Indigenous (Aboriginal, First Nations) students overcoming academic adversity: the roles of educational resilience, motivation and engagement, and teacher–student relationships

Indigenous students experience academic adversity stemming from barriers that are historical, structural, social, and epistemic. Past government policies of exclusion and assimilation continue to impact Indigenous students and families, with schools known to be sites of adversity for many Indigenous students in Australia, and across other settler-colonial states. This chapter attends to three factors that may assist Indigenous students’ academic development in the face of academic adversity: educational resilience, motivation and engagement, and teacher–student relationships. The discussion also identifies some key opportunities and approaches to building these into Indigenous students’ academic lives. This psychoeducational perspective represents one part of a multidimensional effort toward educational access and equity for Indigenous students.