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Many recent policy documents have outlined the challenges of delivering high-quality education in remote First Nations communities and proposed that boarding schools are one important solution. These documents have influenced the increasing uptake of boarding options and there has been considerable public investment in scholarships, residential facilities and transition support. Yet the outcomes of this investment and policy effort are not well understood. The authors of this article came together as a collaboration of researchers who have published about boarding school education for First Nations students to examine the evidence and develop a theory-driven understanding of how policies drive systems to produce both desirable and undesirable outcomes for First Nations boarding school students. We applied complexity theory and post-structural policy analysis techniques and produced a useful tool for the evaluation of boarding policy and its implementation.

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The 2014 Wilson review of Indigenous Education in the Northern Territory recommended boarding school models as the preferred secondary education option for very remote Aboriginal students. This study considers boarding uptake by Aboriginal students from the Central Land Council region of the Northern Territory. An examination of boarding programs available to Aboriginal students in this region found that scholarship access is largely determined by socioeducational advantage and the perceived social stability of the family and student. To increase access and participation in boarding, more flexible funding assistance programs are needed. An expanded role for brokering could also increase retention and completion rates. Ultimately, more investment is also required in remote community schools, and in the development of ‘both ways’ capital if the social and educational aspirations of young Aboriginal students and their families in this region are to be realised through a boarding school model.

Recent media and policy focus in remote Aboriginal education has turned to boarding schools. The general rhetoric is that boarding schools will allow Indigenous Australian students to have access to quality education and to learn to ‘walk in two worlds’. However, to date, there has been very little exploration of the lived experiences of Indigenous boarding schools, either from broader political and sociological perspectives, or from the schools themselves. Furthermore, understanding of how the residential side of boarding constructs the use of time and presents educational and social development opportunities is lacking. This paper aims to begin to address this, by presenting the goals and intended outcomes of a residential program for remote central Australian Aboriginal students. Through analysis of 17 semistructured interviews with residence staff, this paper identifies the two overarching goals of the program, as well as the more specific learning outcomes from which the program expects its students to benefit. The research presented is preliminary data that forms part of a broader PhD study of postboarding school expectations and outcomes for remote Aboriginal students, their families, and their communities.

Boarding schools, by definition, house students in residence either on campus or close by in residential facilities - where the sleep environment is likely to differ from their home environment. For boarders, being in the boarding environment occurs alongside a convergence of psychosocial and physiological factors likely to impact adolescent sleep. This paper comprises a review of the literature on sleep and boarding students in the Australian context. We also propose recommendations aligned with the scientific evidence base that can be used to promote healthy sleep in Australian boarding school students, focusing on staff training and sleep knowledge, daily routines, sleeping arrangements, and student mental health and wellbeing. It must be noted that these recommendations should be considered interim recommendations until further research is performed in the area. Further, we suggest the development of standardised practice guidelines, to ensure that student sleep is supported appropriately within the Australian boarding context.

This paper arises from PhD research on an Australian, Northern Territory (NT) language education policy, 'Compulsory Teaching in English For the First Four Hours of Each School Day', led to the synergy of research evidence from two knowledge systems. Initiated in response to local NT Indigenous concerns, the research explored these concerns in detail using qualitative critical case study ethnographic across-cultural research approaches. This paper describes how Indigenous knowledge in relation to policy effects not only informed methodology but confirmed regional, national and international research in the field of bilingual education. In contrast, a critical discourse analysis on policy texts and discourse exposed flawed rationality and fallacy. This latter analysis was informed by Fairclough (1989) and Reisigl and Wodak's (2009) Historical Discourse Analysis, as well as the works of Foucault, Bourdieu, and others. As such, this paper explains how the research explored the issue of policy analysis and effects to afford a western explanation with Indigenous perspectives as the foundation of research that can help us travel the knowledge journey together.