6 Indigenising curriculum in the School of Education

School of Education

Introduction

We are both teaching and research academics in the School of Education and have different journeys to beginning our roles here.

Danielle: I am a Kamilaroi woman who grew up on Bundjalung Country in Northern New South Wales. My cultural links are through my paternal lineage. In my professional life, I started my educational journey as an ITAS (Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme) tutor at my son’s school when I was 22. I enjoyed working in education so decided to do my Primary Teaching degree. When I finished my teaching degree, I taught in primary schools in very remote, rural and metropolitan locations. After teaching, I worked on a longitudinal mathematics project across multiple schools in Queensland while I completed my PhD. I have worked in different universities and was employed at The University of Queensland (UQ) in 2021. I currently teach into the Indigenous Knowledge and Education courses in the School of Education, and my research is around the complexities of working between Indigenous and Western knowledge systems in education settings.

Kate: I am a non-Indigenous woman who lives and works in Meanjin (Brisbane). I grew up on the lands of the Jagera, Yuggera, and Ugarapul peoples – though I can’t recall hearing these names even once during the 18 years I spent living on that Country. I was fortunate to come from a family with a heart for social justice, including a sense of care and respect for Indigenous peoples. However, my memories of school in a regional town in South East Queensland in the 1980s involve only cursory insights into Indigenous peoples, histories and cultures. In primary school, I recall painting boomerangs and learning about Aboriginal peoples as “nomadic”, “simple” “hunter-gatherers”. In secondary school, I recall a substantially greater focus on Australia’s colonial history than on its ancient Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origins. And despite my family’s well-intentioned orientations, they too were products of a colonised formal education system and were, therefore, not always well placed to expand or enrich these impoverished conceptions of Indigenous peoples.

My university education also provided scant insights into Indigenous histories and cultures. Nevertheless, perhaps because of my family background, as a secondary English teacher, I was effortful around including works by Indigenous authors in my classroom, though the range was narrow in my early career – Sally Morgan’s My Place, and Is That You, Ruthie? by Auntie Ruth Hegarty, and the poetry of Oodgeroo Noonuccal comprised my main repertoire. While I can’t remember specifics, I shudder to imagine how I approached teaching these texts. Contemporary teachers frequently express reluctance to teach Indigenous-authored works, fearful of making mistakes (Worrell, 2022); however, I was too unconsciously incompetent to feel that fear. Later, while living and working on Bunurong/Boonwurrung Country (Victoria), a non-Indigenous colleague who was far more advanced in his learning journey than I helped me realise the extent of my ignorance and begin to remedy it. I share this background not only to make my positionality visible, but to highlight a key learning that may help other non-Indigenous educators: expanding my cultural capacity is my responsibility and no-one else’s.

Moving forward in partnership

Together, we co-chair our School’s Indigenous Engagement Committee (IEC), which was established at the beginning of 2024. We discuss the role and goals of the IEC later in this chapter. We recognise that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples prefer to be known by their language group. However, as we are not focusing on one particular language group, we will use the terms “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples” and “Indigenous peoples” interchangeably. Our approach reflects that taken throughout Australian policy documents and a desire to be respectful of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by acknowledging the important yet complex issues of terminology (Latimore, 2021). The term “peoples” is used throughout to recognise the diversity and richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and to foreground the dignity and humanity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies [AIATSIS], n.d.-b; Latimore, 2021). We also acknowledge that some peoples prefer the term “First Nations”, which is used in Australia’s curriculum documents.

In this chapter, we focus on the Cultural Capability design principle outlined in UQ’s Indigenising Curriculum: Consultation Green Paper (Bunda, 2022); however, other design principles upheld in that paper are woven throughout.

Teaching and learning context

The School of Education offers postgraduate programs (such as the Master of Educational Studies), designed to advance the professional knowledge of both current practitioners and those from contexts beyond education, including a large and diverse cohort of international students. Additionally, the School is an accredited initial teacher education (ITE) provider. Completing the Bachelor of Education or Master of Teaching (Primary) or Master of Teaching (Secondary) qualifies students to become a registered primary or secondary school teacher. Because Australia has a national curriculum (the Australian Curriculum) from foundation to year 10, a key part of initial teacher education is to ensure graduate teachers can confidently enact this curriculum. This curriculum includes three main sections: (1) discipline learning areas encompass the different subject areas, e.g., English, mathematics, science; (2) general capabilities (GCs) include abilities in seven areas; and (3) cross-curriculum priorities (CCPs) are interspersed throughout all learning areas (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2024b). The three cross-curriculum priorities, which support “a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that reflects national, regional and global contexts” are:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures
• Asia and Australia’s Engagement with Asia
• Sustainability (ACARA, 2024a).

