Clark-ChurHansen-Turnbull-Masciantonio

31
Abstract
Purpose: Psychology curricula need
to be reflective of Australia’s diverse
populations. However, there appear
to be many challenges, including
student reactions to cross-cultural and
Indigenous content.
Aim: The aim of this study was to
understand the rationale for varied
written feedback from students
regarding Indigenous and cross-
cultural psychology teaching at one
Australian university.
Method: Undergraduate students were
invited to participate in one of three
focus groups (local group, Indigenous
or international) to generate discussion
and debate about the written feedback
on cross-cultural and Indigenous
psychology teaching.
Results and conclusions: A number of
views were expressed in relation to the
written feedback on course content.
These views are considered in relation
to their implications for teaching and
learning practice. Allowing students to
articulate further on written feedback
is a valuable tool for understanding
why views are held and how teaching
and learning initiatives might be
implemented or strengthened.
Keywords: cross-cultural, psychology,
curriculum, Indigenous.
Introduction and background
Many Australian university curricula
across a range disciplines, including
education and the health professions,
incorporate Indigenous and cross-
cultural content (Asmar & Page, 2009).
Despite this, it has been argued that
disciplines such as psychology continue
to have a mono-cultural focus that
represents a paternal, white-Anglo
perspective (Sonn, 2008). It has been
argued that psychology also privileges
positivism, which marginalises alternate
but legitimate epistemological and
methodological perspectives (Breen &
Darlston-Jones, 2010). Furthermore, the
applicability of psychological theories
(Fish, 2000) and practice (Riggs, 2004)
1 School of Psychology, University of Adelaide
2 Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine,
University of Adelaide
3 Discipline of Anthropology, School of Social
Sciences, University of Adelaide
Correspondence:
Anna Chur-Hansen
Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University
of Adelaide
South Australia, 5005
Email: anna.churhansen@adelaide.edu.au
A qualitative study of Australian undergraduate
psychology students’ attitudes towards the
teaching of Indigenous and cross-cultural
psychology at one university
Y. Clark¹, A. Chur-Hansen², D. Turnbull¹ & S. Masciantonio2, 3

FOCUS ON HEALTH PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION: A MULTI-DISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, VOL. 14, NO. 3, 2013
32
is compromised if the influence of
culture is not acknowledged. There is a
need for all students to be encouraged
to locate themselves as members of
cultural groups rather than seeing only
minority groups as having a “culture”
(Chur-Hansen, Caruso, Sumpowthong,
&Turnbull, 2006; Riggs, 2004), an
important facet of learning that is not
routinely addressed in psychology
teaching. Furthermore, very few
Indigenous students are attracted to
a career in either the sciences or the
profession of psychology (Ranzijn,
McConnochie, Day, Nolan, & Wharton,
2008). Consequently, psychology
curricula may be viewed as unresponsive
to the issues and wellbeing of the
diversity of peoples living in Australia
(Sonn, 2008).
The interest in and engagement with
culture and Indigenous content is
relatively new in psychology curricula
in Australia. Awareness of the social
and professional responsibilities of the
Australian Psychological Society (APS)
towards Australia’s Indigenous peoples
(Gridley, Davidson, Dudgeon, Pickett,
& Sanson, 2000) began in 1990 with the
sponsoring of a symposium at the 25th
Annual General Conference of the APS
which featured the first ever Aboriginal
presenters. The APS “Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander People Psychology
Interest Group” was formed at the
following APS conference. This group
became the APS’s principle advocate
for Indigenous issues and initiatives.
