Motivation and emotion/Book/2026/Indigenous Australian role models and motivation

Indigenous Australian role models and motivation: How do Indigenous Australian role models influence motivation?

Overview

Imagine this: Talia is a 15-year-old student in far north Queensland. She is capable in science but has never met a scientist, and no one in her family has finished Year 12. In Term 2, an Aboriginal marine biologist visits her school, talks about her own patchy schooling, and runs a session on reef monitoring.

Talia does not suddenly love biology. But for the first time, "scientist" registers as something a person like her could actually be. By Term 4 she has enrolled in Year 11 chemistry.

Nothing about Talia's ability changed. What changed was what she could picture (see Figure 1).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students report stronger cultural identity than their peers, yet lower future aspirations and less adaptive motivational patterns - a gap driven by structural and interpersonal barriers, including racism, rather than by capability (Bodkin-Andrews et al., 2017). This matters because because aspiration and self-efficacy predict effort, persistence and goal choice independently of ability (Bandura, 1997), so a gap in what young people believe is possible becomes a gap in what they attempt.

Psychological science offers a precise account of how role models close that gap: role models supply behavioural information, evidence of attainability, and inspiration, and their effect depends on whether the observer sees the goal as relevant and reachable (Morgenroth et al., 2015).

Focus questions

What is a role model, and what functions do role models serve?
How do role models influence motivation?
Which Indigenous Australian role models do young people identify with, and why?
How effective are Indigenous role model and mentoring programs?
What are the limitations and risks of relying on role models?

1. What is a role model?

Role modelling is often treated as self-explanatory, but psychological definitions distinguish it sharply from related constructs and identify what a role model actually supplies to an observer.

1.1 Defining the construct

A role model is a person whose behaviour, attributes or achievements an observer attends to, learns from, and orients their own goals toward (Morgenroth et al., 2015).
Role modelling can operate entirely at a distance and without the model's awareness or consent, which distinguishes it from mentoring (Morgenroth et al., 2015).
Mentoring involves a sustained, reciprocal relationship; heroes and influencers are admired but may supply no usable behavioural information. The three overlap but are not interchangeable.

1.2 Three functions of role models

Behavioural model: demonstrates how to perform a behaviour, supporting skill acquisition and raising self-efficacy through vicarious experience (Bandura, 1997; Morgenroth et al., 2015).
Representation of the possible: demonstrates that a goal is attainable by someone like the observer, expanding the observer's set of realistic possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Morgenroth et al., 2015).
Inspiration: makes a goal desirable rather than merely feasible, increasing goal commitment and effort (Morgenroth et al., 2015).
A single role model may serve one function and not the others, which explains why the same person motivates one observer and leaves another unmoved (see Table 1).

1.3 When role models motivate and when they backfire

Two moderators determine the effect: goal relevance (does the model's domain matter to me?) and perceived attainability (could I realistically get there?) (Morgenroth et al., 2015).
When attainability is low, upward social comparison produces contrast rather than assimilation, and self-efficacy can decrease (Morgenroth et al., 2015).
This makes proximal, "one-step-ahead" models often more motivating than spectacular ones - a prediction with direct implications for program design.

2. How do role models influence motivation?

Three complementary theories explain the mechanism, and each makes a different prediction about why cultural matching between model and observer might matter.

2.1 Social cognitive theory and self-efficacy

Social cognitive theory identifies vicarious experience - observing others succeed - as one of four sources of self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1997).
Similarity between model and observer amplifies the effect: the more the observer perceives the model as "like me", the more diagnostic the model's success is of the observer's own capability (Bandura, 1997).
Self-efficacy in turn predicts goal choice, effort and persistence in the face of setbacks, making it the proximal mechanism through which role models change behaviour.

2.2 Possible selves and identity-based motivation

Possible selves are cognitive representations of what one might become, and they translate abstract aspiration into behavioural guides (Markus & Nurius, 1986).
Identity-based motivation holds that people prefer identity-congruent actions and interpret difficulty through the lens of the active identity (Oyserman & Destin, 2010).
Critically, when a task feels identity-incongruent, difficulty is read as evidence the task is "pointless and not for people like me"; when it feels congruent, the same difficulty signals importance (Oyserman & Destin, 2010).
This is the strongest theoretical reason cultural matching matters: a culturally matched role model makes an achievement-related possible self identity-congruent, changing how obstacles are interpreted.

