Teaching Indigenous learners
Lecturers, librarians and learners: connections, relationships and knowledgejoining the dots.
Dr Linda Ford
Kaye Henderson
Jessie Mahjouri
Notes to accompany Powerpoint slides
Slide 1
Linda
Yu nidin kan gu wodi thuru nu, acknowledging the saltwater ancestors!
Ngungi ku wurrkama wa Jessie, Kaye, yigin Payi-Linda.
Following a successful Library session in Semester 2 2007 with my students studying
EIP310 Teaching Indigenous Learners, I invited Liaison and Information Literacy
Librarians, Kaye Henderson, (School of Australian Indigenous Knowledge Systems –
SAIKS) and Jessie Mahjouri (School of Education) to work with me to embed
information literacy skills throughout the teaching of the unit. Teaching Indigenous
Learners is a core third year unit of Charles Darwin University’s Bachelor of
Teaching and Learning degree, aimed at equipping Education students, who are
mostly non-indigenous, with the skills to teach Indigenous Learners ranging in age
from early childhood to adult. It is likely that once these students graduate some will
be employed in teaching roles in Northern Territory, including remote indigenous
communities. The content for this unit is taught via Learnline CDU’s electronic
classroom.
Slide 2
I painted this painting to represent this sharing of knowledge.
The 3 prominent circles represent the knowledge communities.
The red circle represents Information literacy.
The black circle represents the Indigenous knowledge system.
The white circle represents the western knowledge system.
The green background represents the connections, relationships and knowledge
growth.
The black lines represent the Pulay Pulay (male and female) also known as the
Rainbow Serpent. The Pulay Pulay represents the sacredness of knowledge and the
possession of ‘higher’ knowledge is power. Hence the knowledge communities are
entwined with the Pulay Pulay. The key to the success of gaining knowledge is
through ongoing connections and relationships that are inclusive of the gender
balance in our personal and professional delivery of knowledge in the sacred place of
higher education units.
The white solid dots that boarder the 3 knowledge communities represent the higher
education learners, who are the students. These are the students enrolled in EIP310
Teaching Indigenous Learners. The black solid dots represent the Rak Mak Mak
Marranunggu lecturer. The red solid dots represent the Librarians, TLDG and
databases. The emphasis on joining the dots is to demonstrate the preparation and
work commitment by a team of professionals to deliver literacy information requires a
workplace culture that has good connections and relationships. The green background
represents the connections, relationships and knowledge growth.
Slide 3
And here is my welcome to my students from the Learnline site
Lindas welcome.wav
.
Slide 4
Jessie
Linda’s task is to develop and share with her students her understandings of
aboriginal traditional and western academic knowledge relating to teaching
indigenous learners. Our role as Liaison Librarians was to weave through the online
unit the understanding of how information literacy skills can enhance this knowledge
acquisition process. Our main aim was to provide information literacy teaching at the
point of need, in context, relevant to the learner. We also had to develop our own
skills in using and editing Learnline, which we could not have done without the
support of Jo Norris, our CDU Learnline guru from the Teaching & Learning
Development group.
Slide 5
Kaye
Information literacy, as you can see from this CAUL definition, is not just about
information seeking and information use. It is also about teaching students to use that
information wisely and ethically.
Slide 6
Kaye
We took our direction from the following CDU planning documents, which informed
and framed our work.
Linda
Graduate attributes are the generic qualities all students are expected to be able to
demonstrate before they graduate. The specific Gradate attributes set for this unit
reflect the professional standards set by CDU & the Teachers Registration Board.
Slide 7
Jessie
LIA Operational Priorities Plan for 2008 Goals and Strategies were developed in
response to the CDU Futures Framework
Slide 8
Kaye Our aim was to provide a pathway for the EIP310 students to enable them to
access, select and assess the most appropriate information to effectively engage
Indigenous learners.
Through using appropriate digital resources held on databases subscribed to by CDU,
students were encouraged to access peer reviewed academic writings and curriculum
models, to allow them to develop a greater depth of understanding of their topic.
Slide 9
Jessie
To enable students to develop these understandings, they are guided along a pathway
aimed at making them efficient and effective users of these online resources. We
introduce the pathway with a friendly, reassuring message that we are here to support
their journey and are contactable at any time by phone, email or through the
discussion board. The pathway divided into 3 steps. Step 1 recommends students
revise the basic skills, by undertaking a series of online researching skills tutorials.
Slide 10
Jessie
Step 2 encourages them to make themselves familiar with the range of online
resources subscribed to by CDU Library, including approx 28,500 full text online
journals. We recommend the use of CrossSearcher which performs metasearchs
across multiple databases, giving students a good overview of which databases might
provide the best information for their research topics
We also provide links to video tutorials produced by CDU Liaison Librarians to assist
them in using CrossSEarcher.
Step 3 encourages students to persevere and gives them a link to allow them to
contact the Liaison librarian team via our Ask Us email help service.
Slide 11
Kaye
After practicing these generic skills, the weaving of specific information literacy
skills into the Teaching Indigenous Learners unit was achieved by responding to the
focus of selected learning topics and assessment tasks with appropriate information
literacy strategies such as suggesting appropriate databases & search terms. Examples
of how students can extend their research are woven into the topic content. Eg.
Informit the leading Australian database publisher.
Slide 12
This is an example of a search we developed to support students undertaking Module
1 “Historical perspectives of indigenous education”. Using the Informit A+ Education
database, Jessie & I trialed various search strategies until we finally found search
terms and fields which produced the best results. This gave us great empathy with the
frustrations students may experience when using databases. By following our
example, we hoped they would feel confident to transfer this learning to their next
search.
Slide 13
This is an example of a full text PDF article of the bibliographic record shown on the
previous slide. Because the students are external, this is their main pathway to the
information they need to complete their assessment tasks.
Slide 14
Linda This Assessment Rubric and the weekly discussion board are used to analyse
the effectiveness of the information literacy component of the unit. The Assessment
rubric also establishes the incentive for the students to engage with the resources and
the technology, as by demonstrating wider reading, such as by using the articles Kaye
showed previously, students can earn higher marks.
Slide 15
Jessie
We also wanted to increase the students understanding that these resources should be
supplemented by a knowledge of local resources such as such as those produced by
the Publications unit at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, the
‘My story’ database and other resources accessible from the Northern Territory
Library website, including information on the NT Archives and on the Libraries &
Knowledge Centres. You’ll find out more about these important centres in
tomorrow’s presentation. By becoming more aware of these local community
knowledge networks we hope students will draw on them as resources to enhance
their teaching of local indigenous learners.
Slide 16
Linda
We have found our collaboration to be professionally and personally rewarding as we
have connected and developed improved working relationships with colleagues across
the university. The scope of this project has broadened my understanding of the
wealth of resources held by CDU Library, in hard copy and on online.
Kaye
We believe the strength of our work has been the weaving of threads of information
literacy through the unit, rather than the delivery of information literacy out of
context, irrelevant to the learner. This unit is an example of information literacy
teaching delivered at the point of need, extending students awareness to the
availability to CDU Library Services.
Jessie
However without the connections established with Linda, the lecturer, supported by
Jo Norris , the IT professional, we, as Liaison Librarians, could never have connected
with the learners in such a powerful way.
Slide 17
Is this the end? NO, we really are at the beginning of our journey. We look forward
to the feedback we get from the learners to establish how well our support has helped
them to better engage and teach their indigenous students in the future.
Our work has an added dimension, as we recognise we are paving the way for other
Liaison librarians to embed or weave Information Literacy into appropriate Learnline
units at CDU in the near future.