Indigenous Education Commons^™

Staffing Remote Schools: Perennial Failure, Sally Knipe, Christine Bottrell

Journal of Global Education and Research

Educational and socioeconomic disadvantage in remote communities, and the inadequacies of government action to bring about significant change needs to be addressed. This article presents a descriptive study examining the complexities of staffing remote and very remote schools in Australia with appropriately-qualified teachers. The findings of analysis of data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on behalf of the Australian Government through the National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC) indicate that the majority of students in remote schools in Australia live, and are educated in, Indigenous communities in three jurisdictions. This raises concerns of unacknowledged and unacceptable discrimination. Complexity within …

Preparing The Future, Healing The Past, & Being In The Moment With Teachers As They Indigenize The Way They Teach, Ramona Halcomb

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

This research study will interview participants from the first cohort of the Indigenizing Pedagogy Institute at the University of Washington Tacoma. The current educational system is failing to adequately serve American Indian/Alaska Native Students' Educational needs. Education creates knowledge, develops our political and civic goals, and systemically influences socialization and how we see ourselves and others; it determines our economic future and well-being. We must modify our pedagogy if we are to meet the needs of American Indian/Alaska Native Students.

Off The Rez: Witnessing Indigenous Knowledges Through Social Media, Deborah Hales

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

The term “Off the Rez” is used, in the title, to mean research that is not done on a reservation or in urban areas. This study aims to discover if social media can be used as an innovative option for non-Indigenous allies to conduct respectful research. The study research questions were, (1) can social media be used as a research tool, to witness Indigenous Knowledges? (2) Can social media be used as research, by non-Indigenous research allies, to have the least impact on Indigenous communities?

This research was conducted using social media, with selected Indigenous participants who were 18, identified …

Shifting Educational Paradigms To Match Learners: Sustaining Cultures, Languages, And Paradigms Through Educational Sovereignty, Lona R. Running Wolf

The Montana English Journal

The U.S. system of education was developed by visionary forefathers that knew American democracy would be stable only through educated citizens. The system was developed to produce citizens that would carry on the new world's vision and values. The educational system was built within that paradigm. Simultaneously, Indigenous tribes in America were being stripped of their traditional educational systems whose purpose was also to develop productive citizens of their communities and carry on their values. Traditional educational systems among tribes developed children with positive self-identity carrying the pride of their culture, language, and paradigm. That is not the case for …

Indigenizing Education: Universal Design For Learning And Indigenous Leadership Frameworks, Jennifer Vasilez

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Abstract

This study seeks to determine if Universal Design for Learning could serve as a culturally sustaining classroom framework for supporting Indigenous students in classroom settings. It also shares the perceived proficiency of Indigenous parents by those serving in a caregiver role for Indigenous youth, as well as the perceived potential of specific elements of Universal Design for Learning in supporting their students. As an Indigenous woman, I recognize the importance of asking Indigenous families if this strategy is worthy of further research, before conducting research into the efficacy of Universal Design for Learning in this way. This research project …

Native Knowledge 360° (Nk360°) Essential Understandings Framework: Reflections Using The Five Level Evaluation Model, Ashlyn Lafleur, Sarah Straub

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This paper explores participant takeaways regarding the Native Knowledge 360° workshop on artists and activism. The researcher utilized a five-step evaluation model (Kartal et al., 2019) to reflect upon belief, learning, reaction, transfer, and results. This professional development tool focuses on teacher level understanding and the transferability of lessons learned to the student results. The paper includes an example of transfer and a reflection on student results.

