Professor Lester Rigney

In 2021 esteemed Professor Rigney was appointed member in the General Division (AM) for significant service to Education and to social inclusion research. His long research career has provided theoretical beginnings of the academic field ‘Indigenist Epistemologies’ and findings were central to the field ‘Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogies’. He was Distinguished Fellow at Kings College, London and Deakin University. He was inducted as Fellow of Australian Academy of Humanities in 2023.Professor Rigney is a descendent of the Narungga Nation, Yorke Peninsula South Australia. He is esteemed Professor of Education and Co-Chair of the Pedagogies for Justice Research group in the Centre for Research in Educational and Social Inclusion, based in the Education Futures, Academic Unit at the University of South Australia. He has a long and distinguished record of researching with public schools for systemic, policy and pedagogical reform toward equality, social justice and democratic inclusion. As a researcher of school leadership and epistemology he is best known for theory of Australian Culturally Responsive Pedagogies and Indigenist Epistemologies. He is a member of the Centro Loris Malaguzzi Scientific Committee, for the Foundation Reggio Emilia Children. One of Australia’s most respected Aboriginal educationalists, he is well published and has led several research teams funded by the Australian Research Council. In 2018 the Australian Council of Educational Leaders awarded Professor Rigney its highest honour for writing – the Hedley Beare Award. Over the past three decades, he has been a member of several high profile expert committees including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare COAG 'Closing the Gap' Scientific Reference Group, the National Aboriginal Reference Group 25 year Indigenous Education Plan and Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority, National Languages Curriculum Reference Group. Professor Rigney was the inaugural Co-Chair of Ethics Council for the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples. In 2009 Professor Rigney was co-author of the review of the National Indigenous Education document Australian Directions for the Federal Government. Since 2016 Professor Rigney has been Scientific Expert on Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC). His professional standing in education saw him inducted into the Australian College of Educators (ACE) in 1998. He is well published and has led several research teams funded by the Australian Research Council and other competitive grants including: Indigenist Research Epistemologies a Historical Journey of Conviction, Contradiction and Transformation; Addressing the Gap between Policy and Implementation: Strategies for Improving Educational Outcomes of Indigenous Students; and Towards an Australian culturally responsive pedagogy. Professor Rigney is best known for his work on Indigenist Research Epistemologies and Aboriginal Education that puts him at the forefront for early learning, schooling and language rights from 1990s to the 2000s. According to Rigney’s three principles of Indigenist epistemology – schools, teachers and researchers must build community partnerships and embed Aboriginal cultures as driving force for transformative, culturally responsive education. Many teachers and policy writers have been inspired by Rigney’s writings that promotes the idea that culturally responsive schooling is built from the experiences and abilities students bring to class. Professor Rigney has worked across the Pacific on Indigenous Education from New Zealand, Taiwan to Canada. He received an honorary United Nations award from the Australian Chapter for his work on Indigenous Education. In 2011 he won the National Aboriginal scholar of the Year NAIDOC. In the same year he was appointed by the Australian Government Minister for School Education, Early Childhood and Youth, to the First Peoples Education Advisory Group that advised on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood and school education. He has also been was ministerial appointed Ambassador for Aboriginal Education. He has been appointed of expert committees including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare COAG 'Closing the Gap' Scientific Reference Group, the National Aboriginal Reference Group 25 year Indigenous Education Plan and Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority, National Languages Curriculum Reference Group. He was the inaugural Co-Chair of Ethics Council for the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples. He co-authored the review of the National Indigenous Education document Australian Directions that informed for a decade the Federal Government’s Closing the Gap policy.

Australian Association for Research in Education

Australian College of Education

American Educational Research Association

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

Member of the Federation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages

Qualifications

• Doctorate of Philosophy Flinders University

• Master of Education (Curriculum Leadership) University of South Australia

• Bachelor of Education (Secondary Physical Education) University of South Australia