Teaching and learning Indigenous history in comparative and transnational frame: lessons from the coalface

Abstract

In first semester 2015, I taught second-year Indigenous Australian history as a comparative and transnational unit for the first time. My decision to do so related to pedagogical issues as well as developments in the field. I implemented structural changes to the way I taught the unit and refocused the content to reflect the transnational and comparative trend in the scholarship. Notwithstanding the benefits of my teaching innovations, it was the changed content that appeared to have the most educative value. Part of this was in broadening students’ understanding of Australian Indigenous history. Transferring transnational and comparative research into the classroom also helped to bring the local and global into closer connection. In this reflective piece, I look back at this learning and teaching experience. Included are the contributions of three students who undertook the unit and who flesh out the learning experience with contributions of their own.