This book addresses key issues in the context of the national policy of educating children accused of crimes in Juvenile Courts in Australia. For several decades, National and State Governments in Australia have struggled to define education, constantly seeking to improve the way society applies the concept. This book presents an accurate portrayal of consequences of the education policy of trying to educate troubled children and young people in trouble with the law. It describes the work of juvenile detention centre mathematics teachers and their teaching contexts. It portrays teachers as learners, who ventured with researchers with a theoretical perspective. This book focuses on culturally responsive pedagogies that seek to understand the ways Indigenous children and young people in juvenile detention make sense of their mathematical learning, which, until the time of detention, has been plagued by failure. It examines how the underperformance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and students from low socioeconomic backgrounds are strong determinants of their overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system in Australia. This book presents the argument that if the students' literacy and numeracy levels can be improved, there is opportunity to build better futures away from involvement in the juvenile justice system and towards productive employment to improve life chances.

Bronwyn Ewing is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education at the Queensland University of Technology, School of Teacher Education and Leadership, Australia. Bronwyn's core research interest investigates the problems of education failure for low socio-economic, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and special needs children and young people. She uses a transdisciplinary approach to research and grounds it in theoretical approaches that emphasise maths as human endeavour, and considers pedagogical, contextual and multi-sensory influences on individual learners and learning. She often uses mixed-method designs that lend themselves to real and lived settings of those with whom she works.

Grace Sarra is a Professor at the Queensland University of Technology in the School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education. She is of Aboriginal heritage from Bindal and Birri clan groups of the Birrigubba nation and Torres Strait Islander heritage of Mauar, Stephen and Murray Islands. Grace has 30 years of experience in teaching and leadership roles in schools and universities. She has extensive experience working within schools in Indigenous and low socioeconomic communities and schools to improve educational outcomes through school change and leadership. Grace researches in the fields of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education, early childhood, inclusive education, Indigenous young people and incarcerated youth in detention centres.