Abstract:

The ‘National Best Practice Framework for Indigenous Cultural Competency in Australian Universities’ (2012) discusses the desire to produce graduates who are on the journey to cultural competency. Currently there is little evidence-based research from the Australian university sector about how to encourage students to be culturally competent. There is also little evidence about what this transformative experience may look like. This paper goes some way to embarking upon this necessary evidence-based research. In 2011 at Charles Sturt University (CSU), a small regional University in NSW Australia, it became apparent that students needed help to prepare them for what they might encounter in their professional lives when working in Indigenous Australian contexts. With Indigenous Australian Elders, a combined disciplinary project team constructed a digital learning resource called Cassie’s Story: Dyan Ngal. This paper tells the story of how students engaged with this resource and discusses implications for future reflections.

Keywords:

Indigenous Australians, cultural competency, pedagogy, problem-based learning, discourse analysis, storytelling, social justice.