Increasing the number of Aboriginal Teachers in the NT

About

The seminar is the end-of-project presentation of the ACSES 2024 First Nations research fellowship: Increasing the Number of Aboriginal Teachers in the NT; Planning for the Future.

The project has been a collaboration with the NT Department of Education and Training, and the suggested recommendations impact the Department, Catholic Education and Independent schools in promoting teaching as a career, institutions recruiting new students to teacher training, and the Teacher Registration Board in recognising the importance of Aboriginal teacher role models.

While the overarching purpose was to investigate how to increase Aboriginal student enrolments in teaching courses at CDU, the investigation focused on Aboriginal perceptions of teaching as a career and the potential for using Aboriginal words and perspectives to create promotional resources targeted at an Aboriginal audience. 

As an Aboriginal woman/teacher/researcher, the findings are intentionally practical and require implementation by stakeholders to create further resources and evaluate their impact accordingly. The project outputs include a series of mock resources as examples, but the research funding was not allocated for resource production. It was allocated to investigate the way that such resources should be created. One example of application is through the existing partnership between CDU and the NT Department of Education and Training as the 'First Nations Teacher Education Hub'. The hub is in the process of creating videos of Aboriginal role model teachers. Findings were provided to be used to inform the video creation process.

The presentation will include a discussion of findings and recommendations about how best to promote teaching to Aboriginal people in the NT. It will also include potential relevance to the other locations. 

We launch the resource: 'Conversation Starter - Do you want to be a teacher?' This book was created for career education and VET in School (VETiS) teachers to talk about teaching with Aboriginal students and ask if they are interested in being teachers.

Dr Tracy Woodroffe is a 2024 ACSES First Nations Fellow, Senior Lecturer, and Researcher with the Northern Institute. She is a local Warumungu Luritja educator with extensive teaching experience and an Early Career Researcher with a growing track record. Dr Woodroffe is the lead researcher for this project, which will finish in 2025. Her research experience and focus are on educational pedagogy, identity, Indigenous perspectives, and the use of Indigenous Knowledge in educational contexts. Dr Woodroffe has been a team member and lead on numerous successful research projects, including research with and within the NT Department of Education.

Registration

In-person: Please RSVP to attend in person.

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Online: Once you register, you will receive an individual link from Zoom no-reply@zoom.us. 
Each seminar is recorded and linked to our Seminars page.

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Getting there

Level 4, Room 16
Danala Education and Community Precinct
54 Cavenagh Street, Darwin City, NT, 0800
Google Maps Location

^{Access: If you have any additional access or support requirements, please contact us. Level 1 is street level and has CDU student services and security available on this floor. Please note that there will be directional signs on the event day and that the underground car parking is not available yet so please use the surrounding street parking.}