Embedding an Indigenous Graduate Attribute into University of Western Sydney's Courses

2010 ◽  
Vol 39 (S1) ◽  
pp. 40-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Berice Anning

AbstractThe paper reports on embedding an Indigenous graduate attribute into courses at the University of Western Sydney (UWS), providing the background to the development and implementation of a holistic and individual Indigenous graduate attribute. It details the approach taken by the Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education in advising the UWS staff on the process for endorsement of the Indigenous graduate attribute. The UWS's recognition of its moral purpose and social responsibility to Indigenous people in Greater Western Sydney has led to the successful re-establishment of Indigenous education at UWS. The paper outlines the unique and innovative approach taken to implement the Indigenous graduate attribute, including: consultation across the Schools at UWS; developing and establishing relationships through the respect of disciplinary culture and tradition; the UWS-wide reform of the traditional discipline approach and the first step towards recognition of the domain of Indigenous knowledge in teaching and research; establishing a team of Indigenous academics; developing a learning and teaching framework for Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous studies; and integrating Indigenous content into curricula at UWS. The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations funded UWS to develop the Indigenous graduate attribute and implement it by embedding cultural competency and professional capacity into UWS courses.

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. iii-iii
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mackinlay ◽  
Martin Nakata

We are very proud to present this timely and significant Special Issue of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, guest edited by Katelyn Barney (The University of Queensland), Cindy Shannon (The University of Queensland) and Martin Nakata (The University of New South Wales). This collection of articles focuses on the activities of the Australian Indigenous Studies Learning and Teaching Network, an initiative funded by the Office for Teaching and Learning. The Australian Indigenous Studies Learning and Teaching Network was formed to bring leaders and early career academics in the field together to build relationships, debate and discuss central issues, and explore and share teaching and learning strategies in the discipline at tertiary level. These discussions at once untangle and re-entangle the processes, pedagogies and politics at play when Indigenous Studies becomes defined as a discipline.


2012 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zane Ma Rhea ◽  
Lynette Russell

The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC)-funded project ‘Exploring Problem-Based Learning Pedagogy as Transformative Education in Indigenous Australian Studies’ raised a number of issues that resonated with concerns we have had as professionals engaged in teaching and researching Australian Indigenous studies and Indigenous education. In this discursive paper we air some of the concerns we share which emerge from our collective research and teaching interests. We argue that Australian Indigenous studies and Indigenous education are too frequently collapsed or used interchangeably, and while there is tension between these areas rather than see as a problem we chose to interrogate this and argue for the potential for fruitful intellectual collaboration. This article problematises pedagogy and finds that sustained effort needs to be made to understand how pedagogical approaches to Australian Indigenous studies and Indigenous education are guiding and shaping each cognate area.


2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katelyn Barney ◽  
Cindy Shannon ◽  
Martin Nakata

The Australian Indigenous Studies Learning and Teaching Network was established in 2011 to develop a focused national network of scholars to engage in key discussions about teaching Indigenous Studies at tertiary level. Funded by the Office for Learning and Teaching (2011–14), the Network combines leaders and early career academics and builds relationships between scholars in the discipline, identifies key issues and explores effective teaching and learning approaches. This introductory essay places this Special Issue of The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education (AJIE) in context by exploring the aims and outcomes of the Network along with the positioning of the Network team. It also examines key challenges for the Network and possible future directions.


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 2-7
Author(s):  
Alisa Percy ◽  
◽  
Nona Press ◽  
Martin B Andrew ◽  
Vikk Pollard ◽  
...  

When the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice — JUTLP as we have come to know it — was established in 2004, it was to fill a perceived gap in publications related to teaching and learning practice in higher education, with practice being the operative word (Carter, 2004). While other higher education journals existed, they were mainly the purview of academic developers and the most prodigious of disciplinary academics researching their teaching. In contrast, JUTLP was to be built as open-access and its readership as ‘practitioners looking for good ideas based soundly on a body of accessible theory and research’ (McInnes, 2004, n.p.). JUTLP was established in the Australian context at a time when promoting excellence in teaching and learning was regarded as an important government agenda to improve the student experience, and not accidentally, coincided with the creation of the Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (later the Australian Learning and Teaching Council, and later again the Office for Learning and Teaching). The Carrick Institute supported national cross-institutional grants and fellowship schemes, and promoted national networks of educational research into practice to support the mission of the then Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) to ensure all ‘Australian higher education institutions provide high quality teaching and learning for all students’ (Carrick, 2009). How times have changed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Mackinlay ◽  
Katelyn Barney

