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サマリー
あらすじ・解説
Heather Francis: What we have for you in this series is really special. At the end of 2022, we took Brenda Beyal into a studio to video record an interview. When Brenda presents for teachers, a whole flock of teachers gather around her at the end of her sessions. And, our sessions don't always end on time, because there's so much that Brenda has to share with teachers—teachers just keep raising their hands. They have so many questions. Even when the session is over, they don't leave without getting a chance to talk to Brenda face to face, one-on-one about their particular questions. She's really grown to be a thought leader in our community, and a great representative of many native and indigenous voices that are to be shared. She's an authentic voice. She is a Navajo/Diné woman. She is an educator of over 35 years, she has worked in educational and native communities for a really long time. You've heard her on the podcast before: she just has such a gentle, humble and genius way about her. We took Brenda to the studio and recorded her answering some questions that we thought would be really important to have documented and answered. These videos are now published on our YouTube channel. Today, we're sharing two of the questions Brenda answered in the recording studio. 1. What is indigenous pedagogy? 2. How do the arts support indigenous pedagogy? Brenda and many of our NACI team members who design our tribe-approved lesson plans speak about the relationship between arts, arts, education, native culture, and native or indigenous pedagogy. Brenda gives a fabulous answer to that question in this episode. Let’s start with the first question that Brenda will answer: what is indigenous pedagogy?What is indigenous pedagogy?Brenda Beyal: Indigenous pedagogy is a framework that uses cultural teachings of indigenous peoples. There are structures within that framework that can be used by teachers to help them to become more culturally responsive in their classrooms. Storytelling:One of the very first frameworks I can think of is storytelling, using story to help children learn a concept, or putting across an idea or even using story for correcting behavior. There are many ways that indigenous people use stories, but it is threaded throughout all of their cultural ways. Place-based learning: Another I would say structure and indigenous pedagogy is place-based on the idea that you use the historical, the environmental, the cultural place from where students come from. To help teach content, another indigenous structure would be learning by doing, using all of your senses, to help you to learn things that you should be learning. Within that structure, you could have side-by-side coaching, you would have time when you are able to reflect and listen in such a way that it helps you to just learn and do. That's an indigenous structure. Learning from mistakes: Another structure that I feel strongly about is that mistakes are to learn from and not to be graded on. Cooperative learning: Within all of these structures learning through collaboration is important. Indigenous pedagogy contains the idea that people have responsibilities within a group. As children learn, through play-space learning, through learning by mistake, side-coaching, all of those share the idea of collaborating and cooperating together.Heather Francis: I want to recap and honor what Brenda recognized as part of indigenous pedagogy. She talks about how storytelling is a part of indigenous pedagogy and place-based learning where the historical, environmental, and cultural background of the students is used to help teach content in the classroom. She also talked about how indigenous pedagogy includes experiential learning, learning by doing, using all of your senses to help you learn. This includes side-by-side coaching, and I love how she focused on reflection and listening. Brenda is so good at modeling reflection and listening while sitting in Zoom meetings—I can just see her lying back in her chair and nodding her head and thoughtfully taking in what people are saying during conversation. She's so good at listening. I also love that mistakes are to be learned from and not to be graded on. And that indigenous pedagogy includes cooperative learning. Learning through collaboration with others and taking responsibility for the part you play in a group is important. These are all great examples of how a teacher, like she said, could be really culturally responsive in their classroom by including these indigenous pedagogical strategies. The next question that I asked Brenda is about the connection between the arts, arts education, and indigenous pedagogy. She actually uses all of these elements of indigenous pedagogy and uses storytelling to teach us about how the arts and these pedagogies are connected. I hope you enjoy this answer as well.How do the arts support indigenous pedagogy?A previously recorded interview with Brenda ...