(2018). Giving Voice to Our First Nations: Creating a Framework for Indigenous Interpretation at Cultural Heritage Sites. Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education, v29 n3 Spr. The Indigenous voice may be muted or lost at complex and controversial cultural heritage sites, but barriers to interpreting these sites can be bridged through collaboration and co-creation. This process necessitates a long-term investment by both the sites and stakeholders. Lessons learned from this experience can serve as a framework for developing an interpretive strategy that embraces cultural diversity and inclusion. Researchers at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) and University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) worked with the National Park Service (NPS) and Oglala Lakota College (OLC) in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to develop Indigenous interpretive curriculum that provided the tools for Indigenous students to tell their own stories and market their own heritage to visitors seeking an authentic experience. This project combined interpretation and tourism curriculum development within an existing framework at OLC. Stakeholders from the tribal college, national parks, other… [Direct]
(2020). Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Mathematics through Creative and Body-Based Learning: Urban Aboriginal Schooling. Education and Urban Society, v52 n8 p1159-1180 Nov. Global neoliberal imperatives that numerically measure student success through standardized testing undermine the educational outcomes of students, in particular Indigenous students, and construct a seemingly fixed reality that avoids State responsibility to address structural inequality in Australia. Achievement gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous school students in mathematics have become an urgent international problem. Although evidence suggests that culturally responsive pedagogies (CRPs) improve student academic success for First Nations peoples in settler colonial countries such as the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, less prominent is a focus on how CRP is enacted and mobilized in Australian classrooms. Although some initiatives exist, this article explores how creative and body-based learning (CBL) strategies might be utilized to enact CRP. Using an ethnographic case study approach, we examined how two early career teachers serving Indigenous and… [Direct]
(2020). Whole-Some Artifacts: (STEM) Teaching and Learning Emerging from and Contributing to Community. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, v20 n2 p264-280 Jun. This paper braids together experiences from three Canadian projects committed to creating learning opportunities where Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, being, and doing might circulate together. Show Me Your Math/Connecting Math to Our Lives and Communities (Mi'kmaw territory/Nova Scotia), the First Nations and M√©tis Mathematics Voices Project (Anishnaabe territory/Ontario), and the READress Project (Kanien'keh√°:ka territory/Qu√©bec) are each described, and individually and collaboratively explored to identify the ways in which STEM and mathematics emerged (or did not) from community, and contributed back to those communities. While unique in their own ways, each of the projects engaged in collaborative, reflective, cyclical processes of teaching and learning that were deeply rooted in community and ethical relationality. Unresolved tensions are reviewed regarding what is lost when mathematics and STEM more generally are privileged in these contexts, and questions about… [Direct]
(2020). Post-Disaster Learning Model: Design of Distance Learning Based on Local Wisdom Perspective. International Association for Development of the Information Society, Paper presented at the International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA) (17th, 2020). The occurrence of disasters in certain areas resulted in drastic changes in the lives of the affected communities. It also has an impact on learning process which may not work properly. Damage to learning infrastructure, loss of student interest and motivation, and limited human resources after a disaster may be the factors that determine how quickly the community can rise up and recover from this situation. This study aims to create an adaptive post-disaster learning model that can be used to maintain the learning process optimally. The study employed qualitative research method with a research and development model. Observation activities, semi-structured interviews, and focus group discussions were conducted on a group of respondents consistent with the characteristics of the study. The results show that the post-disaster learning model should focus on existing resources in evacuee camps (local wisdom). This learning model can be achieved through optimizing existing teaching… [PDF]
(2024). "Oh, It's Just Them Indians": Indigenous Case Study toward Interrupting the Manifestations of Native Student Oppression. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), v37 n8 p2323-2344. This study introduces Indigenous Case Study (ICS) as a methodology poised to foster decolonized and anti-racist spaces. ICS is a weaving of TribalCrit, critical and Indigenous methodological approaches, and considers contemporary and historical contexts, simultaneously. In the current manuscript, ICS helps reimage campuses through revised policies and practices that work toward the creation of decolonized and inclusive institutions for Native students and communities. ICS allows for deeper analyses as we interrogate the dissonance between university president's statements about race and inclusion, institutional policies and practices, and the experiences of Native students as shared through student stories. We explore historical documents, president speeches, campus events, individual interviews, and researcher auto-narratives in Sharing Circles over the course of five years. The findings situate historical and contemporary campus contexts as we reveal five manifestations of… [Direct]
