism. Robust evidence is needed to advance reforms to schooling that provide African diaspora youth the opportunity to thrive at school, transition to higher education and/or employment, and contribute fully to Australian society.

Background

Aims

This study aims to explore how belonging is experienced in Australian schools by Black African diaspora youth, and what schools can do to enhance belonging for these youth. It will enable dialogue and build distributed knowledge between African Diaspora youth and teachers. Methodologically, the study will adopt and extend a decolonial participatory action research (PAR) approach (Guishard & Tuck 2013) that seeks to de-centre dominant knowledges to investigate three research questions:

  1. How is belonging experienced among African Diaspora youth in Australia, particularly in schools?

  2. How can co-research – by the lead researcher, African Diaspora youth and teachers – facilitate deeper understanding of African Diaspora youth belonging in relation to public institutions?

  3. How can African Diaspora youth and teacher PAR enable African Diaspora youth experiences and knowledge to inform school professional development and practices that foster diverse and inclusive (decolonial) belonging?

Shaped by these research questions, the project aims are to:

(A) Investigate, in partnership with African Diaspora youth researchers, multiple experiences of belonging in Australian schools.

(B)  Conduct a whole-year action research cycle in which teachers, supported by the lead researcher and African Diaspora youth researchers, investigate the effectiveness of specific schooling practices to enhance belonging for African diaspora youth.

(C)  Theorise an Australian approach to enhancing belonging for African Diaspora youth in schooling.

(D) Co-develop and trial, with African Diaspora youth researchers and teachers, a range of web-based professional learning resources to inform educational policy, pre-service teacher education and teacher professional learning.