EDUC 7220 - Critical and Culturally Responsive Teaching

North Terrace Campus - Semester 2 - 2025

Australia's student population is growing super-diverse, yet most Australian teachers are white. The student-teacher relationship is therefore one where unintentional cultural blind spots may impact the educational experiences of both teachers and students. Australian teachers also face a challenging task: to cater equitably for cultural diversity while satisfying policy frameworks standardised on the language and cultural knowledge of the Anglo mainstream. This course is designed to assist emergent teachers to understand and proactively navigate this paradox. It explores critical pedagogies for cultural diversity, and is grounded in awareness that First Nations sovereignty is our collective starting point. The course draws from a rigorous sociological literature base and raises questions pertaining to class, race, gender, sexuality, history, social justice, and politics. The course addresses two aims: 1) to develop Pre-Service Teachers' (PSTs) sociological imaginations, or the capacity to look beyond the individual to appreciate the relationship between personal experience and wider society. And 2) to engage PSTs in culturally responsive practice informed by sociological knowledge

Open All

Course Details

Course Code	EDUC 7220
Course	Critical and Culturally Responsive Teaching
Coordinating Unit	School of Education
Term	Semester 2
Level	Postgraduate Coursework
Location/s	North Terrace Campus
Units	3
Contact	Up to 3 hours per week
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	N
Restrictions	Available to Master of Teaching (Secondary) students only
Assessment	Personal reflection, Research project, Group presentation

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Dr Samantha Schulz

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

Course Learning Outcomes

	Learning Outcomes	APST (Graduate)
1	Demonstrate awareness of the different philosophies, aims and politics of contemporary Australian education for culturally diverse student cohorts.	1.3; 1.4; 2.4; 3.3
2	Demonstrate awareness of the educational experiences and needs of First Nations and culturally diverse, high poverty students, including gender and sexuality diverse youth.	1.3; 1.4; 2.4; 3.4; 4.1
3	Demonstrate an understanding of selected current issues in Australian education that bear on educational inclusion for diverse student cohorts.	1.3; 1.4; 2.4; 3.3; 4.4
4	Demonstrate skills in critically analysing research literature and translating theory on culturally inclusive teaching into classroom practice.	1.3; 1.4; 2.4; 3.3; 4.4; 6.3; 4.2

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

University Graduate Attribute	Course Learning Outcome(s)
Attribute 1: Deep discipline knowledge and intellectual breadth Graduates have comprehensive knowledge and understanding of their subject area, the ability to engage with different traditions of thought, and the ability to apply their knowledge in practice including in multi-disciplinary or multi-professional contexts.	1,2,3
Attribute 2: Creative and critical thinking, and problem solving Graduates are effective problems-solvers, able to apply critical, creative and evidence-based thinking to conceive innovative responses to future challenges.	4
Attribute 3: Teamwork and communication skills Graduates convey ideas and information effectively to a range of audiences for a variety of purposes and contribute in a positive and collaborative manner to achieving common goals.	4
Attribute 5: Intercultural and ethical competency Graduates are responsible and effective global citizens whose personal values and practices are consistent with their roles as responsible members of society.	1,2,3,4
Attribute 6: Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural competency Graduates have an understanding of, and respect for, Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values, culture and knowledge.	1,2,3,4
Attribute 7: Digital capabilities Graduates are well prepared for living, learning and working in a digital society.	4
Attribute 8: Self-awareness and emotional intelligence Graduates are self-aware and reflective; they are flexible and resilient and have the capacity to accept and give constructive feedback; they act with integrity and take responsibility for their actions.	1,2,3,4

Learning Resources

Required Resources

All relevant readings and other resources will be indicated in the Modules and the Course Readings of MyUni

Learning & Teaching Modes

1 hour lecture/seminar supported by 2-hour tutorial /workshops. This fulfils the taught and practised requirements for accreditation of initial teacher education courses with students have the opportunity to be taught and learn the knowledge, followed by an opportunity to practise the skills and knowledge taught to demonstrate understanding.

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

Mode	Hours x Week	Total
Lecture	1 x 8	8
Tutorial	2 x 8	16
Reading and preparation	6 x 8	48
Assessment	6 x 8	48
Online tasks	5 x 6	30
	Overall Total	150

