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Embedding Diversity: Towards a Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy
A Report by Jane Moore February 2008
Background Briefing
This body of research and subsequent report has been made possible by the initiative and significant foresight shown by Robyn Ewing and Donna O’Connor. Donna and
Robyn successfully applied for a TIES grant entitled ‘Embedding Diversity: Towards a Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy’ in 2006 and their hard work and significant contribution to the success of the project should be acknowledged. This project has felt its support through many hands. Fran Waugh guided the project whilst Donna
O’Connor was on leave and Lindsey Napier assisted the project at each level. Nigel
Bagnall offered a driving force for the project initiatives and lent his guidance and support unreservedly to all aspects of the research.
Project Initiatives
The ‘Embedding Diversity: Towards a Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy’ project had five key initiatives to be carried out which include:
1. Develop curriculum materials that can be used to support learning and teaching in diversity, particularly focusing on an Aboriginal perspective
2. Assess curriculum for diversity and develop curriculum content for established
Units of Study that embeds diversity in to all faculty of Education and Social Work degrees especially in Education 1-1V
3. Develop modules addressing diversity in the classroom, with particular emphasis on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural experiences of learning and teaching
4. Develop a blended learning initiative for these modules of study, including, resources such as course readings, activities, case studies, revision website links
5. Coordinate the development of a professional development short course to academic staff in the University through the Division of Professional Learning, on teaching and learning issues around diversity, with particular emphasis on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander themes.
Tasks:
1. To interview and survey staff to get a general feeling on whether staff supported the notion of a core faculty unit being generated or whether support for embedding
Indigenous content and perspectives across the curriculum is apparent.
2. To interview staff to learn how issues of cultural diversity and Indigenous perspectives are being addressed within the courses being taught.
3. To interview staff and gather their ideas on how they could include Indigenous perspectives and cultural diversity issues within their current units of study
4. To interview staff and map out their professional development needs.
5. To interview staff and map out curriculum content opportunities for established units of study.
6. To assist staff in embedding Indigenous issues within their units of studies through researching articles, sourcing recommended readings and locating opportunities within course material for Indigenous perspectives to be addressed.

Executive Recommendations for Faculty:
1. To appoint a full time Indigenous staff member to the Faculty of Education and
Social Work to be shared across both teaching teams to teach and provide direction for Indigenous issues to be addressed within the Faculty and to provide leadership on
Indigenous issues within the faculty
2. To establish a ‘Cultural Diversity Committee’ to continue the work of the project and that membership of the committee be open to all staff *
3. To encourage staff to further their knowledge and involvement in Indigenous
Education through continued commitment to staff training and development and to continue staff training in ‘Connection To Country’ * *
5. To actively recruit Indigenous students to enrol in the Faculty of Education and
Social Work programs and encourage Indigenous students to join the faculty as research students within the PHD program and to offer a series of Indigenous scholarships for entry in to the Social Work and Education streams to encourage
Indigenous students to work within the faculty
6. To recruit Indigenous tutors for teaching both in Education and Social work study units
7. To continue a positive working relationship with the Koori Centre
8. As a direct outcome of the project the PDHPE team has introduced a compulsory
‘Indigenous Perspectives for PDHPE’ for 2009. The Embedding Diversity project team believe that a course such as this should be compulsory for all students not only to meet the NSW mandatory requirements, but also to continue the Faculty’s commitment to embedding Indigenous perspectives within their work. Indigenous
Perspectives for PDHPE could be used as a template a compulsory course.
* The mapping of Indigenous perspectives within the faculty is a useful tool as an awareness raising activity, prompting staff to look at their own work and assess whether their teaching embraces issues of cultural diversity and includes Indigenous perspectives.
* *Nigel Bagnall, Lindsey Napier, Fran Waugh, Paul Ginns, Ruth Philips, Dorothy
Bottrel, Carmel Fahey, Helen Proctor and Dora Lafkas made specific requests that they be given the opportunity to be involved in such a committee.
* * *Alexandra Hugman, Tony Loughland, Paul Ginns, Deborah Hayes, Dorian
Peters, Ann Cheryl Armstrong, Cherie Toivonen, Ruth Phillips, Lindsey Napier were all interested in attending the training but numbers did not permit their attendance on the first training session.
A Word of Thanks
As the ‘Embedding Diversity: Toward a Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy’ project officer I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to the many members of the
Faculty of Education and Social Work who gave generously of their time and cooperated with the research. As a direct result of our meetings together a
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3 considerable number of staff members made changes to their work and included
Indigenous perspectives, readings and worldviews in their work. In particular I would like to express my genuine gratitude to the ‘Cultural Diversity’ support committee of
Nigel Bagnall, Fran Waugh and Lindsey Napier whose passionate support of the spirit of the project assisted me in my toil and enabled me to work freely within the Faculty.
Conclusion
Challenges to ongoing success of the project initiatives:
1. Faculty has no Australian Indigenous Full time teaching staff
2. No committee currently exists to support and continue the ‘Embedding Diversity:
Toward a Culturally Inclusive Pedagogy’ project initiatives
Issues raised by staff:
1. The issues of the teaching of Indigenous content by non-Indigenous staff members
2. Staff lack of experience in working with Indigenous students.
3. Low numbers of Indigenous students being attracted to enrol in the Faculty of
Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney
Suggestions offered by staff:
1. An Indigenous Scholarship is offered for study within Education and one to be offered to an Indigenous student to study Social Work
2. Strategies to recruit Indigenous students into all Education and Social Work degrees to be explored
3. Program Directors be offered training in Indigenous cultural sensitivity and in this way the information could be filtered down through the rest of the staff
4. Each unit of study could have a statement about how the unit addresses indigenous content on the SUMO proforma
5. Encouragement of faculty involvement in AIME (Australian Indigenous
Mentoring Experience) project
6. Invite ex students from ‘Beyond the Line’ to speak on their experiences in schools with high indigenous populations with staff members
7. Guest speaker budget be allocated to deliver indigenous content across the faculty
8. Allocation of specific budget for staff to purchase books and resources to assist in the delivery of indigenous perspectives within subject areas
9. At the commencement of each semester, a suitably experienced and qualified staff member could come to talk with the teaching teams about how to embed indigenous content, giving specific examples of how in each subject, examples of indigenous perspectives could be included
10. A specialist Indigenous faculty staff member to be employed to: Coordinate a cultural diversity subject, act as a reference point for both staff and students, provide specialist knowledge, liaise between the Koori Centre and the faculty, and coordinate staff professional development and experience in Indigenous issues.
Specific staff feedback on Indigenous Perspectives Faculty Unit of Study
1. Unit of Study uses case studies, activities and web sites within the model
2. Unit should inform students of the reasons behind the teaching of Indigenous studies
3. Unit should address Indigenous students as a group with specific needs

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4. Unit should include knowledge about Indigenous educational history, achievements and patterns of disadvantage
5. Unit of Study should map the diversity in Indigenous groups and the diversity of
Indigenous Aboriginal lifestyles.
6. Unit should include a history of Indigenous Australians
7. Unit should include a history of Indigenous rights.
Training needs identified by staff:
Staff requested:
1. Access to Indigenous Cultural training
2. Professional development in how to embed Indigenous issues with the curriculum
3. Advice on how to create contacts with Indigenous communities
4. Training on how to deal with Indigenous learners in the classroom
5. Ongoing access to gaining an authentic knowledge and understanding of
Indigenous issues in education
6. Professional development in patterns of learning of Indigenous students
7. Training be delivered on the practise of embedding Indigenous perspectives within curriculum areas in particular
8. Training that addresses why Indigenous perspectives need to be embedded
Direct assistance requested and supplied by Project officer
:
Staff requested assistance with:
1. Writing an Indigenous perspectives compulsory Unit of Study to be included in the
University of Sydney Human Movement & Health Education Course in 2009
2. Information on Indigenous Health Issues
3. Surveying the CRC current collection and researching and suggesting relevant material, (including magazines, online resources) for CRC to acquire
4. Making a submission on relevant Indigenous issues to the Review of the Secondary
Combined Degrees of the faculty of Education Chaired by David Smith
5. Presenting a Unit Scaffold consideration to the Review of the Secondary Combined
Degrees of the faculty of Education Chaired by David Smith
6. Compiling lists or contact people in indigenous organizations
7. Mapping how HMHE degree manages cultural diversity and Indigenous perspectives through membership of the Human Movement and Health Education
Review Committee
8. Providing concrete examples of how Indigenous perspectives can be included in specific Units in the Human Movement Health Education Review
9. Researching opportunities for Indigenous perspectives to be included within specific courses
10. Compiling a recommended reading in Indigenous Contemporary Youth health
Issues (for Determinants of Health) and skills and actions to improve health outcomes for Indigenous young people as a specific group
11. Researching literacy in Indigenous settings and a general introduction into
Indigenous cultural issues
12. Developing curriculum content for Educational Psychology and in particular motivation and Indigenous learners
13. Researching community service opportunities for students to work within indigenous services
14. Researching a list of guest lecturers from outside the university who would be willing to come in and speak to the students on Indigenous issues

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15. Compiling a list of key writings and teaching resources in Indigenous education
16. Providing readings or case studies or examples of Indigenous language programs implemented in schools
17. Researching stories and information for Science Subjects (on the significance of the Blue Mountains for Indigenous people)
18. Giving presentations and leading tutorial groups and discussion times on
Indigenous perspectives and content in various strand areas
19. Compiling a list of useful websites for teachers to use
20. Researching Special Education and Indigenous learners, with case work examples of Inclusion of Indigenous Students with Special needs
21. Sourcing Indigenous examples of work in the Nicholson Gallery, the Macleay
Museum and within the University Art Gallery to help facilitate a visual arts unit
22. Sourcing examples of writing on Indigenous youth as a specific group
Faculty of Education and Social Work Staff Interviews
August 2007-January 2008
1. Craig Campbell
Craig outlined that embedding diversity needs to be solved on a structural level.
He maintained that issues for teachers could be different in primary schools and in secondary schools. He stated we needed to work on pedagogies when embedding indigenous perspectives and in particular, in 2ndary courses where he believed many issues with Aboriginal students emerged. He reflected that the faculty training and curriculum goals are not focussed enough on pedagogies; ‘what we want is teachers to be able to change their practice and work with communities better.’ He recommended there be a stand-alone course in 4 th
or 5 th
year that was program specific to
Primary/2ndary and Human Movement. He opposed placing an Aboriginal Studies unit in a third year position on the timetable and argued the need for students to be able to choose their courses. He argued that it was in third year that students were able to engage in specialist research in areas of interest to them.
He identified a need for a specialist Indigenous staff member to be employed by the faculty to be a reference point for both staff and students and provide specialist knowledge. He stated that this staff member could coordinate the subject and provide liaison between the Koori Centre and the faculty and could be responsible for professional development to assist in encouraging staff knowledge and experience in
Indigenous issues. He maintained that this was a high priority appointment. He suggested that embedding Indigenous perspectives be a dual approach between standalone subjects and embedding aboriginal content within the curriculum.
2. Llian Merritt
Llian explained that there was a single one-hour Indigenous perspective lecture within the subject area and 1 two-hour seminar. Llian registered her concern that there was a lack of Indigenous content in the curriculum areas and spoke about the difficulties of ensuring consistency within the faculty and ensuring a quality approach. She flagged the training and development issue for staff and the importance of establishing professional development in Indigenous perspectives. She cited an example of a successful student online discussion amongst students who shared knowledge on their backgrounds and were able to engage in questions about Aboriginal identity in an online forum. She flagged that a stand-alone unit may be added in to the M Teach

