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Understanding Social and Legal Justice Issues for Aboriginal Women within the Context of an Indigenous Australian Studies Classroom: a Problem-based Learning Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2016

Elizabeth Mackinlay ,
Kristy Thatcher  and
Camille Seldon
Elizabeth Mackinlay
Affiliation:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia
Kristy Thatcher
Affiliation:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia
Camille Seldon
Affiliation:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, 4072, Australia
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Abstract

Problem-based learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach in which students encounter a problem and systematically set about finding ways to understand the problem through dialogue and research. PBL is an active process where students take responsibility for their learning by asking their own questions about the problem and in this paper we explore the potential of PBL as a “location of possibility” (hooks, 1994, p. 207) for an engaged, dialogic, reflective and critical classroom. Our discussion centres on a course called ABTS2010 Aboriginal Women, taught by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit at the University of Queensland where PBL is used frequently, and a specific PBL package entitled Kina v R aimed at exploring social and legal justice issues for Indigenous Australian women. From both a historical and contemporary perspective, we consider the types of understandings made possible about justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women for students in the course through the use of a PBL approach.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 33 , 2004 , pp. 23 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2004

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