Belinda MacGill, Kay Whitehead and Lester Rigney
This article explores the childhood, professional life and social activism of Alice Rigney (1942–2017) who became Australia's first Aboriginal woman principal in 1986.
Abstract
Purpose
This article explores the childhood, professional life and social activism of Alice Rigney (1942–2017) who became Australia's first Aboriginal woman principal in 1986.
Design/methodology/approach
The article draws on interviews with Alice Rigney along with newspapers, education department correspondence and reports of relevant organisations which are read against the grain to elevate Aboriginal people's self-determination and agency.
Findings
The article illuminates Alice/Alitya Rigney's engagement with education and culture from her childhood to her work as an Aboriginal teacher aide, teacher, inaugural principal of Kaurna Plains Aboriginal school in Adelaide, South Australia; and her activism as a Narungga and Kaurna Elder. Furthermore, the article highlights her challenges to racial and gender discrimination in the state school system.
Originality/value
While there is an expanding body of historical research on Aboriginal students, this article focuses on the experiences of an Aboriginal educator which are also essential to deconstructing histories of Australian education.
Details
Keywords
Belinda Mary MacGill, Sangeeta Jattan, Dropati Lal, Babra Narain, Bec Neill, Teupola Nayaca, Alexandra Diamond and Ufemia Camaitoga
The purpose of this paper is to explicate the links between public pedagogy, ethics of care and storying as a methodology and method in Oceania.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explicate the links between public pedagogy, ethics of care and storying as a methodology and method in Oceania.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explores the role of extended families as First Teachers in iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood contexts in Fiji. Using storying as methodology, the authors, three Australian and four Fijian academics, present three portraits to make visible the pedagogical entanglements of public pedagogy research in diverse community contexts. These portraits reveal the intersection and integration of extended family with the authors' community–family–child–informed pedagogical approaches, and the advantages of culturally located standpoints when working with iTaukei and Indo-Fijian communities. This article's unique contribution lies in its demonstration of the importance of an ethics of care approach in site-specific and contextually emerging pedagogical encounters.
Findings
The findings demonstrate the traditional role of First Teachers and carers in iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood contexts in Fiji who use arts-based approaches to teaching and learning within a public pedagogical framework.
Research limitations/implications
The implications of the research highlight the need to address policy interventions that disrupt the value of First Teachers in community context and their role in values formations for young people in community.
Practical implications
The implications of the research can be addressed at the policy and international level where considerations of educational arrangements need to be understood.
Social implications
The social implications of this publication are the value of iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood educators in Fiji, and their voices being heard and understood via a published academic journal.
Originality/value
This work is original and is a collaborative paper written between Australian and iTaukei and Indo-Fijian Early Childhood educators.