Author : Valerie Grimley
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 382 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (957 download)
Book Synopsis Native American Students Living in Dual Worlds by : Valerie Grimley
Download or read book Native American Students Living in Dual Worlds written by Valerie Grimley and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Native American students face obstacles in their higher education aspirations due to the lack of purposeful inclusion of core cultural factors including an understanding of dual world concepts and funds of knowledge in their secondary education (Pavel & Padilla, 1993). Funds of knowledge (Gonzales, et. al, 2005) experiences include traditions, knowledge, and language of their indigenous community. The purpose of the study was to investigate dual world concepts (Peshkin, 1997), cultural/community knowledge, and how students' funds of knowledge can enhance their classroom experience in a community based education classroom. According to Garret (2000), dual worlds is a direct relation to acculturation and is the "cultural change that occurs when two or more cultures are in persistent contact," (Garcia & Ahler, 1992, p. 24). Dual worlds are pervasive in the everyday life of a Native American student. Since the world is filled with numerous challenges, the concept of dual worlds is an essential tool for understanding a student's funds of knowledge. This research study also provides a review of the curriculum material provided to me from the Planning and Evaluation office to understand program structure and curricular materials in the area of identity and multiliteracies such as oral histories, tribal community cultural values and traditions. This was done through an investigation of key concepts that describe the critical lenses of dual worlds and cultural/community knowledge and how it may affect or assist bilingual/multilingual Native American students to live in dual worlds and multiple realities. Data was collected by first interviewing the Director from a community in which the CBE Classroom works with. The Director is a tribal employee based in the Pueblo community. Next I conducted interviews with the CBE classroom liasion who is a school employee that coordinates with the Pueblo community. Lastly, I interviewed the two classroom instructors that teach the high school Community Based Education courses at Arrowhead Indian School (pseudonym). This specifically examined how teachers of Native American students use dual concepts and cultural/community knowledge tailored to Native American learners in a manner that includes collaboration with tribal communities. Qualitative research methods are proposed for this study. Case study was used for gaining the experiences and personal understandings of those whose voices are normally silenced in the research literature. The case study research presented in this study displays or portrays the perceptions of teachers and their experiences bringing in Native American literacies, as describes above, into the classroom. In this qualitative study, portraiture was used to understand the concept of dual worlds and the use of cultural/community knowledge, not only on their classroom discourse, but also in their daily lives. Data conveyed challenges with changing the standardized Western education system and that if the CBE class could overcome those institutional barriers, they would be able to help their communities adjust and adapt to the changing times. The CBE course also focuses on encouraging students to utilize their funds of knowledge to help their culture survive and strengthen it. Through portraiture, the study revealed that the dual world concept is not universal to Native Americans. Future research can explore dual world paradigms and how personal life experiences build personal opinions/beliefs on dual world concepts.