6 area. She stated that the students she taught had difficulty in negotiating the implications of student disadvantage.
3. Carmel Young
Carmel spoke about the strong focus history had on Indigenous issues and the way in which those perspectives were embedded within the syllabus. She affirmed the importance of constantly asking the students to reflect on Indigenous perspectives and offering them readings and examples to encourage the growth of their knowledge in the area. She believed that in general, the history students were well informed in the area of Aboriginal Education. She spoke about the way in which English in particular are using Indig Readers in 2008 and how this would have a positive impact on the awareness of the students of Indigenous issues and view points.
4. Helen Proctor
I met with Helen about her involvement in leading the discussions on Aboriginal
Education and she remarked that the responses in discussions and the quality of presentations varied widely. She remarked that the students who had studied the
Koori Kids in the Classroom EDUP 4072 and 4073 or the K0CR2600 Indigenous
Australia: An introduction revealed their depth of knowledge in discussions and enjoyed presenting the workshops. I attended two tutorials of Social Perspectives on
Education Wk 6.3 Workshop activity/presentation: Aboriginal Education to get an idea of the student knowledge ideas and perspectives. One student led workshop presented interviews about ‘how you could tell a person was an Aboriginal person’ and the responses reinforced negative attitudes about Aboriginal people, ignorance and prejudice. A time line was used as an overhead, which stated that the information included ‘important dates in Aboriginal history’, but did not include any significant events involving Aboriginal people, rather their ‘treatment by government policy at the time’. The second tutorial, in contrast explored notions of identity in a much more sensitive manner and explored the notion of how it felt to be an Indigenous learner in the classroom and presented some possible scenarios of how teachers could approach
Indigenous learners in positive ways. Interestingly enough, when the word Aboriginal was placed on the board to be brainstormed, of the 25 words put up by the class 18 were negative terms ‘disadvantaged, poverty, and alcohol issues. Helen mentioned that she would like to be involved in a committee or group within the faculty that worked through Indigenous issues within the faculty
5. Simone Alcorso
Simone echoed Helen Proctor’s remarks about the quality and depth of knowledge presented in the ‘Social Perspectives’ Aboriginal Education workshops. She commented about the ‘massive ignorance’ of Indigenous perspectives in her classes and she continued that the students did not understand why we have to re-dress the imbalances for aboriginal people. She went on to say that teaching about Indigenous culture might not be the necessary content tool to address this ‘ignorance’ but spoke about the need to inform students of the reasons behind the teaching of Indigenous studies. She explained her PHD research topic as researching the impact of gaming on
Native American Indigenous communities; how the income generated from gaming is used to fund education within these communities and how this model can be used in
Indigenous communities in Australia.

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6. Rosalie Pocket
In 2 nd
year all social work students must complete KOCR 2600 Indigenous Australia:
An Introduction. Rosalie suggested that each unit of study could have a statement about how the unit addresses Indigenous content on the SUMO proforma. She spoke about her Team Work in Health ‘Pilot’ Module, run for the first time in 2007 in first semester, an initiative of the Faculty of Health Sciences (project leader Jillian Nisbet from Interprofessional learning) and coordinated by Rosalie Pocket and Miranda Rose from the Yooroang Garang School of Indigenous Health Studies – Faculty of Health
Sciences. The basic model of this teamwork module involved 85 Social Work students and 16 Yooroang Garang students working in ten groups. Two Indigenous students were assigned to each group of non-Indigenous students. It was hoped that the Yooroang Garang students could offer Indigenous perspectives to the social work students and through the activities become more sensitive to Indigenous perspectives and how to recognise, raise and process cultural issues. We discussed the possibility of using a similar model in education.
7. Stephen Juan
I met with Stephen who spoke specifically about EDUF 1019. He reported that this course does not specifically address Indigenous perspectives but rather global issues. I suggested that Indigenous perspectives could be embedded in the ‘Children in Cross-
Cultural‘ course. He pointed out the time constraints implicit in the course and explained that course was written as a short course in development education. He commented that in his opinion, students ‘do not want more in Aboriginal Education’ and pointed out that EDUF 1018 covered Indigenous content directly in semester 1 i.e. ‘Education: An Indigenous Perspective’.
This led on to a general discussion of the benefits of writing a course oriented towards secondary teachers and specifically tailored to meet their needs. A 6-credit point semester 1 and 2 course could be offered with a two-hour seminar each week similar to EDUP 4073 and EDUP 4073.
8. Alexandra Hugman
Alexandra discussed the Indigenous perspectives embedded within the science syllabi and furnished me with information on Aboriginal Use of Native Plants (Biology),
Traditional Technologies, Current health issues in Aboriginal communities,
Arcaeostronomy and Ethnoastronomy and Traditional Technologies where significant
Indigenous content is presented. She noted that she needed assistance in compiling lists or contact people in Indigenous organizations for publishing on the Uni Serve
Science website. Alex felt that she needed advice on how to create contacts with
Indigenous communities; how to deal with Indigenous learners in the classroom; and how she can work towards more of an authentic knowledge and understanding of
Indigenous issues.
9. Steve Georgakis
I met with Steve Georgakis regarding the Human Movement and Health Education
Course and assessing the curriculum for Indigenous perspectives. He reported that he encouraged his students to take the Koori Kids in the Classroom subjects as electives and that the take –up for those courses was good. He spoke about the Aboriginal
Games Unit he created (EDUH 4002 – Physical Education Pedagogy 5) and spoke about its success. In this course Indigenous Traditional Games are taught and a

8 cultural background and social context for the games introduced to the students and discussed. Games from a wide variety of Indigenous groups from the Torres Strait,
Western Australia and South Australian Aborigines in the vicinity of Adelaide
(Kaurna language) to New South Wales mobs (Euhalyi). He recommended I speak to
Jenny O’Dea, Karen Lambert and Kate Russell about their work within the faculty.
10. Jenny O’Dea
I spoke to Jenny about her teaching in EDUH3028 (Adolescent Health Issues) and she reported that she covered Indigenous content when EDUH4054 (Issues in Nutrition
Education) She identified that she discussed Aboriginal populations as a specific group poorly effected by poor nutrition and shared statistics of the disparities in health between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. Specifically, in adolescent health issues, she covers the health statistics in Australia and the trends over the decades. She gives the student’s health status data on Australians and Indigenous
Australians from the AIHW reports - Australia's Health, 2006 (AIHW, 2006) and
Australia's Welfare, 2005. These reports contain the most recent data and they clearly show the huge discrepancy in health and welfare status between Indigenous and non-
Indigenous Australians.
She gave specific examples:
* I get the class to discuss and brainstorm the different determinants of
"health" and how the socio-economic, cultural, mental, psychological, spiritual health aspects are disadvantaged and difficult to address among
Indigenous Australians.
* Then we brainstorm all of the different ways of improving health status
Such as immunisation, training of Indigenous health workers, education and
Training of Indigenous teachers, and overall health development like
Housing.
* In their assignment work, students are asked to visit a "community health site" and I deliberately encourage them to visit an Aboriginal health
Service or site; for example the Aboriginal Health Service in Redfern. This is such a fantastic thing for them to do! It gives the students a great understanding of what these communities are trying to deal with, what is available and what needs to be done.
* One student this semester did a fantastic community site visit to some towns in far Western NSW and she came back and reported how little there was in the communities for adolescents re sex education, advice about sexually transmitted diseases and rape, The whole class got the message very well because they had reported about the fantastic services for non
Indigenous kids in the city!
* In Nutrition Education EDUH 4054 we discuss again, the determinants of protein energy malnutrition in children and link this to the social disadvantage in Aboriginal communities - again we discuss the Aboriginal rates of diabetes, high blood pressure etc and discuss strategies for improvement. I basically want the students to be able to understand all of

9 the broad spectrum of issues and then discuss the need for relevant solutions and workable strategies.
* ‘You won't really see it (Indigenous perspectives) in the course outlines, because it is more in the documents/reports and in the student led discovery in the class discussion. I like the students to "discover" these anomalies in health status themselves and it is best if they go out into the community and discover it and then bring their discoveries back to teach the whole group. It is a very powerful way of learning this stuff - and it works really, really well - I just love it! I get such a thrill when the students come back, having discovered themselves how appalling the
Indigenous situations, especially the services for isolated Indigenous youth!
This active learning is essential I think, because many of these young, middle class students have led relatively sheltered lives, in the middle class suburbs, never having met an Indigenous person (or anyone who identifies as Indigenous) in their whole lives! Then they go to the Aboriginal health clinic in Redfern for a morning and it literally changes their whole perspective on the situation. Its great stuff! So no, you won't see it come out in the written course outline, you see it in the graphs etc from the AIHW data reports, but you see it best come out in the class discussion and the student reports - you can see the change in the students.’ She reflected that the deep learning that took place with her students on
Indigenous issues occurred when they discovered information they, brought it back to the university and then subsequently taught each other about their experiences.
Jenny said that she would like to see more Indigenous representation in the faculty and in the classroom. Jenny spoke about the need to include Indigenous speakers within the course structure, which used to occur in the 1990’s. To facilitate this she would like to see an allocation for visiting Indigenous guest speakers in the program.
She said that this worked really well and would like to see more of this within the programs. She suggested that an expert on bush tucker might come in to the class and talk about native foods and tell stories of different local areas. She remarked that she would like to see greater collaboration between the Koori Centre and the Faculty. She would like to see an allocation for resources so that she could update her library and acquire more specialist books on Indigenous issues. She said that she would like to keep updating her personal knowledge on Indigenous content and would be interested in attending professional development in this area.
11. 12. Kate Russell and Karen Lambert
Meeting with Kate Russell and Karen Lambert regarding the University of Sydney
Human Movement and Health Education Review. We discussed the terms of reference of the review and how an important term included mapping how the degree
‘adequately addresses mandatory cross-curricula perspectives detailed by the NSWIT and the NSW BOS – particularly in relation to ICT, cultural diversity, Indigenous studies and literacy’. We discussed and I forwarded them a copy of the Aboriginal
Education NSWIT requirements and we discussed the possibility of exploring practicums for the students in schools with high Indigenous populations and professional experience in community organizations that work within Indigenous communities. Kate and Karen asked me to review the 30 separate unit outlines for possible inclusion of Indigenous content and attend the first advisory board meeting of the Human Movement and Health Education Review.

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I attended the University of Sydney Human Movement & Health Education Course
Review and assisted review committee by mapping how HMHE degree addresses mandatory cross-curricula perspectives in relation to cultural diversity and Indigenous perspectives. As a direct result of these meetings, and subsequent meetings and sessions with the Human Movement and Health Education Course Review team, I was asked to write an Indigenous Perspectives PDHPE Unit of Study, which was completed in January 2008 for inclusion in the course in second year in 2009.
13. Lesley Scanlan
Lesley is the Unit Coordinator for EDUF 1018 and the first year experience coordinator. EDUF is an introduction to teaching which places teaching within broader social and cultural issues. The course is a 12-week course and of those 12 weeks, 7 weeks use Indigenous examples, and embed Indigenous perspectives within the content. Lesley sees this unit as a perfect example of embedding Indigenous perspectives working really well within the faculty. She argues against a stand-alone subject from her experience in the past when students are more inclined to accept notions of diversity when it integrated into the courses offered. She stated that ‘if you put cultural diversity on a level playing field with other issues rather than ramming it down their throats then it can work’. She commented that the students do not get a choice of subjects til 3 rd
year and then their choices are already restricted and that this affects the quality of research being done later by the students.
She suggested that a combination of inviting guest lecturers with specific knowledge and training staff to embed Indigenous content within their courses would be an ideal faculty approach. She commented on the success of the guest lecturers by Sharon
Galleguillos that after those lectures, students were happy to talk about Indigenous issues in seminars and workshops. She posed the question as to whether the staff has been professionally developed to embed these issues and suggested this be an issue for the next Learning and Teaching forum (October 2007) She also suggested that at the beginning of the semester, a suitably experienced and qualified staff member could come to talk with the ‘first year teaching team’ about how to embed Indigenous content and in an informal discussion mode, give examples of how in each subject, examples of Indigenous perspectives could be included. Lesley offered to brief this staff member on the needs of the group.
14. Alyson Simpson
Alyson stated that the course: Indigenous Australian Education (lecturer: Sharon
Galleguillos) is compulsory to all second year primary students and she regards this as a very successful program. She raised the issue that if the responsibility for
Indigenous education is left to the Koori Centre, then, this practice ‘allows us to step away from the task of integrating cultural diversity issues within our programs.’ She supports the notion of Indigenous content being regarded not as an extra but an integrated part of the work of a teacher’ and whilst it is important that students recognise Indigenous issues and perspectives, if we separate them out, some students may feel alienated. She stated that the two main themes of her course were Critical
Awareness and Diverse Needs and that the terms ‘Indigenous’ may not appear in her course outlines at all, but rather terms such as cultural difference. She stated that she was in the process of reviewing the course and this may be a change that she could envisage happening.

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She stated that the English units used Indij Readers and the supplementary teaching notes as important resources. She stated that she favoured research perspectives that supported all students and although Indij Readers resources and have been specifically designed for Indigenous students, they contain important messages for all students about the link and influence of oral language on the written language. Alyson favoured this inclusive model and opposed a divisive method. She outlined the risk that unless lecturers ‘tagged’ it, the students would not necessarily recognise the modelling of Indigenous inclusion within class room teaching techniques and may not feel that Indigenous content had been covered. She stressed the importance of this clear linking for students. She stated that the programs are using David Rose’s
‘Reading To Learn’ resource booklet and DVD ‘Reading To Learn’ which features demonstration lessons for reading & writing in school in Indigenous communities
(Anangu Teacher Education) She opposed the politicising of issues in Aboriginal education and mapped that this type of practise may alienate students from the issues.
Alyson identified the fact that Aboriginal English is not an issue explored in the units she neither coordinates nor are Indigenous students singled out as a group with specific needs to be addressed through the course content. Alyson shared some ideas on the style of training needed in this area and she commented that training which will lead to a practical application of this knowledge must be prioritised. She suggested training be delivered on the practise of embedding Indigenous perspectives within curriculum areas in particular. She stated that the training should cover ‘why it needs to be done’ and suggested that in order to get away from the delivery end of the issue, that I invite ex students from ‘Beyond the Line’ to speak on their experiences in schools with high Indigenous populations.
15. Tony Welch
Tony asked the question ‘what happened to the rest of the project’ and asked how that cultural diversity in general was going to be addressed through the project. He affirmed the importance of the issue of cultural diversity for the faculty as a whole.
He stressed the importance of mapping all of the successes of the faculty’s involvement in Indigenous issues and the successful research and projects that had taken place between the Koori Centre, the community and the university. He differentiated some possible gaps in staff learning as: Knowledge of patterns of learning of Indigenous students and staff lack of experience in working with
Indigenous students. He commented that ‘many non-Indigenous people don’t have direct dealings with Indigenous people’ and that some of the issues involve
‘embedding cultural diversity within ourselves.’
He stated that a possible elective subject should include knowledge about Indigenous educational history, achievements and patterns of disadvantage. He noted that such a course should map the diversity in Indigenous groups and the diversity of Indigenous
Aboriginal lifestyles. He noted that from the students point of view issues of embedding create complaints of repetition. He suggested the model of a team taught course to alleviate issues that staff absences may cause a more single lecturer based model.
16. Dora Lafkas
Dora says that she raises Indigenous perspectives within a multi-lingual context because of her own expertise and interest rather than it being written in to the course

12 structure. She stated that ‘our teachers need to develop a sense of how to introduce
Aboriginal English as an oral language to students and parents and then transition the students and parents from the oral language to standard written form English.’ She raised the difficulties of bridging the gaps between oral and written language and teaching the students to do this without marginalizing their language. She remarked on the importance of this teaching not being seen as remedial. We discussed possible strategies to successfully teach Indigenous languages successfully and she emphasised the importance of avoiding the use of English when teaching Indigenous languages in the classroom. She would like to see the teachers we are training look at pieces of aboriginal English and consider it as another language with its own conventions.
Dora suggested there be a 4-credit point compulsory unit on ‘Indigenous language and understanding Indigenous cultures.’ She identified areas of training for staff as to the importance of developing an awareness of aboriginal English and the importance of gaining knowledge on what disadvantaged Indigenous students encounter within the school system and how to address their needs adequately. Dora mentioned that she would be interested in working on further projects, which looked at Indigenous perspectives, and Indigenous issues within education. She remarked on her difficulty in making contact with staff at the Koori Centre. She was a participant in the AIME experience for a semester and commented on her positive experiences with that program and also of the difficulty in finding ways to become involved in Indigenous issues on a more consistent basis.
17. Richard Walker
I met with Richard Walker who is the Unit Coordinator for EDUF 3029 - Educational
Psychology that is a compulsory second year subject offered in semester 1. The structure of the course is two one hour lectures and one hour long tutorial per week
The student numbers vary from 300 to 340 students per year – and in 2007, there were
19 tutorial groups run. We spoke about Educational Psychology and its specific focuses as learning, motivation and cognition. He explained that the course generally concerned learning, motivation and thinking and that the broad aim was to understand the nature of learning, motivation and the nature of thinking. He commented that the learning focus ranged from the individual to social and cultural. He suggested that the socio cultural emphasis of the course would give it scope to include Indigenous content. Richard commented about the difficulties of exploring Indigenous issues within the subject because there is no published work in the area that he is aware of.
He identified Educational Psychology as an area that I could develop curriculum content for. He posed that I could research the ways in which other universities deal with Indigenous issues within educational psychology. He offered James Cook as an ideal university to start with. He suggested that I could research issues of motivation and Indigenous learning. Richard also teaches EDUF The Psychology of Learning and Teaching which is a 6 credit point third year elective unit set up as an opportunity to engage in advanced educational psychology learning. The four topics include cognitive load theory, self-concept and self-efficacy, collaborative and ICT learning and learning from illustrations and text. The students attend 6 weeks and then have four weeks to attend tutorials only, with the lecture time spent on group oriented inquiry for presentation in the last two weeks of the semester. This year there are 34 students and 2 tutorial groups taking the elective.

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Richard suggested in a general discussion about the embedding of Indigenous issues within the faculty that secondary students should mirror the primary format where a compulsory Indigenous course is structured in. He suggested that Indigenous issues be covered within a curriculum structure. He supported the notion of a third year elective being written that could possibly be taken by both primary and secondary students. The course is based on 4 topics with 3 lectures on each topic given per week and a one-hour tutorial. Richard identified some areas of professional learning for academics and stated that it would be beneficial for a speaker to map out our goals for
Indigenous education and state what we would like to see occur in Indigenous education in the future. He suggested that it would be an interesting to map out areas of Indigenous learning that could be applied in educational psychology at Auckland
University and the University of Waikato and to discuss how their educational psychology subjects are being taught in terms of Maori perspectives.
18. Jan Milton
Jan Milton spoke about the MTeach in general terms and the fact that the MTeach primary students have the opportunity to elect the subject Koori Kids In The
Classroom’ in their first or 2 nd
years for 2 credit points. She spoke generally about her perceptions of what was being taught within her team and that since the Cleverly
Report in 2004 she has not seen much change in the way that Indigenous perspectives have been included. She stated that personally, she does not focus on including perspectives and felt that she needed this interview to act as a ‘reminder’ of the importance of the issues. She stated that ‘because of time constraints and because she feels like she doesn’t have the expertise ‘ herself to embed the issues but there were many opportunities to do so within the course. She remarked specifically that Kathy
Rushton in English was paying particular attention to cultural diversity and
Indigenous content. She was unsure as to the extent that Debbie Maise was teaching
Indigenous dancing and suggested that I contact her to ascertain this as well as
Christine Prescot in Science. Jan suggested that a general training on embedding
Indigenous perspectives would be helpful.
19. Sandra Newell
Sandra Newell spoke about how Indigenous perspectives are embedded into the 1 st year Human Society and Its Environment’ where the students are required to write their own unit from an Aboriginal perspective. She spoke about how in the 2 nd
year of the MTEach course how the students look at the way in which Indigenous perspectives are embedded within the curriculum in schools in an action research model. In this model they analyse who plans the perspectives in the schools and examine the strengths and weaknesses of the program. The students are also asked for recommendations for improvements in Indigenous perspectives. Sandra said that she would be interested in attending professional development training on Indigenous issues.
20. Jeanette Bobbis
I spoke to Jeanette Bobbis who said that whilst her maths classes do not specifically cover Indigenous perspectives in the classroom she does cover some spatial and measuring differences in how Indigenous students learn. She spoke broadly of her support for professional development in the exposure to Indigenous culture and cultural experiences of learning and teaching. She furnished me with n interesting article by Karen Wood from Mingener Primary School in WA ‘Mathematics through

14 movement: An investigation of the links between kinaesthetic and conceptual learning’ which uses informal action research to model ‘learning by doing’ and the acquisition of numeracy and maths skills through dance. Jeanette suggested that these strategies would be ideal ways to work with Indigenous learners.
21. Geoff Sherrington
Geoff Sherrington suggested the best way forward within the faculty might be to design a course which outlines the policies our students have to deal with in terms of
Indigenous education. He spoke about the development of the idea of multiculturalism within the faculty in the 1980’s. He posed the question: How do we sensitise our students to notions of cultural diversity? He affirmed the history of the
ED 1-3 program and its history as a social science and suggested that a possible way cultural diversity could be covered would be sensitise students to the differences in learning styles of Indigenous learners. He supported the notion of increasing staff’s exposure to Indigenous culture and emphasised the faculties history and close association with the Koori Centre and how this should continue in to the future to support the faculty’s approach to supporting Indigenous learners and encourage the embracing of Indigenous perspectives and content within the various programs within the faculty.
22. Tony Sperring
Tony spoke generally about the opportunities for students to be involved in researching and learning about Indigenous issues. For example he spoke about the 20 special education placements as an opportunity to develop links with Indigenous community groups. Within the BTEACH the students are introduced to a case –based approach and one of the compulsory first semester cases involves an Indigenous student and context. Within his own subject are Tony ensures at least one of the topics in 2 nd
year is concerning Indigenous issues. He discussed the compulsory Action
Research Project as an opportunity for students to explore Indigenous issues, as the students work on a personal experience report and 20 minute seminar on their teaching environment and the students who work in more remote areas with high
Indigenous populations explore Indigenous perspectives, learning styles and content within those seminars.
He suggested the music program (coordinator Peter Dunbar Hall) as an opportunity to include Indigenous music experiences. Tony suggested ways in which the ‘Cultural
Diversity project’ may be able to assist in Indigenous perspectives being further embedded into the course:
 research community service opportunities for students to work within
Indigenous services
 research community connections and possible guest lecturers who would be willing to come in and speak to the students on Indigenous issues
 research key writings and Teaching resources
 research and compile a list of useful websites for teachers to use

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23. Robyn Gibson
Robyn outlined the difficulties of timing in her course and that in 1 st year BED and third year BED she only has three one-hour mass lectures and 2-hour workshops to cover the information. However, as we spoke about the possibility of embedding
Indigenous perspectives in those weeks we came up with the strategy of replacing the
Ancient Egypt third year visual arts feature tile activity with an option that uses
Indigenous examples as seen in the Nicholson & Macleay Museums and University
Permanent Art Collections. We discussed the strategy of Robyn putting forward an
Indigenous theme in the special project for the Year 4 Special Course to encourage the students in their further exploration of Indigenous content. She spoke about the fact that students are given the opportunity to choose their own perspectives
(including Indigenous perspectives) when planning a unit of work and a number of students are taking up that option. I looked at 4 MTEACH units of work by students from the MTEACH ‘Recognition, Rights and Reconciliation; ‘Aboriginal Studies’,
‘Aboriginal Culture’ and ‘Aboriginal Culture and The Dreaming’ which were examples of the work done by groups of students in this area.
Curriculum content to be developed:
Source Indigenous examples of work in the Nicholson Gallery, the Macleay Museum and within the University Art Gallery to help facilitate this unit.
University Art Collection: Senior Curator Louise Tegart: 93514004. (The Art
Collection has a small number of bark paintings, woven baskets and implements from the Northern Territory. These include bark paintings that portray aspects of spiritual and ceremonial life of Eastern Arnhem Land. There are Hermannsburg watercolours from the 1940s by Walter Ebatarinja and the Pareroultja brothers Edwin, Rubin and
Otto of the Western Arrernte linguistic group. The current aim is to increase the representation of contemporary and historical works. Work by England Bangala, Roy
Burnyila and Jacky Tjakamarra have recently been donated by Dr David Edwards.)
Robyn suggested that the program Directors be offered training in Indigenous cultural sensitivity and in this way the information could be filtered down through the rest of the staff. Staff involved: Alyson Simpson, Nigel Bagnall, Lesley Laing, Carmel
Fahey, Tony Sperring, Jan Milton, Susan Colmer, Steve Georgakis and Tony
Loughland
Robyn revealed her preference for a stand-alone compulsory secondary unit, which could be offered within the education course and preferred this option to the’ piecemeal’ approach of embedding Indigenous perspectives within the course.
24. Ilektra Spandagou
Ilektra spoke generally about how the course tried to work on values and attitudes and that she was aware that there needed to be a break down of deep core beliefs about ‘a sense of other’ within the student body. This included deep core discriminatory values about Indigenous learners. However, she discussed that there are no explicit references to Indigenous issues, no case studies, nor readings or examples used within the course. She recognised that this area is one for her to look at to improve. She furnished me with the unit of study outline for EDUF 3031NIN Positive Approaches

16 to Special Education and the accompanying lecture notes and we mapped out possible areas to include Indigenous content. We identified her teaching of the Disability
Discrimination Act as one in which she could include information about the discrimination of Indigenous populations and she resolved to research this information to be added to her lecture content. Although two of the student group presentation topics had scope for students to explore Indigenous issues, in Ilektra’s experience, she had never had a student who focussed or commented on Indigenous learners. One strategy we explored to address this deficit would be to add a reading to the reading list on ‘Special Education and Indigenous learners.’ She asked me whether I would be of assistance in researching journal articles on ‘Inclusion of
Indigenous Students with Special needs’ and finding case studies and examples of positive strategies used within the special education context.
Ilektra talked about how she would like some professional development in the area of embedding Indigenous issues and would like to prioritise it as an area for her personal reading within the next six months. She stated that she would benefit from having knowledge of what is being done within the faculty of Indigenous perspectives so that she could refer to those examples and also to prevent duplication of information. She stated that she would like a workshop to assist her with the use of appropriate language when speaking about and to Indigenous populations, information about community protocols, sensitive issue, relevant legislation and policy. Ilektra discussed that she would like to increase her knowledge of Indigenous culture in a general sense.
25. Tony Loughland
Tony proposed a practical, project based faculty approach to devising a Cultural
Diversity Unit of Study involving collaboration between Koori Centre staff, education and social work faculty staff members and members of the school and broader community. Within Schools as Communities framework, the unit would be team taught, using a number of school and community sites as practicum sites. The students could spend one day per week in the community or could be
spent in a block practicum of 15-20 days.
The subject would have an action learning focus and use on-line forums to share information and reflect on their learning. It could be a third year compulsory subject and provide a practical project based mode of working.
This subject would require a Steering Committee to plan it with a deadline of May
2008.
26. David Evans
David explained that although the term ‘cultural diversity’ or Indigenous does not feature in his outlines, because the Special Education team work on a strengths based child centred model, students are alerted to cultural backgrounds as an important aspect to consider when approaching the needs of students with special needs.
He gave specific examples of where students may come into contact with Indigenous special education learners and quoted the fieldwork component of the course where students may participate in gaining experience in a school in rural area with a high
Indigenous population. To further hone the reflection on remote placements and enhance the shared learning opportunities of pre-service teachers working with
Indigenous students we explored the possibility of including a student oral report where students share their knowledge and experience with each other in a peer learning process. He spoke of the success of the Primary Student BED program

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‘Teaching Students with Special needs’ where students work directly with an identified primary school aged student with literacy needs. This high exposure to
Indigenous students with identified literacy needs through schools such as Forrest
Lodge, Alexandria Park, Marrickville and Glebe Primary Schools received positive student and learning support team feedback.
We discussed the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives within the future of the course and David discussed that the team of Ilektra Spandagou and Cathy Little were currently working on a series of 12 teaching tool ‘discussion’ scenarios for the 2008 course and that a scenario based around the specific needs of an Indigenous student could be included in the course to raise student awareness of the issues of addressing specific needs within a cultural group. He spoke of the importance of liasing with the
Koori centre on the development of this scenario and saw this as an opportunity to further extend the collaboration between the Koori Centre and the faculty. David is also involved in additional teaching load teaching at the Koori centre where he teaches the mandatory special education courses. He particularly enjoys this collaboration between him and the Koori Centre and believes that a greater exchange of information and teaching opportunities between the Koori Centre and the Faculty would be beneficial to both staff and students.
27. Louise Sutherland
Louise remarked that in her opinion the Cleverly report has had no impact on the work that as been done within her teaching team and in term’s of her own teaching practise. She referred to her own lack of experience and knowledge in working with
Indigenous students and embedding Indigenous content within her teaching.
Louise requested support for the MTeach staff in terms of a 2-hour professional training opportunity that could be run at the end of February in time for the new academic year. She requested this training to include information about issues that
Indigenous students face and include practical strategies for working with Indigenous students. She requested assistance in developing specific resources and accessing more case studies to be used in student discussions. She requested assistance in developing a list of a range of guest lecturers that could come and speak to the
MTEACH students about their work with Indigenous students. Louise registered her concern about how well the course prepares the students to embark on their practicums in the Northern Territory and suggested that a useful project would be to track the students and invite those students to come back and share their experiences both with staff and students. Louise resolved to change the timing of the Indigenous content lecture from second semester to first semester in 2008 in order to introduce the students to cultural diversity issues earlier in their program.
28. Nigel Bagnall
Nigel registered his concern for a compulsory Indigenous perspectives course because of possible student resistance to lack of choice within their academic program.
However, he also registered his views that it was problematic to rely on staff to embed Indigenous content within their current course structure. He emphasised that the need to address Indigenous issues within the faculty should not only be seen as a question of satisfying the NSWIT but as a vital component in equipping our graduate teachers with the knowledge and expertise to work as valuable and socially responsible members of the community.

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He mused that a compulsory unit in Ed 3 if constructed carefully, could be a positive way to embrace and unpack cultural diversity issues and explore Indigenous perspectives within teacher training within the faculty. He remarked that he would be looking to his December 2007 visit to the University of Auckland and the University of Waikato for inspiration as to ways in which other institutions are embedding cultural diversity perspectives within their curriculum. He stated that in is opinion, the courses within the specific curriculum areas needed to equip their students with teaching strategies helpful with Indigenous students. He mentioned that is was important to recognise difference and commonality amongst Aboriginal students and that teachers needed to be exposed to the notion that Indigenous learners may have different learning styles that suited them.
Nigel teaches EDPB 5014 and EDPB 5017 - Intercultural Aspects of Learning and
International Trends in Education. He plans to add a reading within Intercultural
Aspects of learning which explores an Australian Indigenous perspective of intercultural learning. In the International Education EDUF3027, a comparative education unit, he would like to add an early lecture comparing Australian
Indigenous, Maori and Canadian perspectives. Likewise, he would like to add a reading to the new distance delivery mode unit EDBT5000 International Curriculum that is available only to 5 th
year double degree students Nigel is interested in participating in the Oomera Edwards training on ‘connecting to country’ and increasing his Indigenous cultural knowledge by pursuing training opportunities within the faculty.
29. Cathy Little
Cathy spoke about the fact that from what she’d seen within her year long experience teaching Special Education within the faculty that Indigenous issues were not addressed at all. Similarly, she remarked that in her experience no students have engaged in the discussion of Indigenous perspectives within workshops. The only single time that Cathy recalls pointing out a distinct Indigenous cultural perspective was on one occasion within a workshop context when discussing ‘otitus medea’ and the high prevalence of this condition within Aboriginal communities. She gave this example because she had direct experience of working with Indigenous students with this particular concern, but registered that she would not feel comfortable nor confident to engage with any other Indigenous content because she is unsure of her appropriate role in the process. She recalled her experience in schools and the way in which most Aboriginal students were withdrawn for class for any intervention and the specific strategies used with those students not shared with her as a teacher. Because of this lack of experience she would not like to offend Aboriginal people with inappropriate ways of talking and discussing their specific needs and so does not engage in the process at all. She sought advice on how to discuss Indigenous issue in a way that is supportive and culturally appropriate. She supports the notion of a compulsory unit of study confronting the issues in Indigenous education and remarked that she saw ‘part of the obligation of producing teachers’ is to empower people in their knowledge of Indigenous culture and their knowledge of where to go to seek help.’ She questioned whether the University was offering anything too students wanting to further their knowledge in Indigenous issues. She said that she would like to use case studies featuring Indigenous students as a distinct cultural group and this may stimulate more knowledge and discussion within the Special

19
Education area. She would also like access to more readings about work done with
Indigenous special needs learners.
30. Lesley Laing
Lesley noted that within her Social Work units of study that specific readings and examples were given on ways of working appropriately with Indigenous populations.
So too, within tutorials, Indigenous case studies were used. She noted that Indigenous guest lecturers were invited to participate in the program and commented on the recent success of the ECAV (Education Centre Against Violence) lead lecture, which was led by three Indigenous Social workers. Lesley stated that she was interested in implementing strategies to recruit Indigenous students in to study Social Work and that she would be keen to be involved in a schools and TAFEs program to promote the Social work course. She suggested a Scholarship Program for an Indigenous student each year and recommended an Indigenous Academic Appointment in the
Social Work Department. She spoke about the successful grant for the ‘Weaving the
Net ‘ capacity building project in 2008, which involves Training Aboriginal Women to be Sexual Assault Workers’ and the fact that the Social Work Team would be looking for 2 Indigenous PHD students to work on the project. Lesley actively encourages 2 nd
Year TAFE Pathways students who are enrolling in Social Work to choose subjects from the Koori Centre within their student study program. She suggested a half day interactive experiential training day where the whole faculty were asked to be present and Indigenous presenters spoke about working with
Indigenous communities and the issues inherent in working successfully within communities. She stated that ‘we needed to throw the stone which created the ripples’ that would reach all members of the faculty and further encourage Indigenous issues and perspectives to be acknowledged. Lesley spoke about her vision to create a new unit in collaboration with the Koori Centre to focus on Indigenous Issues within a
Social Work framework.
31. Ruth Phillips
Ruth commented that the social work profession had high contact with Indigenous people and asserted that the fact that she couldn’t identify an Indigenous tutor or lecturer within the faculty was a problem. Ruth suggested a shared Indigenous appointment within the Education and Social Work faculty and emphasised the importance of such an appointment and the need to have a flexible approach to the qualifications required by such an appointment. She asserted the need to recognise prior learning and community experience. She pointed out that there were no recruitment strategies in place within Social Work to actively encourage Indigenous students to consider a Social Work degree program. Ruth recommended an
Indigenous student Scholarship scheme be implemented. She related that the students she was currently teaching had little or no contact with Indigenous culture, history, heritage or communities and that within a third year tutorial recently she asked a cohort of 25 students to raise their hands if they had never had contact with an
Indigenous person and 20 students raised their hands. She suggested I talk to Craig
Van Dartel (Manager, Marketing and Development) about possible strategies to promote the Social work and Education courses to Indigenous students. She mentioned that she would be keen to be involved in a committee that supported the spirit of the project in the future.

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32. Jo Fairley - Student Recruitment Officer
I spoke with Jo about the recruitment strategies employed by the faculty and future possibilities of strategies that could be implemented into the yearly plan for 2008. She spoke about the merit of the ‘Uni In A Day’ concept and commented that Indigenous student ambassadors could be asked to speak to schools about their positive experiences at university. She observed that ‘word of mouth is an excellent strategy’ for encouraging students to begin a program at the university. She also mentioned that if we had more Indigenous staff within the faculty then that would translate to higher participation rates for Indigenous students. A follow up meeting is scheduled with
Craig Van Dartel to have input into some strategies for Indigenous student participation in faculty courses.
33. Lesley Harbon
Lesley spoke about her commitment to the notion of embededdness and her support for using Indigenous community examples within her work. She spoke about the possibility of including an Indigenous language within the ten languages offered within the undergraduate language curriculum units and that to take on a student in an
Indigenous language teaching subject would need support from the Koori Centre and assistant from a special budget. This model has been precedented by Modern Hebrew where a budget is used to assist the Modern Hebrew students through guest lecturers.
Lesley would be interested in any training offered by the faculty, particularly for training in how to use embedding strategies in language teaching. She resolved to use the reading : The interface between Indigenous and non-Indigenous systems of knowing and learning: A report on the Dharug language Program in a High school in the Western Suburbs of Sydney in 2006 within her post graduate MED TESOL
EDPJ5025 unit as an example of a successful Aboriginal Language program implemented in a school and to invite Ricky Green as a guest speaker in to the class to talk about his work as an Indigenous language specialist.
34. 35. Brian Paltridge and Marie Stevenson
Brian and Marie spoke about the Masters of Education in TESOL structure of the course and how the Med in TESOL has been designed for English language teachers who seek to develop their professional expertise and further their understanding in the areas of language education, and particularly in the area of English language teaching to children, adolescents or adults. The program explores socio-cultural contexts of education but Brian and Marie acknowledged that the course did not currently include any Indigenous perspectives nor content. We spoke directly about the subject Literacy and Language Teaching EDPJ5020. We discussed the possibility of including a lecture on: Literacy In Indigenous Communities which explored the notion of
Aboriginal literacy development and I resolved to seek out suggested readings and articles to assist Marie with the development of her lecture. The lecture would relate directly to student outcomes of understanding issues related to literacy in particular social and cultural contexts.
36. Kathy Rushton
Kathy reflected on her teaching and noted that she does not explicitly include
Indigenous perspectives within the units of study she teaches. Kathy commented that she uses Indigenous materials by Indigenous writers such as ‘Tucker, Big Rain
Coming’ and emphasised the importance of using these resources within all courses.
She affirmed the need to have a contemporary understanding of cross-cultural

21 communication as provided by the Indij Readers. However, she commented that this inclusion of materials is not educating students about the needs of particular cultural groups. She stated that ‘we don’t focus on it and are teaching students in a fast paced program. (our program) is a ‘how to’ program. We have to teach students how to read, if we don’t do it properly, it doesn’t matter what their cultural background is.’
Kathy noted that biadialectism was an important issue that was not addressed within her teaching and is an issue that is ‘falling through the cracks’. She noted that teaching focussed on dialects would assist Aboriginal students in the classroom. She asserted the importance of what it means to speak Aboriginal English. She pointed out the difficulties that there were few trained linguistic personnel in NSW to embark on this work. She emphasised that the development of Standard Australian English should be seen as a dialect. She commented that teaching students need to meet some
Aboriginal people within their experience at university. She suggested that the faculty needed Indigenous lecturers teaching the units of study to impart cultural knowledge.
She stated that she would support the course being mandatory and being taught from the Koori Centre because they have the expertise and experience to deliver those courses.
Kathy stated that the faculty needed a course written that included a historical timeline that informed all students about the institutionalised racism in this country.
She said ‘we need to speak about massacres. We need to speak about invasion and cultural constructions of otherness.’ She asserted that a history of the AECG would be an important inclusion. ‘What we need is a course written and delivered by a collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous lecturers because we need to take responsibility for the past and what we want to happen in the future. Just like women’s issues are issues for all people, Indigenous issues are Australian issues and we don’t want them marginalised.’ ‘If you want tokenism you get an Aboriginal person to write it teach it and take responsibility for it. Thus you no longer have a shared issue. We have an issue that we can walk away from. We should stop looking for Indigenous people to fix our problems. We need non-Indigenous staff to step up to it. Working collaboratively. Working together.’
37. Di Bloomfield
Di commented that the faculty currently does little in terms of professional experience with Indigenous communities. She would like to see more students accessing schools with higher Indigenous populations. She commented that the faculty has a very low level of rural placements and sees this as an area for development. She suggested that linking in with the AIME project would be an ideal way to increase student experience with Indigenous students. Di spoke about the implementation of a professional experience portfolio where students gained professional experience in a variety of community settings. This program would be an ideal way for students to gain more experience working with Aboriginal people in community, healthy and education settings. Attached to the professional experience portfolio needs to be student training on protocols of working with Aboriginal people.
38. John Evans
John Evans is the only Indigenous staff member working within the faculty of education and social work as a tutor or a lecturer. John is responsible for teaching
Indigenous Sport, Education and Culture (EDUH4052) which was nominated for a

22 teaching award two years in a row. Student numbers vary in this subject ranging from ten to thirty students in semester 1. The previous semester 2 course ran with 2 students. John emphasised the need for positive content within the delivery of an
Indigenous studies course and explained that his unit of study focussed on positive stories and case studies. In particular he highlights participation of Aboriginal people in sport and the successes of aboriginal people in AFL, Rugby League and Athletics.
He suggested that Indigenous Dance should be an important component of a PDHPE based unit of study and this sends a positive health message about Aboriginal people and their culture. He suggested Bangarra and NAISD Dance College performances could be attended to provide students with access to contemporary Indigenous cultural expression. John commented that embedding Indigenous issues within all units of study within the faculty encourages staff to make changes and begin to acknowledge
Indigenous issues within their teacher training. John suggested that an important element of teaching an Indigenous course within the faculty would be an inclusion of guest lecturers and constant involvement from members of the Indigenous community.
39. Robyn Ewing
Robyn Ewing emphasised her commitment to embedding Indigenous issues within her own teaching practise and noted particularly her use of Indij Readers as constant sources of an authentic Indigenous voice within the classroom. Robyn uses ‘The burnt
Stick’ (developed by Robyn Ewing and Peter Colwell) in her teaching in drama within the faculty where understandings of ‘reconciliation’, ‘belonging’ and ‘stolen generations’ are explored. She asserted the need for partnerships and a dialogue situation where Indigenous and non-Indigenous staffs work together. She emphasised the importance of all staff members being open to learning about Indigenous people and programs and accessing Indigenous culture and knowledge. She discussed the importance of developing partnerships with Aboriginal organizations and exposing students and staff to opportunities to meet and engage with aboriginal people. Robyn spoke about the importance of preparing teachers to help raise the educational outcomes for Aboriginal students and to help meet their needs and those of their community.
40. Jacque Hicks
Jacque is the librarian for the Curriculum Resource Collection, which is a library set up specifically for pre-service teachers. Jacquie emphasised the importance of keeping her Indigenous resource list up to date and asserted the importance of the need for support for this task from all academics. Faculty Staff should be encouraged to discuss their needs with Jacquie and have open lines of communication with her and her staff so that new publications and resources can be ordered. Similarly, she emphasised the importance of academics informing her of changes to courses so that she can adequately prepare and resource the library to support the students in their work. She discussed the difficulties of sourcing appropriate, up to date information to support students in including Indigenous perspectives in content teaching areas.
Moreover, she would like to put into place some way of reviewing and updating policy document changes in Aboriginal education on a regular basis so that students are not accessing outdated materials.
An important initiative that Jacque wants to action concerns her plans for inclusion of
Indigenous perspectives and content on the Curriculum Resource Collection Site

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Library Web site. The inclusion of Indigenous content on the web site and the addition of community links to the site would affirm the faculty’s commitment to the importance of acknowledging Indigenous issues and preventing the marginalisation of
Indigenous people and programs at the university. In this way, successful initiatives could be celebrated, nurtured and acknowledged. The website would provide a symbolic framework and increase the visibility of Indigenous knowledge and culture for the students.
41. Michael Anderson
I interviewed Michael and he outlined how drama education involved the study of
Indigenous drama in a variety of different ways and that works by Aboriginal writers were used as focus texts within the courses. He explained that all topic essays have a text with an Indigenous author for students to choose to focus on. He stated that ’we engage with it (Indigenous issues) well and are on the road.’ He outlined that
Indigenous issues were integrated into discussions and lectures within EDSE2001 and that he was keen to give Indigenous issues a greater profile in the 4 th year unit of study EDSE4039. He suggested that he could add study of the work of an Indigenous filmmaker within the EDUF3034 course and thus begins student dialogues and increase understandings of Indigenous issues. He stated that inviting a guest
Indigenous film maker would be the best way to show case an Indigenous film so that students would have access to different view points and share their ideas. Indeed,
Michael regards ‘personal student interaction with Indigenous presenters and members of the community’ to be a key factor in reforming the faculty’s approach to
Indigenous issues. He outlined the difficulties of teaching students who had little interactions with Indigenous people and communities and emphasised ‘ what I want my students to know is not to back away from Indigenous issues through lack of experience and knowledge but engage with the community in a respectful manner.’
He emphasised that it was important for students to know how to access members of the Indigenous community and understand that it was important to begin conversations and dialogues with the aboriginal community for their work. He commented on the difficulties in making this work within the current resourcing system.
Michael suggested that the way forward in creating a faculty, which catered for
Indigenous students and actively, acknowledged Indigenous issues within its framework would be to appoint an Aboriginal Education Assistant to work within the faculty. He suggested that this member of staff could drive and support the reform within the faculty and provide an access point for staff to refer to when embarking on the task of embedding Indigenous issues within their work. He gave the example that this member of staff could be contacted by academics to assist with Indigenous resources. This person would have local knowledge and be able to engage Indigenous presenters on request and deal with the administrative issues involved in organising visits to the university. He suggested that the faculty should pursue funding possibilities to enable this position to go ahead. Michael stated that he was not convinced that a standalone Aboriginal education Unit of study would be the best strategy for the faculty. Although acknowledging this strategy would give ‘space and priority to the area. It silos the discussion. He continued to outline his suggestion that a unit of study should be developed separately for both the primary and secondary cohorts.’ ‘ I want the faculty to own the unit and work on it through a collaborative

24 model and be a stakeholder within the discussion and frame the information for the students because of our specific pedagogical needs.’
42. Dorothy Bottrell
Dorothy is the Senior Research Associate in Child and Youth Studies in the Faculty of Education and Social Work. She is one of the most experienced members of staff working within the faculty who have worked and researched with Indigenous students. She has many years of experience working with Aboriginal people and a deep passion and commitment for striving for social justice and better education outcomes for Indigenous people. Dorothy studied Aboriginal history as part of her BA and Indigenous perspectives were built into the Dip. Ed. through a social theory model. She has been involved with ANTAR on a political level and has gained experiences on Indigenous education through her work in juvenile justice and youth work. She has worked as a secondary school teacher working with Aboriginal students initially at Auburn, with Aboriginal students mainly from the western suburbs area and more recently in non-mainstream programs at Yasmar Juvenile
Justice Centre and in Glebe where she established an alternative Year 10 program for early leavers wishing to return to education. This project was initially run in partnership with the Distance Education High School and TAFE Outreach and now continues through TAFE Outreach and with local schools’ support. She also taught
Indigenous students at TAFE.
Dorothy developed many programs for Indigenous youth including ATSI
Leaving/After Care service; Cultural camps at Gunnedah in collaboration with
‘Cumbo Gunerah’ and Red Chief Council; Koori Careers Night, for inner city youth.
She also contributed to the Central Sydney Area Health Service Indigenous
Children’s Health Forum (2003); NSW Minister’s Review of Aboriginal Education
(2004) and NSW Department of Community Services research on ATSI youth homelessness in inner west (2004). Dorothy was a member of the steering committee for the Department of Community Services (Inner West) Indigenous Child, Youth and
Family Strategy (2003-4). Dorothy expressed her interest in being involved in a cultural diversity working party to assist with embedding Indigenous perspectives within the faculty.
Dorothy reflected that her years spent working with Indigenous people has given her insights into how to connect with people and affirmed the importance of creating the opportunity for pre-service teachers to spend time with aboriginal people. She suggested that the faculty write units of study, which provide opportunities for students to meet, talk with and develop relationships with Aboriginal people. She suggested that students be encouraged to listen to Koori Radio, watch Message Stick,
Black Chat or National Indigenous T.V. These Indigenous knowledge and information sources are important to non-Indigenous learners and could possibly be incorporated into courses. To highlight the importance and value of such learning, an assessment task such as a short report could be based on a reported issue, its context, impact on the student and relevance to teaching and learning.
Dorothy indicated that there were currently limited opportunities to incorporate Indigenous perspectives or her reflections as a non-Indigenous person working with Indigenous young people in the seminars she had led. In the MTeach program there is one case study, which students can choose to focus on within their course. In Eduf1018 there is a lecture and seminar on Indigenous issues. There is probably more scope for incorporating issues

25 and perspectives in MTeach seminars as an individual seminar leader drawing on experiences and examples to bring into a range of discussions. In the Eduf1018 seminars, however, very few references are made to Indigenous issues except for the seminar, which was dedicated to that topic (seminar 7: Education: an Indigenous perspective¹). This is understandable as few students have experience with Indigenous people and students are focussed on meeting the criteria for their presentation.
Student presentations do include some discussion but this is usually brief as various objectives need to be met and typically half-hour presentations may include four short segments, some interactive, others didactic. Discussions are focussed on the weekly topic and often there is limited scope for considering a variety of perspectives on the issue. There are around 15 to 20 minutes for discussion after student presentations and again this time is focussed on the topic and following up issues from the presentation.
There have been some opportunities to at least raise the question of how the focus issue may be considered from different perspectives, but no time to develop this into learning of any depth.
Dorothy emphasised the importance of refusing to stereotype Indigenous people and the importance of understanding and appreciating an individual Indigenous student in relation to their own knowledge of social identity. Courses need to be very conscious of the use of statistical data on Indigenous populations. She observed that the data needs to be contextualised and questioned to reveal possible interpretations; and to consider the relationship of population-individual characteristics, effects and variable incidence. Students need to be led through the process of questioning the data and understanding the diversity of Indigenous populations. She observed that looking through non-Indigenous middle class eyes is very problematic¹ and that statistics of
Aboriginal health, participation in education and child protection issues shared may be misread and produce prejudice and judgements from students which may hinder their approaches to meaningful relationships with Indigenous students and their families.
43. Armstrong Osborne
Armstrong teaches Science Foundations 1 (EDUF 1016) and Science Foundations 2
(EDUF 1017) Armstrong has experience working with Denis Foley on a number of projects, which embrace Indigenous perspectives and consider an aboriginal worldview. He is keen to increase his knowledge in the area and is open to discussions about embedding Indigenous issues in his work within the faculty.
Armstrong pointed out that ‘we need someone full time to focus on the embedding of
Indigenous issues’ within the faculty and regards Aboriginal perspectives as important and an area needing addressing. He was careful to point out that the science foundations units were firmly based in a research model. He flagged the Science
Foundations course as having a two fold aim: one of which is to provide basic science knowledge to students and the other is to present students with a children’s understanding of science through science education research. Both courses are presented through a four hours per week model, with 2-hour lectures and 2-hour tutorials given. In addition to this model 2 excursions to different sites occur within the program. One site visit is to Bicentennial Park and the other to north Narrabeen.
No Indigenous perspectives are mapped in to either site visit despite the Northern
Beaches being a significant site for Indigenous peoples in the greater Sydney area.

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Armstrong has an interest in beginning to embed Indigenous perspectives within both programs and through our discussions we identified two possible areas for which to explore the inclusion of an Indigenous perspective. One area is Biology and in particular how children’s views on animals are formed through their own cultural perspectives and how children conceive of what an animal is. The structured workshop manual: Science Foundations 1 Living Things Workshop 1 created for the students within EDUF 1016 could add an Indigenous children’s view component on page 42 of the manual. These cultural constructs could be presented and explored in terms of the ways that children look at, name and conceive of living things.
Armstrong flagged the distinct lack of research on Indigenous perspectives in biology in Australia but pointed to a large body of knowledge evident in Israel, New Zealand and to a lesser extent, Fiji. Despite this lack of research Armstrong is keen to include an Indigenous perspective and we discussed how the Indigenous Science network could be helpful in sourcing appropriate research.
Armstrong flagged another possibility for Indigenous perspectives to be included within EDUF 1017 in the Landscapes area where the effects of Europeans on the landscape and alternative perspectives on how the geo morphology of the scape was formed could be included. He asked for some material on the three sisters and suggested that Indigenous readings of the landscape could be sourced, stressing the importance of good quality, peer reviewed material. He suggested that page 55 of the
Science Foundations 2 module 3-research booklet could include stories of how the landscapes began in an Indigenous worldview. He explored the notion of ‘science challenging cultural understandings. He stressed the importance of understanding that science was informed by cultural understandings but stated that whether you can teach cultural understandings through science is a vital philosophical question to explore. Armstrong presented time as a barrier to the inclusion of an Indigenous perspective but also these important philosophical debates about the place of prescientific concepts and the challenges Western Science brings to those concepts.
44. Paul Ginns
Paul teaches Educational Psychology at an undergraduate level and has been working on the subject entitled ‘Adult Learning and Development’ in terms of embedding
Indigenous perspectives. He discussed including Indigenous content in his unit in terms of his assessment tools and including an essay question and a 45-minute presentation, which included an Indigenous research question. I met with Paul informally during 2007 and 2008 and he was incredible enthusiastic and supportive of the project. He was interested in adding Indigenous perspectives within his units, being involved in further training in the future and would like to consider membership of a Cultural Diversity Committee n the future.
Brief Comments from Social Work Meeting Presentation October 2, 2007.
Jude Irwin – emphasised that ‘we all have to take responsibility for embedding
Indigenous issues within our work and not step away from the task.’
Margot Rawsthorne emphasised the importance of the embedding of an Indigenous approach in social work. She pointed out the danger of programming one lecture into the unit of study and thought that we should steer away from ‘a tokenistic approach’ and use Indigenous perspectives as a ‘touch stone’ to ‘ground our work’.

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Agi O’Hara – stressed the importance of her commitment to using a combination of the two approaches outlined in the meeting and recommended both embedding
Indigenous perspectives within programs and offering stand alone compulsory and elective subjects as the most effective way to ensure that Indigenous perspectives are comprehensively explored.
Ruth Phillips remarked on the importance of embedding Indigenous issues in
‘appropriate ways’ with Indigenous speakers delivering Indigenous content.
Koori Centre Interviews
1. Lynette Riley Mundine
Lynette recommended that I create a map of what’s being taught within the faculty and map out the strengths and weaknesses and priorities and work out where the gaps in cultural diversity occur and what needs to happen to fill those gaps. Lynnette suggested I survey the staff and ask them what they are offering in terms of
Indigenous content, and the assessment tasks involved and get staff to delineate the target audience for the courses. She discussed the importance of placing case studies, activities and web sites into electives and to consider where the modules get an aboriginal presence from and whether it was through an Indigenous lecturer delivering the content or alternatively, from a guest speaker budget. I asked Lynnette what she would prioritise and she spoke about the importance of the teaching of
Aboriginal languages.
2. Sharon Galleguillos
Sharon registered her concerns about the “Embedding Diversity’ appointment and believes that the curriculum development, assessment and development of modules of study should be done within the Koori Centre for the following reasons
 the Koori Centre has successfully run the mandatory primary course and could provide a relevant secondary course which continues on from the success of that course
 the expertise for writing and delivering the course is within the Centre
 the Centre is already working with Indigenous students and has excellent networks with Indigenous organizations, schools and community members
She registered her concern that academic staff come and go within the university and that it was important to maintain the integrity of the course and have it delivered by
Indigenous lecturers and staff. She recommends that the compulsory course be in the second year of study as to make a greater impact on the student’s early development as a beginning teacher
3. Debbie Wray - Koori Centre lecturer
‘Cultural studies belongs to aboriginal people,
Indigenous perspectives belongs to everyone.’ ‘Lets all own it’
Debbie Wray

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Debbie spoke about her own conviction that only Indigenous teachers should teach cultural studies but that the teaching of Indigenous perspectives should be embraced by all. She spoke specifically about her recent guest lecture for Lianne Merritt’s
2ndary third year teaching unit ‘Craft Knowledge’ and how difficult it was to select a lecture – but how she chose an identity lecture. Feedback from both Lianne and the students involved was really positive and how important it was for those students to have a grounding in cultural heritage issues. This is an example of successful Koori
Centre and faculty collaboration with positive student outcomes.
She spoke about he success of the ‘Koori Kids In The Classroom’ strategy, which matches each student up with an Aboriginal Education Assistant for the length of his or her practicum. She described the cultural diversity of the students choosing ‘koori kids in the classroom’ She spoke about the risk of Indigenous perspectives being marginalised through the unit being entitled Cultural Diversity’ and pointed to the possibility that cultural diversity issues may ‘take over’ and make Indigenous content a peripheral issue. She spoke about the importance of an Indigenous history in a potential course in order to contextualise and provide a base knowledge for a history of Indigenous education and exposure to culture to be overlaid.
4. Peter Minter
I met informally with Peter Minter who teaches in the Koori Centre and the faculty of arts about the possible content of a course in cultural diversity and he spoke directly about the importance of teaching some type of cultural awareness within such a course. He also spoke from his experience of students at the university that students had little or no exposure to the history of Indigenous Australians and that a history of
Indigenous rights component would be an important component to consider.
Extra Interviews
1. I interviewed Jack Manning-Bancroft and Paul Sinclair about their AIME
Australian Indigenous Mentoring Experience program, which involves the training
(Aboriginal history and cultural awareness focussed) and support of Indigenous and non-Indigenous mentors and placing those mentors with Indigenous students from secondary schools in Sydney.
Aims of the Program
• Create an environment where all students, University and High School become proud to learn about Indigenous Australia.
• Improve Attendance rates at participating schools
• Focus on engaging Mentees in education and Mentors in practical reconciliation.
• Provide a clear pathway from Year 9 onto Year 12 and beyond.
• Improve self esteem, communication skills, and work ethic of high school students
• Break down social stereotypes of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians and in doing so create a sense of community and belonging.
• Empower Indigenous people with the skills and confidence to survive and succeed in life after school.
• Expose young Indigenous people to successful Indigenous people in all walks of life.

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I believe this program should be actively promoted within the faculty and have dispersed the information to staff members and discussed the program with each of the staff interviewed as an ideal opportunity for involvement in the local Indigenous community.
2. Shane Brown
South Sydney Youth Service (multi functional service for young people based in
Waterloo) Shane’s specific area: non – Indigenous collaboration with Indigenous young people. He stated ‘the biggest problem (is that) we have this big group of non-
Indigenous, sympathetic people who get it wrong.’ He said ‘leadership in this area is the key to social harmony’. He spoke about this ‘over identification of aboriginal people and the ways in which the dominant cultural group can romanticise the other’.
He emphasised that the unit of study must begin with an unpacking and an understanding of the student’s own cultural backgrounds. He suggested that
Indigenous students needed to have a special place in the class and it was important to develop ways to do this, as the unit was taught.
He spoke at length about the 1996 Department of Immigration and Ethnic Affairs and
Australia Council joint funded project ‘Young People in Unity to Stop Racism’. The project involved a peer education program whereby a group of young people were trained to assist other young people of Indigenous NESB and Anglo backgrounds to air their views on racist issues and design postcards and a school diary based on cultural diversity themes. This project hoped to achieve greater understandings of the benefits of cultural diversity and access to information and knowledge about diverse cultural groups and a promotion of community life and the benefits of working together. Shane gave me a copy of the detailed final report, encouraged me to read it and suggested some of the processes outlined in the report may be ideal activities for pre-service teacher training in cultural diversity issues.
He mapped out possible themes: Cultural Identity (understanding your own cultural background), Racism – design a program to challenge racism, Aboriginal History and Aboriginal Culture. He asked the questions: How will the course create change?
What do we want to challenge? He suggested Anita Heiss (author) would be an ideal person to present at a staff learning presentation. He also suggested Brad Welsh from the Land Council. Shane was quite open to the notion of using ‘Our Place – Stories about Good Practice in Youth work with Aboriginal Young People’ as a textbook for the course. Price: $22.00 or $15.00 for bulk orders. A possible proposal was to use the
South Sydney Youth Service as a possible site for practicum hours.
3. Oomera Edwards: Marrawan – Connecting to Country
Oomera Edwards says ‘everything can be tied to country’ and you ‘can’t teach country in a room.’
Oomera runs workshops to assist teachers and students to understand Indigenous notions of ‘country.’ She speaks about a physical connection to country and the ways in which an individual expresses these connections to country through kinship relationships, totems, and the sounds of country. She explores notions such as respect, honourable behaviour, time and healing. By taking people in to the bush she gives them an opportunity to ask questions, have long discussions and experience the places that illustrate Indigenous connections to country.

