Cathie Burgess

How engaging hearts leads to engaging minds

“I’m not here to make you feel guilty, but I’m here to give you truths and facts that ensure that the pain ends with us” is how the Uncles from the Stolen Generation begin their stories of tragedy, trauma and survival. We are with Uncles from  KBHAC (Kinchela Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation) who are speaking to around 100 students and staff at the University of Sydney. KBHAC was established in 2002 to support survivors of the Kinchela Boys Home to heal and reconcile from their experiences of trauma by honoring their narratives and recovering their stolen identities, by engaging in truth-telling.

Through established processes, their Care Model and networks of support, empower each survivor to “take control of their future” and break the cycle of trauma. The Uncles establish a safe space for the largely non-Indigenous preservice teacher audience to learn by making it clear that they do not intend for the audience to feel shamed, attacked, or guilty for the past. Telling their story, talking about their culture and the impact of their removal from their families and culture, supports their healing. The Uncles invite listeners to learn from their stories, with no judgment toward those without prior knowledge of Aboriginal histories and cultures. As they explain, this is an opportunity to educate future teachers so their grandchildren have teachers with a deeper understanding and empathy for Aboriginal children and their families.

Engaging hearts and engaging minds 

The process of listening to Aboriginal narratives of lived experiences creates a deep emotional engagement that we argue is critical to learning; that is, an openness and willingness to engage in deep listening, understanding, learning, and feeling (Thorpe et al, in press). For effective learning and change to take place, emotions need to be awakened, expressed, understood and unpacked. Engaging hearts to engage minds contrasts sharply with dominant Western approaches that emphasise objectivity and positivist knowledge.

This deep emotional engagement allows and legitimizes the sharing of personal experiences and truth-telling, giving a human face to complex issues, and bridging the disconnect between policy and the people, communities and Countries that are affected by these. Rather than textbook teaching, learning from an Uncle sharing his experiences of discrimination today and his efforts to shield his family from these experiences, provides listeners who may be emotionally and intellectually disconnected from this reality, an opportunity to understand history as a living reality for Aboriginal peoples in this country.

Motivation to do better

Emotional discomfort, difficult conversations and disquieting knowledges are important for channeling negative emotions into motivation to do better. Engaging in controversial and complex dialogue builds critical consciousness to work towards a more equal, equitable society. Lasting change requires support from the ground up, where dominant attitudes cannot easily be shifted by changes in power.

In order to do this, critical consciousness must be built through the exposure of narratives that challenge the status quo.“Emotionally engaging with such truths may be means of understanding the inhumanity of the status quo, which can lead to a commitment to collective humanization”. When people come to understand the injustices that others face, they may feel more personally responsible for helping undo these systems as “the right thing to do,” 

Embodying Truth-Telling through Learning From Country

Learning from Country (LFC) is a pedagogical approach that involves being present and going on a journey with Aboriginal Elders and community members on Country to experience Aboriginal narratives of place and the effects of colonisation. By collaborating with Aboriginal organizations such as KBHAC, pre-service teachers have opportunities to deepen their understanding of Aboriginal cultures, histories and knowledges through place-based learning on Country.

The University of Sydney’s Learning From Country (LFC) course is a three-week intensive program that engages hearts to engage minds, where most of the teaching time is spent learning from Aboriginal community-based educators. Through this approach, complex issues are addressed, and negative perceptions about Aboriginal peoples are challenged to educate and  empower preservice teachers to create culturally-safe classrooms. Pre-service teachers come to understand their privilege, how it shapes their reality and feel motivated to ameliorate these inequalities for their future students. The transformative impact of these experiences is noted by one preservice teachers 

The emotion and pain in the room was palpable, but in hearing those stories and bringing them to light, I felt as a room it was a shared feeling of motivation as educators to do what we could in our roles to support breaking those cycles of intergenerational trauma. As an educator, I want to hold onto the grief that I felt in that room for the people that were and still affected by those policies and use it to motivate and inform my actions.

The Way Forward

The LFC approach of engaging hearts to engage minds provides a way forward by thinking about what is critical in developing culturally responsive teachers who feel empowered to challenge the education systems which continue to fail Aboriginal children. When students’ lifeworlds are not reflected in curriculum and assessment, when their families and communities are victims of the system claiming to help them, and their histories of trauma, tragedy and survival are silenced, disengagement, failure and alienation ensues.

“Indifference to these issues denies all students with the opportunity to be informed about those socio-political discourses that have forged the environment in which Aboriginal people exist in Australia today”. We need to continually remind ourselves of the human, social and cultural purposes of schooling to bring perspective and prioritize accountability to our students and communities, rather than to the system.

