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What is the societal challenge?

The significance of culture, wellbeing and holistic development for Indigenous peoples’ education is highlighted in the and . However, many education authorities continue to judge educational efficacy and base funding decisions on individual student outcomes. Additionally, key priorities identified by the Education Council and Aboriginal groups – such as nurturing emotional, cultural and social wellbeing, and supporting reciprocity and relationships – are often poorly translated into policy. Achieving equity in educational outcomes requires meaningful collaboration between Indigenous communities and education providers, and a sustained commitment to embedding Indigenous knowledges, languages and cultures across education systems.

Impact category*

Social cohesion, health and wellbeing, Economic prosperity for all

Project lead

UNSW’s School of Education, faculty of UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture

  • Recognising that the knowledges and cultures of Indigenous peoples are a resource all Australians can learn from, several flagship projects led by UNSW School of Education in the faculty of UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture are dedicated to addressing these issues through whole-school reforms.

    Culturally Nourishing Schooling

    The first of these, the Culturally Nourishing Schooling project focusses on holistic changes to improve schooling for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, and the second focusses on cultural mentorship and teacher professional learning to improve education about Indigenous knowledges for all students. This project investigates strategies to support deep cultural inclusion in learning to improve outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. This has included engaging with communities, local New South Wales Aboriginal Education Consultative Groups (AECG) and jurisdictional collaborative partners, New South Wales Department of Education (NSW DoE) and eight DoE schools in urban, regional, rural and remote areas in New South Wales to generate a systemic shift in schools’ engagement with Indigenous families and teachers’ epistemic beliefs about students’ and communities’ knowledges.

    Cultural Residents Project

    The second project is the Cultural Residents Project that works with local Aboriginal communities to create “Cultural Resident” or Cultural Educator positions within Eastern suburbs primary schools in Sydney, to meaningfully integrate Indigenous histories, knowledges and cultures across the curriculum. This has included collaborating with World Vision and a range of Indigenous and ally organisations, as part of a proof-of-concept project for Know your Country, to lobby all levels of government to fund public and independent primary schools to employ locally approved Indigenous cultural residents.

    “Every child across this vast continent deserves to learn from the wisdom of the first custodians of the country they live on. Our society can benefit from being grounded in Indigenous peoples’ ways of being, doing and knowing. This is integral to achieving reconciliation and improving the educational outcomes for all students.” says Associate Professor Kevin Lowe, a Gubbi Gubbi man.
  • The is making a significant impact through assisting schools and local Aboriginal communities to forge meaningful and ongoing connections. Eight local Aboriginal "Cultural Residents" were employed to support primary schools for 12 months in the delivery of Indigenous peoples curriculum content, strengthening the confidence and ability of teachers to engage with these elements of the curriculum. Professional learning in knitting Indigenous peoples content together into a meaningful narrative grounded in local Country and community knowledges enabled schools to avoid tokenistic approaches to Indigenous peoples education, for the benefit of all students.

    Eight schools, more than 200 teachers and thousands of students across NSW participate

    Eight schools in NSW are participating in the project that aims to improve the academic achievements of Indigenous learners while concurrently fostering a strong and healthy cultural identity grouped in the local context. More than 200 teachers were engaged in the program which reached thousands of students across the eight schools.

    Improving academic achievements of Indigenous learners

    The project team collect qualitative and quantitative data through focus groups, interviews, classroom observations, and surveys of school leaders, teachers, and Cultural Mentors, as they work with the learning communities connected with eight schools in NSW, to establish the ‘culturally nourishing’ research-informed framework model. This framework is designed to improve the academic achievements of Indigenous learners while concurrently fostering a strong and healthy cultural identity grounded in the local context.

    The work of both the and projects has been facilitated in part by the pre-existing UNSW Matraville Education Partnership, which has given UNSW a local community-based presence through enrichment activities, special programs, research, and having UNSW staff members based at Matraville Sports High School since 2015.

*impact categories represent complex and overlapping opportunities to achieve societal impact. UNSW’s definition may evolve and change based on insights gathered during the Societal Impact Framework consultations and further research.

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