‘Learning can be anywhere’ – On the ground views of what impacts student engagement and attendance in remote Australian schools

Despite contrary evidence, attendance remains a measurement of success in remote First Nations education. This motivation, in part, derives from the Australian Government’s ‘Closing the Gap’ policies, which in the past included attendance targets for First Nations students. These assumed that increased school attendance led to improved school outcomes. Our article provides an account of what students, school staff and community members living, working and studying in remote and very remote communities say leads to increased school engagement and attendance. We argue concerns about school attendance are more often about poor engagement in learning at school than they are about the proportion of children and young people attending school on any day. The factors that either encourage or negatively impact attendance/engagement are discussed, including school environment, leadership, governance, teachers and teaching, student and external factors, systemic and policy issues. The findings have implications for schools, systems, policies, and funding priorities.