Exploring the Tension Between Higher Education and Native Ways of Knowing: Challenges and Possibilities for Creative Spaces

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session will explore the tensions between western institutions of higher education and indigenous ways of knowing. The team of presenters includes indigenous people and first generation Mexican American college students/faculty who have ascended to teaching and faculty positions. The presentations will cross-boundaries of place, ethnicity, geography, theory, and practice. We propose to explore the tension we experience daily and expand the conversation to elaborate on effective practices. These strategies will include local ways of knowing that foster creativity, identity formation and new academic pedagogies. The life-long and time proven strategies of art, music, storytelling, dance, dichos, platicas, chistes, and corridos (Limon, 1992; 1994) will be explored as central vehicles for responding to viable pedagogical practices, local context, cultures, and knowledges.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Section 4: Social Context of Educational Policy, Politics, and Praxis

Chair

• Miguel Angel Guajardo, Texas State University - San Marcos

Papers

• Looking Beyond the Degree: How Cultural Identity Impacts Transformative Community-Focused Work - Kaiwipuni Lipe, University of Hawaii - Manoa

• On Critical Consciousness and Reclaiming Our Stories and Traditions: Making Manifest Nontraditional Ways of Knowing Within Traditional Learning Spaces - Monica Valadez, Texas State University

• Mo‘olelo - Lia O'Neill M. A. Keawe, University of Hawaii - Manoa