Author: Colleen McGloin, University of Wollongong
Edition: Volume 55, Number 2, July 2015
Summary: This paper reflects on a particular class in an undergraduate seminar in Australian Indigenous Studies where anecdote played a crucial role and where both the teacher and learners were challenged to consider their implication as racialised subjects in the teaching and learning process. The paper argues that student anecdote can be a vital bridge between theory and practice in adult learning. It suggests that all learners in Indigenous Studies, and also in studies of race and difference more generally, need to undertake effective listening and hearing practices in order to consider, imagine and engage with experiences and worldviews other than their own. Drawing from work dealing with critical alliances, discomfort in pedagogical contexts, and effective listening practices, this paper provides a conceptual analysis of the seminar in question extrapolating from this to engage critically with broader issues concerning Indigenous Studies and non-Indigenous critical allies.
Keywords: Critical allies, Indigenous Studies, white discomfort, antiracist pedagogy, listening practices.
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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 55_2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.