Matching Items (11)
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- All Subjects: Native American Studies
- All Subjects: Language Revitalization
- Creators: Appleton, Nicholas
- Creators: Mccarty, Teresa L.
- Member of: Theses and Dissertations
Description
Relationships are the heart of Anishinaabeg culture and language. This research proposes understanding Anishinaabemowin, the language of Ojibwe, Ottawa, and Potawatomi peoples, as a living, historical, and spiritual member of the cultural community. As a community member, the language is the Oldest Elder. This understanding provides a relational lens through which one can understand language history from an Indigenous perspective. Recent scholarship on Indigenous languages often focuses on the boarding school experiences or shapes the narrative in terms of language loss. A relational understanding explores the language in terms of connections. This dissertation argues that the strength of language programs is dependent on the strength of reciprocal relationships between the individuals and institutions involved. This research examines the history of Anishinaabemowin classes and programs at three higher educational institutions: Bemidji State University, University of Michigan, and Central Michigan University. At each institution, the advocates and allies of Oldest Elder fought and struggled to carve space for American Indian people and the language. Key relationships between advocates and allies in the American Indian and academic communities found ways to bring Oldest Elder into the classroom. When the relationships were healthy, Oldest Elder thrived, but when the relationships shifted or weakened, so did Oldest Elder's presence. This dissertation offers a construct for understanding Indigenous language efforts that can be utilized by others engaged in language revitalization. The narrative of Oldest Elder shifts the conversation from one of loss to one of possibilities and responsibilities.
ContributorsMead, Chelsea M (Author) / Fixico, Donald L. (Thesis advisor) / Mccarty, Teresa L. (Committee member) / Osburn, Katherine M. B. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The growing population of American Indian students who attend off-reservation school has been under researched. This absence in American Indian education research, their unique needs, and their growing numbers warrant more attention. To address this absence in education research literature, this study captures the experiences of American Indian students in an off-reservation high school. Through Social Reproduction Theory and Cultural Capital Theory this qualitative study makes known the varying ways that American Indian students in off-reservation high schools comply and resist formal schooling. Through interviews and observations of these students, in addition their teachers and administrators, I document and interpret their experiences. The data suggest that American Indian students strongly connect to and use their tribal identities to negotiate school. By recognizing the rules of the school, these students employ different forms of cultural and social capital, specifically the importance of space and forms of communication. Even though their high school has a high population of American Indian students, they continue to experience challenges in academic success through stereotypical assumptions, expected roles, and structural barriers. Illustrating student identity as effects of the social reproduction process clearly demonstrates resistance, compliance, and agency of these students in their high school.
ContributorsBegay, Victor H (Author) / Margolis, Eric (Thesis advisor) / Mccarty, Teresa L. (Committee member) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This study examines the genesis, practice, and Native experiences of stakeholders with two Arizona kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) statute that mandate instruction of Native American history. The research questions relate to the original intent of the policies, implementation in urban school districts, how Native American parents experienced Native American history in their own education and their aspirations for this type of instruction in their children's education. Lomawaima and McCarty's (2006) safety zone theory was utilized to structure and analyze data. Critical Indigenous Research Methodologies (CIRM) (Brayboy, Gough, Leonard, Roehl, & Solym, 2012; Smith, 2012) was used in this interpretive policy analysis and phenomenological research study. Interviews were conducted with policymakers, a department of education official, urban school district personnel, and Native American parents with children in the pertinent school districts. Data included in-depth interview and legislative committee meeting transcripts, artifacts including bill versions, summaries and fact sheets, school board manuals, and the state social studies standards. The findings indicate that the intent of the statutes was to foster a better understanding among students (and hence, the state's citizenry) leading toward reciprocal government-to-government relationships between tribal nations and non-tribal governments. Teaching sovereignty and self-determination were fundamental. Although the school-based participants had limited knowledge of the policies, the district personnel believed they implemented the mandates because the state social studies standards were utilized to frame instruction. However, the 45 social studies standards related to Native Americans focus on extinct (referred to as historic in the standards) Native societies. The social studies standards ignore contemporary tribal nations and are thus inefficacious in supporting the goal of a better understanding of sovereignty, or in supporting Native American self-determination. The Native parent participants defied stereotypical images; they were involved in their children's educational attainment and were reintroducing cultural and tribal capital. Recommendations include allocating funds to support implementation of the policies at the local school and state levels, establishing culturally responsive curriculum that recognizes and promotes tribal nations and tribal sovereignty, and strengthening relationships between tribal nations, school districts, and the state department of education.
