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Crossing Over: Collaborative and Cross-Cultural Teaching of Indigenous Education in a Higher Education Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Shirley Morgan  and
Barry Golding
Shirley Morgan
Affiliation:
Aboriginal Education Centre, University of Ballarat, University Drive, Mt Helen, Victoria, 3353, Australia
Barry Golding
Affiliation:
School of Education, University of Ballarat, University Drive, Mt Helen, Victoria, 3353, Australia
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Abstract

This paper explores the dynamics and outcomes from a collaborative, cross-cultural approach to teaching an Indigenous education elective unit in a Bachelor of Education (Primary) undergraduate degree at University of Ballarat in 2009. The three facilitators, one non-Aboriginal and two Aboriginal were a lecturer, an Aboriginal Centre Manager and Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group member from the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative respectively. The paper explores the open-ended and collaborative approach used to facilitate the learning, including pedagogies, activities and assessment. The paper, and the collaborative cross-cultural teaching approach it arguably embodies, is presented as a model of desirable practice with undergraduate education students, in particular for pre-service teachers undertaking a P-10 Bachelor of Education degree. As we describe later in the paper, these pre-service teachers, with some exceptions, in general had very limited and often stereotyped knowledge and experience of Aboriginal education, Aboriginal students or Aboriginal perspectives in other areas of the school curriculum. The teaching process we adopted and that we articulate in this paper attempted to address this previous lack of engagement with the subject matter of Indigenous education by actively modelling the processes of local Aboriginal consultation and collaboration that we were trying to teach.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 39 , Issue S1: Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Knowledge: Dialogue Or Conflict In The Academy? , 2010 , pp. 8 - 14
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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