(2024). Methodologies to Reveal Young Australian Indigenous Students' Mathematical Proficiency. Mathematics Education Research Journal, v36 n2 p311-338. A 7-month mathematics proficiency program was conducted in a primary Australian Indigenous community school. This paper focuses on outlining the specific methodologies employed to explore how students' mathematical proficiency changed throughout the implementation of the program in Years 2 to 4 (~ 7 to 9 years old). A mixed methods research design was utilised, and findings will be presented to evidence how the combination of standardised tests, diagnostic tests, and Newman interviews were useful in capturing and making visible young Indigenous student's mathematical proficiency. Whilst standardised tests provided a useful and comparable measure of student achievement, diagnostic tests and Newman interviews gave space for Indigenous student voice and demonstrated their strengths and areas for improvement in relation to their conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, and strategic competence. From these findings, recommendations concerning the adjustment of data collection… [Direct]
(2018). Accurate Histories, Critical Curriculum: A Conversation with Tamsin Hanly. Curriculum Matters, v14 p69-86. The school curriculum and teacher professional standards in Aotearoa New Zealand emphasise culturally responsive pedagogies for Maori learners. However, there is a gap between rhetoric and practice. Drawing on expert-interview methodology, and based on an interview with Tamsin Hanly about complex curriculum issues, this interview article seeks to stimulate deep thinking about how Maori and Pakeha histories and relationships can be addressed across the curriculum. Arguments are made about the need for teachers to learn about, be discomforted by, and confront inaccurate and simplistic histories. The interview article contends that educators have an ethical responsibility to "reboot biculturalism" in schools…. [Direct]
(2018). Uncomfortable Curricula? A Survey of Academic Practices and Attitudes to Delivering Indigenous Content in Health Professional Degrees. Higher Education Research and Development, v37 n3 p649-662. Unacceptable inequity in health status between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remains despite much work in the area. The imperative for graduating health professionals capable and ready to work with urban and rural Indigenous communities has led to a focus on curriculum development, but less focus has thus far been applied to academic staff capability to deliver the content. We surveyed academic staff at a large multi-campus Australian university on their practices and attitudes towards teaching Indigenous content in health professional programs. Indigenous and non-Indigenous academic staff were surveyed online about whether Indigenous content was included in the curricula they taught; whether they felt confident and capable of delivering curricula related to Indigenous issues; what challenges they found in including Indigenous content; and what, if any, supports and resources they felt were needed. Sixty-three per cent of respondents said that they included Indigenous… [Direct]
(2022). Ethic Values in Modern Javanese Literature Works: Identity and Character Education in the Digital Era. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, v8 n3 p106-119. This research paper explores the ethical values present in modern Javanese literature and their role in shaping identity and character education in the digital era. The study focuses on selected Javanese literary works published in the past decade, analyzing their ethical values and the relevance of these values in the contemporary context. The paper uses a qualitative research method that includes a comprehensive literature review and analysis of selected literary works. The research findings reveal that Javanese literature works continue to emphasize ethical values such as humility, respect, harmony, and social responsibility, which are relevant in the digital era. These values significantly promote individual and communal growth and develop a sense of identity and character. Literary works contribute to human life in beneficial ways. The values in literary works can serve as a source of identification and character education in the present day. Serat Piwulang Becik and Serat… [PDF]
(2022). Once There Was a 'Morung'. International Journal for Transformative Research, v9 n1 p40-48 Jan. In Nagaland, a state in India's North-East region, the morung is a tribal institution that serves as an educational portal through which all young men passed as the means of learning their living heritage. Described by anthropological accounts, for a century until the 1950s, as a 'dormitory' for boys and young men, it is in fact much more. It is a school, both vocational and law, a premises in which tribal elders dispense wisdom, a crafts centre, a barracks, and embodies other functions too. Moreover, it is one of the most important, if not the most important, social institution that maintains instruction about what may be called a pre-materialist worldview, one that was widespread when indigenous societies were free from a science hegemony that defined what counts as knowledge. From the 1990s, a combination of factors caused the decline of the institution, and as tribal youth have moved into the 'mainstream', the morung and all that it stands for is close to being extinguished. Yet… [Direct]
