| Effective Term: | 2025/05 |
| Institute / School : | Institute of Education, Arts & Community |
| Unit Title: | First Nations Knowledges, Curriculum and Ways of Learning |
| Unit ID: | EDMAS6068 |
| Credit Points: | 15.00 |
| Prerequisite(s): | Nil |
| Co-requisite(s): | Nil |
| Exclusion(s): | Nil |
| ASCED: | 070105 |
| Other Change: | |
| Brief description of the Unit |
This unit supports pre-service teachers to deepen their understandings about the histories, knowledges, cultural practices, diverse perspectives, and language backgrounds of First Nations peoples in Australia. PSTs will enhance their understandings of how people learn through a focus on Indigenous ways of Knowing and will identify strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. PSTs will examine the impact of colonisation on First Nations peoples and on young peoples’ education. They will examine approaches for building respect, recognition, and reconciliation and for engaging with local communities and families to cover content related to local First Nations contexts and to drive successful outcomes for First Nations students. PSTs will examine the Australian Curriculum’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander crosscurriculum priority as well as other quality resources that can be used for curriculum design. Through active, thoughtful participation, PSTs will become culturally responsive teachers who can use critical reflection to examine their own thinking and identify opportunities and resources for ongoing learning. |
| Grade Scheme: | Graded (HD, D, C, P, MF, F, XF) |
| Work Experience Indicator: |
| No work experience |
| Placement Component: No |
| Supplementary Assessment: |
| Where supplementary assessment is available a student must have failed overall in the Unit but gained a final mark of 45 per cent or above, has completed all major assessment tasks (including all sub-components where a task has multiple parts) as specified in the Unit Description and is not eligible for any other form of supplementary assessment |
| Course Level: |
| Level of Unit in Course | AQF Level(s) of Course | | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | | Introductory | | | | |  | | | Intermediate | | | | | | | | Advanced | | | | | | |
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| Learning Outcomes: |
| Knowledge: |
| K1. | Understand and have respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and diverse perspectives and explain how First Nations knowledges can be incorporated across subject areas in the curriculum. |
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| K2. | Appreciate the significance of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ linguistic backgrounds and explore the revival of languages in schools and communities |
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| K3. | Examine the impact of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the impact on indigenous young people and their education |
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| K4. | Describe Aboriginal ways of learning and strategies for teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students |
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| K5. | Examine the nature of culturally responsive teaching and cultural safety and what this looks like in classrooms |
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| K6. | Examine the research evidence that shows the positive impact of engaging with local communities and families to enhance curriculum and drive successful outcomes for First Nations students |
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| K7. | Identify the diverse ways we move toward respect, recognition, reconciliation, truth telling, and cultural safety in Australia. |
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| K8. | Understand and use a range of quality curriculum resources, including the Australian Curriculum Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cross-curriculum priority |
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| Skills: |
| S1. | Use collaboration skills and inclusive practices and language |
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| S2. | Conduct research that incorporates critical literacy |
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| S3. | Use Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, knowledges, local expertise, as well as creativity, to codesign curriculum including learning and teaching approaches |
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| S4. | Critically evaluate a range of educational resources and literature that engage young people in learning about First Nations histories, knowledges, and cultures |
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| S5. | Engage in critical reflection and inquiry into one’s own positionality, values, understandings and beliefs, and identify ways to enhance one’s intercultural development through ongoing professional learning |
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| S6. | Use Indigenous Ways of Knowing to learn and represent understandings |
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| Application of knowledge and skills: |
| A1. | Research a self-selected topic related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ histories, cultures, languages, perspectives and/or knowledges and respond using Indigenous Ways of Knowing and multimodal forms of communication (eg linguistic, gestural, spatial, audio and/or visual). Incorporate the impact of colonisation on different groups, the implications for teaching and learning, the importance of engaging with communities and families, and your own personal reflexivity and growth. |
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| A2. | Drawing upon respected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum resources in your teaching area as well as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross-curriculum priority, design three interconnected learning activities for students. Examine how your curriculum design is culturally responsive, respectful and contributes to reconciliation and cultural safety |
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| Unit Content: |
1. First Nations histories, cultures, diverse perspectives, and connections to Country. 2. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ linguistic backgrounds and the revival of languages in schools and communities. 3. Colonisation and its impact on communities and the education of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. 4. Reconciliation, respect, cultural safety, and truth telling. 5. Indigenous Ways of Knowing and strategies for teaching and learning. 6. Culturally responsive teaching and collaborating with First Nations groups and families. 7. First Nations knowledges and connections to curriculum. 8. Curriculum resources (including the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures crosscurriculum priority) that engage young people in learning about First Nations histories, knowledges, and cultures. 9. Critical reflexivity and practitioner inquiry as mechanisms for checking biases and enabling cultural responsivity and ongoing learning. |
| Graduate Attributes: |
| Federation University recognises that students require key transferable employability skills to prepare them for their future workplace and society. FEDTASKS (Transferable Attributes Skills and Knowledge) provide a targeted focus on five key transferable Attributes, Skills, and Knowledge that are be embedded within curriculum, developed gradually towards successful measures and interlinked with cross-discipline and Co-operative Learning opportunities. One or more FEDTASK, transferable Attributes, Skills or Knowledge must be evident in the specified learning outcomes and assessment for each FedUni Unit, and all must be directly assessed in each Course.
