Grandmother Cedar as Sovereignty Teacher: Transformations in Teacher Learning, Research-Practice Partnerships, and Curriculum
Item
Title
Grandmother Cedar as Sovereignty Teacher: Transformations in Teacher Learning, Research-Practice Partnerships, and Curriculum
Abstract/Description
This non-traditional dissertation includes three articles, all based on a qualitative multi-case study of K-12 teachers implementing the mandated Since Time Immemorial tribal sovereignty curriculum in Coast Salish homelands (western Washington state). A research-practice partnership with eight Native education leaders across the region designed the study and selected participating schools and teachers.
The first article reports empirical findings on what learning to implement tribal sovereignty curriculum entails for non-Indigenous educators. Using teacher interviews, observations, student interviews, and audio-recordings of teachers’ gatherings, I examine five teachers’ learning processes with tribal curriculum in various subject areas. Although most non-Indigenous teachers and U.S. Americans profess estrangement relative to Indigenous peoples, these teachers’ ongoing, reciprocal relationships with local Native knowledge holders and homelands supported critical shifts in their curriculum and teaching practices. Findings indicated that those able to teach the curriculum most consistently and meaningfully were teachers with moderate or strong evidence in six areas of learning. Implications for teacher education are discussed.
The second article contributes to methodological discussions among qualitative researchers on whether and how non-Indigenous researchers, especially those who are white, can effectively work within Indigenous research methodologies and for Indigenous education sovereignty.
Using research memos, journals, analysis of research correspondence, I interpret my learning through the lenses of reciprocity, refusal, and gifting. This self-study identifies when and how my actions represented meaningful reciprocity, and when my attempts re-centered settler thinking or futures. To clarify the partnership model’s attributes and utility, I identify methodological ways that the guidance of Native education advisors has been crucial to this study’s answerability to Indigenous sovereignty.
The third article offers a conceptual argument about what meaningful implementation of tribal sovereignty curriculum entails for schools and non-Indigenous educators. I argue that multiple, ongoing relationships of enmeshment with local Indigenous peoples and lands are the most important tool for implementing Indigenous curriculum because of how such relations reframe knowledge, liberation, and curricular stakeholders. Examples of non-Indigenous educators’ relationships, or their absences, highlight needed understandings and commitments for implementing tribal sovereignty curriculum. Contributions to curriculum implementation theory and implications for practitioners are included.
The first article reports empirical findings on what learning to implement tribal sovereignty curriculum entails for non-Indigenous educators. Using teacher interviews, observations, student interviews, and audio-recordings of teachers’ gatherings, I examine five teachers’ learning processes with tribal curriculum in various subject areas. Although most non-Indigenous teachers and U.S. Americans profess estrangement relative to Indigenous peoples, these teachers’ ongoing, reciprocal relationships with local Native knowledge holders and homelands supported critical shifts in their curriculum and teaching practices. Findings indicated that those able to teach the curriculum most consistently and meaningfully were teachers with moderate or strong evidence in six areas of learning. Implications for teacher education are discussed.
The second article contributes to methodological discussions among qualitative researchers on whether and how non-Indigenous researchers, especially those who are white, can effectively work within Indigenous research methodologies and for Indigenous education sovereignty.
Using research memos, journals, analysis of research correspondence, I interpret my learning through the lenses of reciprocity, refusal, and gifting. This self-study identifies when and how my actions represented meaningful reciprocity, and when my attempts re-centered settler thinking or futures. To clarify the partnership model’s attributes and utility, I identify methodological ways that the guidance of Native education advisors has been crucial to this study’s answerability to Indigenous sovereignty.
The third article offers a conceptual argument about what meaningful implementation of tribal sovereignty curriculum entails for schools and non-Indigenous educators. I argue that multiple, ongoing relationships of enmeshment with local Indigenous peoples and lands are the most important tool for implementing Indigenous curriculum because of how such relations reframe knowledge, liberation, and curricular stakeholders. Examples of non-Indigenous educators’ relationships, or their absences, highlight needed understandings and commitments for implementing tribal sovereignty curriculum. Contributions to curriculum implementation theory and implications for practitioners are included.
Author/creator
Date
Institution
University of Washington
Committee
Parker, Walter C.
Paris, Django
Stevens, Dawn
Zeichner, Ken
Reddy, Chandan
Resource type
Research/Scholarly Media
Resource status/form
Thesis/Dissertation
Scholarship genre
Empirical
IRE Approach/Concept
Open access/full-text available
No
Peer reviewed
No
ISBN
9798664756197
URL
Citation
Conrad, J. (2020). Grandmother Cedar as Sovereignty Teacher: Transformations in Teacher Learning, Research-Practice Partnerships, and Curriculum [Ph.D., University of Washington]. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations/docview/2444866127/AC78DBB94D2E45B4PQ/7
Num pages
126
Rights
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
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