Transformative strategies in indigenous education : a study of decolonisation and positive social change : the Indigenous Community Management Program, Curtin University

Abstract

This thesis is located within the social and political context of Indigenous education within Australia. Indigenous people continue to experience unacceptable levels of disadvantage and social marginalisation. The struggle for indigenous students individually and collectively lies in being able to determine a direction which is productive and non-assimilationist - which offers possibilities of social and economic transformation, equal opportunities and cultural integrity and self-determination. The challenge for teachers within the constraints of the academy is to develop strategies that are genuinely transformative, empowering and contribute to decolonisation and positive social change. This thesis explores how the construction of two theoretical propositions - the Indigenous Community Management and Development (ICMD) practitioner and the Indigenous/non-Indigenous Interface - are decolonising and transformative strategies. It investigates how these theoretical constructs and associated discourses are incorporated into the Centre's policy processes, curriculum and pedagogy to influence and interact with the everyday lives of students in their work and communities and the wider social institutions. It charts how a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff interact with these propositions and different ideas and discourses interrupting, re-visioning, reformulating and integrating these to form the basis for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous futures in Australia.

Date of Award	2004
Original language	English