Abstract
This paper explores a reflexive decolonizing framework, arising from a teachers` first four years of teaching practice in an Indigenous community in the North of what is commonly known as Australia[A1]. The paper seeks to frame a connection between the already-established field of teacher self-reflection, and a need for decolonizing ways of knowing in education, to respect and recenter othered knowledge systems. Autoethnography and open-ended interviews are implemented with Indigenous elders, to explore the self-reflection that a non-Indigenous teacher must embrace to begin to decolonize their practice. Drawing on theories of whiteness (Moreton-Robinson, 2000), othering (Staszak, 2009) and the Cultural Interface in settler-Indigenous discursive spaces (Nakata, 2007), this work documents an extended process of teacher self-reflection. Reflecting on Karen Martin’s (2008) work Please Knock Before You Enter, and in response to Laenui’s Processes of Decolonisation (2000), starting points are proposed from which teachers can think deeply about their practice concerning ongoing coloniality. The epistemological underpinnings of teachers’ practice are explored as the place where decolonizing work must occur across all educational spaces.
Highlights
IntroductionThe education experience of Indigenous young people in so-called “Australia” has been shaped entirely by settler colonialism (Behrendt et al, 2012; Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016; Bodkin-Andrews et al, 2010; Hogarth, 2016), which has set the backdrop for “trauma and disadvantage that inhibits educational progress for many Indigenous students in the present” (Brown, 2019, p. 56)
The education experience of Indigenous young people in so-called “Australia”2 has been shaped entirely by settler colonialism (Behrendt et al, 2012; Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016; Bodkin-Andrews et al, 2010; Hogarth, 2016), which has set the backdrop for “trauma and disadvantage that inhibits educational progress for many Indigenous students in the present” (Brown, 2019, p. 56). This educational experience sits on the backdrop of a colonial history that includes frontier wars, displacement from traditional lands and forced removal of children from their families, the ongoing impact of which are felt across all domains including health, education and life expectancy
Closing the Gap refers to Australian government initiatives that seek to close the statistical disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in markers of inequality in health, education and life expectancy (Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 2009)
Summary
The education experience of Indigenous young people in so-called “Australia” has been shaped entirely by settler colonialism (Behrendt et al, 2012; Bodkin-Andrews & Carlson, 2016; Bodkin-Andrews et al, 2010; Hogarth, 2016), which has set the backdrop for “trauma and disadvantage that inhibits educational progress for many Indigenous students in the present” (Brown, 2019, p. 56). Mark Rose has described the education systems’ interaction with Indigenous knowledges as a “silent apartheid”, and “intellectual segregation” targeting “colonization of the mind” (Rose, 2015) This commentary rang true in the schooling setting in which this study took place. This study sought to apply a decolonizing lens into the minutiae of the relationships between non-Indigenous teachers and Indigenous students, focusing on teachers’ responsibility for more ethical relationships between themselves and Indigenous members of the classroom. This framework places the onus on settler educators to conduct the reflexive work that is essential for genuinely decolonizing efforts in education, a precursor to partnership and collaboration. This article will begin by describing the methodological approach taken, debating the term decolonization, and describing phases of decolonization of settler-colonial educators: Acknowledgement, Knocking, Unsettling and Ceding, with a discussion of findings illustrating these phases
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