TY - JOUR
T1 - ‘New localism’ in Australian schools : Country as Teacher as a critical pedagogy of place
AU - Spillman, David
AU - Wilson, Ben
AU - Nixon, Monty
AU - Mckinnon, Katharine
N1 - Funding Information:
In solidarity with these authors, Indigenous peoples, and Earthkin across the globe, in 2021, we initiated a two-year research project with 26 teachers from four ACT schools titled ‘Building Cultural Integrity with ‘Country as Teacher’: Investigating teacher engagement with pedagogies of Indigenous knowledge and being’. This project represented our formative efforts to reinstate locally -based, Country as Teacher curriculum and pedagogies within mainstream education in Australia, so that teachers and students through engaging in reciprocal Relating with Country, can come to understand, love, and know how to care for the places they inhabit. Conducted through the Centre for Sustainable Communities (CSC) at the University of Canberra (UC), the project was funded by the Affiliated Schools Research Program, a formalised research/practice partnership between the Australian Capital Territory Education Directorate (ACT ED) and the Faculty of Education at UC. This research was led by the two primary authors David Spillman and Ben Wilson, both Indigenous educators, scholars, and cultural men in the Lore of Karulkiyalu Country, for which Damu (grandfather) Paul Gordon is the primary Custodian. Damu Paul was recently awarded a Masters of Philosophy for his documentary dissertation ‘Revival of Aboriginal ceremony in NSW’ (Gordon, ), demonstrating that whilst Aboriginal men’s ceremonies and cultural practices (on Karulkiyalu Country as elsewhere across NSW) have been disrupted and curtailed through harsh colonial measures, they have remained intact and continuously enacted for tens of thousands of years. Members of the research team also include Monty Nixon and Katharine McKinnon both of settler backgrounds in Australia (Monty) and Aotearoa-New Zealand (Katharine). Ethical permission for this research was sought and obtained from both UC and ACT ED.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/6/26
Y1 - 2023/6/26
N2 - This article reports on phase two of our school-based Country as Teacher research, focusing on teacher’s learning and experiences through their efforts to enact Country as Teacher curriculum and pedagogy with students in ACT schools. Cultivating their own practices of reciprocal Relating with Country (Phase 1, see Spillman, Wilson, Nixon & McKinnon, 2022) prepares teachers to enact Country as Teacher with students. A yarning circle focus group and semi-structured interviews were again used to unpack teacher’s reflections and learnings regarding their attempts to enact Country as Teacher curriculum and pedagogies through units of work. Due to major disruptions in schooling caused by a long COVID lockdown, during Term Three 2021, participation in data collection for Phase 2 of the Country as Teacher research was on a voluntary basis. Thirteen of the original twenty-six teachers offered to participate. Despite the COVID disruptions, many teachers felt that the high levels of student engagement with Country as Teacher, expressions of wellness through these experiences, and the emergence of inquiry approaches, conferred ‘permission’ to continue enacting these pedagogies in their day-to-day teaching and learning, even when perceived not to be a direct enactment of the Australian Curriculum. This flagged a clear theme in the qualitative data, of teacher’s growing desire to enact a ‘moral imperative’, to ‘do it for the students’. Teacher’s own experiences Relating with Country were also deemed essential to the motivation and courage necessary to enact Country as Teacher pedagogies. This formative research suggests that high levels of student engagement motivated teachers to reinterpret systemic accountabilities and imperatives. We propose that in this way, among others discussed below, Country as Teacher operated as a ‘critical pedagogy of place.’
AB - This article reports on phase two of our school-based Country as Teacher research, focusing on teacher’s learning and experiences through their efforts to enact Country as Teacher curriculum and pedagogy with students in ACT schools. Cultivating their own practices of reciprocal Relating with Country (Phase 1, see Spillman, Wilson, Nixon & McKinnon, 2022) prepares teachers to enact Country as Teacher with students. A yarning circle focus group and semi-structured interviews were again used to unpack teacher’s reflections and learnings regarding their attempts to enact Country as Teacher curriculum and pedagogies through units of work. Due to major disruptions in schooling caused by a long COVID lockdown, during Term Three 2021, participation in data collection for Phase 2 of the Country as Teacher research was on a voluntary basis. Thirteen of the original twenty-six teachers offered to participate. Despite the COVID disruptions, many teachers felt that the high levels of student engagement with Country as Teacher, expressions of wellness through these experiences, and the emergence of inquiry approaches, conferred ‘permission’ to continue enacting these pedagogies in their day-to-day teaching and learning, even when perceived not to be a direct enactment of the Australian Curriculum. This flagged a clear theme in the qualitative data, of teacher’s growing desire to enact a ‘moral imperative’, to ‘do it for the students’. Teacher’s own experiences Relating with Country were also deemed essential to the motivation and courage necessary to enact Country as Teacher pedagogies. This formative research suggests that high levels of student engagement motivated teachers to reinterpret systemic accountabilities and imperatives. We propose that in this way, among others discussed below, Country as Teacher operated as a ‘critical pedagogy of place.’
KW - Australian Curriculum
KW - Country as Teacher
KW - Critical pedagogy of place
KW - Relating with Country
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85162993269&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s41297-023-00201-2
DO - 10.1007/s41297-023-00201-2
M3 - Article
SN - 0159-7868
VL - 43
SP - 103
EP - 114
JO - Curriculum Perspectives
JF - Curriculum Perspectives
IS - 2
ER -