Playing with Power: Silence, Supervision, and the Fracturing of Culturally Relevant Curriculum in Indigenous Teacher Preparation

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 11:45 am
  In Poster Session: Foundations of Teaching and Teacher Education for Socio-Cultural, Racial, and Intersecting Minoritized Identities

Abstract

This study critically examines the experiences of five teacher candidates placed at a Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) school in the southwestern United States, as they sought to implement a culturally relevant curriculum (CRC) within a context shaped by settler colonialism, institutional ambiguity, and relational power dynamics. Drawing on critical Indigenous theory, critical discourse analysis, and a double hermeneutic framework, the research interrogates how participants navigated professional filtering, curricular uncertainty, and ethical tensions during their clinical preparation. Findings reveal how fractured supervision and vague curricular models amplified institutional silencing—particularly around race, culture, and disability—and positioned candidates in precarious roles as informal mediators between university systems and school community voices.

Authors

• Kristopher M. Goodrich, University of New Mexico

• Heather Sands, University of New Mexico