2.3 Relatedness and autonomous motivation

Self-determination theory proposes that motivation is more autonomous and better sustained when needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness are met.
Role models embedded in relationships - family, community, mentors - can satisfy relatedness in a way that distant celebrity models cannot.
Martin (2006) situates role models within a broader motivational ecology for Indigenous education that includes self-concept, resilience, fear of failure and shame, family socialisation, and the roles of peers, teachers and community.

*Table 1*. The three functions of role models, their motivational outcomes, and the conditions under which each operates
Function	What the model supplies	Primary motivational outcome	Key moderator
Behavioural model	A demonstration of how to perform the behaviour	Skill acquisition; raised self-efficacy	Perceived similarity to the observer
Representation of the possible	Evidence that the goal can be reached by someone like me	Expanded possible selves; goal adoption	Perceived attainability
Inspiration	A vision of a goal worth wanting	Increased goal desirability and effort	Goal relevance

Note. Adapted from Morgenroth et al. (2015).

3. Which Indigenous Australian role models do young people identify with?

Who actually gets nominated as a role model is an empirical question, and the Australian answer is narrower than the achievement record would suggest.

3.1 Cultural identity as a motivational asset

Bodkin-Andrews et al. (2017) compared Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal and first-generation migrant students in Years 7-10 using an Indigenous quantitative methodological framework.
Aboriginal students reported stronger cultural identity but consistently lower future aspirations and less adaptive motivational tendencies than both comparison groups.
The authors argue cultural identity should be treated as a motivational asset to be built upon, not a variable to be statistically controlled away - a direct challenge to deficit framing.

3.2 Who gets nominated

Guerzoni et al. (2024) found role model selection among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youths is strongly gendered and racialised, with family members - particularly mothers - and male sportspeople dominating nominations.
The practical consequence is that the visible role model pool is far narrower than the actual Indigenous achievement pool across professions, arts, science, law and public life.
Because goal relevance moderates role model effects (Morgenroth et al., 2015), a pool concentrated in sport will be motivationally irrelevant to many young people.

3.3 Visibility and the burden of representation

Stronach et al. (2023) analysed media coverage of three elite Indigenous Australian sportswomen from 2017 to 2021 and found they were constructed simultaneously as athletes, advocates, activists and ambassadors.
Visibility is genuinely powerful - the authors take their title from the maxim "you can't be what you can't see" - but it is accompanied by scrutiny and expectations well beyond sporting performance.
Indigenous role models therefore carry a representational load that non-Indigenous counterparts do not, which is a cost borne by the model rather than the observer.

4. How effective are Indigenous role models and mentoring programs?

Some Australian programs offer the closest thing to a test of whether role modelling changes motivational outcomes at scale.

4.1 Mentoring: the AIME model

The Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience pairs Indigenous secondary students with university-student mentors, and is explicitly asset-based - designed to "inspire individuals rather than remediate them" (Harwood et al., 2015).
Harwood et al. (2015) combined survey data and fieldwork and reported positive effects on school engagement and on pathways into further education, training and employment.
A distinctive program principle, "No Shame at AIME", directly targets the shame and fear-of-failure dynamic which Martin (2006) identifies as a central motivational barrier.
Near-peer mentors also satisfy the attainability moderator better than elite models do, appreciating a university student is close enough to be credible.

4.2 Sport as a motivational pathway

Sport is the most visible and best-resourced Indigenous role modelling channel in Australia, and participation is associated with educational engagement and positive youth development.
Sporting role models are effective on the inspiration function but weak on the behavioural model function, because the behaviour being modelled is not always replicable for many people.
Coram (2007) argues AFL-based role model programs perform a "mythic function" which creates the desire to be like the hero can obscure how improbable elite sporting success actually is.

4.3 What the evidence can and cannot show

Most Australian role model research is cross-sectional, self-report and quasi-experimental, so causal claims should be made cautiously.
Program evaluations frequently lack randomised comparison groups, making selection effects difficult to rule out.
Qualitative and Indigenous-standpoint methods add explanatory depth that effect sizes alone cannot (Bodkin-Andrews et al., 2017), which is an argument for mixed methods rather than for discounting the evidence.

5. What are the limitations of role modelling?

A balanced chapter has to take seriously the possibility that role modelling is oversold, and in some forms actively harmful.

