Supporting Indigenous educational researchers

An initiative from the Australian Council for Educational Research will help build the capacity of Indigenous researchers. The project is one of three supported by the ACER Foundation.

The Indigenous Visiting Fellow Development Program will support Indigenous teachers, early career researchers and community leaders in developing research skills and working with an experienced professional mentor. Participants will complete a research methods training program and become an Indigenous Visiting Fellow at ACER. As Visiting Fellows, participants will join a pool of community-based researchers and research assistants who could work on ACER-led educational research projects as opportunities arise.

The Indigenous Visiting Fellow Development Program supports ACER’s commitment to improving learning across the life span including professional development. ACER has identified the improvement of outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learners as an organisational priority. A key part of this priority is to build the capacity of Indigenous researchers.

ACER Principal Research Fellow Tony Dreise said, ‘This project aims to increase capability in the area of Indigenous research, by supporting Indigenous researchers and research assistants, but just as importantly by increasing the knowledge and skills of non-Indigenous education researchers as partners in Indigenous research.’

The program is free of charge to participants, thanks to funding from the ACER Foundation.

The ACER Foundation was established in 2013 as a vehicle for forming partnerships between ACER and other charitable organisations in order to undertake discretionary research and development to improve learning. In 2014 the ACER Foundation introduced the Innovation Fellowship – a new initiative to support ACER staff to develop solutions based on ideas that address educational disadvantage in the community. The Indigenous Visiting Fellow Development Program is one of the inaugural projects conducted under this program.

Find out more:
Indigenous educators, early career researchers and community leaders interested in participating in the Indigenous Visiting Fellow Development Program are encouraged to contact Gina Milgate, ACER Research Fellow (Indigenous Education), on telephone +61 3 9277 5417 or via email.

Expressions of interest close on 30 September 2014.