The first aspect which comes to L2’s mind when she is asked about “Western” teaching styles is that they are very structured. In her opinion, they lack the flexibility which is needed to “throw in a story”, to have students “express their thoughts and ideas” and to “allow for […] discussion to happen (Interview with L2). The last two aspects in particular, however, connect the content to the students’ world. L3 addresses a similar idea when he suggests that teachers should “make some adjustments” in their teaching practice to “engage with [students’] life and experience” (Interview with L3).

As the Aboriginal Studies classes provide this flexibility, S3 perceives them as “more relaxed” (Interview with S3)

For a full list of all quotes relating to flexibility, please click here.

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Identity and culture influence and are integrated into the classes in different ways and on different levels.

First of all, Indigenous and Aboriginal culture are part of the content of the lectures and tutorials. S3 refers to this content level when saying that spirituality “should be introduced into that class because it is such an important aspect for certain cultures.” (Interview with S3). Furthermore, S2 describes all classes at the Institute as coming “from a cultural base” and “cultural identity” rather than having a “purely academic background” (Interview with S2). As Class 1 is an introductory class into Aboriginal Studies, this is particularly true for this class. However, L3 also mentions that his teaching refers to personal issues and experiences which are connected to his culture and identity, for example when talking about community and family (Interview with L3).

Another level on which a strong connection to culture can be found is the methodological one. As L2 states, storytelling is a traditional way of learning (Interview with L2). In addition, L3 mentions sharing experience and using humour as pedagogical methods which he describes as “part of Aboriginal cultures or Indigenous cultures” (Interview with L3). Likewise, S2 sees the conversational way in which the classes are taught as “in keeping with how indigenous society is” (Interview with S2).

It is interesting to see that S3 who has the weakest connection to indigeneity solely refers to the content level. S2 who has more experience also sees a connection on the methodological level. L3 and S1, however, who are themselves indigenous (namely Aboriginal and Native American respectively) also recognise a connection on an additional third level. They both explain that spirituality, which they define as a collection of values, beliefs, ethics, lived experiences and a person’s engagement with their environment, influences and enters into a person’s teaching practice (e.g.Interview with L3 & Interview with S1). While S1 thinks that this is mainly possible when talking about “organic topics” (Interview with S1), L3 argues that it is “unavoidable” (Interview with L3) to include one’s self in the teaching because “as a teacher you share who you are” (Interview with L3).

In conclusion, identity and culture have a connection to and influence all other categories.

For a full list of all quotes relating to the connection to identity and culture, please click here.

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The methods used and the classes themselves are praised by students, lecturers and tutors alike.

L2 and S2 describe the learning process itself as “easier”. According to L2, this is achieved by her as a tutor who provides her personal context as a background for the content (Interview with L2). In S2’s opinion, learning is easier due to the relationship she has with her Aboriginal tutors which allows her to easily ask questions (Interview with S2). In addition, she mentions audiovisual material, which makes the content “more real life” (Interview with S2), as another facilitator in comprehending the information.

All three students have the feeling that they learn more in the tutorial (e.g. Interview with S3) and through the research they do for their assignments than in the lecture (e.g. Interview with S2). They describe the lecture as containing too much information and being too dense (Interview with S1 & Interview with S2). According to S3, however, “the lecture is a good place to get a knowledge base and understanding” (Interview with S3) in preparation for the tutorial. S3 thinks she is learning more and getting a better insight in general in her Aboriginal Studies class compared to other classes due to the stories the teachers tell (Interview with S3).

With the help of a number of methods, the content is also made more memorable: “Since it’s more conversational () the conversations are more memorable”, explains S1 (Interview with S1). S2’s idea goes in the same direction as it attributes the high memorability to the relationship between students and tutors (Interview with S2). In L3’s opinion, on the other hand, excellent storytelling skills make information the easiest to remember (Interview with L3).

