Background: Educational settings promote a positive transition to school for Australian Aboriginal
children when they acknowledge and value children’s identities as learners and as cultural beings.
The term Aboriginal is used to refer to the participant children to reflect local preferences in the
research site.

Aims: To understand how early childhood educators talk about the strengths and needs of
Aboriginal children in relation to transition to school.

Method: Participants were part of the Gudaga Goes to School (Gudaga-GtS) study, a longitudinal
study that explored the health, development, and early educational experiences of Aboriginal
children in an urban setting in NSW. Data were drawn from interviews conducted by Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal members of the research team. This presentation draws on analyses of the
interview data undertaken by a non-Aboriginal doctoral student. The doctoral study was approved
by relevant university and education sector ethics review committees.

Results: Most educators were predisposed to seeing Aboriginal children’s strengths and needs as
diverse. However, this was often in reference to their diversity as learners and rarely in relation to
their family and community strengths or histories.

Conclusions: A combination of critical and relational approaches to transition to school will be
proposed to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of Aboriginal children’s strengths and needs
during the transition to school.

Implications for children and families: This presentation will highlight the recognition of family
and community strengths and aspirations during the transition to school.

Implications for practitioners: You will be provided with opportunities to reflect on how you can
learn about children’s strengths and needs based on their lived cultural worlds rather than relying
on homogenising constructions of Aboriginal children.

Funding: This doctoral study formed part of a project funded by an Australian Research Council
Discovery Grant (DP120100828) awarded to and administered by the University of New South
Wales.

Key words: professionals’ voices, Indigenous voices, education, transition to school

This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:

• SDG 4: Quality Education
• SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities
• SDG 17: Partnerships to Achieve the Goals