Knowledge, justice and equity: Access to the academic curriculum among Indigenous school students in Australia

This chapter explores how systemic differences across schools in Australia contribute to equality or inequality in Indigenous students’ learning opportunities, specifically, access to the school curriculum needed to progress to university. Equitable access to the academic curriculum is particularly important for Indigenous students because they are impacted by a range of issues affecting school completion, achievement, and university participation. This research focuses on one aspect of the key transition from school to university, examining whether Indigenous students experience a greater range of challenges in gaining the prerequisite requirements for university study than other students of similar circumstances. In exploring these issues, the authors adopt a position of curricular and epistemic justice, arguing that “doing justice” with power-marginalized learners involves changing the basis for thinking about the nature of knowledge and how knowledge is valued.