Exploring the marking of a reflective assessment task: a collaborative autoethnography by educators navigating Indigenous allyship in higher education

The aim of this study was to closely examine the experiences of non-Indigenous academics in marking a single assessment task designed to promote cultural safety practice in a health professional programme. In recognition of institutional racism and significant health and wellbeing disparity in Indigenous wellbeing, cultural safety is recognised as essential knowledge across professions in tertiary education. An assessment task was designed to support students' written critical reflection to promote their cultural safety practice. A collaborative autoethnography by four academics critically reflected on the tensions in marking this reflective assignment as non-Indigenous educators. Thematic analysis was conducted on transcriptions of the authors' discussions and a framework was developed in response to repeating sites of tension. The Indigenous allyship assessment framework: sharing the load was framed around the central theme of Navigating the Unsettling. It specifically draws attention to navigating the Personal (Heightened Responsibility and Partial Knowledge), Pedagogical (Judge the Meaningful and Feedback Conversations) and Persons and Processes (systems) (Efficiency Culture and Cost of Marking) tensions. Our conclusion was that non-Indigenous educators need to consciously navigate unsettling challenges to do justice to assessment tasks to promote cultural safety.