title: The influence of Identity, Roles and Expectations on Indigenous students studying at university which impacts on building the Indigenous health workforce
Creators: name: Corporal, Stephen
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2020
Subjects: subject: Indigenous students
subject: health degrees
subject: identity

description: The health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has been problematic since colonisation. At present, Indigenous health has been prioritised nationally in Australia through initiatives such as the Close the Gap policy and many related activities led by Government, non-government, and Indigenous community organisations. There is a strong move toward Indigenous community led responses to promoting better health and wellbeing for our people. A key part of such community led responses is generating a sustainable Indigenous health workforce. This workforce needs to carry not only the knowledge and skills associated with formal mainstream study and qualifications but also the identity, roles, and expectations of Indigenous people, families and communities themselves. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been historically excluded from universities and there remain tensions. The attrition rates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in health degrees at Australian universities have been problematic over the past decades. There are many aspects of students’ experiences that can affect their success including institutionalised racism and deficit thinking and the level of academic, cultural, and financial support. Yet, there are deeper aspects of Indigenous students’ cultural identities and associated roles and expectations – extended from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people – that shape their success. In my role as an Indigenous social worker, student support worker, teacher researcher and student over the past 30 years I recognised the need to understand the ways that students’ cultural, community, and family identities intersect with the identities, roles, and expectations sometimes imposed upon them in universities. The purpose of this study was to explore the significance and effects of identity, roles, and expectations for Indigenous students undertaking health degrees. Indigenous health students navigate a complex range of identities, roles, and expectations that come from community, family members, university staff and teaching academics. In many cases, the identities, roles, and expectations of and upon Indigenous students in their community and family contexts contrast with those launched upon them in university systems. This adds additional pressures to Indigenous students who are seeking to enter the health workforce. Many teaching academics and university staff are completely unaware of – and hence unresponsive to – Indigenous identities and roles. My study explores the complex but often inspiring realities of the student experience in navigating their different worlds of community, family, and university. Using an Indigenous Research Methodology, I interviewed 17 Indigenous health students at different stages of their degrees across diverse disciplines including social work, nursing, medicine, psychology and exercise science in one urban university in Australia. I also interviewed 10 non-Indigenous teaching academics at the same university to develop a rounded perspective on the kinds of experiences Indigenous students might have in the health classroom. Staff interviewees were from health disciplines including social work, medicine, nursing, dietetics, and psychology. I undertook thematic analysis of the interview data to determine key themes relating to identity, roles, and expectations. This process focussed on the Indigenous student experience but also explored teaching academics’ own identities, roles, and expectations and how they may directly or indirectly affect Indigenous students. The sub-themes under identity related to place, kinship, race, colour, and teaching academics’ awareness of student cultural identities. The sub-themes identified under roles were connection to identity, family commitment, community role, transition between community to university, university role, leadership role and health professional role. The sub-themes for expectations included achieving goals, expectations linked to bettering one’s self; high expectations, student perceptions of how academics see them, how academics saw students, academic expectation the same as other students’, expectations lower for Indigenous students. These major themes have crossover which contributes to the complexity of the research of Indigenous people. The findings show that Indigenous students and teaching academics need to be aware of the significance of identity when studying at university. The study shows that identity, roles, and expectations are interlinked in shaping student experience, success, and their developing sense of self as both an Indigenous person and health professional. If an academic is unaware of a student’s identity it may lead to problems that affect the student’s sense of self and welcome at the university. Likewise, if a student is still developing their identity as an Indigenous person, being institutionally identified as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person at university and by academics and other students can add extra pressure and stigmatisation to the student’s experience of university. Academics, students, and other staff members hence all have a role to play in making a space for Indigenous students to feel welcome and to succeed at university. This includes being aware of the dual roles and universal responsibility. If Indigenous students can be supported to reconcile and build strength from their diverse identities and roles, and resist negative and false expectations, they are better placed to complete their studies and succeed as health professionals. If Indigenous students encounter low expectations of their abilities from teaching academics and other students, they may succumb to negative self-expectations and attrition. If universities, teaching academics, staff and other students can make space for Indigenous students to be stable and strong in their identities throughout their studies, we have a far stronger opportunity to build this workforce to also be stable and strong, connected to Country, and people, and contribute to better health in our communities. This thesis offers some key understandings that will help us and universities to facilitate such spaces for Indigenous health students.