ABSTRACT

‘Education is the key’ is often used as a metaphor in remote Australian First Nations communities to indicate the importance of learning to achieve some measure of socio-economic advantage—education is seen as a vehicle for advancement. First Nations people have enthusiastically bought into education and training vehicle. High school completion data suggest that ‘gaps’ are closing. But the vehicle appears to be breaking down as it heads along the road towards jobs and economic participation.

This article presents an analysis of Census data to show trends in high school completion, employment and income. The data suggest growth in educational achievement. But a ‘break down’ of the data into non-Indigenous, First Nations Indigenous language speakers and First Nations English speakers shows little change in the economic fortunes of language speakers. In these latter findings a ‘new narrative’, built on QuantCrit propositions, takes shape and explains why the vehicle breaks down.

摘要

“教育是关键”在澳大利亚偏远的原住民社区中经常被用作隐喻，以表明学习实现某种程度的社会经济优势的重要性，而教育被视为进步的手段。原住民热情地购买了教育和培训工具。高中毕业率数据表明“差距”正在缩小。但是，汽车在朝着就业和经济参与的道路前进时似乎正在崩溃。

本文对人口普查数据进行了分析，以显示高中毕业，就业和收入方面的趋势。数据表明教育成绩有所提高。但是，将数据“分解”为非土著，第一民族土著语言使用者和第一民族英语语言使用者后，语言使用者的经济状况几乎没有变化。在后面的这些发现中，以QuantCrit命题为基础的“新叙事”得以形成并解释了车辆故障的原因。