Congratulations to Justine Kolliou, head of the Indigenous Education Program at The Scots College (Australia), for winning the 2023 IBSC Action Research Award for completing highly innovative action research projects that make a valuable contribution to the IBSC Action Research community. Researching within the topic Shattering Stereotypes: Helping Boys Cultivate Healthy Masculinity, she focused her action research project on the impact of Indigenous mentors using cultural practices to build relationships with, and an understanding of Indigenous masculinities in, a group of Indigenous Australian boys who boarded at The Scots College.
Kolliou spearheaded her research with a thorough exploration of relevant literature and a recognition of the issues created by the necessity for many Indigenous Australian students to complete their education off country. Specifically, she sought to address comments from her Indigenous boys’ families regarding the “cultural wounds” (Chandler & Dunlop, 2018) created through a lack of Indigenous male mentors to foster the development of their sons’ understanding of what it means to be a happy and healthy Indigenous man.
To facilitate the Indigenous boys’ connectedness to country and culture and develop their understanding of Indigenous masculinities, Kolliou brought two Indigenous male mentors from the local Indigenous community to work in the school’s Indigenous Education Program. The mentors met with the boys on a weekly basis over 20 weeks, during which time the boys got introduced to one of the many Indigenous languages of Australia, engaged in discussions about what it means to be an Indigenous man, and participated in cultural practices such as Indigenous song, dance, and storytelling.
Through the rigorous collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data and the communication of the results in a well-written report, her research indicates introducing Indigenous mentors had a positive impact on the Indigenous boys’ understanding of what it means to be an Indigenous man and the boys’ connectedness to country while boarding. The project strengthened bonds among the boys involved and the relationships between the older and younger Indigenous boys not part of the research: The research mentees became post-research mentors.
Commensurate with the cyclical nature of action research, Kolliou will continue to massage her project in future iterations of the Indigenous mentor program to provide what she terms “cultural medicine” to help heal “cultural wounds.” Her research project demonstrates the power of action research to identify the potential for change at the local level and support the implementation of that change in a systematic and rigorous manner. Furthermore, her research findings illustrate the ability of a well-researched change in teachers’ pedagogy to positively impact the learning and well-being of the boys in our schools.
While we cannot generalize these findings to the unique and diverse contexts of our boys’ schools, we can learn much from her review of the literature on masculinities and mentorship, the action of implementing a mentorship program, and her methods of data collection, analysis, and reporting. Interestingly, her recognition of the power of mentorship to enhance the lives of Indigenous boys in her school echoes the power of mentorship for educators, wherein the IBSC Action Research Leadership Team mentored Kolliou through this process.
“This project was a positive and rewarding experience for me as a researcher, teacher, and head of the program at the college. The results along with my own observations all point towards the action being highly successful and a positive and rewarding experience for the boys,” concluded Kolliou.
Check out Kolliou's full report in the IBSC Member Center. Watch for the remaining reports for the 2023 IBSC Action Research cohort in the coming weeks.