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority is one important driver of our Indigenising curriculum goals in the School of Education. This priority focuses on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures through three organising ideas:

1. Country/Place: Physical, relational and spiritual connection to Country/Place
2. Culture: Ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing
3. People: Kinship structures and local, national and global contributions.

Through these organising ideas, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority “provides opportunities for all students to deepen their knowledge of Australia by learning about the world’s oldest continuous living cultures” (ACARA, 2024d). Obviously, for school students to learn about Indigenous cultures, their teachers need to have the cultural capability to build such learning into teaching and learning experiences. Building preservice teachers’ cultural capability is therefore a non-negotiable dimension of our role as teacher educators.

The seven general capabilities, which “equip young Australians with the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions to live and work successfully” are:

• Critical and Creative Thinking
• Digital Literacy
• Ethical Understanding
• Intercultural Understanding
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Personal and Social Capability (ACARA, 2024c).

Of these seven general capabilities, Intercultural Understanding is perhaps most obviously relevant to our Indigenising curriculum goals in the context of initial teacher education. This capability includes but is not limited to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, and “involves students developing the knowledge and skills needed to reflect on culture and cultural diversity, engage with cultural and linguistic diversity, and navigate intercultural contexts” (ACARA, 2024e). It is expected that teachers implement the general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities into teaching and learning as appropriate within the discipline of each learning area.

In senior secondary school (year 11 and year 12), state and territory bodies develop syllabus documents that govern each subject area. In Queensland, this is the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority (QCAA). The syllabus documents for each subject area include statements that affirm the QCAA’s commitment to reconciliation in Australia, as well as embedding Aboriginal perspectives and Torres Strait Islander perspectives “as appropriate”. The QCAA also provides guidelines and resources to support teaching about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives (QCAA, n.d.). Additionally, the senior syllabus documents include underpinning factors, which are comparable to the general capabilities in the F–10 (foundation to year 10) Australian Curriculum.

There is debate around the framing and impact of these efforts to implement the general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities. McCandless et al. (2020) found that some general capabilities are not implemented as often as others. For example, Intercultural Understanding is only minimally included throughout curriculum documents, particularly in science and mathematics (McCandless et al., 2020). However, the intent of the Australian Curriculum and senior syllabus documents is to better foreground Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, histories and cultures. While this intent may be a first step in redressing the impoverished schooling experiences of generations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, significant work remains to shift the “high level of deficit perspectives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities informing classroom practice” (Phillips, 2021, p. 8). By Indigenising curriculum and building cultural capability, the School of Education aims to better prepare our students to infuse Indigenous knowledges, perspectives, histories and cultures through all areas of the curriculum. Additionally, this approach should also broaden students’ knowledge in these areas to inform their own ways of thinking and practicing.

Another important contextual dynamic is the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST), developed by the national regulatory body, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) (2017). The APST outline the knowledge and skills that teachers should be able to demonstrate at four career stages: Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead. All ITE providers must be nationally accredited to ensure courses and assessment provide opportunities for each of the Graduate APSTs to be taught, practiced and assessed (AITSL, 2017).

Two Graduate APSTs explicitly require preservice teachers to demonstrate knowledge and skills that relate to Indigenous students, peoples, histories and cultures:

1.4 Strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students: Demonstrate broad knowledge and understanding of the impact of culture, cultural identity and linguistic background on the education of students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

2.4 Understand and respect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians: Demonstrate broad knowledge of, understanding of and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and languages. (AITSL, 2017)

Similar knowledge and skills are also present in many of the other professional standards. For example, the capacity to select and use resources that engage students (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students) in their learning (APST 3.4), and the capacity to understand and participate in community networks (APST 7.4) including Indigenous communities (AITSL, 2017).

Accreditation requires that all ITE courses are carefully mapped against these professional standards. Master of Educational Studies courses and programs do not require mapping against the APST and are not subject to accreditation requirements.

However, even prior to the newly accredited ITE programs coming into effect in 2019, it had been the School’s goal for some years to embed Indigenous perspectives into all our courses and programs, not just initial teacher education. This goal was driven by dynamics including the launch of UQ’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) in 2018 and, even prior to the RAP, by the ethical orientations of key School of Education staff, who already understood the importance of placing Indigenous knowledge systems alongside dominant Western paradigms to contribute to the important work of reconciliation and social justice.

