| This dissertation explores how education has had an impact on the lives of twenty-three professors who are Native. Within the context of this study, education may refer to either learning in the western frame of schooling or non western forms of Indigenous education. While many individuals would define education as a process that develops life and job skills, this dissertation explores education for these twenty-three professors in all of its facets.;In recent years scholarship has examined the experiences of Native Peoples in higher education and studies have emerged regarding Native Americans in academia. While research involving Indigenous students is often focused on mainstream notions of success and completion, this study moves beyond typical framing and examines how educational experiences of all types have had an impact on Indigenous Peoples working in academia.;Contextualized within a historical framework that situates American Indian Education as an element of genocide, this study employs Indigenous epistemology as a foundation for a mixed-methods approach (Indigenous and mainstream) through in-depth interviews with the twenty-three Native professors about their education. This Indigenous methodological framework uses a critical method of oral history, as it privileges the voice of a collective oriented epistemology. Constant comparative method is used to generate themes, exploring cross-cultural topics of accomplishment, identity, relevance, well-being and satisfaction in education. Findings consist of four chapters that discuss the professors' education prior to mainstream schooling, the educational experiences of their families, K-12 academic circumstances, as well as university learning and teaching.;Racism and the history of American Indian Education continues to affect Native Peoples in educational settings and relatedness, or the lack thereof, continues to impact learning for Indigenous students. The finding that these issues continue to re-emerge indicates that they have not been resolved or are not well understood. These findings also indicate the importance of increasing awareness of historical context, Indigenous epistimologies, and relatedness in education not only for Native peoples, but for all people as educators, community members, and world citizens, especially as colonialism reasserts itself in new ways through the corporatization of academic settings. We need only listen to determine how. |
