Training the ego: Indigenous students and the discourses of tertiary teaching and learning

Abstract

This paper examines the relations of power produced through the practice of English at university. Through a series of ethnographic interviews, I find that Indigenous students at university are positioned through the discursive techniques practiced in the tutorial room to take a metaphorical stand in their talking and writing. They are learning to argue rather than to negotiate a position in common with others. While we would like students to consider all the positions carefully, we require them at every point to be judgmental and egotistical about a world which is constituted as objective through the scientific discourse of the university. They learn a scientific methodology that requires them to describe, compare, categorise, analyse and interpret. But such a methodology produces a competitive, individualist and judgemental approach to human relations. While it makes the ego stronger, it undermines the possibility of Indigenous students negotiating any sense of belonging in the university classroom.