Finally, a third important contextual dynamic is the School Review. This review was conducted in 2023 according to the University’s Review of Schools Procedure under which the Academic Board reviews UQ Schools on a seven-year cycle (UQ, n.d.-b). The first and therefore arguably the most critical recommendation to emerge from that review was the need to “establish a cohesive school-level structure for embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education across all programs” (Ellis et al., 2023). It is significant that this recommendation foregrounds that “all programs” should embed education around Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, histories and cultures – not just initial teacher education, which is mandated by policy.

Together, these three contextual dynamics – the cross-curriculum priorities and general capabilities embedded in the Australian Curriculum, the accountabilities required by the professional standards, and the School Review – set a compelling agenda for the School of Education to Indigenise curriculum. Further, it is important to note that, as a School, we are not only committed to the goals of Indigenising curriculum because of the mandates imposed by these external drivers. Rather, we affirm the intrinsic value of learning about and through Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, doing and being (Martin / Mirraboopa, 2003); this adds value to our own ontologies. We also recognise the benefits of Indigenising curriculum to Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners alike (Sammel et al., 2020).

Approaches to Indigenising curriculum

In the following section, we describe our efforts to Indigenise the curriculum by building cultural capability among academic teaching staff in what we see as the three stages of our School journey: foundational work, portfolio work and committee work.

Foundational work

A great deal of important foundational work pre-dates more recent, formal efforts to embed Indigenous perspectives into the School’s professional practice. We honour the important contributions by Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff in the School, supported by key Indigenous Elders and knowledge holders, who recognised the importance of embedding Indigenous perspectives long before formal accreditation requirements and the Reconciliation Action Plan were in place. Actions included opportunities at staff meetings to collaboratively explore how we could respond to the University’s Reconciliation Action Plan, and attending cultural and educational workshops with Elders and knowledge holders. Academic and professional staff also visited Cherbourg in 2021, where we listened to and learned from Elders about the history of Cherbourg, their own lived experience in Cherbourg, and the resilience demonstrated in growing into a strong and vibrant Indigenous community. This cultural experience was initiated by Associate Professor Marnee Shay who was, at the time, the only Indigenous academic in the School. Marnee’s strong connections to the Cherbourg community made this and many other cultural learning opportunities possible and it is important to recognise Marnee’s leadership in this space – a service contribution that often went unacknowledged – during a period when few structural supports were in place and broader policy agendas were still nascent.

Portfolio work

In 2022, the Embedding Indigenous Perspectives Portfolio was established as a sub-committee of the School’s Teaching and Learning Committee. Initially, this portfolio comprised four non-Indigenous academic staff, including Kate (co-author). We valued being involved in the work of Indigenising curriculum but were keenly aware of our non-Indigeneity. We often talked about how to balance seeking guidance from our Indigenous colleagues within and beyond the School without adding to their cultural load – “the (often invisible) additional workload borne by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the workplace, where they are either the only Indigenous person or one of a small number of Indigenous people” (Diversity Council Australia, 2023). We thus took careful steps, guided by the Indigenising Curriculum Design Principles (Bunda, 2022), particularly Respect, Relationships and Cultural Capability. We were motivated to lead the process of Indigenising curriculum and, initially, worried about being productive. However, we felt empowered to take a slower and more thoughtful approach after spending a couple of hours yarning with distinguished Aboriginal Elder Aunty Denise Proud, with whom the School has enjoyed a long relationship. Aunty Denise emphasised the importance of drawing on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander wisdom^[1] to work relationally and respectfully, rather than falling into the trap of “ticking boxes” or going too quickly and missing important dimensions of growth. She described how Aboriginal children learn incrementally through encounters with new knowledge, which parents and carers deliberately provide then assess to determine next steps. We realised that we needed to give ourselves to a similar process of incremental learning and work within our capacity, so this advice was incredibly helpful to us in this nascent stage.

Our first significant action as a portfolio involved leading a session at an all-staff meeting. To plan this session, we reached out to our Aboriginal academic colleagues Associate Professor Marnee Shay and Dr Danielle Armour (co-author) for some feedback on our initial ideas. Both Marnee and Danielle emphasised the importance of a whole-of-school approach to support the cultural changes necessary to embed Indigenous perspectives in meaningful ways, and they shared some valuable resources with us. After consultation, we refined our ideas for the session, which ultimately took the following form:

1. We shared what we saw as our purpose as a portfolio – to support School of Education staff to build cultural capability and develop a whole-school approach to Indigenising curriculum.
2. We shared our plan for 2022:

• to acknowledge that a whole-of-school culture around Indigenous engagement and interests is foundational to curriculum change
• to open discussions around what we are doing well as a school and where our gaps lie
• to provide opportunities for reviewing current practices, sharing and information gathering
• to set up a Blackboard site to curate relevant resources and information.

