Abstract:
Research has shown that there is an enduring relationship between social background and educational achievement despite the influence of mass schooling and the expansion of the higher education sector. In Australia, persistence of inequality in education is clearly related to social class and the structure of the labour market. However inequality is multi-dimensional and encompasses many other aspects, including race. In this context it can be argued that colonialism has had an additional impact on Australia’s Indigenous people, manifest through substantial levels of educational disadvantage and disparities compared with other Australians. In particular, colonial policies separated Indigenous people on the basis of race and racial identification by the state, and restricted their movements, employment, levels of community and welfare provision to particular geographic locations, resulting in their marginalisation both in terms of social identity and physical location. Low levels of educational achievement can be linked to these prior practices, and socioeconomic disadvantage continues to hold people in these circumstances.This paper will examine the relationship between education and low levels of socioeconomic status (SES), and the interrelationship between Indigeneity and SES in influencing education outcomes. It will present analysis on the association between locational effects, including the effects of a school’s location and its characteristics, and children’s educational achievement. In particular, characteristics of low SES neighbourhoods, using Population Census data, and the location of the school and other characteristics including levels of funding, size of school and school SES, using MySchool data, will be analysed to assess their effect on NAPLAN reading and numeracy levels of Indigenous and other Year 5 students in schools across several states.