Theme 4 - Emerging understandings of Indigenous standpoint theory & pedagogy 

Teaching should be about repositioning Indigenous knowledge from notions of ‘disadvantage’ or ‘equity’ to genuinely embed Indigenous knowledge at the core of the curriculum.

This understanding of teaching and learning provides the platform of “Indigenous Standpoint Pedagogy” (ISP), the inherently political, reformative, relational and deeply personal approach that must be located in the chaos of colonial interfaces to create spaces for Indigenous knowledge within existing and new curricula. It fundamentally acknowledges and embeds Indigenous community participation in the development and teaching of Indigenous standpoints and perspectives. 

ISP is a multifaceted process. It is substantially but not solely concerned with ‘Indigenous perspectives in education’, and is not just a ‘product’, such as a single subject.

Reform of university education policy and the creation of the space for curriculum and institutional reform is inextricably linked with ISP.

(from Decolonising University Curricula – reforming the colonised spaces within which we operate, by Jean Phillips, Sue Whatman, Victor Hart & Greg Winslett, 2005)

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Email: indigenousknowledge@qut.edu.au