Lever, Wedge, Screw: Simple Machines of Decolonization, a Homegrown Framework

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Race, Identity And Temporality In Decolonial Education

Abstract

Flagged by the state’s Department of Public Instruction for high rates of racially disproportionate, negative outcomes (i.e., high rates of expulsion, suspension, special education identification) among Indigenous youth, this public high school research site agreed to form a school-university-tribal partnership and help assemble an inclusive team of stakeholders to redesign the schoolwide behavioral support system. Indigenous stakeholders and white administrators and teachers confronted generations of mistrust and poor relationships as well as lingering effects of settler-colonialism. Through analysis of participant interactions, a new, organically grown and grounded theoretical framework emerged from data that simultaneously reveals and counteracts colonial damage. This paper offers Simple Machines of Decolonization to help educators confront their own settler colonial-entrenched roots of systemic dysfunction.

Authors

• Linda Orie, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Aydin Bal, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Dian Mawene, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Morgan Mayer-Jochimsen, University of Wisconsin - Madison