Indigenous Contexts in the Law Curriculum: Process and Structure

Abstract

The rationale for reorienting the Australian law curriculum to incorporate and reflect Indigenous Australian knowledges, experiences, and perspectives, is well-rehearsed. Yet despite the need to enhance law graduate skills and knowledge in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cross-cultural encounters, many law teachers remain reluctant to integrate what I call here ‘Indigenous contexts’ into law teaching. Adopting the standpoint of teacher-as-researcher, this article reflects on more than a decade of educational practice seeking to understand, theorise, implement, and improve law teaching that appropriately integrates Indigenous contexts into the law curriculum. Informed by an action research methodology, this paper analyses curriculum design practice, through a ‘self-reflective spiral’ following a deliberate, long-term, learning process. The article first outlines the methodological basis for practitioner action research that informs this paper. Part III then reports on an approach to curriculum arising from the author’s own experience in subject and program-level design strategies, developed deliberately to ‘embed’ Indigenous contexts in the law curriculum. Part IV reflects on the capacity of this curriculum framework to deliver change—both in terms of personal practice, notably from the perspective of a non-Indigenous law teacher, and at the program level. It concludes by identifying a widespread need for adaptive change by law teachers to complement the technical aspects of curriculum design: namely instructor knowledge, and personal commitment to implement curriculum goals.