Teaching Research to Aboriginal Students

Pursing Indigenous-Inclusive Curriculum in Social Work Tertiary Education: Feeling my Way as a Non-Indigenous Educator

“…I believe that I more adequately than in the past, can facilitate students' learning from this new position of growing insight. However, I agree with Larson and Brown (1997) that, inevitably, some reinforcement of oppression will always be present in my teaching because of my coloniser status within a colonised space. My learning is ongoing but has advanced, due to the learning experiences described above, beyond any previous learning I have experienced from professional development, supervision, academic mentoring or previous practice experience.…”

“…Equally, literature has identified white people's blindness to white privilege (Jensen, 2005;Mcintosh, 1988). Many writers now dispute the legitimacy of non-Indigenous academics to teach, research and write about Indigenous history and contemporary issues including racism, objecting to the development (Indigenising) of curricula and delivery of the content selected through colonist lenses (Bin-Sallik, 2003;de Ishtar, 2004;Larson & Brown, 1997;Smith, 1999). Conversely, some authors argue that antiracism can and should be taught by white educators and they condemn the perceived "flight from responsibility" by mainstream tertiary educators (Baldwin, 1996, p. 20).…”

“…In partial agreement with Baldwin (1996) and others (e.g., Huggins, 1998) I considered curriculum review to be the work of all academics. Yet, I felt anxious, somewhat immobilised and perhaps even illegitimate as a "white woman" educator, as I struggled to contribute to our quest for increased numbers of Indigenous graduates through improved ("Indigenised") curriculum (Baldwin, 1996;Larson & Brown, 1997;Lee, 1995). Nevertheless I considered a paradigm shift was needed in social work education (Crawford, 1997), not the least in my own thinking in order that we avoided remaining perpetrators in the tertiary teaching context through colluding with Eurocentric pedagogy thus compounding Indigenous disadvantage (Aird, 2006;Youngblood Henderson, 2000).…”

Exploring the Experiences of an Elder, a Psychologist and a Psychiatrist: How can Traditional Practices and Healers Complement Existing Practices in Mental Health?

“…Recent years have seen a growing body of work dedicated to Aboriginal research, methodologies and ethics. Larson and Brown (1997) discuss the challenges for Canadian social work educators in teaching research methods to undergraduate Aboriginal students in ways that respect cultural context, are anti-racist and empowering. They state that in teaching research to Aboriginal students the students "must become knowledgeable and competent consumers, practitioners and participants of research" (p. 206) and this is the way they will be liberated from the reality of oppression.…”