The University of Queensland is now home to two podcast series in the Indigenous education space.
Indigenous Success: Doing it, Thinking it, Being it, launched in 2021, is designed for university outreach practitioners working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, as well as anyone with an interest in student equity and success in higher education.
Indigenising Curriculum in Practice is a mid-2023 release, which focuses on Indigenising the university curriculum. Each episode is an interview with Indigenous and/or non-Indigenous academics across the faculties at UQ.
Both products are driven by Professor Tracey Bunda and Dr Katelyn Barney from the Indigenous Engagement Division.
Production and editing is by Anthony Frangi from the School of Communications and Arts. Anthony won a UQ 2022 Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning as part of the Higher Ed Heroes podcast team.
Indigenous Success: Doing it, Thinking it, Being it is part of Katelyn's Equity Fellowship conducted under the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) Equity Fellows Program, funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, Skills and Employment.
There are 9 episodes in the series and topics include: why evaluation of outreach activities is so important; examples of how to embed cultural aspects in outreach programs for Indigenous students; and the importance of outreach programs for students in primary school and the early years of high school.
This podcast has already had considerable international reach. Over 650 people have downloaded it since 2021, with listeners in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.
The Indigenous Success: Doing it, Thinking it podcasts provide practical suggestions on outreach activities for Indigenous students along with Indigenising curriculum and further impact from research.
As a result of research findings from Dr Barney’s fellowship and the podcast, UQ now runs an InspireU Alumni event to bring together students who had previously attended outreach activities, while providing networking and support, through the whole-of-student-life-cycle.
“A number of universities are now also piloting outreach activities for Indigenous students in primary school and early years of high school,” Dr Barney said.
“This is significant because there is growing recognition that the current major investment in outreach activities in the later secondary years may begin too late.”
Indigenising Curriculum in Practice is envisaged to release on a monthly basis across 8 episodes.
Professor Bunda said the podcasters were modelling how Indigenous and non-Indigenous people could work closely and respectfully together.
“In this way, the University can shift to a site that is defined by two knowledge systems rather than one,” she said.
“The latest podcast series aims to provide academics with practical suggestions and advice on how to begin the process of Indigenising the curriculum through exploring case studies across the academic disciplines.
“This is important because we find that non-Indigenous academics are often open to Indigenising curriculum but can have a range of concerns about where to find resources, simply getting it wrong or not knowing how to reach out to Indigenous community members”.
The podcast series Indigenising Curriculum in Practice is a critical resource that articulates the UQ Indigenising curriculum design principles and is situated with the Indigenising curriculum communities of practice that are now in operation. See ITaLi for more details.