Baleiichiwee (the story of understanding) : the conscientization processes of effective teachers of American Indian students

Abstract

The success of all students is an intimate concern for all good teachers and those who engage daily with America Indian students have a vested interest in identifying what works in their unique contexts, in spite of the difficult circumstances presented on American Indian reservations in Montana. Engaging in education that is effective is a concern that has many levels of complexity, but this study focuses on community perspectives on effective teaching and on the teacher and his/her conscientization process as two of the essential pieces to this puzzle. Qualitative focus group data was used to construct a list of characteristics/qualities grounded in community values and a list of effective teachers was compiled through "community nomination". A collective case study gathered the living educational theories and teaching philosophies of six nominated teachers, compared these to the community-determined characteristics/qualities, and examined elements of each teacher's life history that played a role in developing and informing each effective teacher's pedagogy. It was determined that conscientization played a significant role in molding effective pedagogy, and social intelligence provided the precursory relationships that allowed teachers to effectively teach students according to a responsive pedagogy in the optimal zone of cognitive efficiency. A new model for adaptive teaching in cross-cultural contexts was proposed as were suggestions for further study.