Document Type
Report
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
School
Kurongkurl Katitjin / School of Education
RAS ID
62086
Abstract
Background
The Deadly Sista Girlz (DSG) program is one of several school-based mentoring programs currently operating in Australia to improve educational outcomes of Indigenous girls. Deadly Sista Girlz runs programs on 12 DET WA school sites, 1 Catholic Education school site in Broome and 1 in Victoria. Each school site has a dedicated DSG room where DSG coordinators and mentors support the girls individually and communally whilst also running regular program workshops. There are currently over 732 high school aged girls enrolled in the program. DSG is part of the large and well established Wirrpanda Foundation.
Overall aims
This External Evaluation Review was commissioned as part of an agreement between the Wirrpanda Foundation and the Western Australian Department of Education. An External Evaluation was one of the recommendations made by the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) in its 2020 Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) funding review. The overarching aim of the Evaluation was to examine the focus and scope of the Deadly Sista Girlz Program. More specifically to:
• Identify a broad range of strategies to include the WA Education Department’s Aboriginal Cultural Standards Framework (ACSF), to strengthen the existing Deadly Sista Girlz Program
• Evaluate the learning environments and the extent of the cultural safety and welcoming
• Identify examples of evidence based best practice optimising culturally appropriate learning environments for Aboriginal girls.
What we examined
The evaluation covers the time period from mid 2020 to February 2021 and examined aspects of the Deadly Sista Girlz program. The objective of the evaluation is to provide an evidence based neutral assessment of all working aspects of the Deadly Sista Girlz Program that can be used to inform future decision making.
Methods
Indigenous methodological principles were used to ethically guide this research. Yarning was the key methodological approach used to gather the data alongside comprehensive literature reviews. We understood that the most important and insightful people to tell us about the program were the participants - the school site coordinators and mentors; the DSG central office staff, alumni and school leaders and ideally and in a longer term project the girls themselves. We also understood that in order to evaluate the cultural safety of the schools and the DSG rooms we would need to visit them. Given the reduced scope of research, we did not visit the DSG rooms on any of the DET sites nor did we interview or contact school principals. Despite the limitations, our evaluation provides in depth and authentic insights into the program as it draws on the standpoint of the site coordinators, staff and alumni gathered through yarning. The report also draws from a review of contemporary literature relevant to the education, health and well-being of Indigenous young women in Australia.
DOI
10.25958/71E6-BP45
Comments
Jackson-Barrett, E., Price, A., & Featch, J. (2021). Deadly Sista Girlz Final Evaluation Report. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/71E6-BP45