Education for productive futures: a white woman learning from Aboriginal voices

High incarceration rates of Aboriginal Western Australians leads to between 1800 and 2000 Aboriginal prisoners at any one time. Despite this little is written or noted in Australian peer reviewed academic literature about education provision to Aboriginal prisoners. 'Closing the Gap: learning from and privileging Aboriginal voices to learn what helps and hinders education in WA prisons' is a [Doctor of Philosophy] PhD project nearing submission. It has been conducted in partnership with the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee as well as with the support of a local community legal service. The findings are relevant beyond a prison context. This paper specifically focuses on how understandings of the concept of productivity can differ. It considers what might or might not be helpful in achieving productive educational and training outcomes in Western Australian prisons for Indigenous individuals, families and communities. It relies heavily on the words of the author's teachers; the Aboriginal participants in the project alongside Indigenous authors and academics. The paper concludes by considering implications for developing and evaluating training programs in more flexible ways that respect diversity.

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