Layered spaces: a pedagogy of uncomfortable reflexivity in Indigenous education

McDowall, Ailie

Abstract

University disciplines are grappling with how best to incorporate Indigenous content and frameworks for practice into their teaching to better prepare graduates to work with Indigenous communities. Yet the pedagogical approaches that can best engage students in Indigenous Studies as a field of critical study are still being debated. This article has two aims. The first is to consider how an uncomfortable reflexivity may provide an alternative theoretical and methodological approach to preparing university students for future work. This reflexive approach is an alternative to frameworks such as transformative learning. The second aim is to consider Nakata's cultural interface as a teaching tool that may open discussion around how professionals embody the disciplinary histories that govern their work. To do so, I present the writing of a pre-service teacher undertaking a professional experience placement and her engagement with the cultural interface to make sense of her experiences within the classroom. The cultural interface is used to analyse both the engagements between teachers and students, as well as presented as an analytical framework that can be taught to students to prepare them to engage in complex and contested Indigenous spaces.

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1469-8366

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Taylor & Francis

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DOI

10.1080/07294360.2020.1756751