Interface Approaches in

Aboriginal E

ducation

Aboriginal w

ays

of learning

RAET TEAM

How can te

achers

come to

AK?

How can they

use it?

Imbedding Aboriginal Knowledge (AK) through Pedagogy

These are not just

artefacts. Find the deeper

knowledge

What are you allowed

to use?

What is real?

What has value?

Mandatory Aboriginal Perspectives

Conflict

Offense

How can you do it in safety

and with integrity?

You can’t speak for another mob’s place.

Safety is on high ground, common ground

Theory of Cultural Interface as a Reconciling Ethic

Cultural Interface LiteratureIn this framework, the Cultural Interface (Nakata 2007) reflects the

balancing/reconciling principle central to many Indigenous worldviews (Yarradamarra, 2007), despite the focus in much of the literature on tensions,

cultural differences and inequities (e.g. Minniecon et al, 2007).

• Interface can inform the development of new cross-cultural systems and theoretical perspectives (Cruikshank, 2000).

• Ball (2004) - Eurowestern and Indigenous values - each can complement the other within creative dialogue.

• Interface - harnessing the energy of two systems in order to create new knowledge (Durie, 2005). International scientific organisations are now actively promoting this synergy in the quest for new knowledge (Bala and Joseph, 2007).

• Hybridity - elements common to both cultures are more likely to persist in the emergent recovering culture (Zuckerman, 2007). Hybridity a mode of resistance by colonised peoples (Bhabha in Shahjahan, 2005).

Finding the Reconciling Interface EthicShiva (1997) - the dichotomy of western and Indigenous knowledge is a false one.

Nakata (2007) - the “irreconcilable” nature of the two knowledge systems occurs through misunderstandings at the “surface levels of aspects of Indigenous knowledge.” (8)

I.e.

The shallower the knowledge, the more difference is found between cultures.

So, conversely:

The deeper the knowledge, the more common ground is found across cultures.

To find that intellectual high ground, that common ground, we looked to the overlapping meta-knowledge of the two systems, the ways of learning, like Quality Teaching and

Aboriginal Pedagogy

Aboriginal Pedagogy

Quality Teaching

Cultural Interface in Schooling • Nakata (2001) - beginning in Indigenous lifeworlds then extending learners in the overlap with non-local realities.

• Alaska Rural Systemic Initiative (Barnhardt and Kawagley, 2001).

• Canadian Generative Curriculum (Ball, 2004).

• Overlap of Matauranga Maori (native knowledge) and Western methodology in New Zealand curricula (Durie, 2005).

• South Africa - Klos (2006) - student results in science improved with the application of the Cultural Interface

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 does this relate to local community? How can this help 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 version individually. Ensure these are returned to community for scrutiny or use by students’ families, who can critique the work. QT Framework emerges:

Quality

Teaching

Framework -

Reframed at the Interface

Units of work from Aboriginal Teachers

Look past the Aboriginal content, see instead the ways of learning…

…Ways of learning…

…Ways of learning…

Aboriginal Pedagogy LiteratureA review of the literature and research on Aboriginal pedagogy found:

• that culture impacts on optimal pedagogy for all learners

• that explicit Aboriginal pedagogy is needed to improve outcomes for Indigenous learners

• that there is common ground between Aboriginal pedagogies and the optimal pedagogies for all learners

• that the work in this field to date has been inaccessible to teachers and culturally divisive

• that a practical framework is needed for teachers to be able to organise and access this knowledge in cultural safety

• and finally that a reconciling interface approach is needed to harmonise the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal pedagogical systems.

Learning maps from Aboriginal

staff and community

How some teachers have applied Aboriginal pedagogy…

Aunty Bim’s language workshop map

Is it just only blackfullas can do this?

Learning Maps from non-Aboriginal Teachers

More Learning Maps by non-Aboriginal Teachers.

Images or visualisations are used to map out processes for learners to follow.

Overall shapes of structures in texts and activities are made explicit in a visual way in Aboriginal learning.

In optimal Aboriginal pedagogy, the teacher and learner create “…a concrete, holistic image of the tasks to be performed. That image serves as an anchor or reference point for the learner.” (Hughes and More, 1997)

Key Findings from the International Literature and

Research on Aboriginal Pedagogy

Holistic, global, scaffolded and independent learning orientations of Aboriginal students.

• Successive approximation to the efficient end product – learning wholes rather than parts (Harris, 1984).

• Students master activities and texts beginning with the whole structure, rather than a series of sequenced steps (Hughes, 1987; Stairs, 1994).

• The Aboriginal learner “… concentrates on understanding the overall concept or task before getting down to the details.” (Hughes and More, 1997)

Aboriginal Pedagogy is Community-Based

• Aboriginal pedagogy is group-oriented, localised and connected to real-life purposes and contexts.

• In Aboriginal pedagogy, the motivation for learning is inclusion in the community.

• Aboriginal teaching refers to community life and values (Stairs, 1994).

