Recognising change and seeking affirmation: key themes for embedding Indigenous knowledges in Australian school curricula

• In Event: Indigenous Knowledge and the Academy SIG Highlighted Session: Co-constructing knowledge: Indigenous Knowledge, Students and culture in formal school curricular

Abstract

Dr Juliana McLaughlin,
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Dr Susan Whatman,
Griffith University, Gold Coast Campus, Australia



Abstract
Indigenous knowledges” (IK) in the Australian curricula and pedagogical space is a contentious phrase, often informed by the broader Australian socio-cultural, political and economic landscape. We content that the inclusion and exclusion of Indigenous knowledges in the Australian curricula are influenced by educational policy statements historically based on the myth of terra nullius. For the most part, these educational policies are fuelled by agendas of ‘reconciliation’, ‘equity’, ‘equality in participation’ and ‘social justice’ (Whatman & Singh, 2013; McLaughlin & Whatman, 2011). While these discourses are important, we argue that personal and professional commitment to social justice are necessary starting points for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Developing teacher knowledge around embedding IK and teachers’ preparedness to navigate what Phillips (2004) described as the ‘controlling and patrolling’ institutional borders in curriculum decision-making and pedagogy is required to inform, shift policy directions and enhance race relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. We draw from a recent research project on supporting preservice teachers as future curriculum leaders to develop their knowledge of embedding IK at one Australian university; the project was funded by the Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT).

Cultural interface theory (Nakata, 2002; 2007) proved a useful overarching framework for us to unpack pedagogical relationships between preservice teachers and their supervising teachers. The cultural interface enabled us to view sites of curriculum and pedagogical decision-making between these stakeholders as places of knowledge convergence and productive engagements, rather than as sites of divergent knowledges and irreconcilable differences. Features of critical race theory (CRT) following Ladson-Billings & Tate (1995) and Milner (2007; 2008) were also adapted to identify racialised behaviours, thoughts and tendencies within these pedagogical sites and teaching relationships between preservice teachers and their teaching practicum supervisors.

This research was based on principles of Indigenous research methodology. It drew specifically upon Nakata’s (2007) theory of Indigenous knowledge, that knowledge about, with and for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples occurs within a ‘cultural interface’ that requires critical reflection and how this informs the epistemological and ontological understandings informing knowledge production. Brown and Gilligan’s (1992) phenomenology as a methodological approach was adapted to direct attention to the subjective experiences of participants in these pedagogical negotiations. Preservice and supervising teacher voice was actively sought in analysing and naming these experiences. The research was based on principles of Indigenous research methodology and privileging Indigenous knowledges. The key question explored in this research was: what is your experience of embedding Indigenous knowledges during teaching practicum?

Project participants included 25 pre-service teachers, of whom 21 were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, all with a commitment to embedding Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in the school curriculum. A total of 23 supervising teachers in 21 schools participated in this project in both urban and rural schools in Queensland. All qualitative data was analysed by NVivo and Leximancer, qualitative data analysis software.

In this paper, we discuss four themes that emerged from the research findings. Based on the research participants’ perspectives, change, know (knowledge), help and affirmation were identified as the key concepts to shifting discourses around Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in the Australian curricula and pedagogical relationships. Engaging in critical pedagogies and Indigenous frameworks interrogate the complexities of dominant curricula taught and learnt from a homogenous standpoint while silencing the active presence of Indigenous peoples and their knowledges and perspectives, and allows the agency of future curriculum leaders and their supervising teachers to develop sustainable pedagogical approaches to make space for Indigenous knowledges in the Australian curriculum in both university and school levels.

Authors

• Juliana McLaughlin, Queensland University of Technology

• Susan Whatman, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia