Designing assessment in indigenous education Alison Quin Learning Designer - QUT

Acknowledgement of country I acknowledge the Kulin nation who are the custodians of this land. I pay respect to elders past, present and future and extend my respect to other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people present.

Image of river

Yarra river – always flows We will use an Indigenous perspective to open up spaces to think about teaching and assessment. We will travel a river today. The main river is the foundational Indigenous philosophy of connectedness. We will explore creeks that flow into this river: People Place Indigenous education We will look at a unit of work and design assessment for it.

Image of connections

Connectedness Draw something in front of you that represents you. Find something in common with every person at your table eg same age support same sport team same number of children love cooking Thai food Draw a line from your symbol to the other person’s symbol. Do this for every person at your table. Move around if you need to.

Exploring connectedness Drawing something to represent you What did this do for you? There is a rich Indigenous tradition of abstract, conceptual, metaphorical visual representation. How much drawing happens in the classroom? What types of drawing? Under what circumstances? Finding things in common What does having that thing in common do for you? How much real connection do we generate in classrooms, between students, students and the content, the school and community? Webs of connectedness What does it feel like to be part of a complex, connected web? Moving around What does movement facilitate and enable?

place people connectedness http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/ Connection to place is a mindset, a way of being in relation with the world people Kinship (incorporates people, place and things) Traditional owners History has caused complications in connection relationships

Indigenous education Students – who you teach Content – what you teach Teaching all students, not just Indigenous students Content – what you teach Careful melding of teaching about and teaching through Indigenous perspectives Teaching – how you teach Inclusive pedagogies Eight ways of Aboriginal Learning (Yunkaporta) Holistic Planning and Teaching Framework (Uncle Ernie Grant)

Eight Ways http://8ways.wikispaces.com/

Holistic framework Land Language Culture Time Place Relation-ships Pre-Contact Contact Post-contact Contemp-orary

UNIT of WORK Localise Share stories Use local learning metaphor Analysis of unit of work for ways CONNECTEDNESS can be enhanced Possible improvements: Localise Make connections with local community, find out appropriate local stories and places Co-development of unit with community is ideal Share stories Students give their understandings and connections, teachers and community members as well Use local learning metaphor Derived from land feature eg river, mountain, animal Even better if this is connected to local knowledge story and Indigenous perspective that unit is built around

Unit of work Improvements Incorporate non-verbal and ‘non-conventional’ expressions of knowledge art, image, symbolism, dance, acting, yarning, ceremony, action, behaviour

Assessment what? how? who? whose? Things to think about task knowledge/skills/capabilities/understandings criteria how? incorporate connectedness assess connectedness itself who? decides assesses whose? knowledge education paradigm

Assessment Task What is most appropriate? Connectedness What captures connectedness, Indigenous perspectives, local learning and curriculum content? Artwork, enactment, action, behaviour, story telling, creation Connectedness Group-based task How facilitate? Collaboration. Jigsaw. CoP. What kind of ‘mark’ or ‘grade’ for group vs individual? What evidence for it? Who comprises the ‘group’? – students, community members, family…

ASSESSMENT Marking instrument co-development to ensure Indigenous knowledge and perspectives, as well as curriculum requirements, met What do different levels of knowledge/capability look like? Are there differentiations of levels of knowledge/capability, or more carefully calibrated levels of access, ownership and implementation? Are there limitations such as women’s/men’s/clan knowledge? How build this in? Who teaches and who assesses? Who has training and authority? Who gets paid? Who has subject matter expertise?

Thank you Alison Quin alison.quin@qut.edu.au https://au.linkedin.com/in/alisonquin Thank you for your time and attention. Thank you