Another aspect which is addressed by some participants is the active engagement the students have with the content. According to L3, actively engaging and connecting with information is easiest, “[i]f you can place it back into your own world” (Interview with L3). In addition, personal experience draws an audience into the topic, he believes (Interview with L3). The students S1 and S2, however, attribute their increased engagement with the information to the teacher-student interaction. Whereas S2 thinks that the relationship with her lecturers and tutors makes the content “more stimulating” (Interview with S2), S1 particularily points out purposefully asked questions which challenge the students and allow them to challenge the teachers (Interview with S1).

Finally, L2 emphasises that none of her “classes ran over time and […] that we always covered the topic that we were meant to cover” (Interview with L2). The only problem she sees with the flexible tutorials is that “it makes it very hard for the students to all get the same information”(Interview with L2). S1 praises the fact that courses at this university mostly consist of a combination of lecture and tutorial (Interview with S1). Although L3 citicises that the format of the course only allows a limited time for “interactive group-orientated” learning (Interview with L3), he generally believes that the Indigenous educational practices used within the Institute are good (Interview with L3) and that “the rest of the world is understanding and catching up with” them (Interview with L3).

For a full list of all quotes related to the effectiveness of the classes, please click here.

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“Accessibility” describes the circumstance that lecturers and tutors can be approached by students with questions and problems. The word itself is used by S2 in the adjective form when talking about the staff of the Institute in general (Interview with S2).

In both Class 1 and Class 2 the degree of accessibility seems to be rather high as questions by students are readily answered during the lecture, even if they do not “directly relate to the topic” (Class 1: Lecture 01/09/2015) or if one student asks several times (Class 1: Lecture 27/10/2015). A question sent to L1 via email is also quickly answered (Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015). In addition, all three teachers stress that it is their purpose to help and support the students (Class 1: Tutorial 10/09/2015) and the students can contact them at any time (Class 1: Lecture 06/10/2015 & Class 2: Tutorial 29/10/2015). L1 and L2 even offer to negotiate due date extensions (Class 1: Lecture 13/10/2015) and grades (Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015) if needed. Consequently, both S1 and S2 “feel comfortable” (Interview with S1 & Interview with S2) asking their lecturers and tutors for help.

Accessibility is facilitated by the relationship which the students have with their lecturers and tutors as well as through the peer mentality. S1’s comfortable feeling, for example, comes from the fact that she “really connect[s] with those teachers” (Interview with S1). At the same time, the degree of accessibility also interrelates with the perception of the learning environment, as this quote from S2 shows:

“I think with the Institute, I think it’s a completely different learning environment. As such. I think you walk in there and it really is a cultural place and you could pretty much approach anybody and that would be ok. And the way they have barbecues and the way they have all that free food.” (Interview with S2)

Accessibility creates a positive atmosphere while a positive environment likewise encourages accessibility.

For a full list of all quotes relating to accessibility, please click here.

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“[G]ood learning is you can enjoy it and have fun”, states L3 in his interview (Interview with L3). He believes that playing is “a great way of learning” for children as well as adults (Interview with L3) and values the entertaining skills some of the students proved during their presentations (Interview with L3). In his experience, a good use of humour can connect an audience (Interview with L3).

Whereas L3 asks the students to use entertaining methods in their presentations, L1 and L2 incorporate fun and humour into their classes in the form of jokes and irony and thus make their students laugh (e.g. Class 1: Lecture 27/10/2015 & Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015). To comment on a statement that claims that old Aboriginal mathematic methods are out-of-date, for example, L1 says that “that would make her happy because it would mean that ‘Pythagoras must go’ as well” (Class 1: Lecture 01/09/2015).

L2 enjoys teaching her classes (Interview with L2). Her fun and good mood become especially apparent when she is “singing and dancing” in front of the class (Class 1: Tutorial 27/08/2015). The two student participants from her tutorial mirror this enjoyment by describing their Aboriginal Studies class as “amazing” (Interview with S3), “my favourite class ever” (Interview with S1) and “a great experience” (Interview with S1). S2 also shows great enthusiasm when saying that she loves every subject of her degree at the Institute, is “looking forward to what [she is] doing and enjoying talking about it” (Interview with S2).