Staff worked in small groups to complete the School Review Checklist (Dare to Lead, 2007), a tool designed to support school leaders evaluate current achievements in line with federal, state and territory accountability measures; and identify at least one resource from the Evaluating Resources Guide (Narragunnawali: Reconciliation in Education, n.d.) and/or the resources for embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives provided by the UQ Library (UQ, 2024) that could be used in a course they teach that year.

We were all nervous about leading this session, but Marnee and Danielle’s guidance gave us confidence to take this first important step. We were also heartened by our colleagues’ engagement in the activities, which yielded some valuable early feedback on these first, tentative steps.

In 2023, staffing changes saw an Indigenous postdoctoral fellow join the portfolio. As non-Indigenous academics, we were all grateful to work with an Indigenous colleague on portfolio activities. However, we were careful to ensure we continued to share the cultural load and not just delegate decision-making to the only Aboriginal person on the team.

Another key action as a new portfolio in 2022 was to meet with experts and knowledge holders to expand our capacity to offer support and guidance to our colleagues. For example, we met with Mia Strasek-Barker, Reconciliation Action Plan Manager, UQ Library. Mia is a Gamilaraay woman from Lightning Ridge in New South Wales and her role in the UQ Library involves coordinating and managing activities and events that highlight the library’s commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through its collections and services (UQ, 2022). Mia provided us with valuable information in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resources and collections in the library, recently developed approaches to referencing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander works in line with academic guidelines, and tools to evaluate Indigenous content to avoid deficit perspectives. We were then able to share these resources with our colleagues, which highlights another key action as a portfolio from 2022 to 2023 – knowledge sharing.

It is well established that academia is predominately organised into disciplinary silos (Douglas et al., 2020), which can be a barrier to collaboration and communication (Dror & Yotam, 2024), resulting in blind spots and constraining innovation (Moustakas, 2022). Further, supporting academics to embed Indigenous perspectives involves not only disciplinary silos, but “the discomfort of understanding new paradigms, particularly non-Western paradigms” (Anthony-Stevens & Matsaw, 2020, p. 609). Relatedly, we were mindful that Indigenising curriculum added another dimension to academics’ already heavy workloads (Sankey & Logan-Fleming, 2023).

We therefore looked for ways to foreground Indigenous knowledges, histories, cultures and perspectives, and to build cultural capability in our day-to-day professional lives. To do this, we began to include a short “nudge” in the School’s weekly “Monday briefs” – a practice we have sustained. These nudges include reminders about learning opportunities at and beyond the University; links to relevant scholarship, media and resources; information about Indigenous cultural events and media; and short insights into a particular aspect of Indigenous cultures or histories.

Another approach to knowledge sharing that we have sustained has been to offer “Learning Together” sessions. In these sessions, held about four times per year, all staff are invited to work collaboratively through the AIATSIS Core Cultural Learning modules – an online course designed to strengthen the cultural capability of university staff. Comprising 10 interactive modules, the course was developed by AIATSIS in partnership with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Department of Social Services, as well as a research collaboration with the University of Sydney’s National Centre for Cultural Competency (AIATSIS, n.d.-a). The Core Cultural Learning modules support increased knowledge of “Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, knowledges, histories, languages and achievements” (UQ, n.d.-a). Such education is vital to increase all university staff members’ confidence and competence to incorporate Indigenous perspectives and cultural knowledge into teaching, learning and professional practice so we can begin to remedy the “historical exclusion of Indigenous peoples, knowledges and perspectives in the Australian education system, including the university sector” (Rom, 2023, p. 2). Our goal was to encourage all staff to complete all 10 modules while also contributing to a relaxed and collegial culture where people felt safe to share their perspectives and experiences.

More recently, we have adjusted our practice slightly so that we still come together to work through the modules, but we now work at our own pace, setting aside 10 or 15 minutes at the end of the session to share one thing we learned. This approach is designed to recognise that everyone is at a different point in their journey, while still opening up opportunities for dialogue and sharing.

