Open Conference Systems, 11th DATTArc-ICTE-TENZ-ITEEA 2022

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Decolonising, Recolonising and Re-decolonising Indigenous Australian Technology and Design Education
Kurt Seemann

Building: BUILDING C
Room: Keynote Theatre C105 ◉
Date: 2022-12-09 01:25 PM – 02:00 PM
Last modified: 2022-11-21

Abstract


In 1989, long before curriculum decolonisation was considered in Technology Education, the Australian Aboriginal Technical Worker (ATWORK) Certificates I, II and II in Vocational Education courses were researched, written and commenced funded delivery. The courses departed from all prior traditions of technical training. The background research was founded on how remote desert Aboriginal settlements actually worked and included core systemic constructs such as socio-technical and eco-economic complex system dynamics. However, a decade after launching, vocational education State policies replaced the program with traditional mainstream content and delivery requirements in order for it to meet new funding guidelines effectively recolonising Aboriginal Technology Education curriculum. Recently, some Aboriginal leaders familiar with the original ATWORK program have expressed a desire to revisit its tenets and explore ways to adapt the program for the 21 century. This paper examines the case for undoing the recolonisation in place and cast forward a contemporary re- decolonized technology education curriculum in service of remote and regional Australian Aboriginal Communities towards greater technological empowerment in both political and operational terms.

Keywords


Decolonisation of Curriculum; Critical; Auto Phenomenology Method

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