"First Nations Education: Culturally Nourishing Schooling - Bottom-up policy to drive system change"

The Culturally Nourishing Schooling (CNS) project is part of a collaborative research study between Local Aboriginal communities, schools, university researchers and key partners including the Paul Ramsey Foundation, the NSW Department of Education and more recently, Social Ventures Australia and the National Indigenous Advancement Agency (NIAA). The project investigates the impact of 6 critical interlocking strategies to improve the schooling of First Nations students, the development of new relationships with First Nations families and communities, deeper and meaningful engagement with community knowledges and histories and the orientation of teaching and learning to culturally nourishing pedagogic practices.

Within this whole school project, the role of school leadership is broadly conceptualised to include middle leaders, teachers and critical school-based Aboriginal staff who collaborate in developing a transformative, responsive, and contextual educational program that meets the broad aspirations and needs of students. The presentation will sketch how these inter-related strategies and a rich research agenda will inform our collective understanding of the affective possibilities of locally supported whole-school change that resonates from the ground up.

KEVIN LOWE

Kevin Lowe PhD is a Gubbi Gubbi man from southeast Queensland. He is a Scientia Associate Professor and Indigenous Fellow at UNSW, working on a community and school-focused research project on developing a model of sustainable improvement in Aboriginal education. Kevin has had experience in education as a teacher, administrator, and lecturer. He has expertise in working with Aboriginal community organisations on establishing Aboriginal language policy and school curriculum implementation. Recently Kevin has worked with colleagues to review research across key areas of schooling and established the Aboriginal Voices and is the Lead Chief Researcher in the Culturally Nourishing Schooling project.