"They Prepared Me to Be a Teacher, But Not a Culturally Responsive Navajo Teacher for Navajo Kids": A Tribal Critical Race Theory Analysis of an Indigenous Teacher Preparation Program

Abstract

This article argues that federally-funded Indigenous teacher preparation programs housed at mainstream, predominantly White universities can be colonial and thus require significant focused work in order to ensure that they are not. The article has three interrelated objectives: first, to discuss efforts to prepare Indigenous teachers for Indigenous schools within predominantly White university teacher preparation programs; second, to examine whether these programs continue the legacy of colonization and assimilation, or advance tribal nations' goals of sovereignty and self-determination; and third, to extend the theoretical capacities of critical race theory and tribal critical race theory by using their analytic tools to make sense of particular efforts in Indigenous education. The preparation of culturally responsive Indigenous teachers for schools serving Indigenous youth is clearly needed, but this is difficult work given the larger context of imperialism, White supremacy, and assimilation that still structures our educational institutions.