"Teach, Grounded in Who You Are": Advancing Democratizing Possibilities in Indigenous Education, Research, and Praxis

• In Event: 66.032 - Challenging Colonial Legacies in Education: Reclaiming Indigenous Culture, Language, and Heritage in the Americas

Abstract

At a recent national conference for American Indian/Indigenous teachers and educators, the venue for presenting “cutting edge” culturally responsive approaches for transforming teacher education programs “to better prepare teachers working in Indian serving schools,” noted Oglala Lakota educator, Dr. Sandra Fox opened her keynote on Indian education with the questions: “Why are we not further along? Shouldn’t we have culture in every classroom? Acknowledging that in fact, “We’re still struggling with this [issue],” and reflective of “a crisis time in Indian education.” Recurrent challenges including policy demands, elusive approaches for integration of culture and language, and the need for a cohesive and systemic movement regrettably evidence minimal change toward democratizing possibilities in Indian education reform. Castagno’s (2012) study of an Indigenous Teacher Preparation program is further evidence of how such a trajectory continues to be forestalled through influences exerted by external entities: a program that is federally funded, developed by two White faculty members albeit a collaborative process with the tribal community, and implemented by as well as housed in a White university. Further, Castagno, the external evaluator, described herself as a “member of the [university] community,” and as a White woman, “very much outside of the [tribal] community” (p. 5) of the Indigenous teacher cohort. The discourse and practices in Indian education reform substantiate the “promise and paradox” (Castagno, 2014) of pursuing and realizing systemic and transformative change through Indigenous teacher-preparation programs entrenched in the larger context of continuing colonization and assimilation as well as institutional racism that still structure educational institutions. More telling of the legacy of educational injustice is captured by Dr. Fox who described herself as a “recovering BIE (Bureau of Indian Education) employee,” who has “just now figured out Indigenous education.” In closing her keynote address titled In a Culturally Appropriate Way: Promises and Possibilities, she implored educators to exercise “our [Indigenous] common sense . . . take this further . . . [because] it is sure worth it.” I am compelled to do so. In this paper, I advance Castagno’s (2012) proposition that Indigenous communities “need teachers who know the local language and culture, are committed long-term to the health of the community, and have the knowledge and skills needed to provide rigorous, effective, and relevant education to students” (p. 9). Drawing on my dissertation findings and experiences as a newly tenured Indigenous faculty in a research one university setting, I take a reflective approach in examining my own teacher-preparation journey as a case study steeped in a decolonizing process that has been twofold: 1) “reversing the ‘brainwashing’—a renegotiation of cultural values and role relationships vis-á-vis both “traditional” and “modern” institutions” (Watahomigie & McCarty, 1995, p. 38); and 2) “(re)culturalization,”—engaging in an ongoing study of my cultural identity including restoring my heritage language. I explore how this decolonizing process forwards a democratizing approach—“teach, grounded in who you are”—to integrating, introducing and privileging Indigenous epistemologies as conceptual frameworks in and for Indigenous education research and praxis.

Author

• Sheilah E. Nicholas, The University of Arizona