Many initiatives concerning Indigenous
people have progressed from there,
including guidelines for research and
ethical principles and, in 1993, a five-
year commitment to foster initiatives
for including Indigenous studies in
psychology courses and the training of
Indigenous psychologists (Gridley et
al., 2000). Indigenous content in the
curriculum is now a requirement by the
Australian Psychology Accreditation
Council (APAC). Cultural and
Indigenous curriculum initiatives
have also been recently supported by
the Australian Indigenous Psychology
Association (AIPA), which formed in
March 2008 and is currently included
under the APS. An internet-based audit
of the schools of psychology throughout
Australia was conducted by Ranzjin,
McConnochie, Day and Nolan (2006)
and Ranzin et al. (2008) to determine
the efficacy of APS initiatives to
include Australian Indigenous content
in psychology programs. They found
that, with very few exceptions, most
psychology programs did not include
Indigenous content at all. The few that
did usually included it as part of a course
on multicultural issues.
Background of academics
There are no published data on the
background of those currently teaching
cultural and Indigenous material within
psychology curricula. It is unclear
whether they are predominately social
psychologists, registered psychologists
or from another disciplinary orientation
or whether they are of Anglo, ethnic
or Indigenous backgrounds. There is
support for Indigenous academics to
teach in the Indigenous component.
Gerret-Magee (2006) is of the opinion:
“who better to hear it from than the
people your students are studying” (p.
31). The National Indigenous Higher
Education Network (NIHEN) (2008)
has addressed the question of who
should teach Indigenous studies. The

Psychology students and cross-cultural teaching
33
Network asserts indigenous academics
should teach Indigenous studies when
an Indigenous academic is present
within the university department.
However, they also acknowledge that
when non-Indigenous academics teach
Indigenous studies, they must have
extensive knowledge of Indigenous
cultures, histories and contemporary
realities and work in a partnership
approach with other Indigenous
academics. Whilst Indigenous academics
play a vital role in Australian University
teaching, they are underrepresented
in tertiary institutions, with less than
1% working in academia and teaching
(Asmar & Page, 2009). There are very
few Indigenous academics working in
university departments of psychology
in Australia, and in parallel, Indigenous
psychologists are underrepresented
in the profession (AIPA, 2009). The
University of Adelaide School of
Psychology is committed to promoting
Indigenous learning and teaching. An
Indigenous lecturer was employed in
2008 within the School of Psychology
to teach the Indigenous components of
both undergraduate and postgraduate
psychology curricula at the University
of Adelaide.
Student reactions
Previous research in Australia has
indicated that student reactions to
Indigenous materials, and materials
related to racism and whiteness, have
been varied. Much of the Australian
literature describes students’ reactions
as negative or reflecting psychological
discomfort, including anxiety and
uncertainty (Garvey, 2007). In the
Australian context, Williams (2000)
describes student feelings of guilt,
sadness, shame, feelings of being blamed,
jealousy and embarrassment within his
class when learning about Indigenous
topics. Garret-Magee (2006) notes that
many students feel discomfort with
Indigenous studies, particularly non-
Indigenous students who are Australian
born and/or educated in Australia.
Wyld (2008) indicates that the greatest
stumbling block in teaching is student
resistance, which is often conveyed
in terms of racist attitudes and a lack
of understanding of white privilege.
Further, “students often reject both
message and messenger, projecting
their frustrations and emotions about
this topic onto instructors” (Boatright-
Horowitz & Soeung, 2009, p. 575).
Negative student reactions, particularly
as they relate to prejudice and racism,
are indicative of broader Australian
societal views of prejudice and racism
towards Indigenous Australians (Stolper
& Hammond, 2010) and towards
other minority groups (Khan &
Pedersen, 2010).
The reactions and perceptions of
Indigenous students to the reactions
of classmates as well as their own
reactions to materials presented in the
curriculum are also important (Chur-
Hansen, Herbert, Caruso, & Barrett,
2008). Students from Indigenous
backgrounds may feel marginalised and
insulted by negative reactions. Some
may consider it essential that Indigenous
perspectives are covered, whilst others
may feel concerned about stereotyping
and promulgation of negative attitudes
towards Indigenous peoples (Chur-
Hansen et al., 2008).

