“It Has Just Opened My Eyes to How Important It Is”: An Analysis of Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Teachers: Engagement with Critical Indigenous Theories

Abstract

This dissertation targeted Indigenous educators who have affiliations with both the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes in the Wind River Reservation. The study analyzed how their perspectives around curriculum and pedagogy were impacted when they interacted with critical Indigenous education theory and conversed with Indigenous education scholars. The research questions were 1) What are the ways Indigenous educators can sustain Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho ways of life in the classroom?; 2) How will participants’ teaching philosophies change from their conversations with Indigenous scholars and their interactions with Indigenous education research?; 2a) How does this experience with Indigenous theories and scholars inform the ways in which Indigenous educators sustain Indigenous knowledge and values?; and 3) How can Indigenous educators incorporate Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho knowledge systems in curriculum and pedagogy? The study used qualitative methods and incorporated Indigenous qualitative research methods along with Indigenous knowledge systems. Data was gathered through self-reflective journal entries, pre/post interviews, and focus groups. Within the theme of relationality, subthemes emerged addressing Indigenous teachers’ relationality to community and school, Indigenous teachers’ relationships with students and their families, and relationality between teachers’ and students’ identities and curriculum. The second main theme was the teachers engaging with Indigenous theories and scholars. A subtheme that arose described the teachers’ personal reflections regarding Indigenous theories. A third main theme that occurred was experience with Indigenous theories and scholars and interactions with Indigenous knowledge and values. The subtheme for this theme analyzed teachers’ reflections after meeting Indigenous education scholars. The fourth main theme was contextualizing the process and how teachers engaged with critical Indigenous theories. A subtheme that occurred was how teachers took steps to incorporate Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho knowledge systems in curriculum and pedagogy. A final theme was how critical dialogues impact curriculum possibilities. The study showed initial dialogues and ideas teachers had for centering Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho knowledge systems in curriculum and pedagogy. The implications of the study were how the Indigenous teachers engaged in critical Indigenous consciousness upon reading critical Indigenous educational theory and dialoguing with the Indigenous education scholars, a space for the Indigenous teachers to have dialogues in order to sustain their efforts toward educational sovereignty, the necessity for more research to support Native teachers confronting schools that refuse to see the benefit of critical Indigenous pedagogy, culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy, and decolonial praxis, impacts on policies, development of Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho curriculum and pedagogy, a need for more collaboration between language teachers and classroom teachers, and professional developments that focus on critical Indigenous education theories.