Recurring concept in Aboriginal pedagogy research of our students being primarily visual-spatial learners (Hughes, 1992).

Utilising all the senses to build symbolic meaning in support of learning new concepts - a specifically Indigenous pedagogy involving the use of both concrete and abstract imagery (Bindarriy et al, 1991).

Symbol and image is a key part of Aboriginal pedagogy

• Kinaesthetic, hands-on learning is a characteristic element of Aboriginal

pedagogy (Robinson and Nichol, 1998).

• Another element is the role of body language in Indigenous pedagogy (Craven, 1999) and the use of silence as a feature of Aboriginal learning and language use (Harris and Malin, 1994).

• This is more than just the idea of language being reduced in Aboriginal instruction due to a predominance of imitation and practical action as pedagogy (Gibson, 1993).

E.g. Wheaton (2000) talks about the way Aboriginal learners test knowledge non-verbally through experience, introspection and practice, thereby becoming critical thinkers who can judge the validity of new knowledge independently.

Aboriginal pedagogy utilises non-verbal methods

• The strong Aboriginal connection between land and knowledge/learning is widely documented (Battiste, 2002; Shajahan, 2005).

• Aboriginal pedagogies are intensely ecological and place-based, being drawn from the living landscape within a framework of profound ancestral and personal relationships with place (Marker, 2006).

• Indigenous land-based pedagogy is affirmed by the work of place-based education researchers, with links between western place-responsive practice and the narrative pedagogies of Native Peoples clearly demonstrated (Cameron, 2003).

Aboriginal pedagogy is about Connecting and relating

learning to the land

Well-documented Indigenous teaching methods make use of personal narratives in knowledge transmission and transformation (Stairs, 1994).

It has long been observed that Elders teach using stories, drawing lessons from narratives to actively involve learners in introspection and analysis (Wheaton, 2000).

Learning is grounded in the exchange of personal and wider narratives. Narrative is a key pedagogy in education for students of all cultural backgrounds (Egan, 1998).

Aboriginal learning has story as a central pedagogy

• Aboriginal pedagogy is non-linear – a complex cycle of learning composed of processes that occur continuously (Wheaton, 2000).

• Aboriginal students can have an indirect rather than direct orientation to learning concepts, as can be seen in the avoidance of direct questioning (Hughes 1987) and in the avoidance of direct instruction and behaviour management (West in Harris and Malin, 1994).

• Aboriginal people think and perceive in a way that is not constrained by the serial and sequential nature of verbal thinking (Gibson, 1993).

• Linear perspectives in western pedagogy have been identified as a key factor in marginalising Aboriginal people and preventing us from constructing our own identities (Wheaton, 2000).

• Non-linear Indigenous ideas of overlap and synergy can give a view of two worlds as complementary rather than oppositional (Linkson, 1999).

Aboriginal pedagogy contains non-linear ways of learning

Research for our Aboriginal pedagogy framework began at the start of the Darling River, where we brought knowledge of Aboriginal Pedagogy from local sources and

beyond together with two Western pedagogy systems – Quality Teaching and Reading to Learn.

QT

R2L

AK

Story – Following a Songline down the Darling River

…then down the river

Knowledge about Aboriginal ways of learning came from river communities and land…

…Messages from stories, non-verbal messages, reflection, demonstration / observation, side-tracks, images, experience

The cultural details of this journey can’t be shared here, but this is not the important part. The important part is the process…

What were the lessons, and how were they learned?

Choices

See the whole

Be in the place

Bring your story

Be connected

Have a purpose

Journey Lessons

Warnings – don’t go your own way, tread carefully

Culture doesn’t have to be visible to be strong.

Ways of knowing still here

The old people

guide us

Not lost. Deep knowledge is the same, only context has changed.

How can teachers come to Aboriginal Knowledge?

Answer is in the meta-knowledge. E.g. with that river journey, the big lessons were not in what was learned, but how it was learned.

story

image

thought

action

proc

ess

synthesis

cycle

plantransformation

community

identity

land

placewhole

part

Eight Ways of Learning from the Cultural Interface

"...the approaches consistent with Aboriginal ways of doing things are found in varying proportions in all cultures." (Harris, 1984)

Nar

rativ

e

Community orientation

Wholes

to

parts

Out of the box

Journey

Maps

Body talk

visualsPlace-based

knowledge

How we learn - culture way

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.

Behaviour Management

Indirect approach. Misbehaviour a

learning opportunity for alternative

strategies.

Track behaviour visually with students – chart? Visual proof of progress is the best reward.

Narrative therapy. Stories with parallels to the situation.

Placelessness in schooling causes

misbehaviour. Bring in nature

and place.

Code-switch school and community

behaviours. Draw on community values.

Symbols or pictures for class rules and learning values.

Least- to most-intrusive strategies. Your “vibe” and baggage. Critical thinking.

Demonstrate and find models of effective behaviour. Explicitly scaffold for self-regulation.

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

Tokenistic Embedded