The challenges of finding more productive ways of teaching and learning in Australian Indigenous Studies have been a key focal point for the Australian Indigenous Studies Learning and Teaching Network. This article contributes to this discussion by drawing attention to new possibilities for teaching and learning practices amid the priority being…

This article takes the form of an interview with Sandy O'Sullivan, who is a partner on the Australian Indigenous Studies Learning and Teaching Network, about key issues that have arisen through Network discussions. She is a Wiradjuri woman and a Senior Aboriginal researcher at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education.…

In 2008, almost 40% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion at The University of Sydney failed to complete the course. Although this was not considered unusual when compared to previous years, the decision was made to investigate why so many students struggled to meet the…

This article documents the establishment of the Indigenous Specializations program in the School of Social Work at the University of Victoria. In the absence of funding for Indigenous programs, First Nations professors Robina Thomas and Jacquie Green developed the Indigenous Specializations program "off the side of their desk". This article…

This article critically examines the possibility of using Problem-Based Learning as an approach to teaching and learning and curriculum design in Indigenous studies. This approach emphasises the potential for Experience-Based Learning or Problem-Based Learning as a model that frames the curriculum and pedagogical activities to encourage student…

This article explores a project at the Koori Centre, University of Sydney, funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) in 2011, titled "Indigenous On-Line Cultural Teaching and Sharing". One of the team members (Kutay) was also a project team member on the ALTC-funded project "Exploring PBL in Indigenous Australian Studies",…

In this article, I take a creative and autoethnographic approach to reflect upon processes of decolonisation in Indigenous Australian studies classrooms. Positioning myself as a non-Indigenous educator, I take the reader on a journey through my search for pedagogy which makes space for the colonial, difficult and messy politics of race, whiteness…

Maori and other Indigenous scholars have been calling for the Indigenisation of academic space for decades. But what is the day-to-day experience of Maori academics within Aotearoa-New Zealand universities, and how does this experience reveal or enact the commitments to claim space? We interviewed 12 Maori academics and analysed and organised…

The paper reports on embedding an Indigenous graduate attribute into courses at the University of Western Sydney (UWS), providing the background to the development and implementation of a holistic and individual Indigenous graduate attribute. It details the approach taken by the Badanami Centre for Indigenous Education in advising the UWS staff on…

This paper demonstrates how Indigenous studies is controlled in some Australian universities in ways that continue the marginalisation, denigration and exploitation of Indigenous peoples. Moreover, it shows how the engagement of white notions of "inclusion" can result in the maintenance of racism, systemic marginalisation, white race privilege and…

The retention and completion rates of Indigenous students undertaking tertiary studies continue to be disappointing. The contribution of Eurocentric curricula to such an outcome has been proposed in the Australian and international literature. Remaining very conscious of my status as a white, female, social work educator teaching at a regional…

Educational outcomes for Aboriginal students in British Columbia, and Canada in general, are a cause for considerable concern. High dropout rates, low participation, completion and success rates at educational institutions have challenged educators for decades. Solutions have included lowering admission requirements for Aboriginal candidates and…

In 2002 the Faculty of Information Technology at the University of Technology Sydney began a major initiative to improve the participation of Indigenous Australians in the Information Technology (IT) sector. This followed an initial study which showed that very few Indigenous students undertook studies in IT at university and therefore few found…

Indigenous academic researchers are involved in Indigenist, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, all of which present problems and opportunities for Indigenous knowledge traditions. "Transdisciplinary" research is different from "interdisciplinary" research because it moves beyond the disciplinarity of the university and takes into…