School-based mentoring (SBM) programs are seen as a way of preventing the disengagement of young people from education. However, existing research points to a complex relationship between SBM programs and improved engagement outcomes. There is therefore a need for greater understanding of the pathways through which SBM leads to outcomes for young people. This paper addresses this complexity, examining the nuanced ways in which SBM may lead to positive outcomes for young people. Drawing on the qualitative perspectives of 15 young people engaged in an Australian SBM program, the findings point to two types of pathways to outcomes. First, direct pathways go to the heart of young people's engagement, by prioritizing educational performance and achievement as the focus of the mentoring relationship. Second, holistic pathways see mentors seeking to influence young people's broader thinking about the value of education, their wellbeing and their communication skills, to in turn address issues that may otherwise present barriers to young people's engagement. The paper discusses the policy implications of the findings. It highlights the importance of acknowledging and measuring incremental steps to improved educational engagement, in a context of young people experiencing non-linear and complex pathways to engagement outcomes.
The changing nature of organisations in the public sector means that collaboration is an imperative for many. However, we still know little about how collaborations operate in practice. Those stewarding collaborations need this knowledge to provide effective support. In this article, we are interested in applying Salignac et al.'s Collaboration Health Assessment Tool (CHAT) framework to a live collaboration initiative to better understand the factors, chain of events, and actions that lead to 'healthy' collaboration. We conducted interviews with stakeholders from a collaboration initiative involved in the implementation of an education participation program. Findings from our qualitative analysis suggest the initial design stage to be of critical importance. Ultimately, our research provides an example of how CHAT can be used to identify dimensions of collaboration that are, or are not, working well for an initiative and how partner organisations can use systems thinking to understand how their collaboration functions to better address the issues that they face.
This essay argues that Australia, while having made some substantive progress in the social and political reclamation of Indigenous rights, still maintains a powerful sense of colonisation. Examples surrounding the ideas of nationalism, land rights and recognition are drawn on to establish that Australia is undergoing the process of decolonisation, rather than having already done so.
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