34
Context
Curriculum content within the
School of Psychology at the University
of Adelaide
Within the School of Psychology at the
University of Adelaide, cross-cultural,
intercultural and Indigenous topics are
incorporated into undergraduate and
postgraduate professional programs,
with an overall aim to deconstruct
understandings of culture, diversity,
racism, equality and Indigenous studies.
The subject is a core component that
has existed within the Year 2 Psychology
course since 2005 and has been
predominately taught by three lecturers,
one of whom is Indigenous. The course
has several specific aims: to encourage
students to think critically about culture
and how it exerts influence, to explain
the role of culture in psychology and
to consider how psychology can benefit
by considering culture with regards to
both professional practice and research.
The course is delivered via eight didactic
lectures with the inclusion of a tutorial
and three exercises that the students
complete independently.
Rationale for study
This study considers written feedback
provided by University of Adelaide
psychology students in 2005 and 2009.
The feedback provided by students
was collected as part of the university’s
Student Experiences of Learning and
Teaching (SELT) evaluation process.
All academic staff at the University
of Adelaide are expected to collect
anonymous feedback from students on
their teaching and learning experiences
using standardised procedures (see
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/clpd/selt/).
Students are asked to rate certain aspects
of the course concerned with teaching
and learning and provide written
comments on two prompts: “What are
the best aspects of the course and why?”
and “This course could be changed
in the following ways to improve
my learning.” The space for written
comments allows for only one or two
brief sentences.
It was evident in 2005 that whilst many
of the written SELT comments provided
were positive, some were extremely
negative. Negative comments tended
to be about the Indigenous content. In
2009, this pattern was repeated.
Because data collected through the
SELT process is anonymous, and the
comments are necessarily brief, a full
understanding as to why comments
might be negative and which students in
particular might feel negativity towards
the content is not possible. Thus, this
study sought to further understand
the rationale for such feedback, with
the primary aim of drawing upon this
knowledge to modify teaching and
learning approaches and associated
pedagogical challenges.
Method
Prompts for the focus group interviews
The written feedback from the SELTs
from 2005 and 2009 was analysed,
and two of the authors independently
categorised each comment as either
“positive” (expressing positive sentiments
towards the content) or “negative”
(expressing negative sentiments towards
the material presented). Agreement
between the raters was 100%. This
method is consistent with qualitative

35
analysis searching for thematic content
(Braun & Clarke, 2006; Pope &
Mays, 2006).
Positive themes indicated importance,
relevance and interest, whereas the
negative themes indicated irrelevance,
specificity, racism and feelings of guilt.
Examples of comments deemed positive
included, “In a place like Australia, it is
important to be encouraged to consider
culture and cultural difference” and
“Discussion on cultural psychology –
it’s about time someone addressed this
issue”. Negative comments included, “It
felt like the lectures were a guilt trip” and
“Indigenous Australian stuff interesting
– but don’t really see its relevance”.
Table 1 displays the snippets from SELT
written feedback used in this study.
Results
Recruitment to the focus groups was
difficult. Following the initial email
approach to students, only five made
contact with the research assistant. A
total of three emails over five weeks were
sent. The study commenced when three
Indigenous students, three international
students and five local students
volunteered. Of the volunteers, two
Indigenous students, two international
students and five local students attended
the focus groups. One international
student was from Asia, the other from
Europe. Of the local students, three were
mature-aged, meaning they were over
21 years. The duration of focus groups
ranged from 40 minutes to 120 minutes.
The research assistant received the
following email, which is reproduced
with permission, to explain why
recruitment for the study was
proving difficult:
“I would like to make a small
suggestion as to why you are finding
it a bit difficult to find volunteers for
these sessions. It is because people are
afraid of being labelled racist – which
Table 1: Snippets taken from written comments, SELTs, 2005
Positive: What are the best aspects of the course and why?
In a place like Australia, it is important to be encouraged to consider culture and cultural difference.
Accounts from people who have experienced what they’re trying to educate us in makes it more real
and emotive.
I can now understand psychology in culture.
Need more of this work on culture.
Discussion on cultural psychology – it’s about time someone addressed this issue.
