Colonization and Erasure: The Experiences of Indigenous Students in K–12

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: "The Only Light We've Got": Storytelling and Critical Literacies as Method and Antiracist Praxis

Abstract

Context and Purpose
“My mother told me, ‘Baby, doesn’t she know that our stories are our theories? And she thinks she’s smarter than you because she can’t tell stories?’” (Brayboy, 2005, p. 246). This paper focuses on ways Indigenous peoples experience K12 education through the use of storytelling. For Indigenous communities, stories convey critical information about history, culture, language, spirituality, and survival. Through the use of storytelling within research, it affirms Indigenous students and their identities. Brayboy and Maaka (2015) support the idea that understanding Indigenous student’s values and beliefs is central to providing meaningful academic and career guidance that leads towards educational attainment. Equally important is providing a learning environment that promotes student achievement, academic satisfaction, and academic self-confidence. Furthermore, storytelling serves as a disruption to the western narrative while also being able to co-create knowledge and form relationships between researcher and participants.

Theoretical Framework and Methods
Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) will be used to discuss the interactions of Indigenous Peoples with educational systems as part of my dissertation study currently in progress. TribalCrit (Brayboy, 2015) outlines the central tenets to “address the issues of Indigenous Peoples in the United States” (p. 427). Furthermore, an Indigenous identity is transformed by migration from one place to another. Makomenaw (2012) states that the methodology chosen is decided by a researcher that “understands the role of Indigenous history, culture, language, and self-determination in the lives of Indigenous Peoples” (p. 858). Indigenous methodology is about the relationships between the storyteller/researcher and the land and people along with taking into consideration the lives of Indigenous Peoples as co-creators of research. Indigenous methodologies use a wide range of ways to gain knowledge, but for this work, I will use storytelling as a way to gather and weave the stories together to create something tangible. (Drawson, Toombs, Mushsquash, 2017).

Smith (2008) posits that “Indigenous researchers are expected, by their communities and by the institutions which employ them, to have some form of historical and critical analysis of the role of research in the indigenous world. This means having that inner sense of accountability towards the community. Furthermore, Indigenous Methodologies differ from the western approach because each research brings forth their positionality based on the ontology from a place, such as an Indigenous place, a tribe, an urban community. It is also important to note that Indigenous research is coming from the “fundamental belief that knowledge is relational. Knowledge is shared with all creation” (Wilson, 2008, p. 56) and that research is relational.

Scholarly significance
The lack of research about Indigenous Peoples and their experiences in K12 educational systems is an issue and one that perpetuates colonization through the erasure of Indigenous identity. Furthermore, there are few stories written by Indigenous scholars because most are done by the dominant culture. It is precisely these issues that remain alive today and continue to silence these communities around the world. The importance of storytelling as a way to give participants a voice through their storytelling while empowering them to co-create new Indigenous knowledge and research.

Author

• junior reina