Culturally safe learning environments

Healing and social change is a collective process which can be achieved through the efforts of teachers. Knowledgeable, confident and emotionally engaged teachers who provide culturally safe learning environments to foster culturally aware, empathic students, can help  end cycles of generational trauma for Aboriginal students and generational ignorance in the broader student population. “We need the systems to listen and respond to good practice based on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being, and doing that have been shared and demonstrated over many decades under colonization”.

Thus, programs like LFC that collaborate with Aboriginal community-based educators and organisations such as KBHAC, provide opportunities to rewrite dominant narratives, beginning with teachers emotionally engaging with Aboriginal histories, cultures and communities for the benefit of their future students, and society. Our mission is to never let another cohort of Australian students go through the system without knowing the true history of this country.

From left to right: Study Abroad student Caroline Pontaoe is a third-year student at Cornell University, USA is studying education in the School of Industrial and Labor Relations. While studying at the University of Sydney, she researched Australian Aboriginal education policy and the significance of emotions in policy.

Cathie Burgess is an associate professor and researcher Aboriginal Community Engagement, Learning from Country and Leadership in Aboriginal Education programs at the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney. Her teaching and research centres on the transformative impact of Aboriginal community-led education in university and school education. Cathie’s work is acknowledged through the 2024 Teacher Educator of the Year Award, Honorary Life Member, NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group and Life Member, Aboriginal Studies Association NSW Email: cathie.burgess@sydney.edu.au Valerie Harwood is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology of Education in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work, The University of Sydney. Her research is centred on a social and cultural analysis of participation in educational futures. This work involves learning about collaborative approaches and in-depth fieldwork on educational justice with young people, families and communities.Email: Valerie.harwood@sydney.edu.au

Header image: Learning From Country July 2020. Aboriginal presenters Kareel Phillips, Macoy Hansen, Willy Gordon, Tiarna Fatnowna, Julie Welsh & Gloria Duffin. Lecturers Valerie Harwood (SSESW), Cathie Burgess (SSESW), Reakeeta Smallwood (Sydney Nursing School) with nursing students.

Happy new year reading: our most popular posts of all time

EduResearch Matters began back in 2014 under the stewardship of the amazing Maralyn Parker. At the end of 2020, Maralyn retired and I tried to fill very big shoes. The unusual thing about EduResearch Matters is that even posts published in the first couple of years of the blog’s existence continue to get readers – good research continues to inform and inspire. Some posts are shared many times on social media, some get barely a handful of shares yet continue to be widely read. Here are our top 15 posts of all time. We all need something to read over the break and I thought it might be lovely to see what our best read posts are. To all the authors, from PhD students to professors, thank you for your contribution. To prospective authors, please email ideas to jenna@aare.edu.au. Enjoy. Happy new year!

Jenna Price, editor, EduResearch Matters

  1. If we truly care about all Australian children and young people becoming literate I believe it is vital we understand and define the complexity of literacy, writes Robyn Ewing (2016).

2. What does effective teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students look like? Thousands of research studies have been dedicated to finding answers to this question. But much of what we think we know, or hear, about Indigenous education remains mired in myths and legends, writes Cathie Burgess (2019).

3. As I see it, music education has now been in the ‘too hard basket’ for at least a generation of Australian students. We continue to suffer a malaise in long-term governmental policy direction, writes Leon R de Bruin (2019).music

4. I did not become a teacher the day I walked out of university. I was trained as a teacher but it took many years for me to feel like a teacher. I’m still not sure I’m there yet, writes Naomi Barnes (2016).


5. Christopher Pyne [former Coalition minister for education] is embarking on his own education revolution. He wants our nation’s teachers to use a teaching method called Direct Instruction.  For forty years, the specific US-developed approach has been the object of education debates, controversies and substantial research. It has not been adopted for system-wide implementation in any US state or Canadian province, writes Alan Luke (2014)

6. Positive personal attributes such as fairness, humour and kindness, I believe, should be considered necessary attributes for a teacher, writes Nan Bahr (2016).

7. There is a lot of misinformation out there, as well as ill informed commentary, about how we prepare teachers to teach reading and writing in Australian schools today, writes Eileen Honan (2015).

8. Online learning has become a well-recognised part of the broader landscape of higher education. It is also proving to have a critical place in widening access and equity within this landscape. Increasing numbers of students from backgrounds historically under-represented at university are taking the opportunity to study online, particularly through open-entry and alternative pathways, with many of these learners being the first in their family or community to undertake university studies, writes Cathy Stone (2017).

9. For decades there has been an overrepresentation of Indigenous students across Australia in disciplinary school records. Suspensions, exclusions and a range of other negative reports fill the school records. As a result low attendance, low retention and under achievement have been the more commonly reported trajectories for Indigenous Australians, writes Helen Boon (2016).