ContributorsBenally, Cynthia (Author) / Mccarty, Teresa L. (Thesis advisor) / Brayboy, Bryan Mck. J. (Thesis advisor) / Tippeconnic, Iii, John W. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This study examines the contemporary school placement decisions of Navajo parents in the reservation community of Piñon, Arizona. School placement decisions are defined as the school where the parent chooses to enroll his/her child for schooling. Twelve Navajo parents participated in this qualitative study, which explored their past educational experiences in order to garner insight into the current school placement choices they have made for their children. Navajo parents who live within the community of Piñon, AZ who currently have school-aged children living in their household were recruited to participate in this study. Participants took part in 60- to 90-minute interviews that included questions related to their prior educational experiences and current school placement choices for their children. Parents were given an opportunity to reflect about the school placement decisions they have made for their children. The variety of schools Navajo parents are able to choose from were illuminated. These findings have implications for education decision makers by providing insight into which schools parents are choosing and why. The study will assist Navajo Nation policy makers in future educational planning, and may have more general implications for American Indian/Alaskan Native education. This may assist Navajo Education policy makers in making future decisions regarding the newly developed Navajo Department of Education and its education planning. Participants will also benefit from the study by being able to understand how the past has impacted the school placement choices they have made. In doing so parents may be better able to articulate the impetus behind the choices they make for their children, thereby becoming better advocates for themselves and their children. The results of this study impacts scholarly literature as a new viewpoint in the area of school choice. Navajo parents represent a distinct group who make educational choices within a specific context. This study is unique as the impact of historical Indian education policies is considered. Future studies can further expand on the topic creating a unique area of research in the field of Indian education.
ContributorsLansing, Danielle R (Author) / Mccarty, Teresa L. (Thesis advisor) / Romero-Little, Mary Eunice (Committee member) / Frederick, Dale (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT Native American students from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community have attended Stapley Junior High, one of 13 junior high schools in the Mesa Unified School District, since its doors opened in the fall of 1994. Over the years a variety of instructional practices have been used in an effort to improve academic outcomes for these students, who have posed a challenge to traditional educational methods. Interviews were conducted with eight educational professionals, including teachers, administrators, and a tutor who worked with these students on a daily basis. They each responded to the same series of questions, providing their insights based on first-hand interactions and knowledge. The interviews revealed factors that influenced student academic success, including caring, trust, communication, tutoring, and administrative support. Factors posing challenges to student success were identified as attendance, parental support, and gangs and drugs. In-school influences were arts and sports, friendship, inclusion, and behavior. Out-of-school influences were home and family, the concept of time, and educational considerations. The conclusion is that this is a complex problem, fueled by the proximity of the reservation to a major metropolitan area, the gang culture that is prevalent in the Salt River community, poverty, attendance issues, and the impact of parental involvement and support. The things that made a difference at Stapley Jr. High included staff who demonstrated caring by establishing trust and getting to know students on a personal level, teachers who were consistent and held students to a high standard, and teachers who were flexible with regard to time.