Learning Activities Summary


	Lecture (Taught)	Tutorial (Practiced)	Link to learning outcome	APST	Assessment
Week 1	Critical and culturally responsive teaching: This lecture explores what it means to be ‘critical’ and ‘culturally responsive’, and establishes a sociological imagination as the basis for this pedagogical disposition. The lecture explores how critical and culturally responsive pedagogies require complex contextual thinking and a capacity to apprehend ourselves as social beings, interconnected with others. The lecture also explores the key ideas that 1) Australian schooling has normalised competitive individualism in ways that devalue a diversity of learner lifeworlds, and 2) proposes that learning and social cohesion can only flourish when learner lifeworlds are brought to the centre of learning.	Every tutorial is designed to build Pre-Service Teachers’ (PST) sociological imaginations through culturally responsive practice (CRP), and hence each tutorial also bridges the research-teaching nexus. This tutorial introduces CRP through interactive activities that create space for dialogue, encounter, and relationship building. Whilst introducing the course and covering key pragmatic details (i.e., weekly schedule, assessments), we build a community of learners through individual, paired, small and whole group graduated activities that open space for learning about the unique collection of lifeworlds that comprise our whole.	1, 2	1.3 1.4 2.4 3.3
Week 2	Race, whiteness, and First Nations Education: This lecture establishes Indigenous sovereignty as the grounds on which we stand and the basis for the ways in which all Australians come together. It provides a potted history of First Nations education in Australia, and introduces the concepts of race and whiteness as lenses for apprehending Australia as a race structured society.	This tutorial uses CRPs to explore the concepts of race and whiteness and investigates how ‘race’ has shaped Australian schooling. The tutorial uses ‘counter stories’ as a specific vehicle for engaging respectfully with racially marginalised viewpoints. The tutorial also introduces a framework on social justice as a device (heuristic) for enabling depth of critical thinking, and links this framework to the first assignment.	1, 2, 4	1.3 1.4 2.4 3.3
Week 3	Neoliberalism, neoconservatism and choice: This lecture extends the historical overview of Australian schooling established in weeks 1-2 by exploring the second phase neoliberal turn in Australia. The lecture investigates how neoliberalism, underpinned by divestment in the public sphere and promotion of individual self-interest over common good, has enabled competitive, individualistic orientations to schooling, and school ‘choice’ rhetoric to be naturalised as ‘normal’ since the mid-1990s. The lecture explores how neoliberalism conceptually views the human in economic terms and empties the subject of content, while neoconservatism fills this gap with normative white hegemony. Critical and culturally responsive orientations to schooling are investigated as hopeful alternatives which foster social cohesion.	This tutorial develops PSTs’ understanding of the social justice framework and scaffolds links to the first assignment. CRPs are used to engage PSTs in whole and small group analyses of publicly available ‘neoliberal texts’, before engaging in a whole group yarning circle for sharing ideas and emergent learning.	1, 3, 4	1.3 1.4 2.4 3.3
Week 4	Class, poverty and privilege: This lecture introduces the concepts of social class, poverty and privilege to explore ways in which Australian schooling mediates classed privilege, and how educators may teach for social equity. The lecture constellates around a case study of two public schools in Australia situated across starkly divergent socio-geographic contexts. Each school’s performance on standardised measures of assessment are considered against the backdrop of neoliberal transformations in society, which have resulted in growing divisions between rich and poor. The lecture explores implications for culturally responsive practice by examining ways in which educators can value a broad scope of cultural capitals; how educators can work positively and respectfully with neglected and abused youth; and also how they might work fruitfully with structurally privileged young people.	This tutorial immerses students in forms of experiential learning – a competitive, individualistic ‘game’, a high-stakes test, and a collaborative exercise that builds on participants’ existing knowledge and skills. These experiences and the affective intensities to which they give rise form a basis for critical reflection and discussion. Links are also made to PSTs’ core assessments.	1, 2, 3, 4	1.3 1.4 2.4 3.3	Reflexive writing piece: integrates key theories on CRPs and social justice with personal experience and emergent teaching philosophy.
Week 5	Gender and sexuality equity: This lecture establishes the idea that formal schooling is experienced by nearly all young Australians and re-produces the nation through framing what is ‘real’ or negated. Schooling that is silent on issues of gender ‘silences’ gender equity. The lecture introduces and explores the key concepts of gender and sex. It explores a ‘day at the soccer carnival’ as a basis for examining how gender is policed, performed, and reproduced at individual through structural levels in society. It provides a potted review of major currents in Australian educational policy relating to gender. And finally, the lecture explores ‘what educators can do’ to be teachers of gender equity.	This tutorial uses CRPs and specifically, body-based forms of learning to explore gendered social structures in Australian society. It engages PSTs in an exploration of gender stereotypes and how they are normatively ‘policed’, and then relates these explorations to current social statistics and educational policy. Finally, PSTs are engaged in gender and sexuality based ‘teachable moments’, before engaging in a structured discussion of the major research essay and forthcoming group presentations.	1, 3, 4	1.3 1.4 2.4 3.3
Students on placement for 6 weeks
Week 10	Culturally responsive teaching: This lecture returns to the key idea that learning and social cohesion can only flourish when learner lifeworlds are brought to the centre of learning. It reviews the key sociological lenses that have framed PSTs’ learning journey over the first 5 weeks: race, whiteness, neoliberalism, neoconservatism, class, and gender. Finally, the lecture explores key contemporary ideas in culturally responsive practice, including current major research projects taking place in Australia, and the notion that embodied and emotional forms of learning can destabilise the western imperialism of pedagogical practices that privilege mind over body to the exclusion of a growing diversity of Australian students.	This tutorial is entirely practice-based. It draws on Object Based Learning (OBL), counter story-telling, and Creative Body-Based Learning (CBL) as creative avenues for engaging all learners in culturally responsive orientations to education which centre dialogue, encounter, relationship-building. PSTs are reminded of the core requirements of their major research essays, and also the upcoming group presentations.	1, 2, 3	1.3 1.4 2.4 3.3	Research essay: explores an aspect of Australian schooling through a chosen sociological lens and develops implications for culturally responsive practice.
Week 11	Group Presentations	Weeks 11 and 12 are devoted to group presentations in which small groups bring targeted areas of teaching and inquiry to life through CRPs. Presenters are asked to bridge the research-teaching nexus and engage ‘their learners’ in embodied, collaborative, and creative modes of learning which celebrate learner lifeworlds.	1, 2, 3, 4	1.3 1.4 2.4 3.3 3.4 4.2 4.4 6.4	Group presentations: bridge the research-teaching nexus by exploring the application of CRPs to an area of teaching specialisation. Engages peers in collaborative learning and reflection.
Week 12	Group Presentations and close.		1, 2, 3, 4	1.3 1.4 2.4 3.3 3.4 4.2 4.4 6.4	Critical personal reflection: self-assessment based on engagement with key ideas and their application through weekly collaborative practice.

