An evaluation of Education Curriculum for Perth Secondary Students About Wadjak Noongar History, Culture and Issues

This paper reports on a Rotary District 9455’s Aboriginal Reference Group collaborative research project, Education Curriculum for Perth Secondary Students About Wadjak Noongar History, Culture and Issues, with South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council, Murdoch University and the Western Australia Department of Education; funded by the Rotary Clubs of Belmont, Subiaco, West Perth and Western Endeavour. 

The project sought to develop more effective ways of teaching secondary students about Aboriginal history, culture and issues in the context of the (changing) requirements of the Australian Curriculum. The project developed 20 pilot (one hour) lessons covering 10 Wadjak Noongar topic areas for use in the Humanities and Social Sciences Year 9 secondary school curriculum. Materials were mainly sourced from SWALSC, under an IP agreement. Four senior high schools and colleges taught the pilot curriculum to a total of 13 classes in Terms 1 and 2 of 2015. 

Methods of pilot curriculum evaluation were student pre- and post-course questionnaires, teacher written feedback and interviews and interviews with Education Department staff/consultants. This led to 90 project findings across 13 research questions including that the pilot curriculum should continue to be taught in the four schools and in other Perth secondary schools. Research processes are discussed, including the role of SWALSC and the Project Reference Group.