10. When a text uses two or more modes we call it a multimodal text. I have been researching how teachers use and teach multimodal texts and I believe Australia needs to update the way we understand multimodality in our schools and how we assess our students across the curriculum, writes Georgina Barton (2018).

11. Money spent on reducing class sizes has not been wasted as Education Minister Christopher Pyne believes. The advice he has been given is wrong. Reducing class size does make a difference, and the biggest difference it makes is to the schooling outcomes of our most vulnerable children, writes David Zyngier (2014).

. 12. Schools all around Australia are currently hosting research projects involving classroom teachers. But it can be difficult for teachers to engage in research because it takes a lot of time and energy, not just in the classroom but also due to the paperwork and meetings involved. However, I believe if we don’t work with each other, teachers risk reinventing wheels or becoming trapped within an echo chamber, and researchers risk irrelevance, writes Charlotte Pezaro (2015).

13. What is the obsession with Band 6s? Band 6s sound elite, the very best. But the facts are that a Band 4 or 5 in a difficult subject such as Physics or Chemistry may make as big – or even bigger – contribution to ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) (more on that later)  than a Band 6 in say, Music. Also, Band 6s are the only metric made publicly available and shared with the media, writes Simon Crook (2021).

14. You know there is something going wrong with Australia’s national testing program when the education minister of the largest state calls for it to be axed. The testing program, which started today across the nation, should be urgently dumped according to NSW Education Minister, Rob Stokes, because it is being “used dishonestly as a school rating system” and that it has “sprouted an industry that extorts money from desperate families”. I think it should be dumped too, in its current form, but for an even more compelling reason than Stokes has aired. I believe we are not being honest with parents about how misleading the results can be, writes Nicole Mockler (2018).

15. Australian teachers are doing well. They are not under-qualified and they are certainly not under-educated, as some media stories would have you believe. They are doing an admirable job managing exhausting workloads and constantly changing government policies and processes. They are more able than past generations to identify and help students with wide ranging needs. They are, indeed, far better qualified and prepared than those in our nation’s glorious past that so many commentators reminisce wistfully about, write Nan Bahr, Donna Pendergast and Jo-Anne Ferreira.

Effective teaching methods that work for Indigenous students: latest research

What does effective teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students look like? Thousands of research studies have been dedicated to finding answers to this question. But much of what we think we know, or hear, about Indigenous education remains mired in myths and legends.

Governments have been surprisingly frank about the failure of their Closing The Gap policies to deliver better health, education and employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The search for better ways continues.

My colleagues and I are particularly interested in looking for what works in Aboriginal education, and most importantly, how do we know what works?

As part of the larger ‘Aboriginal Voices’ project we decided to analyse research studies on Aboriginal education from 2006-2017. We carried out several systematic literature reviews following rigorous and replicable protocols  across a range of key issues.

The review I want to tell you about is one that looked for evidence of pedagogies that engage, support and improve the educational outcomes of Indigenous students.

This review sorted through approximately 2000 research studies and, after applying the systematic review inclusion/exclusion protocols, analysed the remaining 53 research studies.

So, what did we find?

Most studies are localised small-scale qualitative case studies focused on engagement

Most research studies were localised small-scale qualitative case studies producing evidence of successful programs that engaged and/or supported Indigenous students in the classroom and in many cases, these were the aims of the program. The assumption appears to be that if Indigenous students are engaged in their learning then their educational outcomes will improve but without empirical evidence to support this, this can only be considered as conjecture.

Wholesale literacy and numeracy programs where Indigenous students are a subset

Eighteen research studies identified pedagogical approaches for specific skills such as literacy and numeracy revealing mixed results in terms of success. In many of these studies, Indigenous students were a subset of a larger group usually connected by socio-economic status (SES), achievement levels and location. Any successes reported in these programs occurred for all students and therefore did not shed light on any specific pedagogical approaches that improved Indigenous student outcomes.

Not surprisingly research studies that focus on practical skill improvements like literacy and numeracy tend to receive large-scale funding as results are more readily quantifiable and reportable in terms of government policy priorities. Moreover, programmatic approaches to literacy and numeracy appear to have become the default approach for Aboriginal student learning in preparation for vocational pathways.

Specific pedagogies identified as effective

Yes we did find 21 studies of pedagogies identified as effective in improving Aboriginal student engagement, support and /or educational outcomes.

Most described effective, innovative pedagogies such as

  •  ‘Pedagogies of wonder’. This involves adults listening to the wonder of the children about their own history, culture and context and trusting children to research this rich resource.
  • Generative pedagogies  Here, culturally safe spaces were created for Indigenous girls to engage with their everyday experiences of oppression, through writing.
  • Place-based pedagogies (also here) that take students out of the classroom and onto ‘country’ and involve Rangers, teachers and community members in a collaborative approach to teaching and learning were successful in engaging students .
  • pedagogies prioritising local Aboriginal voices that involve listening to voices in the community and understanding the values and cultural elements that inform students in their engagement with a formal education context.

