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PhD supervisors Professor Michelle Trudgett and Professor Susan Page (middle and right) proudly attended Dr Stacey Kim Coates’ (left) graduation ceremony in November 2023.
The transition from PhD student to independent scholar is a challenging time for any academic. Limited funding, a relatively small professional network, and institutional requirements can make the first five years after completing a PhD a uniquely stressful period for early career researchers (ECRs).
For Indigenous ECRs, the pressures are compounded by additional demands on their time, such as developing Indigenous curriculum, mentoring students and serving on committees. To better understand the lived experiences of Indigenous ECRs, Western Sydney University’s Professor Michelle Trudgett, who is Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Indigenous Leadership led an exploratory Australian Research Council funded project with Professor Susan Page, and post-doctoral fellow Dr Michelle Locke. Together, this all-Indigenous-Australian team conducted in-depth interviews with 30 Indigenous ECRs from across Australia, following up with them over a period of three years.
"Indigenous scholars are absolutely crucial to the university workforce in Australia, and there aren’t enough of them, so we really wanted to know what we can do to make the career journeys of Indigenous ECRs more successful, particularly in those first critical years of transition from student to scholar," says Page, who is Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Education.
For Locke — who is herself an Indigenous ECR and senior lecturer at Western — the recently concluded project was about raising the voices of Aboriginals and Torres Straits Islanders, and paying it forward. "I was fortunate to have two experienced Indigenous scholars as mentors who were able to guide me on which things to say yes to: things that were important not only to my own career, but also in making a difference for other Indigenous people," Locke says.
Need to know
- Indigenous early career researchers face many non-research related demands on their time.
- A Western team is examining ways to make their career journeys more successful.
- 14 Indigenous ECRs have contributed chapters to a book about this that is being published soon.
"We are not helpless. We have the skills and abilities to say, 'This is what you need to make academia work.'"
One of the ways the team’s research is having a direct positive impact on the participants is that 14 of the Indigenous ECRs have contributed to a book, titled Indigenous Early Career Researchers in Australian Universities: Our Stories, which is due to be published soon. Beyond counting towards their publication targets, the book, co-edited with Dr Rhonda Povey, aims to highlight what Indigenous researchers bring to academia — affecting positive change and deepening the way knowledge is acquired.
"Often, the focus has been on the trauma and tragedy of what has happened in Indigenous Australia. We need to tell those truths, but we are not helpless," says Locke. "We have the skills and abilities to say, 'This is what you need to make academia work'."
The book also addresses university administrators, particularly those making decisions about researcher development. "We expect that the book should be useful for those thinking, 'What can I do to support the career development aspirations of Indigenous early career academics?'," says Page.
"By bringing Indigenous people on board and helping us to grow, we can continue to speak up in a way that non-Indigenous people will not only listen to but act on and apply," says Locke. The result? An ECR experience that is better for all.
Meet the Academic | Professor Susan Page
Professor Susan Page is an Aboriginal Australian academic whose research focuses on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experience of learning and academic work in higher education and student learning in Indigenous Studies. She is currently Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Education at Western Sydney University.
Susan has held several leadership positions including Director of Indigenous Learning and Teaching at Western Sydney University, Associate Dean (Indigenous Leadership and Engagement) and Director of the Centre for the Advancement of Indigenous Knowledges in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney, Head of the Department of Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University and she has led a university-wide Indigenous graduate attribute project. She has collaborated on multiple competitive research grants, has received a national award for Excellence in Teaching (Neville Bonner Award) and is well published in Indigenous Higher Education.
From 2015-2018 Susan was an elected Director of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Higher Education Consortium and she is an appointed Indigenous representative for the Universities Australia Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic committee. In 2021, Susan co-edited a special edition of the journal Higher Education Research and Development, Ō tatou reo, Na domoda, Kuruwilang birad: Indigenous voices in higher education. She also led a multidisciplinary team to develop a micro-credential, Supervising Indigenous Higher Degree Research (first offered in 2020).
Meet the Academic | Professor Michelle Trudgett
Professor Michelle Trudgett is an Indigenous scholar from the Wiradjuri Nation in New South Wales. Michelle currently holds the position Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Leadership at Western Sydney University. She has also held senior positions at the University of Technology Sydney and Macquarie University. Michelle is currently the Chair of the Universities Australia Deputy/Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Committee. She also serves as a Board Member on the GO Foundation. Michelle has received a number of awards including the highly prestigious National NAIDOC Scholar of the Year Award, the Neville Bonner Award for Teaching Excellence and the University of New England Distinguished Alumni Award.
Credit
Future-Makers is published for Western Sydney University by Nature Research Custom Media, part of Springer Nature.