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Oomera’s fee $1600.00 per day and her ideal group numbers are ten to fifteen per group and the suggested time s may be 9.30-4 pm. She lives at Ourimbah, which is an hour and a half from Sydney or two hours in a coach. Participants would bring their own water and food and wear comfortable shoes and walking clothes. Oomera suggested readings: Deborah Bird Rose – description of country ‘Nourishing
Terrains.’ Chapters – clearly describing country. Deborah Bird Rose: ‘Country of the
Heart – an Indigenous Australian Homeland’ I would like to propose a visit for academic staff interested in visiting Oomera and participating in her ‘Connecting to
Country’ Field Trip day at Ourimbah as part of a professional development program.
4. Lily Shearer
Redfern Community Centre – Cultural Development Officer
Redfern Community Centre - Redfern Aboriginal Oral Histories Project.
Over the last 6 months (2007) Aboriginal Artist/Facilitator, Lily Shearer has been collecting the stories of Elders from Redfern. On Thursday 20 September the Redfern
Community Centre I attended the photographic/Oral history event with the stories and spoke to Lily about the possibility of developing a partnership between the project and possible inclusion of the Redfern aboriginal oral histories in the unit ‘Exploring
Diversity in Australian Schools’ and a possible visit to the centre to hear the stories and meet with Lily. Lily is a Muruwari woman and has been a custodian of Darug lands since 1998. Lily has performed with the Aboriginal & Islander Dance Theatre and toured throughout northwest NSW and other areas of Australia. As an Indigenous community theatre maker, Lily's role has varied including choreographer, assistant director, and director and stage manager. Most recently she worked as Community
Liaison Officer and researcher/tour guide on Urban Theatre Project's Back Home.
Lily affirmed the importance of pre-service teachers’ taking their lenses off and going in with fresh eyes’ Lily suggested I contact the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land
Council in order to get the permission to use the local Redfern stories. She suggested that I contact the Campbelltown Arts Centre (Djon Mundine) for a copy of the ‘Tell
Me My Mother: Stories of Campbelltown’s Aboriginal Women.’
5. Craig Barker
Manager, Education and Public Programs University Museums
Macleay Museum, Nicholson Museum and University Art Collection
Craig is open to creating greater links between the University Museums and the
Faculty of Education and Social Work – he particularly would like to have Indigenous representation in his team of gallery and museum support staff. He suggested that opportunities for students from the Koori Centre to work with the Museums on a casual employment basis could be an avenue to be explored in the future. He is happy to give talks to any student groups about the Indigenous or any other collection. He is happy to publish any art works produced by the students in the Sydney Museum
Newsletter.

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Student Interviews
1. Emma Davis.
I interviewed Emma Davis, a second year education student about her experience with the way that the faculty has approached Indigenous issues and she remarked on how the information thus far had been very policy driven and that it was ‘hard to see the information in context.’ She emphasised that she did not have much experience with
Indigenous people and that she would benefit from a course which gave her practical experience in working in an Indigenous setting or with Indigenous students. She said that she particularly enjoyed Lynette Riley Mundine’s lecture in Social perspectives in Education’ and would like to see more guest lecturers brought into the course. She said that ‘most students don’t know that the Koori Centre exists’ and suggested that faculty staff could actively promote the centre and let students know of its existence and about the library, which could be used as a ‘great resource’. She commented that the ‘Old Teachers College is so tucked away and not welcoming’ and she perceived this as a barrier for student engagement in researching Indigenous issues. She remarked that her and her fellow researcher James Barrow ‘were the only people choosing Indigenous education as a focus’ for their research and that she only felt confident to embark on this research project because of the direct encouragement of their workshop coordinator Simone Al Corso. She remarked that this lack of interest was a problem and would like to see Indigenous issues and perspectives discussed more often in her course. She is committed to increasing her knowledge of Indigenous culture and is planning on embarking on this through outside sources and involving herself in Student Union and community activities.
2. James Barrow
James Barrow and Emma Davis sought me out to interview me about their 4000 word research project on the topic ‘Indigenous retention’ within a Higher Education context, and specifically possible strategies of better catering for Indigenous students within the faculty environment. I subsequently interviewed James, a second year education student and asked him whether the Social perspectives course had raised his consciousness on Indigenous issues and he responded ‘not really. What has made a difference to me is my direct experience of working for Aboriginal people in student politics and with my experience with developing pro-Indigenous policy for the
National Union of Students. ’ He stated that he wanted to see more guest lecturers delivering course content and person with direct experience of working with
Indigenous people for example, ‘a person from the Redfern Legal Centre.’ In his opinion, one week of lectures and one workshop did not do justice to the topic and he would like to know more about Indigenous culture, protocols for working with
Aboriginal people. He said that Indigenous education suffered from the ‘stigma of being boring’ and was often taught by people not interested in the topic. He did note that when he presented his research outline to his peers, that they seemed ‘highly interested’ and he ‘received great feedback’ from them about the merit of his research.
3. Sophie Butt
I met with Sophie Butt, an MTEach student who is working on her honours project for 2007/2008 on the topic of ‘exploring how secondary teacher training within the
MTEACH at the University of Sydney approaches teacher awareness of Indigenous cultural content.’ Her paper would be an interesting one to track in connection to the

32 embedding diversity project and we are going to keep in touch through the project and share information about our findings and processes. I asked her broad questions about her course and she spoke about her concern that Indigenous issues were not adequately covered in her course. She registered her specific concern over the fact that within her course she had not been adequately introduced to ways of observing cultural sensitivities and ways to show students respect for their Indigenous culture, perspective and heritage. She spoke about a specific example where a student teacher was speaking about her recent practicum experience where she planned and facilitated a year 9-student debate with the topic ‘who owns the land’. The student teacher chose the students on each team, set up the two opposing sides and placed an Indigenous student on the European, Colonial side who argued that ‘the land was not owned in the first place and that because their family was running sheep on the property and had built homes on the land and so entitled him to own the land.’ The Indigenous student refused to cooperate with the teacher and participate in the debate, accused the teacher of being ‘a racist’ and left the class in tears. The student teacher relayed this story in a de-briefing practicum session and only registered her concerns about the student on a disciplinary level, musing whether it was ‘fair’ to the other students that the student did not participate in an assessment task. Sophie noted that it would have been better not to plan a debate such as this and that no cultural sensitivity was shown towards the Indigenous student. Indeed, her feelings about the issue or her wish to be on a particular side were not considered at all, nor her right not to participate respected. These issues were not discussed within the practicum de-brief session nor discussed before the students went out on their placements.

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Bachelor of
Education
(Primary
Education)
Master of
Teaching
Faculty of Education and Social Work: Comments from students in the CEQ and SCEQ relating to Indigenous aspects of curriculum, cultural diversity, acceptance of Aboriginal students etc
COMMENTS FROM CEQ 2006 (2005 graduates) level Best aspects of degree course
Undergraduate
Postgraduate coursework
Practicums (although it didn't feel like there were enough, Tesol with XX XX
(unfortunately didn't have him 4th year semester 2). Practical aspects PE, arts maths, teaching kids with special needs
(excellent), music, Indigenous education. some very inspiring and enthusiastic staff members. Meeting other students from a wide range of cultural/socioeconomic backgrounds. Wide range of learning opportunities.
Aspects of degree course that could be improved
Science was a waste of time (2nd and
4th years), arts subjects in 2nd and 1st years had no relevance, and literacy was too abstract. I struggle now to teach English in my class.
Too much time spent on educational theory/philosophy and not enough on practical knowledge (e.g., managing difficult students). Practicums were not well organised, students should be allowed to organise these themselves.
Not enough time given to important aspects of education for classroom practice (e.g., Indigenous issues, gifted learners, boy/girls education).
Degree
Dip Ed
COMMENTS FROM SCEQ 2005 – current students: all years (all undergraduate)
Best aspects of degree course
The teachers are appropriate to what my needs are
Aspects of degree course that could be improved
Mixing main stream students (potential work
(Aboriginal) while finishing my course, everyone is approachable. The course is designed with
Aboriginal aspects in mind and it caters for my life outside of university. A balance is achieved. mates) and Aboriginal students to highlight awareness of both cultures importance and issues.
There should be something in the instruction of educating teachers that allows them to mix.
Dip Ed
(Aboriginal)
Dip Ed
(Aboriginal)
Therefore, learning is done without added stress.
Being Aboriginal, the course allows for multiple connections (Aboriginal experiences). leading to clear understandings about how to address
Aboriginal Educational issues.
Because I am a block student better for my learning experience able to manage home life and studies.
Sometimes it is not enough that they are aware of the two courses, "out of sight out of mind". - interaction.. so that most teachers have some similar ethics concerning all students no matter culture. They are more Unified.
I feel there needs to be more study time allocated whilst students are on block - because I am not close to the Uni and staff would improve my work quality.
Dip Ed
(Aboriginal)
Dip Ed
(Aboriginal)
BEd/BA
The fact that this course is available in block mode is great for me. I am able to be employed full time and have the chance to study full time as well.
BEING TOGETHER WITGH OTHER PEOPLE
OF THE SAME BACKGROUNG
Because I am a block student better for my learning experience able to manage home life and studies.
There is none. Sometimes we had good tutorials. I enjoyed the arts side of my degree more. I am not in this course anymore, I am now studying through the Koori Centre.
STUDENTS- LESS TALKING
I feel there needs to be more study time allocated whilst students are on block - because I am not close to the Uni and staff would improve my work quality.
As an Aboriginal student in this course, I felt out of place and isolated, and afraid to speak up in class, where there are so many dominating personalities. I am glad I changed my course to one that I can feel at home in.

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