Personal insights and stories by lecturers.
Negative: This course could be changed in the following way to improve my learning
Need to include as many examples from different cultural viewpoints as possible.
It felt like the lectures were a guilt trip.
Looking at other cultures to compare and contrast to Indigenous Australian culture.
Indigenous Australian stuff interesting – but don’t really see its relevance.
I didn’t understand how the ‘stolen generation’ stuff tied in with psychology.
The relevance of studying Indigenous culture should be emphasised.
Rehashing stuff I had done in other subjects, so I was bored.
Less personal lectures, especially the stuff on Aboriginal culture.

36
Table 2: Examples of positive comments made by focus group participants in the focus groups
Theme Focus group Quote
Interesting Local The Aboriginal stuff I found very good. It was very much in people’s faces,
and I found that it made a lot of students around me quite uncomfortable .
. . so it was interesting from that point of view.
Enjoyable Indigenous Yeah, I mean I enjoyed it and thought it was very relevant, like I felt like it
should have been included, like it belonged there (in the curriculum).
Important International Australia has the opportunity to access to all different culture so I see this
as really important.
Relevant Indigenous I see the relevance of Indigenous culture being put into psychology.
Personal
perspective
Local I quite enjoyed the personal element. It made it more real.
Context Indigenous And in terms of having an emphasis on Indigenous mental health, I think
these problems are very real and they are part of the context that future
practitioners will be working in . . .
Applied Indigenous Yeah, I enjoyed it and got a lot from it in terms of thinking about
potentially dealing with clients. You know you’ve got to know how to deal
with people from different backgrounds otherwise you are useless as
a psychologist.
DOES happen quite a bit if any
views critical of anything indigenous
are aired. I would normally volunteer
to participate in a session like this but
am reluctant to for this exact reason.
It has happened to me a number
of times in the past when I have
disagreed with some piece of political
correctness or another. The silencing
of dissent/disagreement regarding
matters Indigenous has been very
effective in Australia to the point
that many people are wary of even
thinking something that may offend
someone or another’s sensibilities.
I am half expecting some sort of
label merely for sending this email,
but I feel compelled to air my view
regarding this, at least.”
Themes
It is important to note that the students
were asked to discuss their views on
Indigenous and cross-cultural psychology
content. The aim was to use prompts,
in the form of written comments made
by students in their SELTs, to facilitate
open discussion about why positive
and less positive comments were being
made. The overwhelming focus was
on the Indigenous material presented
in the curriculum: almost nothing was
mentioned regarding the broader, cross-
cultural content.
Across the three focus groups the
material was seen to be “interesting”,
“enjoyable”, “important” and “relevant”,
and the “personal perspective” given by
the Indigenous lecturer was appreciated
by the local and Indigenous student
groups, but this was not mentioned by
the international group. The Indigenous
group felt that the material gave
“context” to other areas in psychology
and also considered that it was valuable
for “applied” settings.
Examples of some of the comments
made by students across the three focus
groups, which might be considered
positive, are presented in Table 2.

37
Negative themes predominated in
the international group, and the local
group tended towards more negative
thematic content in their discussions.
These negative themes included that
the material was “repetitive” (all three
groups) and that it was “narrow”, with a
perception that “other” cultures should
be discussed, rather than focussing
solely on Indigenous Australian
culture. Specifically, local students
cited discussing cultures from Asia, the
Pacific Islands and New Zealand, and
the international students mentioned
South, mid- and North Asia, New
Zealand, America, Canada, Norway
and Afghanistan. The Indigenous group
also agreed that the material was too
“narrow” and proposed that there could
be material about Indigenous people
from New Zealand and Canada and
about refugees, including Sudanese and
“boat people”.
The material was seen by the local
students to be “confronting”, with
discussion around feelings of guilt
and psychological discomfort. The
international and Indigenous groups
did not discuss this. Both the local
and international groups felt that
the material was “subjective” and the
international group did not appreciate
“personal perspectives” as given by the
Indigenous lecturer, seeing them to be
“lacking in evidence base” and biased.