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| FED TASK and descriptor | Development and acquisition of FEDTASKS in the Unit | | Level | FEDTASK 1
Interpersonal | Students at this level will demonstrate an advanced ability in a range of contexts to effectively communicate, interact and work with others both individually and in groups. Students will be required to display high level skills in-person and/or online in: • Using and demonstrating a high level of verbal and non-verbal communication • Demonstrating a mastery of listening for meaning and influencing via active listening • Demonstrating and showing empathy for others • High order skills in negotiating and conflict resolution skills\\ • Demonstrating mastery of working respectfully in cross-cultural and diverse teams. | 1 - Yes | FEDTASK 2
Leadership | Students at this level will demonstrate a mastery in professional skills and behaviours in leading others. • Creating and sustaining a collegial environment • Demonstrating a high level of self -awareness and the ability to self-reflect and justify decisions • Inspiring and initiating opportunities to lead others • Making informed professional decisions • Demonstrating initiative in new professional situations. | 1 - Yes | FEDTASK 3
Critical Thinking and Creativity | Students at this level will demonstrate high level skills in working in complexity and ambiguity using the imagination to create new ideas. Students will be required to display skills in: • Reflecting critically to generate and consider complex ideas and concepts at an abstract level • Analysing complex and abstract ideas, concepts and information • Communicate alternative perspectives to justify complex ideas • Demonstrate a mastery of challenging conventional thinking to clarify complex concepts • Forming creative solutions in problem solving to new situations for further learning. | 1 - Yes | FEDTASK 4
Digital Literacy | Students at this level will demonstrate the ability to work competently across a wide range of tools, platforms and applications to achieve a range of tasks. Students will be required to display skills in: • Mastering, exploring, evaluating, managing, curating, organising and sharing digital information professionally • Collating, managing complex data, accessing and using digital data securely • Receiving and responding professionally to messages in a range of professional digital media • Contributing competently and professionally to digital teams and working groups • Participating at a high level in digital learning opportunities. | 1 - Yes | FEDTASK 5
sustainable and Ethical Mindset | Students at this level will demonstrate a mastery of considering and assessing the consequences and impact of ideas and actions in enacting professional ethical and sustainable decisions. Students will be required to display skills in: • Demonstrate informed judgment making that considers the impact of devising complex solutions in ambiguous global economic environmental and societal contexts • Professionally committing to the promulgation of social responsibility • Demonstrate the ability to evaluate ethical, socially responsible and/or sustainable challenges and generating and articulating responses • Communicating lifelong, life-wide and life-deep learning to be open to the diverse professional others • Generating, leading and implementing required actions to foster sustainability in their professional and personal life | 1 - Yes |
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| Learning Task and Assessment: |
| Students cannot submit for assessment content generated by AI except when expressly permitted by Unit Coordinators, communicated through the unit description. Use of AI in assessment tasks without express permission is considered Academic Misconduct and may result in a student failing the unit. |
| | Learning Outcomes Assessed | Assessment Tasks | Assessment Type | Weighting | | 1. | K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6, K7, K8 S2, S5, S6 A1
APST: 1.4, 2.4 CC: 4.1.2, 4.1.3, 4.2.2.4.2.3 |
Research a self-selected topic related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ histories, cultures, languages, perspectives and/or knowledges and respond using Indigenous Ways of Knowing and multimodal forms of communication (eg linguistic, gestural, spatial, audio and/or visual). Incorporate the impact of colonization on different groups, the implications for teaching and learning, the importance of engaging with communities and families, and your own personal reflexivity and growth.
| Multimodal Presentation of Research | 50-60% | | 2. | K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6, K7, K8 S1, S2, S3, S4 A2
APST: 1.4, 2.4 CC: 4.1.1, 4.1.4, 4.1.5, 4.2.1 |
Drawing upon respected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander curriculum resources in your teaching area as well as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures cross curriculum priority, design three interconnected learning activities for students. Examine how your curriculum design is culturally responsive, respectful and contributes to reconciliation and cultural safety.
| Curriculum Design | 40-50% |
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