A six piece puzzle

This paper will seek to examine the underlying importance of intercultural perspectives between Indigenous and non-Indigenous frameworks of understanding within educational institutions. The paper will attempt an examination of differences that exist between Western and Indigenous modalities of learning and cognition, and address past and current research into teaching and learning strategies (within and without Australia) that have been used in order to more fully comprehend Indigenous needs in educational curricula and contexts.

Using an example of a delivery framework that incorporates a holistic methodology, this paper will attempt to demonstrate how a curriculum that has embedded Indigenous perspectives is in fact a universally applicable teaching device. It will be shown that the appropriate incorporation of Indigenous perspectives into a delivery system of education - which then caters for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people - has the potential to enhance both the holistic content and methodology of preparation for a variety of courses.

Some of the issues that will be addressed in the presentation include differences in cultural perceptions of identity, time, language and place. These will be explored using interpretive examples, for example how language in Aboriginal culture can be understood as part of an ongoing relationship with place and season (time), and how a Western understanding of time differs substantially as a linear perception and a cultural and phenomenological concept.