From boarding schools to the multicultural classroom: The intercultural politics of education, assimilation, and American Indians

Teacher Education Quarterly, Summer 1999 by Sanchez, John, Stuckey, Mary E

One way to accomplish this is to mandate four semesters of diversity and multicultural courses in colleges and universities for preservice K-12 educators. Allowing at least one full semester or quarter for each of the four main groups of ethnic cultures that reside in the United States would increase the educators' ability to teach about those cultures with knowledge and sensitivity. Preservice teachers would be required to complete this course successfully in order to earn administrative or teacher certification in their field(s), and inservice teachers would be required to complete this course successfully in order to earn tenure and/or promotion.

Additionally, an increasing number of Indian educators are turning their talents toward consulting-both on curricula and as presenters in schools. Programs that involve bringing indigenous peoples into schools on their own terms can help foster self-esteem in Indian students as well as helping non-Indian educators bring Indian perspectives to their students.

The Internet can also be a valuable source of information about Indian cultures, for many Indian nations have home pages and make information about their cultures and histories available via electronic means. As an increasing number of schools become connected to the web, the students and faculty of those schools are enabled to reach out to other cultures and to use technology to bring those cultures to their students in ways that were not previously possible.

Another important change would be the widespread adoption of revisionist history texts. These books may be among the most important tools in broadening our understanding of and becoming more realistic about American Indian and other cultures. Today, students are still being taught that Columbus discovered America, that the only influences on the founding of the United States were European, and so on. Texts that teach the fact that Columbus never set foot on what is now American (i.e., United States) soil, that the framers of our Constitution were aware of and knowledgeable about the confederacy of the Six Nations peoples, and that American Indian cultures continue to influence that dominant culture would go a long way in providing a context of respect for non-dominant cultures. Such emphases would also contribute to the pride and self-esteem of American Indian students, and help to keep them in schools rather than driving them from schools.

Changes in research involve listening more consistently and much more carefully to the voices of Indian scholars and other Indian people, providing spaces for them to speak in ways that are comfortable and appropriate, even in "mainstream" journals, rather than just in those outlets that are designated as "Indian." Most importantly, it means listening to and being guided by Indians rather than dismissing or coopting their insights and ideas.

To the extent that these changes take hold, to the extent that the structures and content of American education become less hegemonic and more reflective of the diversity that comprises the American polity, the possibilities increase that the educational system will serve as a support for American Indian cultures rather than as their committed enemy.