Our Strategies

Our Project

The Culturally Nourishing Schooling (CNS) Project works with project schools to implement a suite of iterative strategies across each year that work in support of deep, sustainable partnerships between schools, families and Aboriginal communities. This emphasis on establishing meaningful relationships and connections with Communities allows for a localised approach to understanding knowledges, histories, and experiences.  

The CNS framework was developed to support the creation of a sustainable, authentic and localised approach to schooling. The framework is collaboratively implemented with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, alongside school leaders and teachers. Our approach aims to impact all levels of schooling, to affect whole-of-school change that better supports the motivations and outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. This approach is one that sets CNS apart from other school-based initiatives. 


Culturally Nourishing Schooling is both a research and practice project: The research enables us to track progress over time, identify key elements for success with strategies, and influence policy and systemic reform. 


The practice supports schools through professional learning, working with educators to change teaching and schooling practices that nourish their students and communities.  

Our research shows that implementing a range of professional learning strategies provides opportunities for teachers to learn about local histories and culture, implement culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy, and reflect on their role in providing a more inclusive and culturally nourishing approach to schooling. 

In addition to the focus on teaching practice, we look to ensure local communities desires and aspirations for their children’s education are heard, understood and respected, bringing to the forefront the need for community leadership as part of the program.  


We connect school leaders through a series of on-going professional conversations and events throughout the year. Working with principals, Cultural Mentors and other executive staff from participating schools, we focus on sharing leadership practice, collegial support and development opportunities to embed culturally nourishing schooling for sustainable continuation of the program in the long term.  

Why our CNS pedagogy works?

We take a localised approach to schooling, co-creating and implementing with schools and their local community, all the while being cognisant of local knowledge holders and their histories and experiences. We have moved the emphasis of our pedagogical work with schools to ensure that we focus on practices that support student intellectual inquiry and success. We do this by positioning the culturally nourishing pedagogies to sustain meaningful engagement in ways that:  

  • Seek to cultivate the health and vitality of cultural identities in the schooling journeys of Aboriginal students, 
  • encourages educators to prosecute a different relationship with their Aboriginal students to facilitate the nourishment of unique identities and cultures while ensuring full access to the curriculum, and 
  • prioritises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges, privileges their voices and strengthens self-determination.