Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approaches to education and learning
The Framework will assist the RACGP to incorporate and embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teaching methodologies and strategies into its entire education and training program especially, but not exclusive to, areas of the delivery of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural and health education. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander epistemologies will undoubtably also afford enhancements to other areas of the educational and training program. The Framework will also address culturally appropriate assessment of GP registrars across the spectrum of knowing, doing and showing.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People have a long history of essential knowledge transfer from generation to generation through song lines, music, dance, art and oral narratives. To Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, learning is an immersive and experiential endeavour.
Educational practices from infancy recognise the autonomy of the child and learning through exploration, trial and error, knowing roles and responsibilities and through relationships (Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, 2011).
Learning is spiral and complexities are built-up over time; it is layered, relational and contextual. Ethical and moral principles are taught through creation stories and other cultural narratives. (Munro et al, 2019).
Holistic, physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing has been practiced for centuries by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and is strongly related to the health and wellbeing of the land and waterways in which People are connected. Physical and spiritual healing practices of traditional healers, such as Ngangkari, have been passed from one generation to the next through kinship lines, stories, learning in practice and mentoring. This Framework respects and values the knowledge and knowledge transfer of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditional healers.
Prof Stanley Wilson, Cree Elder from Canada and co-founder of the First Nations Graduate Education at the University of Alberta coined the concept of Indigegogy (Wilson and Schellhammer, 2021). This term is a combination of ‘Indigenous’ and ‘pedagogy’. It describes how he developed his own ways of teaching using First Nations ways of thinking and doing things, transferring this into education and learning to provide himself and others with a stronger sense of authority over their own methods, rather than those imposed by a western style teaching system. Professor Wilson also describes the relational way in which First Nations People undertake education, including exploration, discussion, immersion and connection as important elements of learning and teaching.
The Framework gives guidance on the educational and training structure that embeds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander concepts and other appropriate First Nations methodologies.
