Rights-based Indigenous education in Australia: Evidence-based policy to pedagogy

What does being a teacher in a postcolonial democracy like Australia in the 21st century mean? Given that Australia was originally the lands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nations and has only more recently been colonised and developed by Westernised, predominantly European cultural groups, this chapter aims to explore the role of education, and more specifically teachers, in Australia from this perspective. The recognition of Indigenous rights that flow from the acknowledgement that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are the First Peoples of Australia enables one to consider the roles and responsibilities of a 21st-century Australian teacher from a rights-based perspective. This perspective is guided by the role and responsibilities of education systems, as outlined under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIPs) (United Nations, 2008). Following Australia’s endorsement of UNDRIPs in 2009, it is the Australian Government’s intention that all teachers will have, as a minimum, a proficient level of demonstrable professional expertise in both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Australian Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander Studies, and measures are being introduced in pre-service teacher education programs nationally to support this intention. In 2016, there were 394,762.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) in-school staff in Australia of whom 276,329.8 were teaching staff (ABS, 2016) and many of these teachers have had no formal professional development in the rights based approach to the education of Indigenous children or in the methods of educating non- Indigenous Australians about Indigenous histories, languages and cultures