An illuminative participatory evaluation of the response of Queensland schools to Indigenous literacy policies

This study is a naturalistic inquiry into the implementation of Indigenous literacy policy in Queensland schools, written as a multi-voiced collective story. Queensland’s literacy policy for Indigenous students, Partners for Success (Education Queensland, 2000a) stood in contention with national literacy policies in that it recognised the impact of second language learning status in Indigenous student literacy performance. This study charts how Partners for Success was read and implemented in four focus schools with large numbers of Indigenous English as a Second Language/Dialect students. The researcher’s participatory role in supporting its implementation allowed opportunities to see resonance and dissonance between these four focus schools and other contexts in Queensland over a three-year period between 2001 and 2003.