A Methodology of Beauty

• In Event: Solidarity of Difference: A Caring Discussion About Culture, Power, and New Traditions in Higher Education

Abstract

Objectives: Native Americans who serve as executive, administrative and managerial staff make up only 0.5% of the total population of full-time staff in institutions of higher education (NCES, 2010), making this group the least represented in college settings. While many of these same professionals are critical to the recruitment and retention of Native students (Shotton, Lowe, & Waterman, 2013), what support is available for this group, who function within various enclaves of the academy? This paper inquires about how, what, and why I chose to resist, transform, negotiate or accept conditions that are part of a post-secondary context. Analytic questions that guide this work include:

• In what ways do I sync my cultural skills, knowledge and mode of inquiry with mainstream institutional values?
• How do I engage and name my commitment to build a diverse and inclusive campus climate?
• As I work to create an empowering university context, in what manner do I locate and create these spaces for myself?

Theoretical Framework: This paper utilizes a paradigm of Diné thought known as Sa’ąh Naagháí Bik’eh Hózhóón (SNBH), defined as a long life of happiness (Lee, 2014). Emerson’s (2003) Western and Indigenous learning modalities matrix; Werito’s (2014) four principles (conceptualization, actualization, action, and reflection) of Hózhó; and my positionality as a Diné, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara woman, mother, scholar, and university administrator, will shape this framework. Cross-pollinated with Darder’s (2012) notion of critical bicultural pedagogy, this paper will advance the examination of “power, politics, history and culture as intimately and ideologically linked with any theory of education” (p. 82).
Methods: Autoethography involves the gathering of written, oral, and visual narratives to allow me to socially construct and examine my experiences (Ellis and Bochner, 2000). I am the primary researcher and participant; thus, my story is not only my methodology (McAlpin, 2008).
Data Sources: Data used in the analysis of this paper were derived from three sources: Hooghan (non-modern home-place of Diné) dialogues; creation and use of Diné traditional modalities; and my positionality as an Indigenous woman, scholar, mother, and university administrator.
Results: The Fourth World space of higher education serves as a phenomenon and continuation of the Diné creation story. Adversities encountered in this journey birthed a grandmother’s consciousness. As a model of higher education leadership, it re-envisions leadership development as partitionless, womb-based, and restorative. Challenges remain in harmonizing this thinking with mainstream mission, vision, values, traditions, and norms of higher education contexts.

Scholarly Significance: Most framing, research, and practice in understanding Natives in higher education, do not account for the daily and historical experiences of Native people (Shotton, Lowe, and Waterman, 2013). To this end, few investigations have evaluated how Native American people employ Indigenous philosophical principles to make meaning of experiences in modern contexts (Lee, 2014). This paper responds to the dearth of literature in these areas of study.

Author

• Charlotte Elizabeth Davidson, South Dakota State University