Date Awarded

2011

Document Type

Dissertation -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Department

Education

Advisor

Dororthy E. Finnegan

Abstract

In the 1990s, as Virginia Indians faced the 2007 quadracentennial of Jamestown's founding, they initiated plans to publicly correct inaccuracies and omissions embedded in the historical narrative. The Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present Teachers' Institute was one such initiative through the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities' Virginia Indian Heritage Program. Designed for educators' professional development regarding Virginia Indian history and cultures, the Institute's first two years (2007 and 2008) featured a Virginia Indian-developed curriculum with both Native and non-Native presenters.;This qualitative, interpretivist study sought evidence of teaching at the interface of cultures by these invited presenters using pedagogy and curriculum as units of analysis, and questioned whether they shared an educational vision or paradigm despite different cultural backgrounds. The study revealed that the Institute demonstrated effective collaboration among presenters influenced by both Indigenous and European-American paradigms It exposed participating educators to a little-known period in Virginia history--the era of the Racial Integrity Act of 1924 and segregation--through the stories of tribal experts who experienced the attempted eradication of cultural identity. These oral histories contributed to the distinct Virginia Indian epistemology that emerged in the program. The BJTI also demonstrated Virginia Indians' 21st-century agency in inviting its non-Native presenters and participating educators to collaborate in decolonizing Virginia education.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.25774/w4-h2gc-v954

Rights

© The Author

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