Throughout her five years as a teacher, Casey West has been actively involved in Aboriginal education with school and the broader community.

The Year 3 teacher, at Singleton Heights Public School, on Wonnarua Country in the Hunter Valley, is involved with the local NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG), as well as initiatives such community consultation, localising Aboriginal perspectives within teaching and learning and building stronger relationships between school and community.

Throughout this time, the proud Wonnarua woman and Aboriginal educator has long wanted an answer to an important question, which she can now pursue after receiving the Premier's Teachers Mutual Bank Aboriginal Education Scholarship.

“Through that work, I kept coming back to the same question; we know that engaging with community is important, but how do we make sure that engagement is genuine, ongoing and actually influences what happens in schools?” Ms West said

“I want to explore how schools can move beyond simply consulting with community towards genuine collaboration, shared-decision-making and co-design.”

She was awarded the scholarship for her study From consultation to co-design: Embedding authentic Aboriginal community voice in school decision-making.

It provides $15,000 towards travel and expenses to Australia and New Zealand to study aspects of Aboriginal education relevant to the NSW curriculum or TAFE courses.

While Ms West is yet to finalise her itinerary, her plan is to visit a range of schools, communities, organisations and researchers across different educational settings in Australia and New Zealand.

“I want to learn from places where strong Indigenous community partnerships are already happening and really unpack how they got there,” she said.

“I am interested in how relationships were established, how trust was built, how community is involved in decision-making and what structures help those relationships continue over time. 

“Community holds an incredible amount of knowledge, experience and aspiration for our young people, and schools have so much to gain by listening and working alongside them.” 

But the study tour is not a matter of finding a pattern or mould that NSW public schools can copy.

By looking at their processes, structures and connections, Ms West intends to learn from all of the places she visits and hopefully uncover the practices and elements they share.

“I want to identify the common principles behind successful engagement while recognising that the way those principles are enacted needs to be responsive to local community, culture and Country,” Ms West said

“Ultimately, I want to bring that learning back and turn it into something practical that can support educators and schools to strengthen their own community partnerships.” 

Research such as this also will support and strengthen the department’s ongoing focus on cultural responsiveness, community voice and building meaningful partnerships with Aboriginal communities.