Australian Aboriginal education: The impacts of Riawunna’s Murina program pedagogy during Covid-19

Jodi Haines ,William L Baker

doi:10.37074/jalt.2021.4.2.13

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted our world on a major scale in 2020 and will continue to be part of our lives for some time to come. This paper examines how students in the Murina Program were supported by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Unit, the ‘Riawunna Centre’ at the University of Tasmania (UTAS), to help overcome the challenges of Covid-19 in 2020. It explores enrolment data, feedback and work samples provided by students about the ways in which Riawunna supported them to successfully transition to online learning and continue to meet unit level learning outcomes 2020. Data were collected in early 2021 and all ethical requirements for publication were met. The analysis of formal institutional level student feedback surveys suggest that Murina students highly valued the support provided by all Riawunna staff during the pandemic as highly critical to their engagement with Aboriginal pedagogy, through the sharing of Aboriginal knowledges and yarns within a curriculum that strengthened connections during this very challenging period. Ongoing research in this space will continue to investigate the impact of the Murina Program pedagogy to give students voice and agency to redefine their definition of success.

Highlights

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of Riawunna’s Murina Program pedagogy during Covid-19 and present an analysis of student feedback about their online learning experiences in Australian Aboriginal education units of study during 2020, and to present conclusions from this analysis to guide further research in this important area
In 2020, the focus period for this paper, 38 students were enrolled in the Murina Program with 10 of these students simultaneously enrolled in other University of Tasmania (UTAS) courses by semester two and continuing into 2021, indicating good retention and participation rates for this current cohort
Over the six units delivered in the Murina Program in 2020, a total of 101 requests for student feedback were sent to students with a total of 47 students responding for a response rate of 47% (n=47/101)

Summary

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of Riawunna’s Murina Program pedagogy during Covid-19 and present an analysis of student feedback about their online learning experiences in Australian Aboriginal education units of study during 2020, and to present conclusions from this analysis to guide further research in this important area. Many students who come into the program have experienced fragmented and disturbing formational educational experiences where their existence and recognition of rights as Tasmanian Aboriginal people continues to be an ongoing battle for justice in Lutruwita (Tasmania), so stepping foot onto university grounds is already a significant achievement and potential measure of success To overcome barriers such as this, the Murina program has created a curriculum that values the lived experiences and knowledges of Aboriginal students through storytelling and yarning (a relaxed conversational approach suitable for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the classroom), creating a place-based and student-centred two-way pedagogy at the cultural interface

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion