Aboriginal knowledge, the history classroom and the Australian university

Abstract

PurposeThis article considers the impact of competing knowledge structures in teaching Australian Indigenous history to undergraduate university students and the possibilities of collaborative teaching in this space.Design/methodology/approachThe authors, one Aboriginal and one non-Aboriginal, draw on a history of collaborative teaching that stretches over more than a decade, bringing together conceptual reflective work and empirical data from a 5-year project working with Australian university students in an introductory-level Aboriginal history subject.FindingsIt argues that teaching this subject area in ways which are culturally safe for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and students, and which resist knowledge structures associated with colonial ways of conveying history, is not only about content but also about building learning spaces that encourage students to decolonise their relationships with Australian history.Originality/valueThis article considers collaborative approaches to knowledge transmission in the university history classroom as an act of decolonising knowledge spaces rather than as a model of reconciliation.

Beyond zero-sum thinking in teacher education: cognitive science, educational neuroscience, and the history of education

“…Fischer and O'Mara, 2022). Historical researchers in education can participate in this, for example, by discerning how students' preconceptions – transmitted through home, school, and society over time – shape their learning of content like Aboriginal history and knowledges (O'Dowd, 2012; Musgrove and Wolfe, 2022), and how exemplary educators have always leveraged the insight that the home cultures of students matter for transformative learning (MacGill et al ., 2022).…”