Another way we sought to support staff to Indigenise curriculum was by offering optional “drop-in” sessions during which staff could seek support to select and include works by Indigenous creators in their course reading lists. As a portfolio, we would not have been equipped to offer this support unless we continuously worked to expand our own cultural capability. Our early session with Mia Strasek-Barker provided some solid foundations, while participating in RAP Network activities and the UQ Institute for Teaching and Learning Innovation’s Indigenising the Curriculum Circle of Practice offered ongoing learning opportunities for non-Indigenous portfolio members.

In June 2023, we enjoyed a cultural tour to Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island). This day trip was well attended by both academic and professional staff and included a driving tour with Yura Tours (yuratours.com.au), accompanied by a Quandamooka guide, Elisha Kissick. This experience was financed by the School of Education and collaboratively organised by our postdoctoral fellow, a Quandamooka man, and key professional staff in the School. We visited sites of cultural significance and learned about the history of the island, as well as the ways that Aboriginal peoples used knowledge of Country for medicine and food.

As a portfolio, we also began to generate data around the current practices of academic teaching staff in relation to Indigenising curriculum, allowing us to build a picture of current practice. We continued to generate these data into 2024 when the portfolio was replaced with an Indigenous Engagement Committee – the third phase of our Indigenising curriculum journey. The purpose of generating these data is to (i) glean a sense of current practice, (ii) trace and celebrate our progress, and (iii) identify specific requests for support to which we can respond. These data are administrative and internal only, for our own use in tracing and supporting our journey to Indigenise curriculum. It would be unethical to include these data in the present chapter, but we suggest that others may like to consider strategies, such as a survey, to help set goals around Indigenising curriculum.

Committee work

Following the School Review in 2023, the new Head of School dissolved the Embedding Indigenous Perspectives Portfolio and replaced it with the Indigenous Engagement Committee (IEC). This decision was a significant step, affording the important work of Indigenising curriculum the same status as the work of the existing Teaching and Learning Committee and Research Committee, including a budget.

We co-chair this committee. Co-chairing allows us to share the load – Indigenous education is everyone’s business and it should not be left to only Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to carry the load. As noted in the Universities Australia Indigenous Strategy 2022–25 (2022), universities need to “understand the significant amount of extra work that Indigenous staff have to manage” (p. 30). By co-chairing this committee, we can work at the cultural interface (Nakata, 2007) and work together to successfully Indigenise the curriculum (Hughes & Fricker, 2024).

The IEC has sustained many of the practices initiated by the portfolio: regular nudges in the Monday briefs, Learning Together sessions and drop-in sessions to support staff to include Indigenous-authored readings and Indigenous pedagogies. In addition, we have launched two other key activities. First, we offered small funding initiatives (up to $2,000 per application) to encourage staff to explore innovative ways to embed Indigenous perspectives into their professional practice. Significantly, we made this funding opportunity available not only to ongoing and fixed-term academic staff, but also to casual academic staff and professional staff. Our goals were to (i) be responsive to the School Review recommendation to “enable contributions of all academic staff and relevant professional staff of the School to the achievement of the UQ Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan” (Ellis et al., 2023), (ii) encourage staff to take responsibility for their own learning journey rather than relying on guest speakers or professional development initiated by others, and (iii) recognise that Indigenising curriculum requires a holistic approach across all dimensions of the School.

Second, a steering committee was established to partner with the IEC and provide strategic guidance, consultation and community connections. Our goal in establishing this steering committee is to “walk the talk” of collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to improve professional knowledge and practice – this aligns tightly to APST 7.4, described earlier in this chapter. At the time of writing, we are looking forward to the inaugural meeting in early October 2024, and we anticipate that the steering committee will meet approximately three times per year. The steering committee comprises mostly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who are recognised Elders or knowledge holders with links to the School of Education and/or the University, as well as Indigenous educators and teachers. In alignment with the design principle of Relationships, all committee members have some form of relationship with Indigenous academics in the School of Education, including professional and/or personal relationships. Further, we have sought to embed the design principle of Reciprocity into the fabric of these relationships. Remunerating steering committee members is one important form of reciprocity to recognise the contributions of time and wisdom, and we have been supported by our Head of School and School Manager to ensure appropriate financial compensation. However, without “mutual care … and meaningful engagement” (Bunda, 2022, p. 14), simply paying Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can become transactional. The importance of staying connected with telephone calls and visits cannot be overstated. This has been described as “The 3 Cuppa Tea Rule”, which is “the forming of genuine and authentic relationships without the expectation of having to give or take something from one another” (Jackson-Barrett, n.d., p. 2). We acknowledge and honour the privilege of being in relationship with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and knowledge holders on the steering committee.

