A 48-year old man presented with back pain that was resistant to treatment. An MR scan showed spondylolisthesis at L4-5 and narrowing of the exit foraminae. He had a posterior fusion which did not relieve his symptoms. He continued to have back pain and developed subcutaneous nodules in both forearms. Biopsy from the skin revealed cutaneous sarcoidosis, and one from the lumbar spine showed sarcoidosis granuloma between the bone trabeculae. A CT scan of the abdomen and chest revealed axillary lymphadenopathy, mediastinal enlarged nodes, apical nodular nodes and splenomegaly. The patient was started on large doses of methotrexate and steroids. His angiotensin-converting enzyme and calcium levels returned to normal and the back pain resolved.

This paper explores the dynamics and outcomes from a collaborative, cross-cultural approach to teaching an Indigenous education elective unit in a Bachelor of Education (Primary) undergraduate degree at University of Ballarat in 2009. The three facilitators, one non-Aboriginal and two Aboriginal were a lecturer, an Aboriginal Centre Manager and Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group member from the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Cooperative respectively. The paper explores the open-ended and collaborative approach used to facilitate the learning, including pedagogies, activities and assessment. The paper, and the collaborative cross-cultural teaching approach it arguably embodies, is presented as a model of desirable practice with undergraduate education students, in particular for pre-service teachers undertaking a P-10 Bachelor of Education degree. As we describe later in the paper, these pre-service teachers, with some exceptions, in general had very limited and often stereotyped knowledge and experience of Aboriginal education, Aboriginal students or Aboriginal perspectives in other areas of the school curriculum. The teaching process we adopted and that we articulate in this paper attempted to address this previous lack of engagement with the subject matter of Indigenous education by actively modelling the processes of local Aboriginal consultation and collaboration that we were trying to teach.

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