Toward Culturally Relevant Teacher Education Within the Tribal College: Examining Safe and Unsafe Spaces in Early Childhood Education

• In Event: Examining and Applying Safety Zone Theory: Current Policies, Practices, and Experiences

Abstract

In 2011 the American Indian College Fund, through a W. K. Kellogg grant, awarded four tribal colleges the Wakanyeja ‘Sacred Little Ones’- Tribal College Readiness and Success by Third Grade Initiative. A goal of the initiative is to improve the quality of early childhood teachers in Native communities through teacher training programs. Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), a grantee of this initiative, has worked hard to examine and improve its associate’s degree program in Early Childhood Education (ECE). As part of its efforts, SIPI offered a Special Topics course that focused on Native American curriculum development. This Special Topics course has provided the opportunity for teachers in training to begin infusing Native language and culture within early childhood classrooms. Students utilized Lomawaima and McCarty’s (2006) Safety Zone Theory as a lens to examine eras in Indian education as well as develop a critical perspective on the current educational climate. As SIPI seeks to create increasingly relevant programs, it considers theories and perspectives that students can utilize to further develop an increasing awareness and motivation to develop early childhood curriculum steeped in tribal language and culture.
SIPI’s Initiative seeks to answer the following research questions:
In what ways does SIPI’s Special Topics course help mark the contours of the safety zones within a historical context? How has the course “helped shape or shift, or respond to, wide-spread notions of safe or dangerous cultural difference?” (Lomawaima & McCarty, 2006, p. 14). This data stems from a larger SIPI IRB-approved phenomenological study. Data collected will assist SIPI in refining the Special Topics course for inclusion as a required course within SIPI’s ECE program. Methods of data collection include document analysis, personal interview and focus groups. Preliminary analysis reveals that students utilize the Safety Zone Theory to situate their own experiences and those of their family and community to better understand historical and contemporary struggles to maintain Native language and culture. The Safety Zone theory provides a tool for students to examine context and practices in order to carve out spaces for developing culturally relevant curriculum within early childhood settings. Brayboy, Fann, Castagno, & Solyom, (2012) posit that formal education provides the foundation for Indigenous citizens to pursue goals that benefit their communities. Through a Native nation-building approach students can increase their ability to create change in tribal communities. Castagno (2012) notes that teacher preparation programs often possess paradigms that do not allow for unique approaches that recognize the unique identities of groups such as tribal citizens. SIPI aims to utilize the Special Topics course to develop a Native nation building approach that recognizes the unique context of tribal communities. This study illustrates the role tribal colleges can play in developing Native American teachers who possess the motivation and skills to develop culturally relevant curriculum in tribal early childhood settings.

Author

• Danielle R. Lansing