Indigenizing Teacher Professional Development: Anticipating the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in Australia

It is the Australian Government's intention that all teachers will have, as a minimum, a proficient level of demonstrable professional expertise in both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education and Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. A raft of government policies are giving shape to the engagement of the Australian education system with respect to "closing the gap" between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous Australian education outcomes. This paper reports on the findings of a national study about teacher readiness to be able to account for their skills and knowledge in Australian Professional Standards for Teachers with particular emphasis on those standards focusing on the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Fieldwork was undertaken in each State and Territory capital. Analysis of the findings suggests that postcolonial democracies such as Australia are struggling to employ new frameworks in which to undertake teacher professional development in the Indigenous domain. Current provisions for teacher professional development lack a guiding commitment to a rights and strengths perspective; problematically, there is scant rigorous evaluation of teacher professional development provisions; and, teachers have fear and resistance about teacher standards that highlight Indigenous matters. (Contains 1 footnote.)