Huakina mai te tatau o tōu whare: Opening University Doors to Indigenous Students

Abstract There is clear evidence that Indigenous education has changed considerably over time. Indigenous Australians' early experiences of ‘colonialised education’ included missionary schools, segregated and mixed public schooling, total exclusion and ‘modified curriculum’ specifically for Indigenous students which focused on teaching manual labour skills (as opposed to literacy and numeracy skills). The historical inequalities left a legacy of educational disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Following activist movements in the 1960s, the Commonwealth Government initiated a number of reviews and forged new policy directions with the aim of achieving parity of participation and outcomes in higher education between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Further reviews in the 1980s through to the new millennium produced recommendations specifically calling for Indigenous Australians to be given equality of access to higher education; for Indigenous Australians to be employed in higher education settings; and to be included in decisions regarding higher education. This paper aims to examine the evolution of Indigenous leaders in higher education from the period when we entered the space through to now. In doing so, it will examine the key documents to explore how the landscape has changed over time, eventually leading to a number of formal reviews, culminating in the Universities Australia 2017–2020 Indigenous Strategy (Universities Australia, 2017).

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Illuminating Indigenous health care provider stories through forum theater

AlterNative An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples ◽

10.1177/1177180121995801 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 61-70

Author(s):

Vanessa Van Bewer ◽

Roberta L Woodgate ◽

Donna Martin ◽

Frank Deer

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Health Care ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Indigenous Health ◽

Indigenous Education ◽

Cultural Safety ◽

Lateral Violence ◽

Indigenous Students ◽

Current Context ◽

Physical Spaces

Learning about the historical and current context of Indigenous peoples’ lives and building campus communities that value cultural safety remains at the heart of the Canadian educational agenda and have been enacted as priorities in the Manitoba Collaborative Indigenous Education Blueprint. A participatory approach informed by forum theater and Indigenous sharing circles involving collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health care professionals ( n = 8) was employed to explore the above priorities. Through the workshop activities, vignettes were created and performed to an audience of students and educators ( n = 7). The findings emerging from the workshop illuminated that Indigenous people in nursing and higher education face challenges with negotiating their identity, lateral violence and struggle to find safe spaces and people due to tokenism and a paucity of physical spaces dedicated to Indigenous students. This study contributed to provoking a greater understanding of Indigenous experiences in higher education and advancing reconciliation.

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An Environmental Scan of Indigenous Cultural Safety in Canadian Baccalaureate Nursing and Midwifery Programs

Canadian Journal of Nursing Research ◽

10.1177/08445621211016143 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 084456212110161

Author(s):

Nicholas Metheny ◽

Claire Dion Fletcher

Keyword(s):

Baccalaureate Nursing ◽

Ways Of Knowing ◽

Truth And Reconciliation Commission ◽

Cultural Safety ◽

Indigenous Students ◽

Safe Spaces ◽

Environmental Scan ◽

Truth And Reconciliation ◽

Substantial Progress ◽

Cultural Competency Education

Background The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) TRC has called to increase the number of Indigenous practitioners and include cultural competency education in their curricula. However, it remains unknown how nursing and midwifery programs are progressing towards these goals. Purpose To examine the extent to which baccalaureate nursing and midwifery programs are creating culturally safe spaces for Indigenous students, responding to TRC-recommended curricular changes, and including Indigenous content. Methods A digital environmental scan of accredited baccalaureate nursing and midwifery programs in Canada was conducted. Analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics. Results Of the 107 programs, less than one-fifth (n = 19, 17.8%) met all three cultural safety criteria. More than half (n = 59, 55.1%) included culturally safe spaces for Indigenous students, 20 (18.7%) satisfied TRC call #24 to require Indigenous-relevant coursework, and one-third (n = 36, 33.6%) were seen as infusing their curricula with Indigenous-related content. Conclusions This represents the first attempt to systematically catalog nursing and midwifery programs’ response to the TRC Calls to Action. Most schools have not made substantial progress towards cultural safety. Nursing and midwifery programs should commit to expanding their cultural safety programming to incorporate multiple ways of knowing and being in their curricula.

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Indigenous Undergraduates’ Use of Supplementary Tutors: Developing Academic Capabilities for Success in Higher Education Studies

The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education ◽

10.1017/jie.2017.39 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 48 (2) ◽

pp. 119-128

Author(s):

Martin Nakata ◽

Vicky Nakata ◽

Andrew Day ◽

Gregory Martin ◽

Michael Peachey

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Indigenous Students ◽

Knowledge And Skills ◽

Academic Knowledge ◽

Success In Higher Education ◽

Hidden Knowledge

This article presents an analysis of statements from Indigenous students in an Australian university that describe how they use supplementary tutors. The analysis provides some evidence that students use tutors for much more than the prescribed remedial purpose to assist with gaps in assumed academic knowledge and skills to prevent subject failures. Students also use tutors to access hidden knowledge and develop capabilities that assist their progress from dependence on assistance to independence in learning. Our analysis has implications for the conceptualisation and management of supplementary tutoring for Indigenous students.

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“We do not know what is the real story anymore”: Curricular contextualization principles that support indigenous students in understanding natural selection

Journal of Research in Science Teaching ◽

10.1002/tea.21422 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 348-376 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Ingrid Sánchez Tapia ◽

Joseph Krajcik ◽

Brian Reiser

Keyword(s):

Natural Selection ◽

Indigenous Students ◽

The Real

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The Tomato Pip's Story: Creative Narratives as Bridging Cultural and Science Discourses for Indigenous Students

The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education ◽

10.1017/jie.2017.11 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 47 (2) ◽

pp. 171-184

Author(s):

Lorrin Ruihi Shortland ◽

Terry Locke

Keyword(s):

Digestive System ◽

Indigenous Education ◽

Disciplinary Literacy ◽

Word Count ◽

Indigenous Students ◽

Science Discourse ◽

Group Data ◽

Focus Group Data ◽

Human Digestive System

This article reports on what happened when a Rumaki pūtaiao kaiako (Science) teacher at a New Zealand high school trialled the use of creative narratives with her Year-10 students as a way of developing their understanding of the human digestive system. These students were members of the school's Māori immersion unit, and creative narratives were in part utilised as a bridge between science discourse and the cultural knowledges these students brought to their learning. In this case study, students developed ‘Tomato Pip’ narratives through four versions, which told the story of a tomato pip travelling through the human digestive system. Word-count data based on these versions and from a summative test were analysed and correlations found between test scores and three categories of word-count total (total words, total science words and total discrete science words). A discourse analysis of one student's narratives identified two distinct voices in these texts: the personal narrator and the emerging biologist. Questionnaire and focus-group data indicated that the use of creative narratives was both motivational to these students and effective as a bridge into science discourse mastery. It is argued that the findings have implications for disciplinary literacy theory, Indigenous education and science instruction.

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