'Maybe what I do know is wrong…': Reframing educator roles and professional development for teaching Indigenous...

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Indigenous Health Studies
• Sociology of Health

Background:

• Settler colonisation negatively impacts Indigenous peoples' health and wellbeing, creating inequities.
• Health professional education is vital for addressing these issues, but non-Indigenous educators often lack preparedness.
• Existing educational approaches may perpetuate dominant settler paradigms.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore non-Indigenous educators' experiences and perspectives on teaching Indigenous health.
• To identify skill development needs for educators to improve cultural safety education.
• To inform strategies for decolonizing health professional curricula.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study involving 20 non-Indigenous nursing, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy educators in Australia.
• Inductive thematic analysis of interview data.
• Exploration of educators' experiences and perspectives on teaching Indigenous health.

Main Results:

• Educators require skills to identify and contextualize discomfort in teaching cultural safety.
• Training in cultural humility and facilitating Aboriginal-led curricula is essential.
• Understanding and remedying dominant settler paradigms in teaching is necessary.
• Institutional support, including Indigenous leadership and professional development, is crucial.

Conclusions:

• Enhanced skill development and professional training are vital for non-Indigenous educators.
• Decentering non-Indigenous perspectives and adopting cultural humility are key to effective teaching.
• Institutional commitment and Indigenous leadership are critical for advancing cultural safety in education.