This article explores the implementation of PEARL (Political, Embodied, Active, and Reflective Learning) in two courses at The University of Queensland: a first-year introductory Indigenous Studies course and a second year Indigenous Education course. We draw on findings from a 2-year (2010–2011) Office for Learning and Teaching (then ALTC) funded curriculum renewal project and findings from a pilot project (2013) implementing PEARL in a compulsory Indigenous Education course for all pre-service teacher educators in primary and secondary teacher training at The University of Queensland. Drawing transformative education theory into conversation with critical pedagogy and anti-colonial/racist education, we share student data from focus groups, questionnaires and reflective journals to examine the shift in students’ understanding of Indigenous issues, histories and peoples. Finally, we reflect on the ways the results hold great potential for the further implementation of PEARL into other university level courses, specifically in relation to a ‘pedagogy of solidarity’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. iii-iv
Author(s):  
Carlos Rivera Santana ◽  
Elizabeth Mackinlay ◽  
Martin Nakata

This special issue of the Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, titled ‘South-South Dialogues: Global Approaches to Decolonial Pedagogies’, aims to contribute to the field of Australian Indigenous Studies and Education by further diversifying the perspectives, conversations and conceptual tools to engage with Indigenous pedagogies. Through a south-south conversational and conceptual approach, this special issue expands the conversation of Indigenous pedagogies internationally and conceptually from a global south location. At the same time, this special issue means to be a re-iteration of the first ‘South-South Dialogues: Situated Perspectives in Decolonial Epistemologies’ conference held in November 2015 at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, which displayed a south-south conversation lead by local and global Indigenous perspectives. This special issue further theorises what many local and global scholars view as implied in Indigenous education: that the mainstream field of education can be re-examined using a decolonial viewpoint, one that is led by the views of Indigenous peoples and people of colour from the ‘global south’. This issue also responds to a re-awakening of decolonial theories that have been embodied in ‘Southern Theory’ (Connell, 2007), Indigenous Standpoint Theory (Nakata, 2007), coloniality/decoloniality (see, for instance, Maldonado-Torres, 2007), among others that continue to re-examine the conditions in which colonisation continues to be epistemologically exerted and continue to propose ways to contest it. This re-invigorated conversation is one that can be addressed by a genuinely horizontal intercultural dialogue lead by the southern perspectives. This was, one way or another, what was observed and lived in the ‘South-South Dialogues’ conference that felt like the starting point of a newer form of knowledge production and pedagogy.


2005 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 67-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah Mcgregor

AbstractThis paper explores the professional experience of an Anishnabe educator working in various organisations teaching Indigenous knowledge issues in both Aboriginal and primarily non-Aboriginal settings. The reflections span a number of years of teaching Aboriginal worldview and knowledge issues courses and include formal evaluations from both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students who have participated in the courses over that time. This paper draws upon two examples of educational institutions where Indigenous knowledge is being explored: the University of Toronto’s Aboriginal Studies Program and the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources’ (CIER) National First Nations Youth Environmental Education and Training Program. Both settings represent special places for thinking about decolonising Indigenous education. Integral to Aboriginal philosophy and decolonising education is the role elders play in informing and implementing meaningful education for Aboriginal learners. Both programs involve elders in central roles where they are recognised as authorities, facilitators and teachers. Discussion is offered on the subject of Aboriginal philosophies pertaining to education and some models for acting upon them, particularly as they relate to environmental education. Further analysis summarises the challenges faced by both programs and initiatives taken to advance Aboriginal educational goals. Finally, recommendations are made as to the types of changes which may be undertaken to realise creative spaces for resistance and creativity.


2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harvey Charles ◽  
Michelle Harris ◽  
Bronwyn Carlson

Indigenous Studies is a rapidly growing field of enquiry both nationally and internationally. The internationalisation of the discipline is dependent on its interdiciplinarity and on the collaborative efforts of interdisciplinary scholars. Colonised Indigenous people globally share similar experiences despite differences in histories and contexts. In collaborative situations, dedicated scholarship brings together Indigenous people and allies who are committed to the global expansion of Indigenous knowledge through shared understandings of experiences and histories. Collective efforts can improve curriculum development, enhance opportunities for publication, bring scholars together in conferences and symposia and provide opportunities for new research networks for Indigenous scholarship. This paper addresses spheres of collaborative and collective endeavours that continue to reap benefits nationally and internationally in the field of international Indigenous Studies.


2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norm Sheehan ◽  
Polly Walker

We are Indigenous University lecturers involved in research with the Purga Elders and Descendants Aboriginal Corporation. Our research at Purga involves the instigation of Indigenous Knowledge as the basis of effective and valid research methodologies. This article will describe the work that the University of Queensland (UQ) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit is doing at Purga. It will then articulate the principles of Indigenous Knowledge Research that inform this work.


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