Indigenous Education, Mainstream Education, and Native Studies: Some Considerations When Incorporating Indigenous Pedagogy into Native Studies

Abstract

A person coming to know for him or herself while respecting differences characterizes my experience of Indigenous education. Based on my experience with Indigenous education, I have found that what constitutes validity is very different than mainstream education. In the following discussion I present characteristics of Indigenous education based on my experience with a Mohawk elder and Lakota mentor. Indigenous education is intrinsically connected with culture, language, land, and knowledgeable elders and teachers. The traditional forms of knowledge are opinions, practices, or customs that come from culture and inform a perception of something and includes an act, fact, or state of knowing. I then explore mainstream education, focusing on empiricism, rationalism, and the factory metaphor and assembly line model of the industrial revolution and their influence on behavioral psychology and education evaluation. I use these examples to bring to light general beliefs, practices, challenges, and power relationships commonly found in the traditional mainstream pedagogy, whose influence in education is pervasive. I then discuss the differences presented and offer some suggestions of incorporating Indigenous pedagogy into a Native studies program.

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