Trauma Informed Teaching Practices For Indigenous Children, Raegan Gourley

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to introduce educators to trauma-informed teaching practices for Indigenous children. Due to generational trauma, adultification, and other issues Indigenous children face, it is imperative to find strategies that educators can use to combat trauma-based behaviors that take place in the classroom. While there is a lot of research on the generational trauma that Indigenous children face, there is no connection to having it manifest in the classroom. Through a review of interviews, literature, and research, it was found that practices like restorative justice, Applied Behavioral Analysis, and activities like the Blanket Exercise by Kairos are all trauma-informed …

Go With The Flow: Indigenous Science In The Language Classroom, Stephany Runninghawk Johnson, Sequoia L. Dance

Occasional Paper Series

In 2017 a team from the College of Education at Washington State University received a grant from the National Science Foundation to work on a project called Culturally Responsive Indigenous Science (CRIS). In this essay we explore a small piece of the CRIS project with our Coeur d’Alene partners and the lessons we learned from it. These lessons include building and using a culturally responsive lesson plan template and the challenges associated with doing so, learning together and teaching each other how science belongs within a language classroom, and examining beautiful examples of an Indigenous teacher using traditional educational methods …

“It Feels Fake”: Decolonizing Curriculum And Pedagogy In Predominantly White Institutions, Hollie A. Kulago, Paul Guernsey, Wayne Wapeemukwa

Occasional Paper Series

This article describes the processes, tensions, questions, conflicts, and celebrations the three authors experienced while creating and implementing decolonizing and/or Indigenous curriculum and pedagogy for predominantly white university classrooms. The theoretical framework engages Indigenous epistemologies and decolonizing pedagogy to disrupt Western schooling rooted in the ways Indigenous scholars see knowledge as fundamentally relational and community as the primary setting for Indigenous and decolonizing education. Western schooling continues to support the dispossession of Indigenous peoples from their/our lands with a “civilizing agenda” that promotes individualization. We seek to re-connect relationships with the land and Indigenous community in our various disciplines. The …

The Four Protocols Of Engagement And How To Apply Them, Joyce A. Schneider

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

In response to concerns as to how to respectfully mobilize Canada's 2015 Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) 94 Calls to Action in our teaching/learning and/or life practices, I developed the Four Protocols of Engagement as a starting point for those ready to authentically engage with First Peoples, their/our lands, and ways of doing, knowing, and valuing. I demonstrate how I apply the Four Protocols in my own work through detailing how each protocol enacted requires preparatory knowledge seeking and actions to make meaningful and impactful Land Acknowledgements. I conclude by reflecting on the content and practices outlined in this example of …

From Factory Schooling To Nai Taleem: A Paradigm Shift In Education, Manish Jain

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

The article invites readers to question and reflect on the purpose of modern education and narratives of a good life, success and happiness. Modern, capitalistic, industrialized, urbanized and colonial (and colonizing) ways of living and being have created numerous global challenges. In light of these challenges, we need to re-examine our educational systems. I explore the potential of nai taleem as a philosophy of learning, living, and being; one that decolonizes education, our monoculture mindsets, and our notions of a good life. In an increasingly globalized, albeit disconnected, world I call for nai taleem as a means for building meaningful …

“Tienes Que Ser Bien Educada”: A Call For Art, Reconciliation, And Justice In Education, Eileen Jimenez

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

Settler colonialism and colonized methodologies have created systems and power dynamics that continue to allow the holders of power and decision makers to deem what is ethical and what is appropriate as it concerns research of others, but in particular, Indigenous peoples. The voices that are given the most visibility in research are those who conduct and produce research through the paradigm of Western education and with standards of Western research. Settler colonialism has warped the purpose and the responsibility of educators. This study created space for understanding about our collective responsibility in teaching, learning and education for the community …

I’Ll Be Goldenrod And You’Ll Be Aster: The Case For Revolutionizing Western Methods Of Teaching Using Indigenous Ontologies, Joanna Logerfo

Master's Theses

An interesting facet of living as a human in the 21st century is contending with the end of the world. It’s been imagined in a thousand ways over the past twenty years. Will it be zombies? Aliens? An AI revolution? Or will it perhaps be something more mundane, more “down-to-Earth”? The floods, the droughts, the famines, and all the rest of the cataclysmic global events that occur every year have taken center stage in the world-ending debate, parading under a name as threatening and expansive as the Boogeyman: climate change. A recent article from NPR covered the United Nations’ 2022 …