ContributorsWilliams, Sidney (Author) / Appleton, Nicholas (Thesis advisor) / Duplissis, Mark (Committee member) / Spencer, Dee (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Throughout the course of the Honors Thesis/Creative Project, the intent was to gain knowledge regarding national, state and community initiatives regarding Indigenous Language Revitalization and Maintenance (ILRA). For over a year, I had the opportunity to visit a total of five indigenous communities, including Pine Ridge, SD, Gila River Indian Community, AZ, White Mountain Apache, AZ, Cochiti Pueblo, NM and Santo Domingo Pueblo, NM. The goal was to learn about the status of their language, current ILRA initiatives as well as challenges and successes that face American Indian nations. During each visit, key elements to successful language revitalization initiatives were identified that could benefit those continuing their effort to reverse language loss as well as those looking to enter in the field of language revitalization.
ContributorsHutchinson, Jenna Michelle (Author) / Romero-Little, Mary Eunice (Thesis director) / Begay, Jolyana (Committee member) / Sims, Christine P. (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / American Indian Studies Program (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution and Social Change (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Although there are millions of Nahuatl speakers, the language is highly threatened. The dominant language of Coatepec de los Costales, a small village in Guerrero, Mexico, was historically Nahuatl, a Uto-Aztecan language, referred to by some as “Mexicano” (Messing, 2009). In the last 50 years, there has been a pronounced shift from Mexicano to Spanish in the village, and fewer than 10% of the residents currently speak Mexicano. Without intervention, the language will be lost in the village. The ultimate cause of language shift is a disconnect in transferring the Indigenous language from the older to the younger generations. In Coatepec, older Nahuatl speakers are not teaching their children the language. This recurring theme appears in case studies of language shift around the world. Using a conceptual framework that combines (1) a critical sociocultural approach to language policy; (2) Spolsky’s (2004) definition of language policy as language practices, ideologies or beliefs, and management; (3) the ethnography of language policy, and (3) Indigenous knowledges, I collected and analyzed data from a six-month ethnographic study of language loss and reclamation in Coatepec. Specifically, I looked closely at the mechanisms by which language ideologies, management, and practices were enacted among members of different generations, using a combination of observation, archival analysis, and in-depth ethnographic interviews. Seidman’s (2013) three-part interview sequence, which includes a focused life history, details of experience, and reflections on meaning, provided the framework for the interviews. What are the language ideologies and practices within and across generations in this setting? What language management strategies – tacit and official – do community members of different generations employ? This in-depth examination of language ideologies, practices, and management strategies is designed to illuminate not only how and why language shift is occurring, but the possibilities for reversing language shift as well.
ContributorsLagunas, Rosalva Mojica (Author) / Mccarty, Teresa L. (Thesis advisor) / Romero-Little, Mary Eunice (Thesis advisor) / Brayboy, Bryan McKinley (Committee member) / Coronel-Molina, Serafín M. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to describe a new school model for Dine (Navajo) learners where Dine students will experience how to apply knowledge and skills personally, meaningfully, and socially relevant to life situations through the medium of Dine language and culture maintenance. This study explored a new way to perpetuate Dine (Navajo) culture and language through a model referred to as M.A.T.S. (Mathematics, Arts, Technology, Science, the renaming of STEM and STEAM). Oohoo’aah, Na’nitin Yee nooseel Xploria, which translates to a Center for Learning, acquiring knowledge and growing through a Navajo approach to exploration) is a public charter school serving students in grades K-3. As a public charter school ONYX is to serve all of Jeddito Community, with 98% ratio of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. ONYX will employ dedicated educators and community members with excellent work ethics who are committed to closing the achievement gap, while promoting a creative outlook on the world around them. Students will leave ONYX School with skills in Navajo Language and Culture with a foundation in M.A.T.S. ONYX School’s educational program will be driven by a belief that all learning will be academically rigorous with a well-designed curriculum to students in becoming lifelong explorers of learning and productive members of society. This will allow ONYX to stay true to the mission to promote K’e (relationship in Navajo Culture), respect for self, others, and environment, most importantly to use natural/traditional scientific skills passed on through Navajo culture. In the learning environment, there will be constant and continuous communication among administrators, teachers, parents, and community leaders. This form of instruction is also transferable to learning how to read and write in Navajo. The program will allow for students to use hands on approach with inquiry based learning with a foundation in Navajo traditional/scientific approach to learning.
