Exploring behaviour support for Australian Indigenous students: Beliefs and strategies recommended by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, families and staff

Despite decades of intervention from governments at the state, territory and national level, student behaviour continues to be a concern for teachers. Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students are over-represented negatively in every indicator that is associated with student behaviour, such as student suspension, attendance, expulsion, retention and achievement. Absent from discussion is an attempt to draw from the voices and stories of Indigenous peoples to identify and establish behaviour support strategies for more equitable outcomes. Based upon this identified need, this paper presents the outcomes of a study to identify effective behaviour support strategies as voiced by Indigenous parents, students and teachers. Further, the paper describes the processes to be used in the empirical evaluation of their effectiveness of these strategies in informing teacher actions in working with Indigenous students.