Fostering Teacher Understanding of Dakota and Lakota Education Experiences: Past, Present, and Future

Various researchers and reporters have documented the array of experiences that native students had in educational settings between 1879, when the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (in Pennsylvania) and others were established and youngsters were forced off the reservations, and the 1930s, when most boarding schools were closed. This project was designed to collect and to share information in order to better prepare teachers of Native students. The project gave Native elders an opportunity to record their education experiences in their own words. This study involved four in-depth, in-person interviews with Dakota and Lakota elders between 40 and 70 years old. Elders provided reflections on experiences of past generations, on their own educational experiences, on the preferred learning methods of Native students, and on their visions for teachers’ practices and influences on Native children. Data analysis was conducted to identify themes. Stories and comments from elders were organized around those themes and produced in a video. Due to respect for the elders, no editorializing or conclusions were created. Future studies might include use of the video in MSU courses for future teachers and evaluating attitude shifts among the viewers