The purpose of this study was to describe a new school model for Dine (Navajo) learners where Dine students will experience how to apply knowledge and skills personally, meaningfully, and socially relevant to life situations through the medium of Dine language and culture maintenance. This study explored a new way to perpetuate Dine (Navajo) culture and language through a model referred to as M.A.T.S. (Mathematics, Arts, Technology, Science, the renaming of STEM and STEAM). Oohoo’aah, Na’nitin Yee nooseel Xploria, which translates to a Center for Learning, acquiring knowledge and growing through a Navajo approach to exploration) is a public charter school serving students in grades K-3. As a public charter school ONYX is to serve all of Jeddito Community, with 98% ratio of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch. ONYX will employ dedicated educators and community members with excellent work ethics who are committed to closing the achievement gap, while promoting a creative outlook on the world around them. Students will leave ONYX School with skills in Navajo Language and Culture with a foundation in M.A.T.S. ONYX School’s educational program will be driven by a belief that all learning will be academically rigorous with a well-designed curriculum to students in becoming lifelong explorers of learning and productive members of society. This will allow ONYX to stay true to the mission to promote K’e (relationship in Navajo Culture), respect for self, others, and environment, most importantly to use natural/traditional scientific skills passed on through Navajo culture. In the learning environment, there will be constant and continuous communication among administrators, teachers, parents, and community leaders. This form of instruction is also transferable to learning how to read and write in Navajo. The program will allow for students to use hands on approach with inquiry based learning with a foundation in Navajo traditional/scientific approach to learning.
ContributorsCharlie, Fonda Rae (Author) / Spencer, Dee (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Yazzie, Lamont L (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of the lives of highly educated Navajo women who, with their children, left the comfort of their homeland to pursue their careers. Using qualitative research methods, five Navajo women were asked to reflect on their lives while on the reservation and in their new location off the Navajo reservation. Among the topics explored were the principal factors as to their leaving the reservation, barriers and supports they faced in their careers, what cultural transitions they experienced, and the effects on their careers, their families and to their personal sense of self.
ContributorsMiller, Sherri S (Author) / Spencer, Dee (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Yazzie, Lamont (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This study investigated the limitations of Navajo language teaching in Navajo Head Start immersion centers. The research questions asked what did Head Start teachers perceive as barriers to Navajo children successfully learning the Navajo language, what skills and knowledge did Head Start teachers have that were relevant to teach Head Start children the Navajo language, what Head Start teachers perceived as their strengths and weaknesses of the language immersion program, and what program and instructional qualities promoted and restricted the success of the language program? Two males and six females who resided in the western part of the Navajo Nation wee interviewed as to their teaching experiences. All of the interviewees were between the ages of late 40's to mid-60's and all spoke Navajo fluently. They had been employed with Head Start for more than 10 years. They came from families who had strong beliefs in the Navajo culture and language, and believed all teachers should take Navajo language and culture classes to teach in Head Start. The interviews revealed the participants use their traditional language and culture skills to teach Navajo, but they had limited knowledge as how to use the curriculum provided by Division of Dine Education. The English curriculum was accessible and easy to follow, but did not adhered to President Hale's Executive Order to perpetuate the language. It was recommended that Head Start administrators and support staff review the Navajo language policies and regulations, train teachers how to write a lesson plan that was simple and teacher friendly, revamp the curriculums, and train teachers how to critique, analyze and develop lessons from the Navajo Curriculum. In addition, administrators, should monitor and provide technical assistance to ensure teachers are implementing Navajo language instruction according to Navajo Standards and monitoring each child's progress according to developmental domains and assessment.
ContributorsClauschee, Jefferson (Author) / Appleton, Nicholas (Thesis advisor) / Spencer, Dee (Committee member) / Duplissis, Mark (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015