Teachers’ motivation to teach Aboriginal perspectives in the curriculum: links with their Aboriginal students’ academic motivation

Teaching Aboriginal perspectives is a cross-curriculum priority aimed at supporting Aboriginal school students’ beliefs about themselves and promoting mutual respect and understanding between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members of society. Many teachers feel they lack the efficacy to teach Aboriginal perspectives, and this may have implications for their Aboriginal students’ academic development. The present study of 293 Australian school teachers investigated their motivation (self-efficacy and valuing) to teach Aboriginal perspectives, the predictive roles of intrapersonal (adaptability) and interpersonal (teacher-student relationships) agency, and links between their motivation and the academic motivation (academic self-efficacy and valuing of school) of Aboriginal students in their class. We found that adaptability and relational connections with Aboriginal students were associated with greater motivation to teach Aboriginal perspectives that in turn was positively associated with perceptions of their Aboriginal students’ academic motivation. These results provide insight into the motivational dimensions of teaching Aboriginal perspectives and the factors that may be targeted to better support this motivation, with a view to better supporting Aboriginal students’ own motivation to learn at school.