Jan Connelly

Lecturer, School of Education, Southern Cross University, New South Wales, Australia

Theressa Miles

Teacher, Toomelah Primary School, New South Wales, Australia

Critical Reflections on Pedagogy, Culture and White Ethnicity -"Extracts from a Postmodern Research Excursion".
The Narrative Dialogues Between White Female Teacher/Researchers as they Navigate Indigenous Educational Settings

Abstract

The story:

Females teachers in Indigenous Australian schools

The plot:

Some four years ago a literacy/language academic set out to educate herself about discourses surrounding the issue of why schools and universities and the people in them struggle to create a pedagogy that engenders success for Indigenous learners (particularly in respect to literacy).

The complication:

Through crises and pain the academic turned teacher/researcher crosses cultural borders and learns about her white ethnicity and how it is implicated but not articulated as one of the suspects in the cacophony of discourses.

The resolution;

She listens to other teachers' experiences and airs her tentative understandings and together they gain better understandings of themselves, their teaching and their relationships with their students.

This paper is a dramatic presentation of the written exchanges between the academic/researcher and a teacher/researcher appointed to an all Indigenous primary school in her first year of teaching in 2000.

Bionotes

Jan Connelly - a teacher, a lecturer and a researcher at Southern Cross University in NSW Australia. Researches in cross cultural contexts focusing on literacy and pedagogy.

Theressa Miles - a teacher, a researcher at Toomelah Primary school, Western Region NSW Australia. Teachers year 3 & 4.

Presentation Type

60 min. Workshop

Presentation Equipment and Other Requests

Speaking Date/Time Restrictions

Country

Australia