Whilst the local group was less critical
of the “personal perspective”, they also
voiced concerns that this was “lacking in
evidence base”. Both the international
and local group felt that the material was
“non-applied”, explaining that what they
meant by this was that no solutions for
Indigenous problems were offered.
The local group discussed feeling that
the material was “discriminatory”
against non-Indigenous people. Whilst
the International group did not discuss
this in relation to themselves, they did
express empathy for their “Australian”
friends, and both groups expressed
racist sentiments against Indigenous
Australians. The Indigenous group
also expressed empathy for their non-
Indigenous classmates, stating that they
may struggle to understand or relate to
some of the material.
The local and international groups
expressed concern that the material
was “lacking integration” with other
components of the psychology
curriculum, given the perception that
many of the issues raised were not
necessarily revisited elsewhere, for
example, the implicit assumptions
made in psychology regarding human
behaviour. The local group also noted
that psychology as a discipline lacks
integration with other disciplines, such
as anthropology.
The international group agreed with the
notion that the material was “irrelevant”,
and the Indigenous group, whilst
disagreeing with this, did acknowledge
that non-Indigenous students might:
“need a bit more help joining the
dots”. Both the local and international
students felt that the material was “not
psychology” but, rather, was politics
and history, and thus not appropriate
to a psychology curriculum. The
International group were concerned that
the material was “not exam focussed”
(despite the fact that it was examined)
and thus lacking in importance in
the curriculum.

38
Table 3: Examples of negative comments made by focus group participants in the focus groups
Theme Focus group Quote
Repetitive International If I was Australian grow up in this country listen to this same
story all over our life I would have been bored. Cos it was just
same story.
Narrow Local It was too narrow I thought. In first year they’re saying cross
cultural but my perspective it was all Aboriginal . . . and because
she repeated herself so often it made it sound like a victim
mentality . . .
Confronting Local Yeah. And yeah some of it would have been quite confronting to a
lot of people.
Subjective International I felt that we got the example of the lecturer and then very similar
ones on different people but all single accounts and for me to
judge ‘ok do these single accounts represent the whole situation
or is it just cherry picking dramatic situations’ which of course
trigger empathy and again leave us helpless in regards to what can
be done.
Personal perspectives
lacking in evidence
base
International I mean she was all emotional to hear her stories and make
me more interested in that subject. But then it was just
personal account.
Non-applied Local It’s like well this is a problem now you’re aware of it. There’s
nothing you can do to solve it and this is what you’ve done to us.
And that’s it. And any question about ‘well how can we make this
better?’ there was nothing. So that’s a big thing missing in the
whole course which probably . . .
Discriminatory Local That you know it’s like the white people’s fault, white people make
them feel uncomfortable. That they don’t want to open up to us.
They don’t want to try and, you know, resolve anything so there’s no
type of revolution . . . resolution
Lacking integration Local And getting people to do one anthropology subject even that would
help because you’re having to look at a lot more different cultures.
I’ve actually done a third-year anthropology subject this semester,
and I found that’s given me a much better insight into intercultural
psych. Much better than I got from the brief bit that was put in the
second year subject.
Irrelevant International So when I saw it, it was like ah, so I have to do it, so there’s no
choice. Oh, ok but why? Why is it linked to psychology?
Not psychology Local But it’s not politics though, we’re doing psychology, and that is the
other thing that we have to remember. This is about psychology. It’s
not about politics or development issues or how to actually deal
with them.
Racism International Because one of my friends said, ‘I work really hard every day, and
all my money goes to those stupid Aboriginal people just drinking.’
And I say, ‘first that’s really not good opinion because not every
people drink’, but also I was feeling a little sorry for him as well.
Obviously there was no story given to him like this is not your fault,
but you need to do this to make our society more harmonious.

