Local Cultures – Global Spaces

Abstract

There is growing recognition of the need for and value of including Indigenous Knowledge (IK) systems in built environment higher education curriculum, however current efforts to do so are limited and fragmented. Despite this, there are some discrete examples both internationally and within Australia that are making progress in this area. Efforts are needed to improve Indigenous curriculum pedagogy and content in built environment education to ensure meaningful IK core competency outcomes are achieved for built environment professionals emerging from our institutions. Central to this objective is the challenge of articulating a process that ensures meaningful learning outcomes, is inclusive of both staff, students and the broader community. This presentation reviews existing initiatives across Australian universities that aim to embed IK in built environment curriculum at course and subject scales in meaningful ways. The review includes a desktop analysis of course and subject curricula and interviews with key academic and professional staff who engage with Indigenous Knowledge in their teaching and/or in the process of embedding it into their built environment schools. This review will show that existing initiatives while piecemeal and ad hoc, highlight some exemplary initiatives and approaches that can contribute to a useful set of shared principles as an entry point to further embedding IK in built environment curricula.