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PhD Title

Exploring the potential of Indigenous Australian teaching and learning practices within tertiary coursework to contribute to improved professional practice and social justice.

Publication Statement

This PhD submission is published via the website: www.glennwoods.com.au

Supervisors

Principal Supervisor: 

Professor Naomi Sunderland

School of Health Sciences and Social Work

Griffith University

Co-Supervisor: 

Professor Patrick O’Leary

School of Health Sciences and Social Work

Griffith University

Authors Introduction

Positionality Statement:

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 I am a descendant of the colonised as well as the coloniser. I consider myself to be representative of a third culture Australian society, borne of a blended Indigenous and non-Indigenous working class society, whose alliances and interactions, by force, circumstance and choice of heart are representative of a third culture that defies and contradicts many of the essentialist and often binary notions of what it means to be either Indigenous or non-Indigenous in Australia.

 

My third culture identity and life’s journey has flown under the radar of sociocultural discourse and identity politics in Australia. At this point in my life, I find the overly simplistic, race-based binary of the Indigenous/non-Indigenous identity to be false and inadequate in helping many people understand the lived experiences that have shaped the society I live in, and what opportunities exist for those experiences to contribute to the shared wisdom that can guide our collective future. 

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I come into this research with  25 years of professional experience to reflect on as an educator, mainly located within First Nations sociocultural spaces. My driving belief throughout this time has been that the guidance and role of First Law and Indigenous Knowledges, as applied to education practice, via the custodianship of First Nations peoples, has not been recognised, understood, or engaged within mainstream education settings. I believe that this represents a failure within professional education practice to move beyond a colonising paradigm. 

 

 I am consciously guided by First Nations wisdom. My home is on the land of the Bundjalung Nation, where I have lived most of my life as have multiple generations of my family. My First Nations kinship relationships extend beyond my ancestral homes, beyond my everyday home and especially to Nykina Country in the North West of Australia where I have been privileged to establish, maintain and keep growing deep and ongoing connections over the course of my life and the lives of my children.

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