Becoming The Imperfect Friend: Sḵwx̱Wú7mesh And Contemplative Pathways To Healing And Reconciliation In Higher Education, Denise Marie Findlay

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Throughout this reflective essay I explore Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Indigenous philosophy and contemplative education as ethical pathways to healing and reconciliation in higher education. I put forth the idea of becoming the imperfect friend in a world ethos of death by a thousand cuts as a response to the violence of colonialism perpetuated in academia. I reflect on the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh values of eslhélha7kwhiws and stélmexw as contemplative dispositions that lend themselves to the process of becoming the imperfect friend. I conclude by describing a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh -led program hosted by Simon Fraser University (SFU) in 2022-2023, named Moving Together In The Ways …

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

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

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, …

Ways To Increase Retention Rates Among American Indian/Alaskan Native Students At Community Colleges, Sarah R. Wheeler

Culminating Experience Projects

American Indians/Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) pursue higher education disproportionately compared to other populations. Literature indicates that a sense of belonging significantly impacts AI/AN students' persistence rates at community colleges. Sense of belonging and support from community colleges and families directly influence student success in higher education. AI/AN students are grounded in their community and have desires to build their cultural capital. Obtaining a degree will strengthen their community and, ultimately, their nation. It is essential for AI/AN students and parents to feel equipped with resources and ways community colleges support marginalized students. Creating a student and parent orientation, access to a …

Indigenous African-Centred Organizational Change: Building Capacity At A Grassroots B3 Organization, Emanuella Nicola Bringi

The Organizational Improvement Plan at Western University

Nakupenda Community Services (NCS) is a B3 organization based in Ontario Canada. At NCS there are several valuable programs serving the everyday needs of clients. While the services are valued by the community, the internal challenge within the organization is the lack of capacity to lead all programs. Compounding this problem is the demand for more programs and services given the impacts of the recent pandemic. The very active board of directors and employees have made significant efforts to meet the needs of clients, but the problem of capacity persists and negatively impacts service delivery as employees and leaders tend …

Reflecting On An Indigenist Methodology In Indigenous Family And Community Engagement Research, Shaneé A. Washington

The Qualitative Report

Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers of Indigenous peoples and contexts have argued that any research involving Indigenous communities must align with Indigenous paradigms, follow critical cultural protocols, and promote emancipatory agendas. This ensures ethical and culturally appropriate research practices that prioritize community needs while placing the interests, experiences, and knowledge of Indigenous peoples at the center of research methodologies. Drawing from canonical scholars who have explicated and refined, over time, the meaning of Indigenous methodologies, this article first offers my synthesis of their collective conceptualizations. Next, I reflexively consider my application and, at times, misapplication of Indigenous methodologies with Indigenous and …

Perceptions Of Disabilities Among Native Americans Within The State Of Utah, Erica Ficklin, Melissa Tehee, Sherry Marx, Eduardo Ortiz, Megan E. Golson, Tyus Roanhorse

Psychology Student Research

Currently, little research exists on disabilities among Native American communities and no research exists on how Native Americans perceive disabilities, services currently available, and unmet needs. Understanding these key areas is essential to providing efficacious and culturally relevant care. To address this gap in the literature, we used Indigenous research methodology through sharing circles throughout the state of Utah to listen and amplify the voices of the Native communities. Participants shared how they conceptualize "disability," what they thought of current services, and how they thought the needs of Native persons with disabilities should be addressed. Four major themes emerged in …

How Do Arts Contribute To Educational Research? A Book Review Of Arts-Based Research In Education: Foundations For Practice, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

I write this review as a recommendation for potential readers: those who are new to and veterans with respect to arts-based research. Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice is edited by Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor and Richard Siegesmund, with contributions from 22 authors and a cover artist. In addition to providing some information from a usual structure around contents, central themes and concepts, intended audience, genres of writing styles, strengths and weaknesses, and uniquenesses, I primarily focus on the content of the chapter entitled “Four guiding principles for arts-based research practice” which I found extraordinarily significant in the second edition of …