Jacob Prehn

• PhD
• Associate Dean Indigenous - Senior Lecturer at University of Tasmania

Aboriginal Education Workers (AEWs) are utilised by primary and secondary schools to improve components of success for Aboriginal students, liaise with their families and the Aboriginal community and contribute to developing and promoting an Aboriginal pedagogy. Despite the challenging role of decolonising the school environment, the important work...

Self-concept is recognised as useful in facilitating understanding of the development of resilience, academic achievement and social and emotional maturity in children. This framework is valuable for studying minorities such as Indigenous children, for who a positive self-concept is a means of bolstering resilience and mitigating the inherited stru...

At present, Western universities are undergoing structural and institutional change in response to the growing demands to provide additional on-line course and degree options, improve the recruitment, retention and support of Indigenous students, and undergo Indigenisation (of governance, the offered curricula, its faculty and campuses). In Austral...

Indigenous fathers play a central role in the lives of Indigenous children growing up strong. For Australia’s Indigenous people, growing strong includes the possessing heightened levels of health, education and cultural knowledge. This article focuses on Indigenous fathers and how they understand the importance of sharing cultural activities with t...

Indigenous Data Sovereignty, in its proclamation of the right of Indigenous peoples to govern the collection, ownership , and application of data, recognises data as a cultural and economic asset. The impact of data are magnified by the emergence of Big Data and the associated impetus to open publicly held data (Open Data). Aboriginal and Tor-res S...

This chapter explores the dynamic interplay between social research and the Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) movement. In the fields of data and society, IDSov aims to disrupt colonial paradigms, emphasising the urgent need for Indigenous1 peoples and communities to reclaim authority over their data to define their narratives and futures (Kukuta...

Published in Advances in Social Work & Welfare Education, 25, 2, pp 75-89 Full text available open access here: https://www.journal.anzswwer.org/index.php/advances/article/view/356 Simulation is a well-established experiential learning approach in social work education that allows students to explore and practise new skills in a controlled and sup...

This article draws upon data from the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children to explore whether Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth ( n = 472) feel adequately supported within their cultural identity at school, and what they believe could enhance their sense of support. The confidence of Indigenous youth in their Indigeneity within educa...

Background Despite disproportionate rates of mental ill-health compared with non-Indigenous populations, few programs have been tailored to the unique health, social, and cultural needs and preferences of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males. This paper describes the process of culturally adapting the US-based Young Black Men, Masculin...

It is the purpose of this chapter to critically evaluate, through an Indigenous Data Sovereignty (IDSov) lens, a variety of racism measures utilised within one of the most successful national (Australian) longitudinal studies engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, that being the Footprints in Time: Longitudinal Study of Indige...

This article explores the inadequate recognition and integration of the strengths of Indigenous people in direct practice, policy development, and research. To address this concern, I present an Indigenous strengths-based theoretical framework designed to recognise and illuminate the diverse strengths inherent in Indigenous people and communities....

It is well established within the social sciences that each stage of research, from planning to publication, is affected by the researcher’s standpoint (Walter, 2019). Across the social sciences, there has been a tendency to prioritize knowledge (epistemes), frameworks, and research stemming from the Global North, and to overlook Southern and Indig...

The Australian Outdoor Health (OH) sector provides diverse practices that support an interconnected human and ecological approach to health and wellbeing. There is an urgent need for the OH sector to develop a comprehensive ethical practice framework, to enable professional recognition and other initiatives to progress. This would bring the sector...

This article seeks to understand who Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children select as role models, and the reasons underlying these choices. Drawing data from Wave 8 of the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children, it comprises a sample of 307 children (169 male and 138 female) aged between 10.5 and 12 years at the time of data collection....

In Australia, there is insufficient exploration and understanding of how we can strengthen the critical role played by Indigenous fathers. This paper argues that for Indigenous fathers to feel supported in childrearing, greater attention must be given to their social and cultural determinants of health and well‐being. To gain insights into the chal...

This chapter argues that Australian settler-colonial masculinity needs to be decolonized for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men to freely express themselves and feel valued. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men, settler-colonial masculinity is toxic. Generally, it subordinates or marginalizes those who do not possess particular trai...

In Australia, the ongoing structure of settler colonialism has meant understandings of Indigeneity continue to uphold deficit narratives about the lives of Indigenous peoples. The narrative that predominates for Indigenous fathers is often the labels of dysfunctionality, deviance, and disengagement from their children. Using the Longitudinal Study...

Indigenous sociology makes visible what is meaningful in the Indigenous social world. This core premise is demonstrated here via the use of the concept of the Indigenous Lifeworld in reference to the dispossessed Indigenous Peoples from Anglo-colonized first world nations. Indigenous lifeworld is built around dual intersubjectivities: within people...

This thesis is an exploration of Aboriginal masculinity in Australia. No critical theory of nation-wide Aboriginal masculinity yet exists, although there have been some local and regional explorations of the subject. Having a deeper understanding of the intersection of Indigeneity and masculinity is crucial in re-shaping and re-framing the lives of...

The phrase ‘knowledge is power’ is understood to mean that if individuals and groups in a society attain knowledge through transmission of knowledge (education), they attain wisdom. This wisdom is then used to assert power (Bacon and Montagu 1857). However, as Foucault (1990) argues, knowledge power recreates itself in a circular process. Therefore...

This paper argues that a component of increasing the rate of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and youths completing their secondary education is having parents and teachers maintain heightened expectations of these children in achieving this goal. To understand this phenomenon, we investigate the importance of, and discrepancies betwe...

Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander men have the worst health of any group in Australia. Despite this, relevant policies do not specifically explain how the issue will be improved. Existing research demonstrates the complexity of the problems facing Australian Indigenous men. The intersection of masculinity and Indigeneity, compounded by colon...

Primary caregivers play a central role in the lives of Indigenous children, supporting them to grow up strong across a range of measures. However, the ability of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander parents to successfully perform the function has been negatively impacted by colonisation and its ramifications in Australia. This is notably true...