Teaching Aboriginal studies : improving professional practice in NSW schools

Teaching preservice teachers to teach Aboriginal Studies is a recent development in Primary Teacher Education Courses within Australia. Learning to Teach Aboriginal Studies is complex, challenging, and threatening for some non-Aboriginal preservice teachers. It can be confronting as it touches on personal issues and can challenge some preservice teacher’s understanding of their own socialization (i.e. their place and beliefs in Australian society) and previously held misconceptions about Aboriginal Australia. With these concerns in mind this paper explores these anxieties and the pedagogical benefits for preservice teachers in learning and teaching Aboriginal Studies