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Another Country: Non-Aboriginal Tertiary Students' Perceptions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

Josephine Ryan
Josephine Ryan*
Affiliation:
Australian Catholic University, Aquinas Campus, Ballarat, Victoria
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Extract

Even though Aboriginal people are from Australia it does not mean they speak the English language (non-Aboriginal tertiary student).

Jo Lampert's (1996) research discussed in her article Indigenous Australian perspectives in teaching at the University of Queensland speaks volumes about the challenges of attempting to make university curricula inclusive of Indigenous Australian perspectives. She documents the often ambivalent attitudes of academics towards opening up the curriculum to Indigenous Australians. The research discussed here seeks to add to our understanding of this process, focussing this time on the response of students to the introduction of Australian Indigenous perspectives into a single unit within a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Teaching program. The impetus to reflect on the process came with the shock of reading student papers, written at the end of the unit, and finding that effective communication about the educational needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples did not seem to have taken place, making a closer analysis of the teaching/learning process imperative. This investigation will address questions abouthowuniversities can communicate effectively about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Type
Section B: Teacher Education
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , April 1997 , pp. 18 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

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