Dinawan Dreaming: pre-service teachers seeing the world with fresh eyes

Dinawan Dreaming: pre-service teachers seeing the world with fresh eyes

Australia's National Curriculum for schools seeks to engage students beyond the static frameworks of subject knowledge, through cross curricular experiences in 'Indigenous history and culture', (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2010, p. 1) with the intent that this 'three-dimensional' (p.10) approach will lead to a deep understanding of historical and contemporary Indigenous perspectives. Similarly, university educators preparing pre-service teachers for their role in this transformative pedagogy, and undergraduate student teachers of whom the majority are not of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage, are faced with a challenge. In embedding Indigenous perspectives they must shift beyond the boundaries of personal and professional habitus and the constraints of program planning, in order to reach a deeper understanding of the multiple histories, cultures and ways of knowing that are aspects of self, society, and the land for Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples past and present. This paper is the second in a series reporting upon the impact of pre-service teachers' immersive experiences in natural environments, Indigenous perspectives, and the arts. It is co-authored by an Indigenous researcher, who is an artist and educator, and by an arts educator who is the coordinator of an undergraduate program for pre-service teachers and who is a migrant of Celtic heritage. The research findings indicate that immersive experiences in natural environments have the potential to be transformative, potentially opening up a Thirdspace wherein participants may transcend personal culture and history, to share new understandings. In this paper, 'Dinawan Dreaming', a painting by the Indigenous artist and researcher, is the lens through which the research team and undergraduate students came to reframe personal and professional understandings of self, time and the land as they engage in immersive experiences at three sites in South East Queensland. The sites are the Gummingurru site, an environmental education centre and a museum. Data in the form of anonymous student reflections, and transcripts of interviews with researchers and undergraduate participants, indicate that the experience has informed a reframing of the world-view of all participants. Describing a moment of transformative power, a participant observes: 'in our culture we'd sort of laugh...that's of our way of dealing with (the spiritual) it is almost like if you give it power, it will have life, if you give it power it will be true.' The study offers important insights into the potential for immersive experience outside the classroom to support new and connected ways of knowing and understanding self and the world.

On majority of websites the spelling is 'Dhinawan'.