Teaching Australian Indigenous Studies - Non-Indigenous academics negotiating structural impediments in a regional context

Oct 15, 2026

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This paper examines how two non-Indigenous academics in a regional Australian university navigated teaching and coordination of a first-year Indigenous Studies course, Introduction to Indigenous Australia (SCS130). Drawing on their teaching experiences, the authors analyze tensions between course aims and student expectations shaped by structural impediments, including decolonising goals and institutional constraints. Using qualitative student survey data, they address reconciliation-oriented pedagogy, whiteness and Eurocentrism, and the limited impact of policy intentions on everyday educational practice.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction to Indigenous Australia (SCS130)

Course aims and pedagogy

Institutional racism and policy tensions

Student responses and survey evidence

Decolonising challenges in higher education

Teaching Australian Indigenous Studies: NonIndigenous academics negotiating structural impediments in a regional context Genine Hook1 and Nikki Jessen2 1 School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, University of New England, Elm Avenue, Armidale, New South Wales, 2351, Australia, [email: ghook4@une.edu.au](email: ghook4@une.edu.au) 2 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sunshine Coast, 90 Sippy Downs Dr, Sippy Downs, Queensland, 4556, Australia This paper examines the experiences of two non-Indigenous academics in a regional Australian university who taught/coordinated a first-year course, Introduction to Indigenous Australia (SCS130) . Drawing on our own experiences, we explore the implications and contentious nature of nonIndigenous academics teaching Indigenous Studies and align this discussion with structural critique. As non-Indigenous academics, some argue that it is culturally disrespectful and pedagogically problematic for us to deliver this course. We consider that the work of embedding Indigenous perspectives should not be relegated solely the responsibility of Indigenous academics, and that our teaching contributes to reconciliation and begins to fill a significant gap in awareness and understanding among Australian students in higher education. The course SCS130 aims to introduce students to Indigenous perspectives through narratives, film, documentaries, academic and nonacademic texts, biography and art. The objective of the course is to engage students with the complexity of colonisation and its ramifications for constructions of individual and national identities. Student survey qualitative data is used to provide an analysis of the course and to illustrate the conflict between our pedagogic practice, student expectations and the structural impediments to our decolonising teaching aims. Keywords: Australian Indigenous Studies; higher education; pedagogy; whiteness; student survey Introduction Gillborn (2005) asserted that “education policy itself can be seen as an act of white supremacy … the taken-for-granted routine privileging of white interests”(p. 485) . In the Australian context, Vass (2012) notes that “it has been suggested that ‘Indigenous education’ has been constructed in ways that largely serve non-Indigenous purposes” (p. 92) . Our aim in SCS130 is to challenge the “naturalising and normalising of whiteness and Eurocentrism within education”(Vass, 2012, p. 89) . To this end, we discuss our own reticence and challenges in teaching this course, and in managing the content and the students. We seek to avoid what Moreton-Robinson (2000) calls middle-class white women’s lack of conscious intention: “The white feminists positioned themselves as anti-racism women who were doing the right thing, unaware that their actions were not interpreted by Indigenous women in the same way”(p. xvii) . Smith (2012) states that universities and Western education is embedded in the colonising process: The academy played a very significant role in upholding Western intellectual superiority: the disciplines of Western knowledge were used as a platform for dismissing or denying the existence of Indigenous knowledge, a view that still exists in some parts of the academy today. (p. 351) Responding to this disciplinary and institutional racism, the education sector has introduced various strategies and directives towards change. As Nakata (2008) states, the “production and transmission of knowledge and understanding ‘about’ Indigenous peoples has sat in uneasy tension with higher education programs” (p. 1) . There remains a gap between strategies as institutional policies and intentions and everyday practices embedded in the teaching and learning landscapes of Australian universities. The emphasis upon cultural competency within tertiary institutions is prescribed by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Policy Goal 4: “To provide all Australian students with an un

FAQs

What course do the authors discuss, and who teaches it?

The paper focuses on SCS130, a first-year course called Introduction to Indigenous Australia, taught/coordinated by two non-Indigenous academics at a regional Australian university.

How do the authors evaluate the course experience and its conflicts?

They use qualitative student survey data to analyze conflicts between their pedagogic practice, student expectations, and structural impediments to their decolonising teaching aims.

What structural and institutional barriers shape the authors’ teaching goals?

The paper highlights gaps between institutional policies and everyday teaching practices, alongside disciplinary and institutional racism, including how whiteness and Eurocentrism are naturalised within education.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Kurz