Aboriginal Pedagogy Refresher

Western NSW

Region RAET Team

© Aboriginal Knowledge Centre,

Dubbo

National Aboriginal Education Committee in 1985 suggested Aboriginal

perspectives need to come through pedagogy, asserting the need to develop

 

“pedagogy that takes into account Aboriginal epistemology. Only when this occurs will education for our people be a

process that builds on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and

identity” (1985, 4).

Process and Protocol

• Teach using Aboriginal processes and protocols, not just Aboriginal content.

• Apply Aboriginal pedagogy to mainstream content – it validates our culture.

• When you focus on “how” rather than “what”, you are teaching through culture.

• The common ground between Aboriginal and western pedagogy gives you a safe entry point for Aboriginal perspectives.

Common ground between best mainstream and Aboriginal pedagogies:

1. Learning through narrative.

2. Planning and visualising explicit processes.

3. Working non-verbally with self-reflective, hands-on methods.

4. Learning through images, symbols and metaphors.

5. Learning through place-responsive, environmental practice.

6. Using indirect, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches.

7. Modelling and scaffolding by working from wholes to parts.

8. Connecting learning to local values, needs and knowledge.

Here is a dynamic framework for these common ground pedagogies:

• Tell your stories about the topic or related topics. • Get students to tell theirs and discuss that knowledge in depth.• Show a model of the work students will produce for this topic.• Ask: How can this help/relate to local community?• Pull the model apart, question the meaning.• Map out the structures, explain the patterns and codes.• Work with these visually and kinaesthetically. • Support students to recreate their own versions individually.• Ensure these are returned to community for local benefit.

Your Quality Teaching then emerges like this:

Process…

You can see here a the common ground between western and Aboriginal pedagogy.

Examples from Western NSW Classrooms

Sample Lessons and Units

Using narrative to structure a lesson on comparing grammar systems

Hands-on sequencing of text and images

Non-linear visual map of text for study

Community focus

Learning situated in land and place context

Beginning with whole text, then sentences, then grammar, then spelling.

Silent reflection time after a learning sequence

Model texts

from community

Literacy Scaffolding

Sharing Story

Local place is topic for study

Story mapping

Traditional design used for learning map

Hands-on deconstruction and reconstruction of text and grammar

Land focus

Learning Maps by non-Aboriginal Teachers.

Unit Term

Text

Year

Example of Aboriginal pedagogy

framework used in lesson planning.

This is from Jodie in Coonamble. She had no

training or guidance in using 8ways – just read

through the wiki and trialled the pedagogies in

her class. She then incorporated it in her

lesson planning documents. You can find her template, and all the info on the 8ways, in the

wiki:

http://8ways.wikispaces.com

Eight Ways of LearningN

arra

tive

Community orientation

Wholes

to

parts

Out of the box

Journey

Maps

Body talk

visualsPlace-based

knowledge

You can use alternative names and symbols/metaphors appropriate to your community

"...the approaches consistent with Aboriginal ways of doing

things are found in varying proportions in all cultures."

(Harris, 1984)

Can you match these statements with their symbols?

We connect through the stories we share.

We picture our pathways of knowledge.

We see, think, act, make and share without words.

We keep and share knowledge with art and objects.

We work with lessons from land and nature.

We put different ideas together and create new knowledge.

We work from wholes to parts, watching and then doing.

We bring new knowledge home to help our mob.

http:8ways.wikispaces.com