In Africa, as in many countries of the South, democratization is sometimes perceived as a process modeled upon outside--and specifically Northern--experience. Formal civic education programs in those countries arguably reflect the same bias and have not always been notably successful. Yet there are rich patterns of civic involvement and democratic…

In his keynote address to the Fifth Annual American Indian Studies Consortium in 2005 David Wilkins began by commenting on earlier attempts to formally organize such a gathering in ways that might help establish and accredit Indian studies programs. He said he had the sense that the thrust of earlier meetings "was really an opportunity for Native…

Over the past 20 years, Japan has taken legislative and symbolic steps to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people and to eliminate state-sanctioned racial discrimination. But the Ainu still experience discrimination from other sectors of society as a result of Japan's mono-cultural national identity, and the lack of judicial remedies to respond…

The three sisters story is shared across many tribes. It explains the practice of planting corn, beans, and squash together. The corn stalks provide support for the bean vines; the beans provide nitrogen for the corn; and the squash prevents weed growth between the mounds. Such stories explain not only the science of agricultural methods in tribal…

When ethnomathematical ideas, that is, the mathematical ideas of different cultural groups, are included in mathematics curriculum texts they can become part of the learning experience in various ways. Once included in western classroom mathematics texts, the ethnomathematical ideas become transformed. The transformations involve changes in form…

Kanaka Maoli are under constant threat of becoming exiles in their homeland. With the steady encroachment of development such as new luxury subdivisions on Moloka'i, high-rise condominiums in Waikiki, and new multi-million-dollar homes on the beaches of all the major islands, they are being pushed off their land and replaced by new wealthy…

American Indian and Alaska Native psychologists are in demand. They hold promise to meet the mental health needs of tribal and urban Indian communities by bridging Native worldview and the Euro-American stance of psychology in assessing, designing, and delivering mental health services to Native peoples. Individual stories of Native psychologists…

Establishing rapport between researcher and participants when conducting ethnography is essential to the successful outcome of the research. However, when participants are unwilling to engage, a different approach must be adopted. This article is an examination of the appropriation of a situated learning model during fieldwork with a group of…

In the School of Education at the University of Adelaide, the use of oral evidence is increasingly common as students engage with reflective practices now dominant in teacher-education programs. These experiences offer both a dynamic perspective and a challenge to academic assessors and raise three questions, each of which are addressed in this…

One of the most important components of a culture is its language. With language, people not only expeditiously communicate; they also express their values, beliefs, and world views. When a language becomes extinct, a part of the cultural patrimony of humanity is lost. For linguists, this also means the loss of an opportunity for a better…

In this article, we outline culturally responsive schooling (CRS) for Indigenous youth and situate this concept within a larger history of US federal and community-based efforts to educate Indigenous youth in the USA. We examine what we know from the research literature about the impacts of CRS among US Indigenous youth. In exploring the research,…

Western knowledge faces two dilemmas. First, Western knowledge rests itself on a foundation of reason to understand the true nature of the world, yet it also privileges itself as the fiduciary of all knowledge with authority to authenticate or invalidate other knowledge (when it gets around to it). Colonial-power-knowledge conceptualizes…

This article identifies and provides some commentary on the key issues emerging from research into the digitisation of Indigenous materials in collections conducted in collaboration with three state libraries. It situates the research project within the broader context of related activity aimed at addressing the ongoing challenges of access,…

Is there a place for Indigenous Knowledge in the science curriculum for a Zulu community in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa? This article argues "yes," based on a participative research and development project that discovered relevant science learning in a Zulu community. Among community concerns for relevant factual and performative…

Speaking at faculty orientation before Dine College's Cultural Center in August 2004, the late Robert Roessel, a founder of Navajo Community College, described hopes that tribal leaders of the 1950s and 1960s had envisioned for tribal colleges. Designing programs of higher learning that work from and advance Native knowledge remains a core…