TITLE: Why Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture is important in business curriculum

PRESENTER: Associate Professor Kerry Bodle (Griffith University) 2023 AAUT Neville Bonner Award for Indigenous Education and 2024 Australian Accounting Academic of the Year

DATE: Thursday 12th September 2024

TIME: 8.00am – 9.00am

LOCATION: University of South Australia, Jeffrey Smart Building Room JS3.13a

ZOOM: https://unisa.zoom.us/j/83412749579?pwd=OGL1J6hnXb7VwcDDwH6df5hf8odBdj.1

ABSTRACT: To enhance students’ cultural competency when engaging with First Australians, a storytelling teaching pedagogy was adopted. My teaching pedagogy is based on “informal yarning, telling stories about my journey" to “engage students to become more conscious of the Aboriginal knowledges, to provide an opportunity for students to embrace what they did not know, what they were already familiar with, and what they can learn to through critical reflection. This was done by acknowledging, valuing and respecting Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing, as well as the students’ own cultural values and beliefs”. To implement this vision, I have adopted a co-designed approach which fostered collaboration and participation from Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff and students developing a mix of authentic and traditional hybrid of resources, assessments and technology.

BIO: Associate Professor Kerry Bodle is passionate about empowering young Indigenous people to embrace business as a potential career, embedding Indigenous content into traditional business education curriculum and using community-led research to break down barriers to ensure success for Indigenous people, businesses and communities. Her mother was born in Cherbourg, Qld - Wakka Wakka Nation, and was removed as part of the ‘Stolen Generation’. While studying accounting she witnessed the lack of Indigenous content in any of the business courses. After completing her PhD (2013), Kerry provided leadership in transforming the business curriculum using storytelling and co-design approaches to create a pioneering standalone course bringing about greater understanding of Indigenous history, knowledge and culture across all aspects of Australian business and society. She demonstrates strong strategic, organisational and change management skills and works with and leads a range of academic and professional staff in a demanding and changing environment.

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