Title: Culturally nourishing schooling: The cultural politics of teaching and learning in Australia
Time: Sep 13, 2023 1:00 – 3:00pm
Location: PCN 2012
RSVP not required
Over the last 10 years, education researchers have increasingly drawn attention to the potential for strengths based – or cultural wealth – approaches to schooling to make constructive in-roads that improve the experiences of Indigenous learners. Despite the hope and belief that has been placed in the pedagogical and curriculum potential of these approaches, the evidence base in support of this bourgeoning field remains relatively underdeveloped. As contributors to this field, the presenters seek to expand the theoretical and empirical horizons of this body of work. The papers discussed in the symposium all work toward providing insight into culturally nourishing pedagogies and curriculum that aim for equitable and high quality schooling. The audience will be invited to consider the foundations of culturally responsive schooling practices across different contexts, to identify and reflect on key ideas and aspirations of those working in this field, and to engage in deep consideration of how and why schooling can – and must – urgently reconsider and redirect the purposes of education itself. At the conclusion of the presentations, attendees will be invited to ask questions, share and reflect on her own views of where to next for culturally nourishing approaches to schooling.
Presentation #1
A critical investigation of the challenges of embedding Indigenous knowledges in the national curriculum
Dr. Kevin Lowe
Education systems across international contexts are currently challenged with requirements to include representation of diverse perspectives, understandings and knowledges into their school curriculum and pedagogy. These calls result from insights about the recognitive and representational dimensions of an equitable, socially just education system (Fraser, 2008). In Australia this is playing out within the national curriculum space, with the call to include content about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and knowledges supposedly being met by their inclusion as cross curriculum priorities within the Australian Curriculum. Despite these inclusions, public and political debates about Indigenous content in the curriculum continue to swirl within the media, and research suggests that few teachers are engaging their students in this dimension of the curriculum. These same curriculum contestations are evident in education systems across the globe, where traditionally marginalized groups are voicing their expectations for the curriculum to represent a more diverse range of knowledge systems, languages, social, cultural and religious practices than has occurred until now. There is currently limited empirical understanding of secondary school teachers’ approaches, attitudes, and capabilities for teaching the curriculum content that is not from the dominant culture of a society, and the disciplinary structures that underpin these. In this paper we report on a study of these relevant issues, where the focus was on the inclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content into the Australian Curriculum. While the study looked closely at the Australian context, these issues have global relevance in the policy landscape of hyper diversity.
Bio
Associate Professor Kevin Lowe PhD is a Gubbi Gubbi man from southeast Queensland.
He is currently an Indigenous Scientia Associate Professor at The University of New South Wales. He has had extensive teaching experience in diverse schools as well as senior administrative experience in curriculum, school policy and implementation. His research on policy and educational attainment for Aboriginal students led to the development and subsequent leadership of the Culturally Nourishing Schooling program (CNS), a holistic school change program that meets the cultural and educational and aspirations of Aboriginal families and students.
Presentation #2
Educators engaged in curriculum work: Encounters with relationally responsive curriculum practices
Dr. Greg Vass
The Culturally Nourishing Schooling project (henceforth CNS) takes place in the context of the Australian education system’s ongoing inability to alleviate the socio-cultural and economic inequalities experienced by First Nations school students (Morrison et al., 2019). Its foundational premise is that if education systems are to achieve different educational outcomes and experiences for these learners, then this will require fundamental changes to the dominant practices of schooling. The CNS research team contends that a crucial element in this transformation of practice is the meaningful involvement of local First Nations communities and parents in school decision making. Moreover, the CNS project is based on the understanding that teachers and students, parents and families, schools and systems, are all located within particular communities, places, histories – and all situated in and on ‘Country’. Fundamental to this understanding of the interconnections between peoples and places is the knowledge that connections to Country, language and culture, community involvement in decision-making, and quality teaching are all crucial in the pursuit of educational success for First Nations learners, parents and communities (Moodie et al. 2021). While the focus of this project is focused on the Australian setting, concerns with the schooling experiences of learners and communities that are marginalised and minoritized within the education systems they pass through, is similarly critiqued in countries all around the world.
Bio
Greg is a Senior Lecturer at Griffith University. His research interests are focused on investigating policy enactment through teaching and learning practices. Central to this research is addressing the cultural politics of schooling and knowledge- making practices that shape the experiences of teacher and learner identities in the classroom.
