Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T06:21:28.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Exploring New Conceptualisations of Old Problems: Researching and Reorienting Teaching in Indigenous Studies to Transform Student Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 August 2014

Susan Page
Susan Page*
Affiliation:
Warawara Department of Indigenous Studies, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
*
address for correspondence: Susan Page, Warawara Department of Indigenous Studies, W3A/310 Macquarie University, North Ryde NSW 2109, Australia. Email: susan.page@mq.edu.au
Get access

Abstract

Indigenous Studies can be both exciting and challenging for teachers and students. This article will examine how an existing learning theory can be harnessed to help teachers better understand these challenges and manage some frequently seen student behaviours. Much of the discussion in Indigenous Studies pedagogy to date has focused on the curriculum and what we should be teaching, with a growing body of literature, for example, related to the inclusion of Indigenous Knowledges. However, there is less written about how students learn in Indigenous Studies. Drawing on the notion of the Cultural Interface and the ‘zone of proximal development’ to highlight the complexity of Indigenous Studies classrooms as a site of necessary struggle for students, the article considers possibilities for reconceptualising and reorienting teaching. The paper explores using the threshold concepts framework to gather evidence about how students learn or indeed don't learn, in Indigenous Studies. Threshold concepts are key ideas, critical to mastering discipline specific knowledge, which facilitate students’ ability to think like a discipline experts.

