'It's in our culture' - A qualitative case study on Indigenous Australians' experiences of learning at the organisation QATSIHWEPAC

Sammanfattning: In every population there are groups of minorities. These minority groups are often underrepresented on the labour market. This led us to the question whether or not this under representation is connected to the absence of cultural appropriate pedagogy in the education. In this study the specific minority group in focus is Indigenous Australians. By looking at educational programs with the aim to educate mature Indigenous Australians in a profession, in order for them to be eligible for the labour market, we aimed to study whether the programs are developed from a cultural perspective and what influences this has on learning. Our purpose was therefore to study a specific educational program aimed at Indigenous Australians with focus on what tools were used and what tools were preferred in a learning situation by this group. We also examined what tools should be used in order to create a successful learning situation for this group and why. Finally, we also analyzed and discussed what the educational program could do further to improve the learning situation for this group.A qualitative case study was used as the strategy for this study. The data collection was done in Cairns, Australia. Initially interviews were held with several people involved in Indigenous Australian affairs in order to get a broad understanding of the situation. However, the data that our study is mainly based on was collected by interviewing developers, trainers and students at the organisation Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Worker Education Program Aboriginal Corporation (QATSIHWEPAC), which delivered an educational health worker program for Indigenous Australians. Theorists as well as our results indicate that different backgrounds and cultures lead to different ways of learning. A number of different tools were identified as useful and sometimes even necessary in creating a successful learning situation for Indigenous Australians. These tools were of concrete and abstract character. It was also shown that a teacher who were aware of what tools were preferred by their students and managed to regard and accommodate them created a successful learning situation. However, the teacher also had to be aware of the students' cultural background in order for this successful situation to occur.