How fun and enjoyment interrelate with the special positive learning environment in the classes is underlined by L2’s statement that her classes are “more about a group of people coming together and sharing some information and having a joke” (Interview with L2).

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The relationship between lecturers, tutors and students plays a significant role in the classes. It is mainly established through direct social interaction ranging from rather formal and universal to informal and personal. Thus, all three lecturers and tutors nicely welcome and dismiss students (e.g. Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015, Class 2: Lecture 27/08/2015 & Class 1: Lecture 25/08/2015). In addition, the tutors also hold private conversations with their classes as a whole or with individual students (e.g. Class 1: Tutorial 29/19/2015 & Class 2: Lecture 27/08/2015). This interaction is felt to be quite personal by all three students (Interview with S1, Interview with S3 & Interview with S2).

In L3’s opinion, “the idea of […] relating to your students is really important” (Interview with L3). The short expressions “ok?” and “you know” (Class 1: Lecture 25/08/2015 & Class 1: Lecture 01/09/2015) with which L1 tries to integrate the students into the lecture and make the lecture more student-centred could be seen as such a way of relating. Likewise, S1 feels that she as a student also “connect[s] with those teachers” in return (Interview with S1).

The relationship between students and teachers which is thus established is a very personal one. L3, for example, tries to get to know his students individually (Class 2: Lecture 27/08/2015). This effort is noticed and valued by S2 (Interview with S2). L3 also believes that it is not a good teaching practice if teachers “try to make that […] barrier around them and their students” and, thus, “try to isolate [their self] away from [their] students” (Interview with L3). The way in which he treats his students, values the relationship with them and makes himself accessible to them, makes S2 think that he cares about them (Interview with S2).

L2, L3 and S2 describe the relationships in class by using family and friendship terms, such as “auntie looking after the kids” (Interview with L2), “part of your family, part of your mob” (Interview with L3) and “talking to a friend” (Interview with S2). The feeling of friendship enables her to “be more open and honest” (Interview with S2) and makes learning easier, S2 explains (Interview with S2). In addition, she also believes that “if you’ve got a relationship with your teacher of course you gonna remember stuff more” (Interview with S2) because the content is more connected to the personal life of the student.

That the relationship between lecturers, tutors and students is not just a background issue but a fundamental part of the class and how it relates to the creation of a positive learning environment becomes evident through L2’s statement that her classes are “more about a group of people coming together and sharing some information and having a joke” (Interview with L2). S2 supports this view by saying: “it’s all about culture and spirituality and relationship” (Interview with S2).

For a full list of quotes relating to relationships, please click here.

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S2 describes the lecturers and tutors at the Institute as “really chatty and friendly and not all academic” (Interview with S2) and L2 agrees with her by saying that her “classes are less formal” (Interview with L2). L3, on the other hand, sees himself “as a little bit more academic orientated” than this collegues (Interview with L3). What is interesting to see is that the two tutors define their degree of formality by different criteria: While L2 believes that her use of easy, non-academic language is the reason for her not sounding “like an academic” (Class 1: Tutorial 03/09/2015), L3 names evidence and supported arguments as defining features of academic formality (Interview with L3). His assumption that someone who is less academic does not use supported arguments, gives informality a rather negative connotation. This stands in contrast with L2’s idea of the issue who positively argues that informally written autobiographies, for example, might be easier to read than “an academic article ‘with all those disgusting words in it’” (Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015).

S2’s description of the staff as “really chatty and friendly” (Interview with S2) has a clearly positive connotation which depicts the connection between informality and a positive learning environment. It facilitates the establishment of a relationship between lecturers and tutors.

For a full list of all quotes relating to informal vs. academic, please click here.

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When place names are mentioned in the tutorial of Class 1, L2 points them out on a map which depicts the borders of Aboriginal nations before the colonisation (Class 1: Tutorial 17/09/2015). Thus, she establishes a connection between the place and the culture, history and present situation of the respective nation. Often, she also shows the students the location of certain events or the home country of certain people referred to in the class (Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015). This fact comes to S3’s mind when she is asked about the way knowledge is imparted in Class 1 (Interview with S3).

