Constructing Indigenous Pedagogy in American Indian Education Classrooms

• In Event: Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Indigenist Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper will present findings from a study that will examine how graduate students’ in American Indian Education graduate level courses construct knowledge and learn about Indigenous pedagogy through specific class activities. The primary focus of the study will be to analyse how students, many of whom are teachers of Indigenous (Native American) students, find class activities to be meaningful, engaging, and culturally relevant and congruent to their understanding or construction of an Indigenous pedagogy. Using qualitative methods through informal interviews, questionnaires, and surveys, the study will highlight and shed new light on how teachers of Indigenous (Native American) youth can articulate and create meaningful, engaging, and culturally relevant learning activities in their own classrooms.

Authors

• Vincent R. Werito, University of New Mexico

• Vangee Nez, University of New Mexico