About
Hello! I am a candidate in the JPEE program here at U of M. My PhD research focuses on a relational framework for teaching writing and literature influenced by the mitakuye oyasin (all my relations) philosophy of the Oceti Sakowin tribes located in South Dakota. My research emerges from my experiences teaching and living on the Diné (Navajo) Nation and the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, where I learned about the concept of "all my relations" as an approach teaching and learning.
My dissertation addresses findings in a 2023 South Dakota Department of Education survey showing that non-Oceti Sakowin teachers across SD do not feel equipped to teach the seven Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings (OSEUs), which provide culturally responsive outcomes for teachers to apply in their curricula and pedagogical practices. My research focuses on ways OS literature (defined broadly in the OS literary tradition) infuses teaching and learning of OSEUs. The novels in my research narrate OSEU "teaching and learning situations" (TLSs) between characters and for readers. Teachers can learn about the OSEUs and related OS teaching practices by analyzing TLSs in these OS novels, which explicitly state they are grounded in OS traditions and values and invite readers to learn more about the OS people and culture on their own. In this work, I hope to highlight the weight of responsibility storytelling holds within the OS literary tradition, even when storytellers write in English for broad audiences, and the equal responsibility of readers who receive the story. I also aim to provide an avenue for non-Oceti Sakowin teachers to become better equipped to teach the OSEUs, thus increasing the number of teachers who integrate OSEUs and OS pedagogical practices in their curricula and teaching.
