Year
2024Credit points
10Campus offering
Prerequisites
Nil
Teaching organisation
Teaching and learning activities for this unit will include lectures, small group discussions, skill development workshops and Canvas online activities.
Unit rationale, description and aim
Acknowledging, respecting and learning from the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples is a priority in social work practice. Social workers are responsible for ensuring their practice is culturally aware, responsive and safe. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content is essential core curriculum in social work education. This unit will introduce students to culturally responsive social work practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The aim of the unit is to provide students with the opportunity to learn and value Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing in thinking holistically about experience, in a culturally responsive way as relevant for social work practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and all people with whom social workers engage.
Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
| Learning Outcome Number | Learning Outcome Description | Relevant Graduate Capabilities |
|---|---|---|
| LO1 | Identify personal and professional values in social work practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples | GC3, GC5 |
| LO2 | Understand historical and contemporary social and political issues that impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples | GC1, GC7 |
| LO3 | Demonstrate knowledge of culturally responsive social work practices with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. | GC2, GC6, GC9 |
AASWEAS Practice Standards
This Unit has been mapped to the ACU Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes. The following table sets out the broad relationship between the Learning Outcomes, Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes provided in the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards: https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/13565
GA1 - Value and Ethics |
GA3 - Ability to apply social work knowledge and interventions to respond effectively in meeting the needs of individuals, groups and communities in diverse settings, client groups and geographic locations (LO1, LO2, LO3) |
GA4 - Ability to apply knowledge of human behaviour and society, as well as the social, cultural, political, legal, economic and global contexts of practice to respond effectively within a human rights and social justice framework (LO1) |
GA5 - Ability to review, critically analyse and synthesise knowledge and values and apply reflective thinking skills to inform professional judgement and practice (LO2 |
ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes
This Unit has been mapped to the ACU Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes. The following table sets out the broad relationship between the Learning Outcomes, Graduate Attributes and the ASWEAS Profession-Specific Graduate Attributes provided in the Australian Social Work Education and Accreditation Standards: https://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/13565
| Standard/Attributes/Criteria | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|
1.1 Practice in accordance with the AASW Code of Ethics 3.2 Respect and strive to understand and promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures 5.1Assess and analyse needs to inform practice 5.4 Apply critical and reflective thinking to practice | 1 |
3.2 Respect and strive to understand and promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures 4.1 Understand higher level systemic influences on people with respect to area of practice. | 2 |
1.1 Practice in accordance with the AASW Code of Ethics 3.2 Respect and strive to understand and promote the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures 3.1 Work inclusively and respectfully with cultural difference and diversity 4.4 Understand and articulate how and when theories, knowledge bases and knowledge sources inform practice | 3 |
Content
Topics will include:
Historical Overview
- Pre-invasion - Dreamtime, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, being and doing
- Political history
Self-determination and Sovereignty
- Racism
- Human Rights
Theoretical and Practice Frameworks
- Cultural responsiveness
- Identity and intersectionality
- Privilege
- Whiteness theory
- Social and emotional well-being
Working with Communities
- Engagement and relationship building protocols
- Collaborative practice
Professional and Personal Identity
- Use of self
- Social work ethics
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
Teaching and learning strategies for this unit include face-to-face, recorded and guest lectures, small group discussions and experiential workshops. Tutorials incorporate small group, collaborative discussions and experiential learning. Students will be expected to take responsibility for their learning and to participate actively in class discussions. The approach of this unit is to privilege Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, voices, teachers and resources in active respect of how these enrich and deepen student learning. To understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and ways of knowing, being and doing and how these apply to practice, students need to understand and experience the 8 Aboriginal ways of learning. Hence teaching and learning through stories, links to land, using symbols, images and actions, modelling and making links to local community is encouraged. In this way the unit can best prepare social work graduates to continually develop their ability to be culturally responsive and safe in their future practice. As this learning is experiential in nature, there is a compulsory attendance requirement for the experiential workshops with cultural facilitators. Any student who has an approved application for special consideration for non-attendance must consult their lecturer in charge about a replacement learning task. A co-teaching model is critical to ensuring that the learning outcomes are addressed. That is the presentation of content by both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous lecturers. Each lecturer taking appropriate cultural responsibility for unit content role models culturally responsive social work practice in action.
Assessment strategy and rationale
This unit takes an authentic assessment approach which prioritises assessment processes consistent with Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing, such as collaborative, experiential and reflective learning.
Assessment 1 requires students to explore their personal and professional values in relation to their own cultural identity and how this may influence their ability to be culturally responsive.
Assessment 2 considering a case scenario, students will identify and discuss key social and political issues for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the impact on social and emotional well-being. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of culturally responsive practice approaches for social work with a focus on social and emotional well-being.
Assessment 3 assesses students’ ability to identify and describe culturally responsive practice with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples for their own developing social work practice. This final assessment is designed to enhance meaningful engagement with the unit content and Aboriginal ways of learning. It assesses students’ self-directed reflection on their learning journey, including collaborative and group learning and their engagement with Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander knowledge holders. This process of reflection encourages growth in self-awareness and professional identity for practice.
Overview of assessments
| Brief Description of Kind and Purpose of Assessment Tasks | Weighting | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|
Assessment 1: Journal This requires students to explore their personal and professional values in relation to their own cultural identity and how this may influence their ability to be culturally responsive. | 20% | LO1 |
Assessment 2: Written assignment (Essay) This requires students to consider a case scenario: students will identify and discuss key social and political issues for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and the impact on social and emotional well-being. Students will demonstrate their knowledge of culturally responsive practice approaches for social work, with a focus on social and emotional well-being. | 40% | LO2, LO3 |
Assessment 3: Reflective assignment This enables students to demonstrate how their engagement with the unit content has facilitated their learning of culturally responsive practices with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. | 40% | LO3 |
Representative texts and references
Bennett, B., Green, S., Gilbert, S., Bessarab, D., (2019), (Eds.) Our Voices: Social Work, (2nd ed.). (pp. 3-30). South Yarra, Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bennett, B., Krakouer, J., Fernando, T., Phelan, P., Russ-Smith, J., & Wheeler, A. (2021). Aboriginal fields of practice (B Bennett, Ed.). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Dudgeon, P., Milroy, H., Walker, R. (Eds.) (2014) Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice. (2nd ed). Commonwealth of Australia.
Kickett-Tucker, C., Bessarab. D., Coffin. C., Wright. M (2017) (Eds.). Mia Mia Aboriginal community development: Fostering cultural security. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.
Morseu-Diop, N. (2013) Indigenous yarning modalities: An insider’s perspective on respectful engagement with Torres Strait Islander clients. In B. Bennett., S. Green., S. Gilbert., D. Bessarab. (Eds.) Our voices: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social work. South Yarra, Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan.
Pascoe. B. (2018). Dark Emu. Western Australia: Magabala Books.