| Summary: | Abstract
This paper explores the dynamics and outcomes from a
collaborative, cross-cultural approach to teaching an
Indigenous education elective unit in a Bachelor of
Education (Primary) undergraduate degree at University of
Ballarat in 2009. The three facilitators, one
non-Aboriginal and two Aboriginal were a lecturer, an
Aboriginal Centre Manager and Local Aboriginal Education
Consultative Group member from the Ballarat and District
Aboriginal Cooperative respectively. The paper explores the
open-ended and collaborative approach used to facilitate
the learning, including pedagogies, activities and
assessment. The paper, and the collaborative cross-cultural
teaching approach it arguably embodies, is presented as a
model of desirable practice with undergraduate education
students, in particular for pre-service teachers
undertaking a P-10 Bachelor of Education degree. As we
describe later in the paper, these pre-service teachers,
with some exceptions, in general had very limited and often
stereotyped knowledge and experience of Aboriginal
education, Aboriginal students or Aboriginal perspectives
in other areas of the school curriculum. The teaching
process we adopted and that we articulate in this paper
attempted to address this previous lack of engagement with
the subject matter of Indigenous education by actively
modelling the processes of local Aboriginal consultation
and collaboration that we were trying to teach.
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