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

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.

Indigenous Education

At a workshop on cross-cultural dialogue that I cofacilitated in Seattle, Washington, a Mohawk elder introduced me in the following way. "This is Jeff Lambe," he said. "He went to school so that they would honor him as a human being." What does it mean to be a human being? How does being a human being relate to education? I learned from my Oglala/Lakota friend and mentor that Mitakuye Oyasin is one expression of what it means to be a human being. Mitakuye is all creation. Oyasin is a burning desire to know. My understanding of the phrase Mitakuye Oyasin is the burning desire of a person to come to know the creation or their place in creation. The elder's introduction and my understanding of what it means to be a human being helps me express the many differences that exist between Indigenous education and more common methods found in Native studies programs couched in mainstream academic institutions.

During my encounters with the Oglala/Lakota and Mohawk oral traditions, I noticed that teaching and learning was nurtured not by methods that were assumed valid and appropriate for everyone but through spending time with an individual so as to come to know that individual. A mentor would then make what I can best describe as suggestions, usually valid in terms of the nature of the context of a situation, where the individual is in his or her life, and the nature of the relationship between the mentor and the individual. These suggestions never seemed obligatory. The person would reflect and be free to regard, disregard, or continue to reflect, depending on how the person feels.

The impact of this form of education can be profound because of the personal nature of the relationship. In this way, learning is nurtured, not forced or dictated. One is never told what to learn or how one should learn it. Learning is entirely dependent on the willingness of the elder and mentor and the person's respect, motivation, interests, and gifts. I have experienced this type of learning on reservations and with teachers from reservations. For example, if an elder or mentor is making a rattle and there is a group of children around, he or she does not insist on the children's attention or that all participate. Some students naturally have an interest while others do not. Interests vary depending on the child's motivation, affinity, and natural talents. It is not expected that everyone or anyone takes an active interest and participates.

Elders' or mentors' understanding of ceremony and culture does not necessarily have to be extensive or called "into play." More important are the mentors' life experiences and an ability to empathize with a person; where they...