39
Racism was apparent in the local and
international groups. The local group
made racist comments about Indigenous
and Asian people, and the international
group indicated that because the lecturer
identified herself as “Aboriginal” rather
than as a “Doctor”, she created a divide
between herself and the class. The
Indigenous group noted that they had
overheard and observed disrespectful
comments and behaviour towards the
Indigenous lecturer.
Examples of the comments made in
focus groups that were negative in tone
are presented in Table 3.
Discussion
The aim of this study was to determine
the views and attitudes of undergraduate
psychology students to their teaching
and learning experiences in Indigenous
and cross-cultural psychology classes at
the University of Adelaide. Discussion
was elicited by showing written
comments provided by students (as
part of a standardised evaluation of
the curriculum) to three student focus
groups and asking them to consider
previous students’ written feedback,
some of which expressed favourable
views, some unfavourable. The students
were purposefully sampled to form a
group of international, Indigenous and
local students. Recruitment was difficult,
and the resultant groups were small, with
two groups comprising two students, the
local group consisting of five.
Whilst the small sample size is a
weakness of the study, difficulty to
recruit was in itself a finding of this
research, with supplementary data
indicating that fear of being perceived
as racist may have been one reason
why students did not respond to calls
for participation. This implies that the
feedback, in this one case at least, would
have been negative. As a qualitative
study, there is no pretence that the
results are representative or generalisable.
However, given the dearth of systematic
research into the area, the data yielded
from the focus groups is valuable
and instructive.
The themes apparent across the focus
groups highlight several important
issues for educators in psychology
to consider. Undergraduate students
appear to have concrete views about
what is “psychology” and what is
not. “Scientific” studies are deemed
relevant, as are solution-focussed
perspectives, but personal accounts
and case studies are not so clearly
defined by students as appropriate to
the curriculum. Psychology has been
criticised for its lack of integration with
other social sciences (Fish, 2000), and
participants in this study recognised this
as a weakness to some extent but also
reinforced it, stating that Indigenous
mental and physical health belongs in
courses in politics and history. Thus,
educators may need to show clearly how
psychological theories and therapies are
themselves historical and political as
well as firmly based in Western cultural
assumptions. Despite efforts to impart
these messages to students, it was clear
that these messages were not understood
or accepted.
There has been considerable literature
over the last two decades that considers
the mental health needs of refugees
and migrants and the importance of
cultural competence (Carpenter-Song,
Nordquest Schwallie, & Longhofer,
2007). There has been little recognition,
though, that university students in

40
psychology classes across Australia
now represent a number of different
cultural backgrounds, particularly with
the burgeoning international student
industry that promotes psychology
as a course and recruits international
students from across the globe, most
particularly Asia (DEEWR, 2008).
Whilst students who have completed
secondary education in Australia may
be familiar with Indigenous issues, it
cannot be assumed that all members of
any class will share that knowledge. In
this study, the international students
were the most negative in their responses
to Indigenous psychology. Thus, in
formulating any teaching and learning in
the area, an appreciation of the diversity
of experiences and attitudes in the
classroom is necessary.
The curriculum spanned not only
Indigenous issues but also cross-
cultural issues, more generally. The
broader principles were imparted to
students, with the understanding, on the
educators’ part, that students would see
the relevance to all people, regardless of
cultural background. In this endeavour,
the education attempt failed, based on
focus group feedback, with a rejection of
the material as too narrow. For students,
broadening the material meant discussing
a number of different cultural groups.
Reflective practice – in part, the ability
to step back and consider what one
is thinking and why – is a difficult
but necessary aspect of both scholarly
activity and professional behaviour
(Lavender, 2003). In nursing and
medicine, reflection is encouraged
and facilitated from the first year of
training (Mann, Gordon, & MacLeod,
2009). Psychology lags behind in this
regard. Whilst reflective practice is most
appropriately emphasised during the
postgraduate years in psychology, when
training for registration to become a
practising psychologist, the results of
this study suggest that students may
benefit from a deeper understanding of
their reactions to learning experiences.
