The perceptions of Australian identity by Year 5 and Year 6 students in an Australian independent school

Renae Nahajski, Dianne Chambers
Edith Cowan University, Australia
Shane Lavery
The University of Notre Dame Australia, Australia

The study described here explored the perceptions of eight Year 5 and Year 6 students of their Australian identity in an independent Western Australian metropolitan school. The epistemological approach for this research was constructivism with an interpretivist theoretical perspective. We aimed to understand the perspectives of the eight student participants by use of a phenomenological methodology. Semi-structured interviews and student drawn pictures provided the data. Results revealed common values, citizenship, and a strong sense of belonging as important attributes of the participants' perceptions of their own Australian national identity. The results provide insights into how students perceive their sense of Australian national identity. This research is significant as it suggests a contemporary pluralistic interpretation of students' national identity may lead to a more active and integrative Australian national identity.
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Authors: Ms Renae Nahajski is a classroom teacher and university sessional tutor with over 25 years' experience. She teaches undergraduate units in Humanities and Social Sciences and educational pedagogy at Edith Cowan University and previously at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle and Edith Cowan University. Her research is in the field of Australian identity. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1692-0733 Email: r.nahajski@ecu.edu.au Dr Dianne Chambers (corresponding author) is Professor and Director International, in the School of Education, Edith Cowan University, in Perth, Western Australia. She recently worked in the Center for Special Needs Education Research and Practice, within the Institute for Diversity and Inclusion at Hiroshima University, Japan. She teaches courses on inclusion at undergraduate and graduate level and supervises undergraduate and doctoral research students in the field of special and inclusive education. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3852-6425 Email: d.chambers@ecu.edu.au Dr Shane Lavery is an Associate Professor and National Coordinator of postgraduate education in the School of Education, The University of Notre Dame Australia, Fremantle, Western Australia. He coordinates and teaches in courses on research design, educational leadership, and service learning, at undergraduate and postgraduate level. He also supervises students within the School of Education masters and doctoral programs. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6626-0073 Email: shane.lavery@nd.edu.au Please cite as: Nahajski, R., Chambers, D. & Lavery, S. (2025). The perceptions of Australian identity by Year 5 and Year 6 students in an Australian independent school. Issues in Educational Research, 35(4), 1605-1624. http://www.iier.org.au/iier35/nahajski.pdf