The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

Assessment Task	Task Type	Weighting	Learning Outcome
Individual: Personal reflection	Summative	20%	1
Individual: Research project	Summative	45%	2,3,4
Group Presentation	Summative	35%	1,2,3

Assessment Detail

Assessment Task	Description	Due Date
Personal Reflection (Reflexive Written Piece) 500 words, 20%	To be reflexive is to think critically ‘about your thinking’. This assignment asks you to start thinking reflexively about your identity as a teacher and beliefs about teaching. You will: A) reflect on your educational experiences or some aspect of them. B) Draw on our first weeks of resources to refine your thinking. C) make an initial attempt to align with one of three standpoints on social justice. The assignment has a broad provocation, which should frame your inquiry: Looking back, looking forward: what is my emergent standpoint on education? The assignment is intended to reflect your emergent philosophy and it is anticipated that you will have some unresolved issues as well as new directions in your thinking. Being a critical, personal reflection, you are asked to write in ‘first person’ and use personal pronouns (I, me) while retaining a sophisticated academic tone – an example and ideas will be presented in workshops. The paper is formal so you must refer to the academic literature. It is expected that you cite from the first weeks of course materials, particularly Kemmis et al (1983), Starr (1991), and lectures 1-3.	Refer to MyUni
Research Project (Reflexive Research Paper) 2000 words, 45%	The assignment provides a general provocation: Apply a sociological imagination to your role as a future educator, with emphasis on a chosen lens. You will start by selecting a key theme from our course to be used as a lens for inquiry: Race/whiteness First Nations perspectives Class/Poverty Neoliberalism Gender/Sexuality You will choose a personal cultural artefact* as a starting point for reflection, and then draw on secondary sources (i.e., academic peer-reviewed journal articles, chapters, our lectures, and books) as well as some online news or popular media sources where appropriate, to investigate how you are located within the broad field of inquiry, and what some initial implications are for your work as an Australian teacher. This is a reflexive paper, so you are asked to write in first person as you situate yourself sociologically. Your research paper should be presented in essay format using sub-headings. Ensure that you include the following: Title: Include a title that indicates the core issue of inquiry – titles should help to guide your reader. Introduction Situating Self Implications for teaching Conclusion References Appendix: Include a copy of your Core Materials Template as well as material of relevance to your cultural artefact. Examples and guidance for this paper will be provided progressively during workshops and in lectures.	Refer to MyUni
Group Presentation (Theory-into-practice presentation) 20-30 minutes, 35%	Groups will be arranged in the first weeks of the course. Groups will: 1. Collectively select ‘one’ reading from your assigned theme (everyone in the group will read the same paper). 2. Individually read the article and individually complete a double-entry journal (template on MyUni). 3. Come together as a group to develop a presentation based on your shared reading, comprising an engaging overview of the article’s key points into which you theoretically integrate other readings and lectures from our course, and an activity in which you engage your peers in learning to bring your article’s key points to life. Presentations should conclude with 1 slide dedicated to ‘implications for educators’, another outlining ‘links to APST’ (including focus area 1.3, and one other focus area of the group’s choosing), and a final slide detailing ‘who did what’ (i.e., explain how group work was organised, shared and delegated). Themes and corresponding literature will be outlined in workshops.	Refer to MyUni

Submission

You must submit an assessment task in accordance with the specified deadline, format and lodgement instructions, except as provided in the Modified Arrangements for Coursework Assessment Policy. Excepting the Group Presentation, all submissions will be via MyUni.
Specific information will be provided in the Assessment instructions for each item online. Students will be required to upload written assignments 1 and 2 via Internet-based plagiarism detection service turnitin on MyUni.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

Student Feedback

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
Student Support
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
Fraud Awareness

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

The University of Adelaide is committed to regular reviews of the courses and programs it offers to students. The University of Adelaide therefore reserves the right to discontinue or vary programs and courses without notice. Please read the important information contained in the disclaimer.

Authorised by:	Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator