FORT HALL — Jessica Massau’s public education was a “huge disadvantage.”
Masseau, a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe, said teachers repeatedly failed to recognize her identity and incorporate Native American perspectives and history into the classroom.
And Native students still feel unrecognized in the classroom.
“Whether you’re a K-12 student or a college student, there’s a huge need to have representation, recognition, relevance and cultural relevance,” said Massaud, a teacher and graduate student. To tell. “Right now, that’s not happening. Many students are having to navigate dysfunctional learning spaces.”
Massau was one of three panelists, all of whom were indigenous education leaders, speaking about tribal education at the Western Literature Association conference on Saturday. Everyone has said that educational institutions are failing Native students, but teachers, education leaders, and politicians are in a position to change that.
That’s why Ms. Massow decided to become an educator and create the classroom she wanted. It wasn’t an easy decision. “It’s difficult for me…I chose to be in a profession that hurt my family.”
Historically, the U.S. government has weaponized education Oppressing and weakening tribal communities and seizing their land — a tactic that turned out to be cheaper than war.
Still, Matthau decided to enroll in the Indigenous Knowledge for Effective Education program at the University of Idaho. The program “trains and certifies culturally responsive Native teachers to meet the unique needs of Native American students in K-12 schools.”
There she found a community of like-minded people and envisioned working as a K-12 teacher forever. But once she entered the classroom, she realized that her role had limitations. She cannot advocate for her students as much as she would like.
And her students encouraged her to do something to improve the education system for Native children on a larger scale.
There, Matso earned a doctorate from the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences and returned to U of I. She is also an instructor in her IKEEP program and the Shoshone Bannock Site Coordinator for U of I’s Relationship Development Program.
“I have to think about how to work in these two worlds, where I have to know the rules of Eurocentric education in order to defend communities and knowledge systems,” she says. I did.
Native teachers face unwelcoming school environments
One of the problems Matsaw is trying to solve is how to best support native teachers in the classroom.
Through her research, she has already identified the root cause of Idaho’s shortage of Native educators. It says Native American teachers are starting to enter classrooms, but schools are “not ready for them.”
Matuso said having a Native American teacher on staff can make critical conversations uncomfortable. That discomfort can lead to retaliation, leading to lower turnover and retention rates for Indigenous staff.
“We have a lot of Native teachers who are really excited to go back to their hometowns and schools, but then they don’t stay there,” Massaud said. “And that’s the problem.”
And she said Indigenous people who decide to become teachers are forced to make difficult choices, such as taking a test that contains inaccuracies about Indigenous people and having to choose answers they know are wrong. .
“But in order to pass the class, become a teacher, and be in a place where I can speak and learn from Indigenous students, I have to choose it,” she said. “it’s difficult.”
Envisioning a better education that combines Eurocentric and tribe-centric learning methods.
As an IKEEP instructor, Matsaw also teaches classes for native high school students who want to become teachers.
“What’s really great is that we’re using this educational institution that has historically harmed our people to create a space and come together to advocate for what better schools look like.” she said.
Inside the school building, students are learning how to use computers, “really general science,” “really general math,” and “things you need to know to get to college,” he said.
Students learn about being better people and relatives, caring for the land, caring for water, and practicing rituals outside of the school building and in the community.
Massau then asked students to imagine a school that combines both types of learning.
“When you start imagining this, you see the cultural relevance that is really needed,” she said. “We’re just collecting things that young people want to know.”
And Matso said cultural relevance is about more than “sprinkling something (Shoshone-Bannock)” or putting a feather in the corner of a handout.
Non-Native teachers also have the power to center Native American voices.
Non-native teachers can create space or, in Matusow’s words, “room” for native students to become experts.
Teachers also have the power to decide whose “beings, perspectives, and political nations” are represented in the classroom.
Yvette Towersup Member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe and former tribal policy analyst, He said teachers can face backlash if they incorporate cultures and diverse perspectives.
“There may be resistance from within the school and the school board,” Towersup said. “That’s the reality…that’s what we have to deal with.”
But if that’s the case, Towersapp encouraged teachers to reach out to their tribes for help.
Matso also said non-native language teachers should visit and collaborate with tribal schools.
“But it has to be deeper than a powwow,” Masseau said.
Tribes, state boards and state superintendents also say ‘we can do better’
Allen Mayo, a member of the Choctaw Nation and administrator of Shoshone-Bannock High School, a tribally-run federal school, said the school would focus on STEM and projects, incorporate more Shoshone language instruction, and improve Bannock. He said there is a possibility of adding the word as a language. class.
Towersup said education is a treaty right and one of the Shoshone-Bannock people’s strongest attributes.
But she also said the tribe is not “strong enough to advocate for K-12.”
The state board of education and the state superintendent could do better, she said, but in that case, “the tribes have to follow through.”
“Communities have to step up and let schools know that they value the education of their children,” she says.
Further reading: See. our series More coverage of the conference and how tribes are fighting to have their presence recognized in Idaho classrooms. Among them: a keynote speaker, a prominent journalist, who visited the tribe’s high school and said Shoshone-Bannock students were often misunderstood and unseen at Idaho State University. etc. are included.
