Abstract:
Pre-recorded presentation link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr5xnQ31jfUAcknowledging the diversity of Aboriginal culture throughout Australia, includes respecting locally relevant and appropriate Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. This can be difficult for many Australian educators who do not know about the local Aboriginal people, and their knowledge and beliefs that may be relevant to educational planning and programming. The Differentiated Pedagogies project is a scoping project and literature review investigating and centrally recording the current information available describing Australian Aboriginal pedagogies. The purpose is to map pedagogies with corresponding language groups and Aboriginal communities, to find in literature where this information has been researched, and to collate the information in order to increase awareness in the wider Australian education community. This increased awareness could not only allow teachers to teach more confidently about Aboriginal Australia but to also incorporate an Aboriginal pedagogical approach to their teaching practice. The benefits of teachers being able to incorporate Indigenous pedagogies are that they will be better able to adapt the teaching and learning delivery to suit the needs of their students, particularly Aboriginal students. An important aspect of the Differentiated Pedagogies project is an analysis of the data collected including an audit of gaps in the knowledge pertinent to particular regions. This is significant because the data differs in the description, distinction, abstraction and clarity between terms used with varying levels of relationality. Pedagogies have been presented and described in various ways such as philosophy, model, approach, curriculum, process, resource, and strategy. Additionally, the Differentiated Pedagogies project questions and attempts to define the characteristics of a pedagogy, in order to propose a pedagogy framework, where one might not already exist, that educators could utilise to create a solid teaching tool, in collaboration with the local Aboriginal community. The project is funded internally at Charles Darwin University through a Rainmaker start-up grant. The gaps found through this research will inform a larger external funding application to conduct the further research necessary to create an online platform available to educators, and to highlight Aboriginal voice in educational contexts. It is surmised that an online Indigenous pedagogies platform would support educators with additional knowledge and the ability to better support Indigenous learners. The project (and proposed future research) aligns with AIATSIS priority research theme 1: Valuing Indigenous knowledge and methods. It would further a national imperative to influence what children learn at school about Aboriginal Australia and support educators and schools to teach confidently.