Unknown and Unknowing Possibilities

Abstract

For tertiary educators in Indigenous Australian Studies, decolonising discourse in education has held much promise to make space for the diversity of Indigenous Australian peoples to be included, accessed, understood, discussed, and engaged with in meaningful ways. However, Tuck and Yang provide us with the stark reminder that decolonisation requires the return of Indigenous lands and does not equate to social justice. In this article, we take up Tuck and Yang’s concerns about decolonisation discourse into the terrain of transformative learning and pedagogical practice in Indigenous Australian Studies. We first position ourselves personally, professionally, and politically as non-Indigenous educators in the context of Indigenous Australian Studies in higher education and introduce the transformative learning environment of Political, Embodied, Active, and Reflective Learning (PEARL) in which we are currently involved. We then explore in more detail PEARL’s relationship to critical pedagogy, critical race theory, and decolonisation as praxis in the context of Indigenous Australian Studies. Ultimately, we enter into this discussion in a spirit of “unknowing” to question previously held assumptions about the transformative, socially just, and decolonizing potential of our educational praxis in Indigenous Australian Studies while at the same time exploring the possibilities, as Maxine Greene encourages, of decolonised vistas in this field as yet “unknown.”

Relational Learning With Indigenous Communities: Elders’ and Students’ Perspectives on Reconciling Indigenous Service-Learning

“…While service-learning may be supported through the congruence of Western and Indigenous knowledges, the language supporting this approach needs to respect relationships and the centrality of Indigenous ways. More so, we need to critically examine how Indigenous service-learning needs to move beyond attempts to merely graft Indigenous ways to westernized education (Tuck & Yang, 2012;Mackinlay & Barney, 2014). Our words convey intention as a foundation for action.…”

Indigenous Knowledge in Early Childhood Education: Building a Nest for Reconciliation

“…Through my exploration of transformative learning theory, I found certain aspects of this theory closely aligned with critical pedagogy: a shared emphasis on critical reflection of assumptions and beliefs is crucial for challenging perspectives and, in the case of critical pedagogy, for challenging oppression (Cranton, 2011(Cranton, , 2013Groen & Kawalilak, 2014a;Jarvis, 2010;Kitchenham, 2008;Mackinley & Barney, 2014). While transformative learning may have social justice goals, critical pedagogy has social justice as a foundation (Glass & Newman, 2015;McLaren, 1999;Smith, 2012).…”

Critical perform ativity for a decolonising curriculum: Possibilities in creating emancipatory classroom spaces for exploring alternative knowledge frames

“…Mackinlay and Barney (2014) view decolonisation as a consciousness that contests the hegemonic singularity of Eurocentrism, an ethical position that fights for humanity and social justice for colonised people. Mamdani (2016) observes that decolonisation encompasses political, economic, and epistemological dimensions. The political dimension extends beyond just democratic rights to encompassing an extensive transformation of all organs of oppression and inequality.…”

“…However, 25 years into transformation, students in higher education realise that there is something fundamentally incomprehensible about a system that still permits colonised spaces and curricula. In reporting on students' experiences in these institutional settings, Mamdani (2016) noted, For the black student in a historically white university, this made for an acutely alienating experience, leading the more perceptive of these students to call for a change in the content of the curriculum, one that would valorize the black ('native') experience, and not just relegate it to the domain of area studies. (p. 72) Thus, during 2015/2016 students began their protests in the form of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, "at the root of which was a fundamental questioning of the prevailing social and power relations and a legacy of inequality that students saw as not having been dealt with" (Council on Higher Education, 2017, p. 1).…”