Indigenous Education Commons^™

Exploration Of The Lived Experiences Of Native American Science Teachers Of The Great Plains: A Narrative Inquiry, Uma Ganesan

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

The complicated history of the education of Native American children through U.S. government-sponsored practices has led to the elimination of the Native children’s sense of Indian identity, culture, and language (Noel, 2002). In addition, increased emphasis on standardization and high-stakes accountability under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has resulted in less culturally responsive educational efforts and more Indigenous students left behind in school systems (Castagno & Brayboy, 2008). This has led to Indigenous students being underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields where they account for only 3% of STEM workers (Fry, Kennedy, & Funk, …

Indigenous Assessment Developers On Elements Of The Disjuncture-Response Dialectic: A Critical Comparative Case Study, David A. Sul

Doctoral Dissertations

The disjuncture-response dialectic proposes that the assessment development practices of Indigenous assessment developers exist within a broader environment where attention to broader themes such as settler colonialism (Wolfe, 2006) and Indigenous sovereignty is incorporated. To understand this dialectic, this study sought insight from Indigenous assessment developers about the issues they face when developing culturally specific assessments for use within their environments and settings.

This study used a critical (Giroux, 1979; Horkheimer, 2018; McKenzie, 2012) comparative case study approach (Bartlett & Vavrus, 2017b) with a convenience sample of three Indigenous assessment developers representing a cross-section of culturally specific assessment development projects …

A Personal, Indigenous Feminist Experience With Centering Relationships During Covid-19, Stephany Runninghawk Johnson

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

I am an Indigenous woman, a mother, a researcher, a scholar, a partner, a daughter. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the value and consequence connection with others has on my life has become more apparent. During this time, I am finding that technology can both help and hinder in building and maintaining relationships. Perhaps I can illuminate a bit for others who are struggling with the same things I am. I share Indigenous feminist theories and I believe these ways of knowing and being in the world help us to reclaim our past and to reimagine our futures.

Integrating Gwich'in And Inuvialuit Perspectives In A Community School In The Northwest Territories: A Case Study, Janna M. Wolki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explores how teachers, staff, and community members in one school in the Northwest Territories are integrating Inuvialuit and Gwich’in issues, perspectives, and languages into the school and curriculum. Through the Education Renewal Initiative (2013), the Government of the Northwest Territories identified Indigenous languages and culture-based education as a priority to improving education in the NWT, while recognizing that this is a challenging task for teachers coming into the NWT from southern communities. Utilizing a generic qualitative case study methodology, this study recognizes and celebrates the many successful cultural initiatives that are currently occurring within this one school, and …

The Heart Of K'E: Transforming Dine Special Education And Unsettling The Colonial Logics Of Disability, Sandra Yellowhorse

American Studies ETDs

This paper takes up the roles of ideology and spatiality as they impact Diné students and learners in understanding conceptions of normativity, neuro-diversity and bodily variance. I am concerned with how the movement and creation of Indigenous schools and their praxis still maintain and often times produce settler colonial ideologies of being, personhood, difference and ability. I illustrate the challenges that Diné planners and educators face in entrenching cultural knowledge and language into their educational initiatives, while some of the problematic manifestations and expressions of normativity present themselves through state polices, federal law and mainstream curriculum.

I focus on the …

Diné Bina'nitin Dóó O'Hoo'aah/Education For Us, By Us: A Collective Journey In Diné Education Liberation, Lyla June Johnston

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study is an educational memoir of my experience working for education liberation with hundreds of Diné (Navajo) people written in the style of auto-ethnography. We are indigenous to what is now known as the southwestern United States and organize in the wake of attempted genocide and destructive assimilation policies. Our collective set out to answer the following question: If we could teach and learn anything we wanted, in any way we wanted, what would we do? Based on our ancestral Nitsáhakees-Nahat’á-Iiná-Sii Hasin strategic framework, this Diné collective organized a summer school that reflected their hearts’ true pedagogical desires. What …

Using Television To Improve Learning Opportunities For Indigenous Children, Michele Lonsdale

Indigenous Education Research

This report is based on a review of the literature on the importance of early childhood learning, the nature of Indigenous learning needs, and the role of educational television programs in improving learning outcomes for preschool-aged children. The report is intended to provide an evidence base for a proposal to develop an educational television program aimed primarily at Indigenous children from three to six years. (In this report the term ‘Indigenous’ refers to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.) There is an extensive body of research that shows the critical importance of early childhood in children’s learning and development, including for …

Effective Reading Comprehension Strategies For Native American Adolescents With Reading Difficulties, Mary C. La Velle

All Graduate Projects

The need for culturally appropriate reading comprehension pedagogy for Native American Adolescents was studied in light of multicultural philosophies. The historical trend to assimilate this group of students rather than acknowledge their unique contributions was an area targeted for improvement in this project. A need was established to target reading comprehension since the evidence points to a lack of explicit instruction in this area for middle school students. Strategies for promoting reading comprehension were identified in a teacher's manual that will be used in conjunction with the novel, Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech. Colville Tribal Elders discussed the comprehension …

A Language Arts Curriculum Guide For Seventh And Eighth Grade Indian Students At St. Mary's Mission Omak, Washington, William Peter Kelly

All Graduate Projects

St. Mary's Mission is situated five miles outside Omak, Washington, on the Colville Indian Reservation. It operates boarding and school facilities for one hundred and seventy Indian children in grades one through eight. Although the school has been in operation for ninety years, and is the only elementary boarding school for Indian children in the state, it has never developed or been provided with a written curriculum.

Without a curriculum guide, recording of the year to year progress of the children in the school program has been limited to the cryptic evaluation of the Spokane Diocesan report card form and …

The Development Of The Public Schools In New Mexico Between 1848 And 1900, Thomas J. Mayfield Jr.

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

The conditions of New Mexico and its time of annexation to the United States were different from most other territories that had been added. The population was composed almost entirely of Spanish descent and Indians. Their customs and ideas of church and state differed completely from those of the American subjects. The climatic and geographic conditions of the territory caused the living conditions to be entirely different. The problem in this study is to show how these conditions affected the educational development and how many obstacles were overcome in establishing a system of public schools. The legal status of the …