University of Queensland Case Study
After over 10 years of working with Custodians, we are very excited to share the results of our Case Study that explore the impact Jajoo Warrngara’s community driven media and educational resources have on teacher confidence when embedding the Australian Curriculum’s Cross curriculum priority Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
We thank the University of Queensland, Critical Thinking Project who led the delivery of this Case Study on our behalf. This has been a long awaiting opportunity for us to test our community driven approach to developing resources for classroom learning environments across the nation.
The research was carried out over a 6 month period with the aim of identifying the impact Jajoo Warrngara resources could have on the confidence of teachers when embedding First Nations perspectives. To gain the most insight, the study was carried out across three schools with varying student demographics. The study engaged both private and public primary schools and two flexible learning centres.
61 teachers completed a survey. The pre-survey identified that over half of the educators were spending less than 30 minutes per week embedding First Nations perspectives in spite of it being a mandated part of the Australian Curriculum. This aligned with many previous studies that had demonstrated the same outcome. The pre-survey results showed that there was an overwhelming lack of confidence to embed First Nations perspectives. This lack of confidence centred mainly around understanding and lack of prior knowledge of First Nations histories and cultures, their ability to pronounce Language words and sensitivity around saying the wrong things.
SharingStories, Pitta Pitta woman and Acting CEO who has been in education for over 28 years said that, ‘although there have been some improvements in First Nations education over the last few years, the results are not surprising there is still much work to do and that all these concerns demonstrate the importance of a learning platform like Jajoo Warrngara, where teachers can access and share the types of resources that fully support them to embed authentic First Nations perspectives with confidence.’
The platform builds inherent trust that teachers can rely on. All aspects of Jajoo Warrngara are community driven, ensuring the reliability, accuracy, and authority of the content.
The high production value of the resources were applauded by the educators who felt the multi-media resulted in stronger student engagement and highlighted that their confidence was boosted from the credibility of the resources specifically because they have been co-designed with Elders and Custodians on Country. Teachers are further supported in their confidence and cultural safety through Protocol Guides and comprehensive teacher notes, again guided by Custodians to ensure teachers are comfortable to share the cultural knowledges in lessons.
We are extremely pleased and motivated to find that the study found that Jajoo Warrngara strengthened teachers’ abilities and confidence to deliver and embed First Nations perspectives. We are also thankful that our platform has feedback from teachers that will allow us to improve and grow.
In the words of one of the educators, “Jajoo Warrngara definitely helped me find ways to include cultural diversity and use Indigenous stories and perspectives in my day-to-day teaching. It’s helped me to find ways, myself and my students, could connect to Indigenous perspectives as well, and their storytelling, and also language was very big…It is an amazing resource, and I thoroughly enjoyed using it.”
We would once again like to thank the UQ research team, The Critical Thinking Project, for their work and partnership in this study and our never ending respect and thank you to our community partners who continue to share their valuable cultural knowledges, languages and stories with us. We look forward to continuing to build on our strengths and support teachers by staying true to our values as a community-led organisation.
To access the full research report: download here.
