Workshop on North American Indigenous Learning

Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This project is an interdisciplinary workshop on North American Indigenous learning. The Native American Languages Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1990, enacted into policy the recognition of the unique status and importance of Native American and Alaska Native languages. While most effort has concentrated on describing and teaching Native languages situated in cultural practices, and more recently on Indigenous knowledge systems, very little research has been conducted on Indigenous learning. The goal of this workshop is to identify and refine the major research questions that can guide the development of collaborative proposals to advance our understanding of Indigenous Learning through science-based evidence. This workshop will catalyze collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators, language and cultural practitioners, and policymakers. Additionally it will help to develop a diverse community working towards science-based evidence to inform learning and educational practices, curriculum development, and policies in Indigenous communities and those with significant Indigenous student populations. Major scientific questions concerning Indigenous learning are still unanswered or not investigated. These questions include what the characteristics of a good learner are, what promotes learning, what is unique about learning in Indigenous North America, and what kinds of data and methodologies are needed to answer these questions. The twenty workshop participants drawn from multiple disciplines will broaden the range of perspectives brought to bear on learning and education. They include recognized experts in their fields, promising junior researchers, Indigenous elders or cultural representatives, and Indigenous participants from different Indigenous cultural areas in North America. The workshop will begin with a series of on-line video break-out sessions to identify the scope of research challenges, and will culminate in a two-day ideas lab workshop at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution. The workshop will enable interdisciplinary discussion and identification of important research problems to be addressed in Indigenous learning, and subsequently, how science-based evidence from such research could be used to inform educational practice and policy. Participation in the workshop and follow-up collaborations will foster participation of Indigenous scholars in the science of learning, and encourage experts from diverse fields and perspectives to lay the conceptual framework from which new research directions could emerge.