This is perhaps particularly relevant
when the material evokes emotional
reactions such as guilt, anger, fear and
the expression of racism. When working
in an Indigenous context, Sonn (2004)
indicates that reflective practice needs
to consider the broader explication of
power associated with social identities to
create cultural sensitivity in psychology.
Reflection through written portfolios
may be an appropriate starting point for
undergraduate students in areas such as
this, where more public reflections, such
as tutorial discussions, may be threatening,
and comments may be censored.
As a consequence of this research,
in 2010 we presented the study and
its findings to the class, in the hope
that alerting them to the comments
made (both positive and negative)
would encourage self-reflection and
a more balanced offering of feedback
on evaluation forms. The feedback
from the 2010 cohort was in fact
qualitatively similar – education through
presentation of this research appeared
to have no quantifiable effect, with
a number of very negative as well as
positive comments again made. In
2011, much of the curriculum was
completely rewritten, with material
in lectures focussing on: culture in
context; culture as it relates to theory,
research and practice; racism, prejudice,
whiteness and white privilege; the social
determinants of Indigenous mental
and physical health; and consideration

41
of Indigenous historical events at the
broader global level as well as the specific
Australian level. At the time of writing,
no evaluations were available for an
assessment of the efficacy of this amended
curriculum on students’ perceptions and
the feedback given by them.
As well as considering the attitudes
and views of students, the impact of
their reactions on educators needs to be
considered. Whilst Indigenous academics
are committed to their work with non-
Indigenous students, recognising the
educational importance of ensuring
knowledge of Indigenous issues (Asmar
& Page, 2009), it comes at a price. There
is a growing body of evidence suggesting
high levels of stress for Indigenous
lecturers (who often teach Indigenous
topics in various departments, not only
their primary area). Stress is experienced
in relation to academic work and the
inherent difficulties of interacting with
often resistant and sometimes racist non-
Indigenous students (Asmar & Page,
2009). This stress can lead to feelings of
anger and frustration for the Indigenous
lecturers. Literature indicates that
teaching unmotivated or non-compliant
students is one of the indicators for
teachers at risk of stress and burnout
(Wyld, 2008). Similar difficulties in
shifting existing paradigms and the
emotional consequences for African-
American academics has been noted and
discussed in terms of ‘emotional labour’
(Harlow, 2003). The level of stress may
even be more paramount when the
Indigenous lecturer is the only Indigenous
lecturer in the school or faculty.
With the APS and universities stating
that they are committed to the
promotion of Indigenous content
in curricula, there is an inherent
responsibility to the lecturers who
provide such content. Cultural safety
and support is needed for lecturers,
particularly for Indigenous academics,
as well as students (Taylor & Guerin,
2010). Wyld (2008) recommends
mentoring and debriefing after all
sessions, particularly after challenging
lectures, tutorials or workshops as
important to maintaining appropriate
stress levels and survival within a
university setting. Support from
colleagues is also vital to combating
stress and building resilience (Howard &
Johnson, 2004).
With little research upon which to
draw, further studies are required on
the teaching and learning experiences
of psychology students in Indigenous
and cross-cultural psychology, and the
corresponding experiences of their
lecturers. Future research is needed
to determine whether the sentiments
expressed by students in this study are
in fact idiosyncratic or generalise across
different universities – a survey of all
Australian psychology students would
be instructive. Similarly, an empirical
study to explore the experiences of
staff who teach these materials would
be valuable. Lessons learned should
be translated into curriculum design,
and any changes made evaluated in a
systematic way. The students in our
classes are the professionals of the
future. Not all will become registered
psychologists who work with clients
from diverse backgrounds, but many will
go on to hold positions of responsibility
in the community. Psychologists owe it
to the community as well as to students
to promote a more reflective, deeper
understanding and appreciation of the
complexities of human behaviour and

42
the essential role culture plays in our
understanding of it.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the V.R. East
Bequest, which funded this research, the
psychology office staff who assisted in
sending out emails and the participants
for their frank and open discussions
during the focus groups.
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