Post-Colonial and Indigenous Approaches to Education

This unit examines theoretical concepts informing Indigenous and postcolonial approaches to culturally responsive education, training, and research. A historical and critical review of invader-coloniser educational philosophies and norms provides students with a capacity to evaluate national empire building and the production of colonial identities in compulsory schooling, vocational education and research training, and tertiary education. The unit examines Indigenous and postcolonial standpoints within disciplines, professional practice, and policy to develop self-reflective and critical evaluations of positionality, sovereignty, and the rights of colonised and Indigenous peoples in education. Students will enhance their critical skills in recognising and challenging systemic white privilege in Australian institutions through investigating why and how Indigenous Australians and other colonised peoples have sought independence and self-determination. The unit explores decolonising, critical, and race-based approaches to Indigenous knowledge validation, knowledge acquisition, and knowledge transfer. Students critically reflect on their role in the production of pedagogical and curriculum materials informed by the contributions of Indigenous and postcolonial theorists and practitioners from a ‘global’ as well as ‘local’ context. The research process is also interrogated for its capacity to engage with Indigenous values and priorities, particularly the ways of knowing, being, and doing.