5.1 The narrow pathway problem

When the visible role model pool is concentrated in sport, the implicit message to young people is that sport is the pathway (Coram, 2007; Guerzoni et al., 2024).
Coram (2007) contends this can divert Indigenous youth away from educational development toward statistically improbable sporting careers.
The remedy implied by theory is not fewer role models but more kinds - diverse across domains, so that goal relevance is satisfied for more observers (Morgenroth et al., 2015).

5.2 Individualising structural problems

Role model interventions target aspiration, which is an individual-level variable; racism, funding, geography and intergenerational disadvantage are not.
Bodkin-Andrews et al. (2017) caution that framing the issue as an aspiration deficit risks reproducing the deficit discourse it claims to counter.
If aspiration rises but structural barriers remain, the likely result is increased effort meeting unchanged obstacles - a plausible pathway to disengagement rather than achievement.

5.3 Costs to the role models themselves

Elevated Indigenous individuals absorb scrutiny, racialised commentary and advocacy expectations that are not part of the equivalent non-Indigenous role (Stronach et al., 2023).
The role model framing places responsibility for collective outcomes on individuals who did not choose it.
Ethical program design therefore has to consider consent, remuneration and support for the people being held up, not only the benefit to observers.

Conclusion

Role models work through three separable functions - modelling behaviour, representing what is possible, and inspiring desire for a goal - and their effect is conditional on the observer perceiving the goal as both relevant and attainable (Morgenroth et al., 2015). This explains why the same role model can motivate one young person and demotivate another.

Cultural matching matters for a specific theoretical reason.''' A culturally matched model makes an achievement-related possible self identity-congruent, which changes how the observer interprets difficulty: as a signal of importance rather than of futility (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Oyserman & Destin, 2010). Cultural identity is therefore a motivational asset, not a deficit to be managed (Bodkin-Andrews et al., 2017).

The Australian evidence supports a real but bounded effect. Asset-based mentoring produces gains in engagement and post-school pathways (Harwood et al., 2015), but the visible role model pool is narrow and skewed toward sport and family (Guerzoni et al., 2024), individual models carry a disproportionate representational burden (Stronach et al., 2023), and over-reliance on sporting heroes can direct young people toward improbable pathways while leaving structural barriers untouched (Coram, 2007).

Take-home messages

Role models change motivation by changing what feels possible, not by changing ability.
Attainability beats spectacle: a near-peer mentor is often more motivating than an elite achiever.
Diversify the pool. One visible pathway serves only the young people whose goals already point that way.
Raising aspiration without removing structural barriers is not enough - and can make things worse.

References

Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman.

Bodkin-Andrews, G., Whittaker, A., Harrison, N., Craven, R., Parker, P., Trudgett, M., & Page, S. (2017). Exposing the patterns of statistical blindness: Centring Indigenous standpoints on student identity, motivation, and future aspirations. Australian Journal of Education, 61(3), 225–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004944117731360

Coram, S. (2007). Performative pedagogy and the creation of desire: The Indigenous athlete/role model and implications for learning. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36(1), 56–64. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100004427

Guerzoni, M. A., Prehn, J., & Peacock, H. (2024). Mothers and sportsmen: The gendered and racialised nature of role model selection for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander youths. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 59(2), 281–296. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajs4.311

Harwood, V., McMahon, S., O'Shea, S., Bodkin-Andrews, G., & Priestly, A. (2015). Recognising aspiration: The AIME program's effectiveness in inspiring Indigenous young people's participation in schooling and opportunities for further education and employment. The Australian Educational Researcher, 42(2), 217–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-015-0174-3

Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist, 41(9), 954–969. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.41.9.954

Martin, A. J. (2006). A motivational psychology for the education of Indigenous Australian students. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 35, 30–43. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1326011100004142

Morgenroth, T., Ryan, M. K., & Peters, K. (2015). The motivational theory of role modeling: How role models influence role aspirants' goals. Review of General Psychology, 19(4), 465–483. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000059

Oyserman, D., & Destin, M. (2010). Identity-based motivation: Implications for intervention. The Counseling Psychologist, 38(7), 1001–1043. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000010374775

Stronach, M., O'Shea, M., & Maxwell, H. (2023). 'You can't be what you can't see': Indigenous Australian sportswomen as powerful role models. Sport in Society, 26(6), 970–984. https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2022.2088356

External links

AIME mentoring (aimementoring.com)
Closing the Gap (Australian Government)
First Nations peoples and sport (Australian Sports Commission)
Indigenous Australians overview (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare)