(Re)Storying Personal Narratives: Pathways to Indigenous Teacher Identities

• In Event: 66.047 - Indigenous Education Reconstructed and Reimagined: Countering "Post-Truths" Through Indigenous Teacher Education

Abstract

Preparing teachers to address unique Tribal needs is essential and requires a shift in curriculum and teaching methods within teacher education programs (Author & Author, 2012; Grande, 2015; Kana'iaupuni & Kawai'ae'a, 2008; Kawai’ae’a, 2008; Author, 2017; Whitinui, France & Mclvor, 2017). Given the unique social and political realities within Indigenous communities, Indigenous concerns, needs, languages, and knowledge systems are central to the process of indigenizing teaching and teacher education. In particular, the intersection of Indigenous knowledge (Cajete, 2015; Battiste, 2013) and critical Indigenous theoretical orientations (Brayboy, 2006; Grande, 2015; Lomawaima & McCarty, 2006; Smith, 2012) have contributed to the ways in which we can both reconstruct and reimagine curriculum and pedagogical choices for Indigenous learning contexts. Theoretical orientations, such as critical Indigenous pedagogy (Author & Author, 2012) and Indigenous social justice pedagogy (Author, 2017), call for Indigenous educators to be intentional in privileging Indigenous values and knowledge. With the analytical tools for deconstructing educational choices from critical Indigenous theoretical orientations, educators and scholars have become influenced to rethink the process and purpose of schooling in ways that are transformative, sustainable, and lead to social change in Indigenous communities. As a result, it is anticipated that such transformative possibilities will contribute to nation-building within Indigenous communities.
In this presentation, the authors will position their personal and professional histories in relation to their roles and experiences of developing an Indigenous teacher education program within a predominantly white institution. Situating our positionalities that are grounded in our own Indigenous epistemologies and our personal experiences of schooling in relation to teacher education provides us with a unique lens that shapes the ways we engage Indigenous teacher education. In a study conducted with Indigenous preservice teachers within our Indigenous teacher education program, we examine the ways in which Indigenous preservice teachers develop an Indigenous teacher identity (Cajete, 2015) that is rooted in preserving and privileging Indigenous knowledge systems and languages in Indigenous communities. By drawing upon Indigenous preservice teachers’ digital stories and reflective dialogues, the presenters will discuss the ways in which they indigenize their curriculum and pedagogy. The guiding research questions are: What does it mean to indigenize classrooms? and How do critical theoretical frameworks inform preservice teachers’ process of developing curriculum?

Authors

• Jeremy Garcia, University of Arizona

• Valerie J. Shirley, The University of Arizona