(2017). Walking in Both Worlds: Rethinking Indigenous Knowledge in the Academy. International Journal of Inclusive Education, v21 n5 p475-494. Six generations ago, my Celtic forebears came to Australia as convicts and invaders displacing Indigenous peoples. As a scholar today, I am interested in how Indigenous knowledge remains a challenge in Australian Universities even in this postmodern and postcolonial moment. This paper recognises the need to extend discussion about how Indigenous people might be facilitated within the academy to bring their knowledge models into the university and its traditional dominant knowledge systems. This paper looks at Practice-Led Research (PLR) as a way of supporting the transition of Indigenous community scholars into university postgraduate courses. It explores how PLR may contribute to an appropriate entry point into postgraduate studies for some Indigenous practitioner-candidates who have significant life experiences and narratives and/or productions of artefacts that act to replace the breadth of undergraduate credentials. Indigenous people are facilitated in bringing their knowledge… [Direct]
(2017). Australian Engineering Educators' Attitudes towards Aboriginal Cultures and Perspectives. European Journal of Engineering Education, v42 n4 p429-444. In Australia, representation of Aboriginal populations within the engineering profession is very low despite participation targets set by Government departments, professional bodies and Universities. Progressing the Aboriginal inclusion agenda within Australian Engineering Education requires a clearer understanding of engineering educators' preparedness for increased numbers of students from this non-traditional cohort. This research stems from a recently completed project that explored Aboriginal perspectives in engineering education and proposed a model for embedding perspectives in curricula. Nine engineering academics were interviewed to explore attitudes towards Aboriginal perspectives in engineering and the viability of the proposed model. Results of the interviews indicate efforts to embed Aboriginal perspectives are starting from a small base of knowledge and experience. Individuals' motivations and values indicate that there is significant support for improving this, but… [Direct]
(2021). One Ring to Rule Them All? Locating Discourse in Aotearoa New Zealand Early Childhood Education Curriculum. Policy Futures in Education, v19 n4 p424-437 May. Early childhood scholars in New Zealand have long lamented a rising dominance of neoliberalism. Correspondingly they suggest that there has been a lessening of socialist ideals and principles of Te Ao Maori after years of a right-wing government. With the 'refresh' of New Zealand's national early childhood curriculum, "Te Whariki" under the Fifth National Government we sought to investigate the location of these discourses in "Te Whariki." Borrowing from Tolkien this paper draws on the metaphor of a ruling, in this case neoliberal, discourse as 'one ring to rule them all'. We investigate the governmentality of the Fifth National Government through their "Four Year Plan 2016-2020" and its permeation of the revised curriculum. Seeking to better understand the location and dominance of neoliberalism within the updated "Te Whariki," the paper analyses both the 1996 curriculum and the 2017 revision for socialist, neoliberal and Te Ao Maori… [Direct]
(2021). Toward a Relevant De-colonized Curriculum in South Africa: Suggestions for a Way Forward. SAGE Open, v11 n4 Oct-Dec. The debate on the de-colonization of universities in South African gained momentum after protests by students through the #FeesMustFall (FMF) and #RhodesMustFall (RMF) movements. At the center of these protests were issues like free access to education, accommodation, removal of apartheid and colonial statues, and the Africanization of the curriculum. Thus, revisiting and reimagining curricula offerings is an important aspect of the current debate on the de-colonization of education at South Africa's educational sites. To add to the de-colonization debate, this article discusses the concept of relevance in (re)curriculation. The article will discuss the concepts of de-colonization and relevance, readiness in the implementation of new curricula offerings, challenges, and hurdles in curriculum change and important points of reference in achieving a de-colonized curriculum. Literature review and document analysis will be used to shed more light on this topic…. [Direct]
(2021). Constructive Alignment in Pacific Tertiary Education: Building the "Waka" with Nails. International Journal for Academic Development, v26 n1 p106-109. Constructive alignment as a way of framing curriculum has wide appeal in many tertiary education contexts. At one Pacific regional tertiary institution, it has recently been embraced as a means toward greater program quality. Its unquestioned acceptance, however, raises the need for critical reflection. This reflection critiques constructive alignment from a number of perspectives, including its resistance to complex educational realities and its technical rationality in the face of organic aspects of a decolonised Pacific education…. [Direct]