the problems with Powerpointas and how to improve them

1. Aboriginal Pedagogy
Refresher
Western NSW
Region RAET Team
© Aboriginal
Knowledge Centre,
Dubbo

2. National Aboriginal Education Committee
in 1985 suggested Aboriginal
perspectives need to come through
pedagogy, asserting the need to develop
“pedagogy that takes into account
Aboriginal epistemology. Only when this
occurs will education for our people be a
process that builds on Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander cultures and
identity” (1985, 4).

3. Process and Protocol
• Teach using Aboriginal processes and
protocols, not just Aboriginal content.
• Apply Aboriginal pedagogy to mainstream
content – it validates our culture.
• When you focus on “how” rather than
“what”, you are teaching through culture.
• The common ground between Aboriginal
and western pedagogy gives you a safe
entry point for Aboriginal perspectives.

4. Common ground between best mainstream and
Aboriginal pedagogies:
1. Learning through narrative.
2. Planning and visualising explicit processes.
3. Working non-verbally with self-reflective, hands-on methods.
4. Learning through images, symbols and metaphors.
5. Learning through place-responsive, environmental practice.
6. Using indirect, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches.
7. Modelling and scaffolding by working from wholes to parts.
8. Connecting learning to local values, needs and knowledge.

5. Here is a dynamic framework for these common ground pedagogies:

6. • Tell your stories about the topic or related topics.
• Get students to tell theirs and discuss that knowledge in depth.
• Show a model of the work students will produce for this topic.
• Ask: How can this help/relate to local community?
• Pull the model apart, question the meaning.
• Map out the structures, explain the patterns and codes.
• Work with these visually and kinaesthetically.
• Support students to recreate their own versions individually.
• Ensure these are returned to community for local benefit.
Your
Quality
Teaching
then
emerges
like this:
You can see here a the common ground between western and Aboriginal pedagogy.

7. Examples from Western NSW
Classrooms
Sample Lessons and Units

8. Using narrative to structure a lesson
on comparing grammar systems
Hands-on
sequencing of
text and
images
Non-linear visual
map of text for study
Community
focus
Learning situated in
land and place
context
Beginning with whole text,
then sentences, then
grammar, then spelling.

9. Silent reflection time after
a learning sequence
Model
texts
from community
Literacy Scaffolding
Sharing
Story
Local place is
topic for study

10. Story mapping
Traditional design used for
learning map
Hands-on deconstruction and
reconstruction of text and grammar
Land focus

11. Learning Maps by non-
Aboriginal Teachers.
Unit Term
Text
Year

12. Example of
Aboriginal
pedagogy
framework used in
lesson planning.
This is from Jodie in
Coonamble. She had no
training or guidance in
using 8ways – just read
through the wiki and
trialled the pedagogies in
her class. She then
incorporated it in her
lesson planning
documents. You can find
her template, and all the
info on the 8ways, in the
wiki:
http://8ways.wikispaces.com

13. Eight Ways of Learning
You can use alternative names and symbols/metaphors appropriate to your community

22. "...the approaches consistent
with Aboriginal ways of doing
things are found in varying
proportions in all cultures."
(Harris, 1984)

23. Can you match these statements with their symbols?
We connect through the stories we share.
We picture our pathways of knowledge.
We see, think, act, make and share without words.
We keep and share knowledge with art and objects.
We work with lessons from land and nature.
We put different ideas together and create new knowledge.
We work from wholes to parts, watching and then doing.
We bring new knowledge home to help our mob.

24. http:8ways.wikispaces.com