These teaching methods engaged and supported Aboriginal students rather than ‘improved educational outcomes’ and while it could be argued that culturally responsive approaches such as these create conditions for improving educational outcomes, there was no empirical evidence to make this causal connection.

The seminal extensive research project Systemic Implications of Pedagogy and Achievement in NSW public schools (SIPA) provides an exception. While Aboriginal students were a subset of a larger group, researchers focussed on results for specific groups, coding and measuring student assessment tasks utilising the NSW Quality Teaching Framework [QTF].

In terms of outcomes, researchers provided solid evidence that high quality assessment tasks not only improved all students results but contributed to closing the gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. While not identifying specific pedagogies to improve educational outcomes, they noted pedagogical approaches that contributed to poor outcomes particularly for Aboriginal and low SES students such as ‘defensive teaching’, low expectations and a focus on behaviour management rather than effective teaching and learning of curriculum content.

Contributing factors to effective teaching

Many of the studies [43] discussed pedagogies in relation to other contributing factors to effective teaching such as student engagement, teacher professional learning and curriculum.

Engagement strategies identified the importance of:

  • individually paced learning,
  • culturally safe learning environments,
  • providing transport, food and community-based staff working in the school,
  • opportunities for Aboriginal student voices,
  • local community involvement in the school,
  • teacher understanding about their students ‘out-of-school’ lives, and
  • school as a place of belonging and relevance.

Teacher professional learning included the need for:

  • increased teacher confidence and efficacy through actively learning about local Aboriginal culture, history and the impact of colonization,
  • a shift from behaviour management to subject knowledge,
  • time and resources to adequately reflect on and improve their practice, and
  • ongoing engagement with Aboriginal parents and communities.

Students and parents highlighted the importance of:

  • culture,
  • positive relationships,
  • needing to learn about the literacy demands of schools and how to code-switch between home and school,
  • support for student behavior,
  • schools and teachers rejecting deficit views of Aboriginal people, and
  • affirming Aboriginal student’s cultural identity.

Knowing the community is critical

While only 14 research studies focussed on context, most studies referred to this as an important consideration especially in remote and very remote schools. This suggests that the issues for students and the challenges for teachers are largely context dependent and so critical and nuanced understandings of each particular community are crucial. It also points to the invisibility of urban-based students and communities. If a study was conducted in an urban area, the location was not mentioned or considered a factor in the study. Given that urban Indigenous populations are increasing exponentially, this highlights a concerning gap in the research design and priorities.

Deficit thinking

Concern about school and teacher deficit thinking about Aboriginal peoples and cultures that also appear to permeate policy and practice, was evident in a number of studies, some of which contextualized this within ongoing issues of race and racism. Some studies also critically analysed the construction, problematisation and reproduction of knowledge noting that Aboriginal aspirations were not often included in definitions of what success might look like for these students and their communities, or how it might be measured.

The challenges are many and the answers complex

Consequently, while these research studies contribute to the conversation about ‘what works’ for Indigenous students, there certainly needs to be an evidence-based systematic approach to developing pedagogical approaches to improve Aboriginal student outcomes. In saying this, the combination of diverse Aboriginal contexts each of which are embedded in local place and knowledges, and the complexity of ‘measuring’ pedagogies given the multitude of complex, layered and nuanced variables that impact on the teaching/learning process, makes this an extremely challenging task. 

Need for a national vision

What we found throughout this review and the other systematic reviews conducted in this project, is what is missing or under-researched more than what was discovered or proven. It is clear to us that a national vision is needed. This vision needs to decolonize the parochial targets, outcomes and obsession with ‘measurement’ that currently restrains Indigenous and non-Indigenous teachers and policy makers working together on the holistic project of improving Aboriginal student outcomes.

The Aboriginal Voices project will continue this work by developing culturally responsive approaches to schooling informed by local Aboriginal students and their families, who continually foreground the significance of Country, culture, language and identity to their success, emphasising the importance of success as ‘Aboriginal’.

Dr Cathie Burgess is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney currently teaching and coordinating Aboriginal Studies curriculum courses, Aboriginal Community Engagement and the Master of Education: Leadership in Aboriginal Education. She has extensive teaching and leadership experience in secondary schools with expertise in Aboriginal Studies, Aboriginal education, and implementing innovative literacy strategies. Cathie’s research involves community-led initiatives positioning Aboriginal cultural educators as experts through projects such as Learning from Country in the City, Aboriginal Voices: Insights into Aboriginal Education, Community-Led Research, The Smith Family’s Learning for Life program and the Redfern Aboriginal Family Cultural Program.

Image by courtneyk