Similarly, Joshua Waters explores the role of Indigenous Knowledges in global higher education and institutional contexts.

“It is critical that Indigenous Knowledges are seen as worthy of inclusion into mainstream higher education, across all areas of the curriculum. While some Australian universities have gone to great lengths to showcase the power of Indigenous Knowledge, there is still a profound lack of understanding about what it is, where to find it, how it works, who teaches it and why it’s important,” explains Waters, a PhD student and Senior Research Fellow in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University.

Indigenous perspectives are becoming more widely recognised, but there is still work to be done to understand the extent to which they can be included and under what parameters, says Waters. “We now have a number of university subjects which support learning about Indigenous peoples, histories, languages and cultures, led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander teaching staff, but there are gaps in areas such as STEM where students are missing invaluable opportunities to learn more,” he adds.

“The current state of the world reflects a deeper need for Indigenous Knowledges to lead the way. The classroom is a powerful place to start,” says Waters, adding that as the world’s oldest systems thinkers, including Indigenous thinking can bolster current teaching systems in exciting and innovative ways.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Peta White is examining how climate-change education can be taught in Australian classrooms through the science curriculum.

“We’re working with scientists to bring contemporary climate science into a classroom context in Years 5 to 10,” explains A/Prof White, “and we work with students to explore how we need to respond to the challenges of human-induced climate change. The research includes the design of teaching and learning sequences enacting climate-change education, with input from teachers and students. Sequences explore how Earth’s systems are being impacted by human social systems. We call these socio-ecological challenges and examples of some responses include learning how to enact energy transitions, practising bushfire risk reduction, or reducing biodiversity loss. The key outcome is to develop student and teacher agency.

“We always come back to ‘so what do we need to do about it?’” she says. “Not only focusing on the individual actions, but thinking about how we work in collectives as well, to think through the implications of living in a society and how we might learn to do that differently.”

A/Prof White has also been collaborating with climate-change educators from across Australia to curate data that leverages political leadership and the establishment of a national climate-change education strategy.

“We consider our curriculum an important piece of policy,” A/Prof White explains. “We’re asking for additional policy to support climate change education because, with this in place, schools can then be empowered to undertake climate change education connecting to their local communities.”

These powerful fields of research have the potential to have a significant impact by empowering young Australians with the knowledge and skills necessary to address pressing global challenges.

To find out more about how Deakin research is leading the way, click here.