Strengths-Based Approaches in Indigenous Education

Research and Practice

Marnee Shay, Grace Sarra (QUT, Australia)

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Hardback

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English

Routledge
26 September 2025

Anthropology; Educational strategies & policy; Teacher training; Teaching skills & techniques

This book brings together Indigenous thinkers and scholars with Western theories and practice frameworks to propose a theory for a strengths approach to knowledge production in Indigenous education.

The text traverses disciplines and fields that have advanced strengths-based approaches in providing practitioners, researchers, and policy makers a way of reframing problems to start from a place of strength and capital. Strengths approaches have gained traction in various contexts in Indigenous education; however, this book is the first of its kind to explore the field more broadly and consider its potential for a way forward in Indigenous education. Using existing scholarship to consider how Indigenous education has been positioned in the past and present, it puts forward compelling reasons why new approaches grounded in strengths-based approaches are necessary for reimagining the possibilities for Indigenous education.

Offering a theoretically robust framework, this is an essential resource for educators, researchers, and policy makers interested in transformative action in Indigenous education.

Edited by: Marnee Shay, Grace Sarra (QUT, Australia)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 480g
ISBN: 9781032445632
ISBN 10: 1032445637
Pages: 164
Publication Date: 26 September 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Marnee Shay is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School in the School of Education at the University of Queensland, Australia. She is an Aboriginal woman whose maternal family is from the Ngen’giwumirri language group. She researches in the fields of Indigenous education, policy studies, flexi schooling, and youth studies. She advocates for strengths-based approaches and the development of Indigenous-informed evidence in advancing Indigenous education. Grace Sarra is a Professor at the School of Education in the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. She is of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage from the Bindal and Birriah clan groups of the Birrigubba nation and Torres Strait Islander heritage of Mauar, Stephen, and Murray Islands. Her research work utilises Indigenous knowledges and frameworks with theoretical frameworks to contest prevailing assumptions and stereotypes that contribute to the lack of success of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in schools.

Reviews for Strengths-Based Approaches in Indigenous Education: Research and Practice

“Bold, urgent, and deeply affirming—Strengths-Based Approaches in Indigenous Education is a must-read for anyone committed to equity and justice in education. Dr Shay and Sarra in this powerful book conclude that deficit narratives have plagued Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. With clarity and precision, the authors reframe teaching toward agency, resilience, and self-determination. It doesn’t just review the system—it reimagines what education can become. A transformative and timely contribution that belongs in the hands of every educator, researcher, and policymaker today”! Lester-Irabinna Rigney AM, Professor of Education, University of South Australia and Adelaide University ""A strengths based approach in Indigenous education is more than just a good way to pursue improved outcomes and the pursuit of excellence for our children; it is the only way! Educators with an authentic interest in making good progress with First Nations children in schools and classroom must understand the profound importance of the essence of a strengths based approach. We can only achieve positive progress with Indigenous children if we know what a strengths based approach means and how it is can be applied. Understanding and applying a strengths based approach to Indigenous students, and indeed all students, enables us as educators to experience the true joy and magic of being a teacher. Shay and Sarra well and truly deliver on their promise to provide educators, researchers and policymakers with a rigorous and theoretically informed alternatives in our pursuit to improve as educators of Indigenous children."" Chris Sarra, PhD, Founding Chairman, Stronger Smarter Institute, Australia