Educational Implications of the Values Held by Australian Aboriginal Students

Abstract

Fogarty and White (1994) found that Australian Aboriginal university students tend to be more collectively minded than their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Using the Values Survey developed by Schwartz (1992), the present study set out to replicate this finding and to determine whether observed value differences can help to explain the low achievement levels of Aboriginal students in a university setting. The differences noted by Fogarty and White (1994) were replicated in the present study where data gathered from a sample of Aboriginal students (N = 202) over a six-year period indicated that they score more highly on the collectivist scales of Conformity, Tradition, and Security than a non-Aboriginal student cohort (N = 194). Across the combined samples, however, scores on values were not strong predictors of academic success, with only Tradition (r = −.28, p < .01) and Conformity (r = −.28, p < .01) showing appreciable relations with a measure of academic performance. When Race was partialled out of these correlations, Achievement (r = .16, p < .01) and Conformity (r = −.15, p < .01) were the only variables to demonstrate any relationship with performance. These findings suggest that there are factors other than value systems that have a much greater impact on the problems experienced by Australian Aborigines in higher educational settings.