Keywords

Indigenous StudiesIndigenous educationthreshold concepts
Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 43 , Issue 1: Rethinking, revitalising and re-shaping tertiary Australian Indigenous Studies , August 2014 , pp. 21 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderson, L.W., & Krathwohl, D.R (2001) (Eds.). A taxonomy for learning, teaching and assessment: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York, NY: Longman.Google Scholar
Asmar, C., & Page, S. (2009). Sources of satisfaction and stress among Indigenous academic teachers: Findings from a national Australian study. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 29 (3), 387–401.Google Scholar
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2011). Census of Population and Housing — Counts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Retrieved from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/2075.0main+features32011Google Scholar
Barradell, S. (2013). The identification of threshold concepts: A review of theoretical complexities and methodological challenges. Higher Education, 65 (2), 265–276.Google Scholar
Behrendt, L., Larkin, S., Griew, R., & Kelly, P. (2012). Review of Higher Education Outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People. Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Biermann, S., & Townsend-Cross, M. (2008). Indigenous pedagogy as a force for change. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37, 146–154.Google Scholar
Boshier, R., & Huang, Y. (2008). In the house of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), teaching lives upstairs and learning in the basement. Teaching in Higher Education, 13 (6), 645–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boud, D. (2001). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. In English, L.M. & Gillen, M.A. (Eds.) Promoting journal writing in adult education. New directions in adult and continuing education, No. 90. (pp. 9–18). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Boyer, E.L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.Google Scholar
Brown, L. (2010). Nurturing relationships within a space created by ‘Indigenous ways of knowing’: A case study. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 39, 15–22.Google Scholar
Brookfield, S. (1998). Critically reflective practice. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 18 (4), 197–205.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. (1985) Models of the Learner. Educational Researcher, 14 (6), 5–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cousin, G. (2006a). Threshold concepts, troublesome knowledge and emotional capital: an exploration into learning about others. In Meyer, J. & Land, R. (Eds.), Overcoming barriers to student understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (pp. 134–147). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cousin, G. (2006b). An introduction to threshold concepts. Planet, 17, 4–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culligan, K. (2013). The relationship between language and thought: Exploring Vygotsky and sociocultural approaches to second language research. Atlantic Journal of Graduate Studies in Education, 1, 1–16.Google Scholar
Davies, P. (2006). Threshold concepts: How can we recognise them? In Meyer, J. & Land, R. (Eds.), Overcoming barriers to student understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (pp. 70–84). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dillon, S.C. (2007). Maybe we can find Some Common Ground: Indigenous perspectives, a music teacher's story. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36, 59–65.Google Scholar
Gair, S. (2007). Pursuing Indigenous-inclusive curriculum in social work tertiary education: feeling my way as a non-Indigenous educator. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36, 49–55.Google Scholar
Grande, S. (2008). Red pedagogy: The un-methodology. In Denzin, N.K., Lincoln, Y.S., & Smith, L.T. (Eds.), Handbook of critical and Indigenous methodologies (pp. 233–254). New York, NY: Sage.Google Scholar
Harland, T. (2003). Vygotsky's zone of proximal development and problem-based learning: Linking a theoretical concept with practice through action research. Teaching in Higher Education, 8 (2), 263–272.Google Scholar
Harlow, R. (2003). ‘Race doesn't matter, but . . .’: The effect of race on professors’ experiences and emotion management in the undergraduate college classroom. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, 348–363.Google Scholar
Harlow, A., Scott, J., Peter, M., & Cowie, B. (2011). ‘Getting stuck’ in analogue electronics: Threshold concepts as an explanatory model. European Journal of Engineering Education, 36 (5), 435–447.Google Scholar
Hart, V.G., & Moore, K. (2005, October). ‘To see through the eyes of another’ — The Third Space — an Alternative view of Australian Studies. Paper presented to the Social Change in the 21st Century Conference, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.Google Scholar
Hook, G. (2012). Towards a decolonising pedagogy: Understanding Australian Indigenous Studies through critical whiteness theory and film pedagogy. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 41 (2), 110–119.Google Scholar
Hossain, D., Gorman, D., Williams-Mozley, J., & Garvey, D. (2008). Bridging the gap: Identifying needs and aspirations of indigenous students to facilitate their entry to university. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37, 9–17.Google Scholar
Johnston, E. (1991). Final Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Service.Google Scholar
Kiley, M., & Whisker, G. (2009). Threshold concepts in research education and evidence of threshold crossing. Higher Education Research and Development, 28 (4), 431–441.Google Scholar
Kuh, G.D., Cruce, T.M., Shoup, R., Kinzie, J., & Gonyea, R.M. (2008). Unmasking the effects of student engagement on first-year college grades and persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 79 (5), 540–563.Google Scholar
Lambe, J. (2003). Indigenous education, mainstream education, and native studies: Some considerations when incorporating indigenous pedagogy into native studies. The American Indian Quarterly, 27 (1), 308–324.Google Scholar
