Transforming future doctoral education: learning from Indigenous knowledge approaches

In the current global context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, urgent climate change challenges, the policy drive towards technological solutions and increasing social and economic ruptures, finding transformative ways to value multiple cultural histories, geographies, languages and cultural knowledges in educational research has never been more important. It is imperative that educational research addresses the core question of how we might live with others in a world of plurality and difference. Doctoral education acts as a key conduit for decolonisation in educational research. If we reimagine doctoral education as a space where all cultural knowledge systems are valued and actively incorporated, we have an opportunity to create unique knowledge that will help us address the complex problems of the 21st century.

In this paper, we argue that the Indigenous knowledge approaches of agency of Country, the power of story and iterative, intergenerational and intercultural knowledge creation can assist us to transform doctoral education in ways that place plurality and difference at the centre of educational research. Drawing upon the Southern, post/decolonial theoretical concepts developed by de Sousa Santos and the Indigenous knowledge global decolonization praxis framework approach of Williams and colleagues, our research seeks to reimagine doctoral education as a space where multiple histories, geographies, languages and cultural knowledges can be harnessed to reshape educational research. We suggest that using life history and visual and aural time mapping methodologies contains the potential to document, respectfully listen to and engage with the significant historical, geographical, linguistic and cultural resources First Nations and transcultural (migrant, refugee, culturally diverse and international) doctoral candidates bring with them in their doctoral research.

We seek to illustrate the agency of place and Country, the power of story and iterative, intergenerational and intercultural approaches to knowledge creation by conducting life history interviews with Australian First Nations and transcultural doctoral candidates and their supervisors. We also employ the time mapping methodology which we developed in our pilot project. Time Mapping uses art and audio recordings to visually and aurally chart the impact of First Nations and transcultural histories, geographies and cultural knowledges on doctoral research. In this paper, we will report on the preliminary findings from these life history interviews and time maps and imagine implications for future research that will transform doctoral education into a form of educational research that values plurality and difference and addresses the problems of the 21st century and beyond.