In addition to these two key activities, we have continued to generate data around current practice from academic staff. This is so we can begin to map Indigenous histories, cultures, perspectives and knowledges across our courses to understand what content is being taught and ensure that students are gaining depth and breadth of knowledge over time. Further, as the IEC now has a budget – unlike the previous portfolio – we have been able to remunerate casual staff to complete the survey. We also held a morning tea, catered by an Indigenous-owned small business, during Reconciliation Week; again, this was made possible by a budget line that did not exist previously. This inaugural event was well attended and well received by academic and professional staff, as well as by HDR students.

What has worked (and not worked)?

In our view, there are several initiatives that have been particularly successful. First, the cultural tours, such as those to Cherbourg and Minjerribah, have been well attended with enthusiastic engagement among both academic and professional staff. In addition to building cultural capability through learning about Indigenous histories, cultures and wisdom, these day-long trips were an opportunity for us to build relationships with one another – a rare gift in a busy and siloed workplace. Second, we have received positive feedback on the weekly nudges we include in the Monday briefs; people seem to enjoy and value these “bite-sized pieces” of information. Third, generating the survey data has allowed us to glean a sense of current practice as well as understand the kind of support our colleagues need to expand their capacity to embed Indigenous perspectives into their courses.

We have also received positive feedback on the Learning Together and drop-in sessions; however, attendance at these sessions is not high (usually around four or five people). We are experimenting with offering these at different times and in different formats to encourage greater take-up. We are also exploring inviting colleagues from beyond the School of Education to these sessions to build relationships and invite collegial conversations.

In terms of the funding initiatives, the successful applications have included: a commissioned artwork for display in the School’s front office, creation of a video teaching resource to highlight the career development needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people, purchase of Indigenous-authored texts for use in primary literacy courses, and a workshop with Professor Chris Matthews (Quandamooka man) to support approximately seven staff teaching into STEM-focused (science, technology, engineering, maths) courses to embed Indigenous perspectives and knowledges. We hope that, once these initiatives have been shared with School staff more broadly (as required by the funding), future years will see stronger take-up of this funding to support innovation and build cultural capability to embed Indigenous perspectives.

Finally, generating data through the surveys has been helpful to paint a picture of current practice, future goals and learning needs. These data also allow us to acknowledge and celebrate our progress and accomplishments.

A view to the future

We recognise that our journey to Indigenise curriculum in the School of Education is only in its early stages. However, we are committed to contributing to an environment in which all staff feel supported to continuously expand their cultural capability. In so doing, the goal is to encourage future teachers to become culturally inclusive practitioners who can collectively make a significant contribution to reconciliation. To accomplish this goal, we intend to sustain many of our current practices (e.g., weekly nudges, Learning Together sessions, drop-in sessions and cultural immersion activities). The funding initiatives have also been well received, so we aim to encourage greater take-up of this opportunity into the future. Other goals include supporting all academic and professional staff to complete all 10 Core Cultural Learning modules, which we hope will encourage more staff to join the RAP Network. Having all staff complete the Supervising Indigenous Higher Degree by Research (HDR) Students training course offered by the UQ Graduate School is also a goal.

Mapping current practice across all courses and programs is an ongoing focus because this allows us to not only identify current practice, but to celebrate progress. Further, mapping allows us to identify ways to improve the student experience. For example, ensuring that students are not encountering repeated content over time but are instead engaged in a logical sequence of learning. We are also looking forward to connecting with community by working relationally and reciprocally with the steering committee. Taken together, we hope these ongoing efforts will contribute to a culture within the School of Education wherein embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and embracing opportunities to engage with Indigenous peoples, histories, cultures and wisdom is simply the way we do business. Further, support from leaders and decision-makers is critical to the success of efforts to Indigenise curriculum. In our case, support from the Head of School has made many of these initiatives possible, both through funding and leadership for cultural change.

The School of Education’s journey to integrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, knowledges, histories and cultures is unfolding. Our goal is to weave these elements not only into our teaching and learning practices but also into the fabric of our collegial lives to enrich both our professional practice and our students’ educational experiences.

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which this work has been conducted and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We also express our gratitude to members of the Embedding Indigenous Perspectives Portfolio and the Indigenous Engagement Committee, as well as to Associate Professor Marnee Shay, for their feedback on this chapter and their collaborative contributions to the initiatives described.