Relational Forms of Life: Stories of Collective Continuance in Three Indigenous-Led Public Schools (Poster 24)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

Indigenous-led public schools are critical sites for experimenting and enacting educational sovereignty and yet are still caught within state control. This study is a multi-site ethnography and participatory design research across three Indigenous-led schools (e.g. Lahu, Chol, Dakota) in Chiang Rai, Thailand, Chiapas, Mexico, and Minneapolis, Minnesota to study how transformed land-educator-family relationships on Family Story Walks expand possibilities for transforming the everyday practices of educators. I ask: What forms of public schooling support Indigenous families’ collective continuance across generations in the face of competing demands and rapidly changing socioecological systems? I first explore this question through narrating the relational configurations through my own participation and responsibilities at each of these communities and the distinct role I play in each of them. Second, I explore how relational qualities of interaction and design constrained and expanded the possibilities of social dreaming (Espinoza, 2008) among teachers, students, and their intergenerational families. Using interaction analysis and community asset mapping, I trace and characterize the unfolding relational practices among the design team how we worked to design for distinct relational forms of learning where Indigenous family and land-based intellectual systems are the first ontological grounds of teaching and learning at school. As Indigenous communities navigate increased pressures and renewed ways to self-determine their futures, my research contributes sociocultural theories of intergenerational learning and thriving across place. I offer pragmatic strategies to regenerate new forms of schooling within global Indigenous relations toward collective thriving on Indigenous peoples’ terms.

Author

• Meixi *, University of Minnesota