Research story 

Country as Teacher is a growing body of research and practice, deeply informed by the teachings of Damu Paul Gordon. It invites educators to engage with Country not just as a place, but as a living, central knowledge holder.

At the heart of this work are three central stories: Jumbal, Googar, and the 6Ls. These stories offer foundational ways of understanding how Country teaches. A version of these stories is shared in the 2020 paper by Karulkiyalu Country et al.

Over the past five years, two major research projects have engaged more than 120 teachers across ACT schools. These projects supported educators to first cultivate their own experiences of 'Relating with Country' reguarly spending time looking and listening with Country, before developing their own pedagogical approaches grounded in these relationships.

The transformative experiences from the first project  revealed a key insight is that this practice Relating with Country practice is accessible to all teachers — and begins with listening, noticing, and being with Country. Read more of the transformative accounts here. 

After Relating with Country,  teachers were supported to build and then enacted their own Country as Teacher pedagogies. Despite the disruptions of COVID in the first project, many educators reported:

• High levels of student engagement

• A sense of wellness and connection through these experiences

• The emergence of inquiry-based approaches, which gave them ‘permission’ to continue these pedagogies even when they didn’t align directly with the Australian Curriculum

A strong theme emerged in the qualitative data: teachers felt a growing moral imperative — a deep sense of responsibility — to continue this work “for the students.”  These findings are further explored in this article. 

There are two forthcoming publications from the second project which explores a whole of school approach. 

The findings suggested highlight how Country as Teacher can be taught in schools and the need for ongoing support for educators to continue building their practice. 

Based on these.... we have built this network.