Lingard, B., Creagh, S., & Vass, G. (2012). Education policy as numbers: Data categories and two Australian cases of misrecognition. Journal of Education Policy, 27 (3), 315–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGregor, D. (2005). Transformation and re-Creation: Creating spaces for Indigenous theorising in Canadian Aboriginal Studies programs. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 34, 67–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackinlay, E., & Barney, K. (2010). Transformative learning in first year Indigenous Australian studies: Posing problems, asking questions and achieving change. A practice report. The International Journal of First Year in Higher Education, 1 (1), 91–99.Google Scholar
Marton, F., & Säljö, R. (1997). Approaches to learning. In Marton, F., Hounsell, D.J., & Entwistle, N.J. (Eds.), The experience of learning (2nd ed., pp. 39–58). Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mezirow, J. (2003). Transformative learning as discourse. Journal of Transformative Education, 1 (1), 58–63.Google Scholar
Meyer, J., & Land, R. (2003). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: Linkages to ways of thinking and practising in the disciplines ETL project occasional report 4. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses Project. Retrieved from http://www.tla.ed.ac.uk/etl/docs/ETLreport4.pdfGoogle Scholar
Meyer, J.H., & Land, R. (2005). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (2): Epistemological considerations and a conceptual framework for teaching and learning. Higher Education, 49 (3), 373–388.Google Scholar
Meyer, J., & Land, R. (Eds.) (2006). Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge: Issues of liminality. In Overcoming barriers to student understanding: Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge (pp. 3–18). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Moreton-Robinson, A. (2009). Imagining the good indigenous citizen: Race war and the pathology of patriarchal white sovereignty. Cultural Studies Review, 15 (2), 61–79.Google Scholar
Morgan, S., & Golding, B. (2010). Crossing over: Collaborative and cross-cultural teaching of Indigenous education in a Higher Education context. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 39, 8–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, H. (2012). The social model of disability as a threshold concept: Troublesome knowledge and liminal spaces. Social Work Education: The International Journal, 31 (2), 215–226.Google Scholar
Nakata, M. (2006) Australian Indigenous Studies: A question of discipline. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 17 (3), 265–275.Google Scholar
Nakata, M. (2007). The cultural interface. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36, 7–14.Google Scholar
Nakata, N.M., Nakata, V., Keech, S., & Bolt, R. (2012). Decolonial goals and pedagogies for Indigenous studies. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1 (1), 120–140.Google Scholar
Osmond, J., & Turner, A. (2010). The threshold concept journey: From identification to application. In Meyer, J.H., Land, R., & Baillie, C. (Eds.), Threshold concepts and transformational learning (pp. 347–364). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.Google Scholar
Paradies, Y. (2005). Anti-racism and Indigenous Australians. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 5 (1), 1–28.Google Scholar
Paradies, Y., & Cunningham, J. (2009). Experiences of racism among urban Indigenous Australians: Findings from the DRUID study. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 32 (3), 548–573.Google Scholar
Parker, J. (2013). Imaging, imagining knowledge in higher education curricula: New visions and troubled thresholds. Teaching in Higher Education, 18 (8), 958–970.Google Scholar
Park, E.J., & Light, G. (2009). Identifying atomic structure as a threshold concept: Student mental models and troublesomeness. International Journal of Science Education, 31 (2), 233–258.Google Scholar
Pascarella, E.T., & Terenzini, P.T. (2005). How college affects students: A third decade of research. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.Google Scholar
Perkins, D. (2008). Beyond understanding. In Land, R., Meyer, J.H.F., & Smith, J. (Eds.), Threshold concepts within the disciplines (pp. 3–20). Rotterdam: Sense.Google Scholar
Phillips, G. (2004). CDAMS Indigenous health curriculum framework. Melbourne, Australia: VicHealth Koori Health Research and Community Development Unit.Google Scholar
Phillips, S.R., Phillips, J., Whatman, S., & McLaughlin, J.M. (2007). Introduction: Issues in (re) contesting Indigenous Knowledges and Indigenous Studies. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 36 (Suppl.), 1–6.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. (1972). Intellectual evolution from adolescence to adulthood. Human Development, 15 (1), 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramsden, P., & Moses, I. (1992). Associations between research and teaching in Australian higher education. Higher Education, 23 (3), 273–295.Google Scholar
Rowbottom, D.P. (2007). Demystifying threshold concepts. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 41 (2), 263–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sefa Dei, G.J. (2008). Indigenous Knowledge Studies and the next generation: Pedagogical possibilities for anti-colonial education. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 37 (Suppl.), 5–13.Google Scholar
Shulman, L. (2000). From Minsk to Pinsk: Why a scholarship of teaching and learning. Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 1 (1), 48–53.Google Scholar
Sonn, C., Bishop, B., & Humphries, R. (2000). Encounters with the dominant culture: Voices of Indigenous students in mainstream higher education. Australian Psychologist, 35 (2), 128–135.Google Scholar
Thaman, K.H. (2003). Decolonizing Pacific studies: Indigenous perspectives, knowledge, and wisdom in higher education. The Contemporary Pacific, 15 (1), 1–17.Google Scholar
Trigwell, K., & Shale, S. (2004). Student learning and the scholarship of university teaching. Studies in Higher Education, 29 (4), 523–536.Google Scholar
Trudgett, M. (2009). Build it and they will come: Building the capacity of Indigenous units in universities to provide better support for Indigenous Australian postgraduate students. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 38, 9–18.Google Scholar
Wertsch, J.V., & Tulviste, P. (1992). Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky and contemporary developmental psychology. Developmental Psychology, 28 (4), 548–557.Google Scholar
Youngblood Henderson, J.S. (2005). Insights on First Nations humanities. The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education, 34, 143–151.Google Scholar
Zepke, N., Leach, L., & Butler, P. (2010). Student engagement: What is it and what influences it. Wellington, New Zealand: Teaching and Learning Research Initiative.Google Scholar