Relationality in online Indigenous language courses

ABSTRACT

This article considers ways Indigenous Peoples enact relational epistemologies in online Indigenous language courses which support Indigenous language education. We give an overview of popular platforms and their key features, including audio, images, video, text-based instruction, and assessment. Based on our reviews of Indigenous language courses, we discuss how course creators used these features to enact relational epistemologies. Audio represented the voices of learners and speakers across generations. Images, whether photographs or graphics, offered visual representations of community life and cultural teachings. Videos showed interactions between community members engaged in cultural activities and shared stories. Text-based instruction wove together grammar teaching with culture. Some communities have also pushed against the rigid conventions of formal assessment to prepare learners through culturally appropriate measures. Through the intentional use of the course features, community-led Indigenous language courses are centering relational epistemologies and decolonizing digital language learning spaces.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Oklahoma Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship; University of Oklahoma Arts and Humanities Faculty Fellowship; University of Oklahoma Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships’ Social Sciences, Humanities, & Arts Seed Grant Program.

Notes on contributors

Kari A. B. Chew

Kari A. B. Chew is a Chickasaw citizen and Chikashshanompa’ (Chickasaw language) learner based in the Chickasaw Nation. Engaging decolonizing methodologies, she researches pedagogies for Indigenous language learning and teaching, technology to support Indigenous languages, and Indigenous language-in-education policy. She works closely with the Chickasaw Nation on language education projects, including Chickasaw Rosetta Stone. She earned a doctorate in Indigenous Language Education and Linguistics from the University of Arizona and was a postdoctoral fellow with NEȾOLṈEW̱ “one mind, one people” at the University of Victoria.

Courtney Tennell

Courtney Tennell is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and a doctoral candidate in the department of Educational Psychology at the University of Oklahoma Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education. She is a Razorback-Sooner Scholar at the Zarrow Center for Learning Enrichment. Her research focuses on Indigenous special education, postsecondary transition and postsecondary transition resources provided to Indigenous students.