Working together to make Indigenous health care curricula everybody’s business: A graduate attribute teaching innovation report

Abstract

Previously there has been commitment to the idea that Indigenous curricula should be taught by Indigenous academic staff, whereas now there is increasing recognition of the need for all academic staff to have confidence in enablingIndigenous cultural competency for nursing and other health professional students. In this way, Indigenous content can be threaded throughout a curriculum and raised in many teaching and learning situations, rather than being siloed into particular subjects and with particular staff. There are many sensitivities around this change, with potential implications for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students and staff, and for the quality of teaching and learning experiences. This paper reports on a collaborative process that was used to reconceptualise how Indigenous health care curricula would be positioned throughout a programme and who would or could work with students in this area. Effective leadership, establishing a truly collaborative environment, acknowledging fears and perceived inadequacies, and creating safe spaces for sharing and learning were crucial in effecting this change.

Keywords:

• Indigenous health
• nursing
• midwifery
• curricula
• Australia
• graduate attributes
• collaboration