Indigenous Perspectives & Practices: Plan Your Search

Why plan your search?

At university you are expected to find and use scholarly information:

• in your assignments
• to prepare for class
• to explore new theories and ideas

However, to find scholarly information you need to search in a particular way to get good results.

Use this page to learn how to plan your search and find the best scholarly information sources to use. 

Step 1: Identify your key concepts

Before you find any information, identify the main ideas (or key concepts) in your assignment question or research topic

Sample Assignment Task:

Using a strength-based approach, prepare an evaluation plan for an Indigenous-focused school education initiative.

The key concepts are: 

Step 2: Brainstorm keywords & synonyms

Different words can be used to describe the same concept.

Think of other words that could be used to describe your key concepts. Synonyms should also be included. 

Example:

Step 3: Build your search

Boolean Operators are a way of telling a database or search engine how to do your search. Watch the video to learn how.

Use Boolean Operators to combine your keywords & synonyms into a search. You can build multiple searches using different synonyms & keywords.

Example: 

Use OR to combine synonyms & similar words:

Use AND to combine your key concepts together: 

"strength-based approach"

AND

("evaluation plan" OR "assessment plan" OR "analysis plan")

NOTE: We used inverted commas around "strength-based approach", and many other words, because we want to search for them as phrases. This means databases will only return results that include those words together, not separately. 

Step 4: Run your search

Now that you have a search string, you can paste it into the basic search of most databases, such as the Library catalogue, Google Scholar, or ProQuest.

"strength-based approach" AND ("evaluation plan" OR "assessment plan" OR "analysis plan") AND (Indigenous OR Aboriginal OR "First Nations people") AND ("school education" OR schooling OR "school curriculum") AND (initiative OR action)

Step 5: Evaluating resources with Indigenous perspectives

You are encouraged to use resources that respectfully include Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. This guide will help you to select a resource, and consider how you might address any issues with it.

The two main things to consider when evaluating a resource about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are:

Another way to assess the content and authorship of resources you've found is by considering the pyramid below from AIATSIS:

• By mob: Resources developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• With mob: Developed in respectful partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• For mob: Developed on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
• About mob: No Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander input, support or partnerships
• Against mob: Resources portray deficit or racist views

Using resources

If you've assessed your resource and you feel like it's problematic, out of date, or doesn't engage with Indigenous knowledges respectfully then you have a few options on how to proceed:

This evaluation guide was developed based on the following resources:

Finding different types of information

You will need to find different types of information during your studies. These may include: 

• Books & book chapters
• Journal articles
• Newspaper articles
• Standards & statistics
• Reports
• Grey literature

The type of information you are looking for will determine where you search, and how you search. 

Using the steps above will help you find most of these information types, but there are also other places to look.

Explore this study guide or ask a librarian to discover more.