The Importance Of Culturally Mediated Instruction In The Native American Culture

The modern American society is best defined by its education. The “American dream” is founded on going to school, getting a good job, and becoming successful. Ironically, the actual native peoples of this country are actually the least likely to attain this dream. The largest obstacle they face is lack of proper education. The standard educational practices being used for the instruction of Native American peoples is not effective. There are many pieces to this road-block, and many solutions. This can be rectified by having more culturally aware teachers and parents, and by teaching the general population more about the Native American cultures.

25). Throughout history, American Indian people, and their languages and cultures, have been characterized as “problems”, and schools has been instituted to be the solution, as “purveyors of assimilation” (Deyhle & Swisher, 1997, p. 115). Due to this framing of the “Indian problem”, assimilation and colonial education has shaped as the indelible definition of educational success, exclusive of the characteristics of American Indian identity and community, perpetuating it’s continued existence in the American public school system (Deyhle & Swisher, 1997; Lomawaima &McCarty, 2002).

Prior to this course, I had a general understanding of the history and colonization of Native Americans. Coming from a family that celebrates our Native American culture, I knew that it was my responsibility to accept and embrace who I was and share my knowledge with others. My family is from the Pine Point community of the White Earth reservation; growing up I was always sure to listen to the stories of my elders and understand the hardships that have taken place in my family. I have always tried to help and correct those around me who have incorrect preconceived ideas about Native Americans. Even though I have never looked the part of being American Indian with my Swedish bright blonde hair and blue eyes, I have never been discouraged to embrace my culture and be an advocate.

Native Americans put up a good fight in defending their homelands against foreign invaders. Unfortunately, they suffered defeat and realized they would have to adapt to a new way of life. The battle for their lands was over, but the battle for their identities would just begin. However, it would not be the hardened warriors engaging in this conflict. Instead, the young Native American children would witness first-hand the American government’s solution to the Indian problem. Boarding schools were established to assimilate Native American children into white society. These boarding schools had both positive and negative impacts on the children.

Counseling Native American students can be a little tricky. After reading several articles, it is apparent that there are many differences in language, culture and learning styles

Statistics state that by 2020 the United States will have 46% of their student population in the public school system will be children of color and 20.1% of all children will live in poverty. (Hanley, 2012). It is because of these staggering figures that multicultural education needs to be implemented at all levels of public schools. Multicultural Education is more than just adding a few culturally different holidays to the curriculum it is about teaching the perspectives of all views. When studying about the Native American struggles with the European settlers, teachers need to present an inclusive perspective from the Native Americans and how they were taken over by the early settlers without their consent in many cases; but also understanding

The development and implementation of a culturally relevant teaching and learning pedagogy is vital to meet the needs of a diverse student population. Students must be able to relate, feel safe, and comfortable in their learning environment to reach their full potential. As a future administrator it is necessary to project high expectations for all students and establish a school culture of learning and tolerance. According to Jody Polleck and Shirin Shabdin authors of the article “Building Culturally Responsive Communities” (2013), identifies the deficit that plagues our schools as the inability to create a culturally responsive equitable

Joanne Ricakard-Weinholtz in “Teaching Culture to Huild Confident Learners” a chapter in Teaching with Vision, uses her students’ personal experiences as Tuscarora to help them learn about the tribes’ history and culture. She took them on a field trip to a local lacrosse stick manufacturing business because “lacrosse is an indigenous game, and Haudenosaunee people believe it was a gift given by the Creator” (101). Although she faced road blocks getting her students on this trip, it was a success, and Rickard-Weinholtz decided she wanted to teach a Tuscarora history class. Once Rickard-Weinholtz was able to obtain a small classroom with a desk and chair, she started lesson planning. In her words, “lessons do not have to be Hollywood productions, but they should be ones that students buy into and want to think about and be part of intellectually. Personalizing and relating the lesson to students’ lives is powerful and ‘always in the best interest of my students’” (107). With this mindset, Joanne Rickard-Weinholtz creates a history class teaching her Tuscarora students’ their Nation’s history through having her students interact with people in the community, talk with parents, and apply history to reality. Through including her students’ personal stories and histories to teach the history of a Nation, Rickard-Weinholtz is a culturally responsible

The participants that I have chosen for this study are the educators/teachers and students in grades 7-12. The students are predominantly Native Americans more specifically Navajos. This study will include both male and female students in grades 7-12 across all subject areas.

Currently, Portland State University provides students the opportunity to declare a minor in Indigenous Nations Studies, a specialty field of emphasis during their undergraduate education. The department’s mission at present “aims to provide the best possible educational experiences for our students through excellence in teaching, research, creative activity and service to the state, tribes and society’s.” What began in 2004 gradually developed into an expansion of educational opportunities, the Native American Studies program and Native American Student and Community Center became an extensive part of the indigenous community in and around Portland, offering

We all grow up in a culture, we develop our learning skills from our culture, based on an individual’s culture we can be informed on how the individuals communicate with each other. Also we can tell a lot about how the individual receives the information and how their thought process works. Culturally responsive teaching recognizes the importance of including students' cultural positions in all aspects of learning, stimulating classroom experiences and keeping students engaged.

While the Storti text provides practical knowledge on how to bridge cultural gaps, the Smith & Carvill text provides the reader with a Christ like focus on how and why to interact with individuals from other cultures. When attempting, as recommended above, to explain the expectations of the US culture, the teacher should not disregard or disrespect the practices of the individual’s native culture but help them understand the expectations here. Smith & Carvill (2000) note, “as good hosts, teachers need to value, affirm, and deepen the life experiences of their guests, the students” (p. 87). If the teacher can help the student feel accepted and understand the culture, they will have better motivation and better success in learning. This

Asset pedagogies seek to sustain and use the native language and cultural practices of multicultural students to assist these students in learning the language and literacy skills that are taught in the American classroom (Paris & Alim, 2014). What this means to me is that, we do not attempt to rewrite the native culture of these students, but instead, we use their native culture to enhance their learning of the American language and standards. According to McCarty and Lee (2014), we must not only sustain these cultures, but also revitalize them through our pedagogy. Their research focuses on Native Americans and the struggles they have in maintain their culture and language in the current education system where they are not afford educational sovereignty.

For this assignment I chose counseling American Indians and Alaska Natives because it is the one group I have not studied or been around much. There is a huge population of American Indians and Alaska Natives in Washington where I currently live. I stay approximately 30 minutes from an Indian reservation. A few of the kids that attend the school I work at are Native American or an Alaska Native. I realized that when I first started working at the school that I knew nothing of their culture or values even though my great grandmother was a Native American. I have taken this opportunity to learn more about them as well as how to counsel those students. Once I finish school, I would love to work as a school counselor in one of the schools and I may even get a chance to work at the school on the reservation, so this assignment came at a good time. American Indians just like all ethnic groups have a family structure, cultural and spiritual values, strengths, and challenges. In this paper I will start off with the history of Native Americans. It is their past that shaped them for the future. As a counselor it is important to know their past to understand their present. I will also discuss their cultural strengths, theoretical approach, culturally appropriate intervention strategies and how I would incorporate cultural strengths

tissue is to be removed, a patient may ask to take the removed body part with them. In the Native American culture body and soul are intertwined, thus, losing a body part could mean losing a part of the soul. In the Native American culture, individuals learn from spiritual practices of prayer, meditation, storytelling, or dreams. On the contrary, western medicine uses an in depth inquiry of personal questions to find answers and may be an invasion of personal comfort when trust is not yet established.