Empowering Indigenous Youth and Teachers as Nation Builders Through Indigenous Social Justice Pedagogy

• In Event: Knowledge Keepers as Public Intellects: Indigenous Perspectives Toward Nation Building and Democracy

Abstract

Looking forward our Indigenous youth will be at the forefront navigating the forces of colonialism while leading Indigenous nation building efforts in their own communities. Colonization has been the culprit of many of the social ills within Indigenous communities; and many of these social ills can be remedied by critically examining the historic and contemporary colonization process in addition to drawing on Indigenous knowledge and value systems to mobilize Indigenous communities to take action in resolving social issues and move forward in healthy and constructive ways that benefit Indigenous peoples. By critically examining the social problems and issues caused by aspects of colonialism within their Indigenous communities and drawing on Indigenous knowledge systems and values simultaneously, Indigenous youth can begin to actively work to improve the conditions in their tribal communities and beyond. Moreover, teachers have the capacity to prepare youth for this responsibility. Through the framework of social justice pedagogy, teachers can create learning opportunities for youth to develop a critical consciousness around sociocultural, economic and political issues and to mobilize students toward the process of critique and problem solving of the issues. By indigenizing the framework of social justice pedagogy, educators engage Indigenous youth in decolonizing and indigenizing processes that assist in raising awareness of social issues occurring in Indigenous communities while sustaining cultural values and knowledge systems concurrently. In addition, by problematizing democracy in Indigenous educational contexts, educators begin to reconceptualize the democratic process to promote sovereignty and nation building. The purposes of this proposed paper presentation is to problematize democracy by providing an overview of social justice pedagogy and explain its role in Indigenous nation building efforts; to critically reflect on the role and intersection of social justice pedagogy and decolonization/indigenization within curriculum and pedagogy; and to examine the ways in which teachers can teach in ways that empower students to be active change agents in their communities.

Specifically, this proposed presentation will draw on the experiences of working with two Indigenous groups: Diné youth (ages 12-14) and Hopi preservice teachers. The work with Diné youth is a critical Indigenous qualitative research study that drew on the framework of Tribal Critical Race Theory (Brayboy, 2006). This study examined how the youth conceptualized their identity in relation to the history of colonization, contemporary influences and the Diné philosophy and epistemology. The results of this work stem from focus group sessions and semi-structured interviews and highlight the emotional learning journey the youth experienced. This significance of this work offers implications for curriculum and pedagogy within Indigenous education. The work with Hopi preservice teachers is a reflection on the critical dialogues that occurred in a social studies methods course in their teacher preparation program. These discussions focused on rethinking the ways in which social studies is taught from an Indigenous social justice perspective. The results of the two projects assist in examining the potential tensions and spaces of empowerment for engaging in curriculum development to promote Indigenous nation building and sovereignty.

References:
Brayboy, B. (2006). Toward a Tribal Critical Race Theory in Education. The Urban Review, 37(5).

Author

• Valerie J. Shirley, The University of Arizona