Browsing by Subject "American Indian Education"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Culture-Based Arts Integration: An examination of carefully developed space where art and culture exist from a place of new student voice, knowledge, and discourse.
    (2010-07) Hrenko, Kelly A.
    This dissertation looks at how White teachers of Native students learn to implement a culturally based art curriculum. I focus on two teachers over the course of 1 school year who have differing degrees of success in using this type of art curriculum to determine the factors important for teaching in this way and how they can be supported and promoted though the process. My study looks at the following questions: 1. How do teachers implement culturally based art curriculum in the classroom? a. What art practices and processes are used to engage students? b. What culture-based resources are included? 2. What impact does the curriculum have on the dynamics of the classroom in terms of patterns of discourse and student learning? a. Is there a thirdspace operating in the classroom? b. What are the characteristics of this space? How is it functioning? 3. What enables or constrains the teachers’ ability to achieve her pedagogical goals in teaching this curriculum? The work of culture-based arts integration is the act of bridging native art and culture with the traditional constructs of the k–12 schooling system. This work of integrating two constructs usually does not result in one changed classroom, but a “thirdspace” of hybrid knowledge and experience. Following the lead of many scholars, (Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez, Tejeda, & Rivera, 1999; Moje, Ciechanowski, Kramer, Ellis, Carrillo, & Collazo, 2004) I call this observed classroom space, a place of cultural bricolage. To examine these questions, I developed two case studies and a cross case analysis. I explored the development of what theorists term a “thirdspace” (Cook, 2005; Dunlop, 1999; Lipka, Brenner, &Sharp, 2005; Moje et al., 2004), along with the critical and social theories of American Indian education to develop a model of professional development that promotes the creation of cultural bricolage in classrooms as a productive approach to integrating culturally based curricula, as well as arts based curricula. Although this study looks at the use of culturally based art curricula for American Indian students, I believe there will be implications for teachers in diverse situations, who work in classrooms with students who are culturally and racially different from themselves.
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    Playing citizens: the Social Education of American Indians, 1875-1924.
    (2009-12) Scarlett, Michael Hawkins
    Beginning in 1879, when Richard Henry Pratt opened the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, the United States government began a policy of removing American Indian children from their communities in an effort to prepare them for citizenship. Education was one part of a three-pronged assimilation policy that also included removing the legal boundaries that separated American Indians from the United States and dividing tribal lands into sections of land to encourage their adoption of farming and ranching. Off-reservation schools such as Carlisle are infamous in the history of American education for the way they attempted to erase American Indian cultures by subjecting students to a complete physical and psychological transformation that included cutting their hair, wearing military uniforms, adopting new names, and forbidding the speaking of Indian languages. While the attempts to erase Indian cultures and the industrial nature of education at schools like Carlisle are well-known, the way off-reservation schools created citizens of American Indian children has not been at the center of study. The purpose of this dissertation is to deepen our understanding of the role off-reservation boarding schools played in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in preparing American Indians for citizenship. Using historical methods, this dissertation examines the context in which the citizenship education curriculum was created, the beliefs of the people who created and implemented it, and finally, evidence of the citizenship education curriculum itself, in order to add depth and complexity to the current research. An examination of primary historical documents, such as courses of study, textbooks used in off-reservation schools, school newsletters and newspapers, annual reports, and the writings of influential educational policymakers, reveals that citizenship education was central to the mission of off-reservation schools, but that the nature of citizenship education depended on the context in which it was implemented. I argue that competing beliefs about the capability of American Indians to adopt the "habits of civilized life" necessary for citizenship led to important differences in the ways two of the most influential off-reservation boarding schools, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania and the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, approached citizenship education.
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    The teachings of our ancestors: a vision of Ojibwe language and culture revitalization for young children in the Red Cliff Community.
    (2009-06) Gokee-Rindal, Delores Ellen
    This study explores Ojibwe language and cultural knowledge for young tribal children (prenatal through age five) in Red Cliff, a small, rural Ojibwe reservation located in northern Wisconsin. Ojibwe language and culture in the Red Cliff community is severely threatened, with only one fluent speaker remaining whose first language is Ojibwe. In the context of language and culture loss, this study reviews the devastating effects of oppression and the history of American Indian education. Theories of language acquisition as well successful models of indigenous language and culture revitalization were examined. Tribal elders and community members with language and cultural knowledge were engaged in a collaborative process to explore what young Ojibwe children might know, learn, and understand about their language and culture. Their voices were heard, honored, and retold for the purpose of strengthening language and culture revitalization efforts in the community.