For a full list of all quotes relating to the connection to place, please click here.

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Establishing a connection between the contents of the classes and the students’ “world”, life and “mind set” (Interview with L3) is an essential part of both the lectures and the tutorials of Class 1 and Class 2. “If you can place it back into your own world, it’s it’s an easier thing to engage with and to connect on”, according to L3 (Interview with L3). This means not only that he is trying to “bring in their life, into the concept” (Interview with L3) but also that he gives students the “opportunity to ignore” aspects and opinions which do not relate to their understanding and “build their knowledge from something that they understand” (Interview with L3) and which is “more significant for them” (Interview with L3). This option is recognised by S2 (Interview with S2) and makes her think that the lecturers and tutors “care more about your personal development than about anything else” (Interview with S2).

The methods of assessment used for Class 1 follow this idea. Instead of exam questions which test the students’ knowledge, the final assignment is composed of reflection tasks. “Thus, personal interests and life experiences can be included in the assignment” (Class 1: Lecture 06/10/2015). According to S1, L2 also made students “elaborate [on] their personal connection with their presentation” (Interview with S1), one of the other two assignments.

During class sessions the connection between content and the students’ world is established through several methods. Firstly, events from the past are brought into the present by pointing out their remains (Class 1: Lecture 25/08/2015) or explaining their significance for contemporary life (Class 1: Lecture 13/10/2015). Furthermore, examples which are used in class are often taken from the local area or from the university (e.g. Class 1: Lecture 25/08/2015 & Class 1: Lecture 27/10/2015). This creates a connection between the abstract information and a familiar place which is relevant to the students. The same idea is used when the tutors tell stories and provide examples from their or the students’ lived experience (Interview with L2) “to connect to the abstract concepts with [their] audience” (Interview with L3). In the final tutorial session L2 also asks the students to consider what they “personally could do for reconciliation” (Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015). With this task reconciliation supposedly gains a certain degree of significance for them and becomes connected to practical, real life actions.

All three student interviewees are aware of what the classes have contributed to their personal development. While they have made S1 more “appreciative and curious” (Interview with S1) about her own cultural background, they “have opened [S3’s] eyes” (Interview with S3) for cultural diversity and are “changing who [S2 is] as a person” (Interview with S2). They all feel positive about their development.

For a full list of all quotes relating to the connection to the students’ world, please click here.

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In the tutorials the tutors create a positive learning environment through a number of methods and on two levels: the emotional-mental and the physical one.

L2 in particular uses language to make students feel valued and comfortable. She regularly acknowledges (Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015) and praises the work they have done (e.g. Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015) and finds herself in a dilemma “if they’re presenting the wrong information” (Interview with L2). Instead of shaming them by saying that they are wrong, she tries to stop them nicely and make them understand (Interview with L2). When a student has problems holding her presentation, she “tries to reassure her” (Class 1: Tutorial 03/09/2015) and support her (e.g. Class 1: Tutorial 03/09/2015). She also uses positive language and turns mistakes into something positive by saying “I also have learning experiences” (Class 1: Tutorial 29/10/2015).

In addition to creating a mentally positive learning environment, L2 and L3 both also stress the importance of an enjoyable physical environment. Thus, they would both prefer learning outside (Interview with L2 & Interview with L3). S2 praises the atmosphere of the Institute as a place when saying:

“I think you walk in there and it really is a cultural place and you could pretty much approach anybody and that would be ok. And the way they have barbecues and the way they have all that free food that you and I are too afraid to go down (from upstairs). Cause that’s so different. From you and I and what we’re used to” (Interview with S2)

The extent to which the learning environment is influenced by ideas such relationships, peer feeling, sharing and fun becomes envident through L2’s description of her classes as “a group of people coming together and sharing some information and having a joke” (Interview with L2).

For a full list of quotes relating to a positive learning environment, please click here.

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