The cultural negotiation of indigenous education: Between microethnography and model‐building

Abstract

The cultural negotiation of indigenous education is proposed as a viable and present alternative to assimilation. A conceptual model‐in‐progress is built as a potential “fieldguide” for cultural negotiation. The model is fundamentally multidimensional in contrast to many past unidimensional indigenous education efforts. The horizontal dimension represents breadth of context, ranging from classroom to system and government boundaries. The vertical dimension represents level of meaning, progressing from the “what” of language and content, to the “how” of ecological and social relations, to the “why” of worldview and cultural value systems as the focus of indigenous schooling. The third dimension represents depth of process—the degree of engagement and participation at any level of meaning. This last dimension is considered critical, has often remained invisible, and is related to new constructivist directions in education and psychology.