Expanding student understanding of Indigenous worldviews

Paul McKenzie-Jones, Ph.D.
Paul is Assistant Professor of Native American Studies at MSU Northern. His research and teaching focus is on critical intersections of race, indigenous identity, contemporary issues, cultural traditionalism/revitalization/fluidity, and trans-national indigenous activism in the 20th and 21st centuries. His first book, Clyde Warrior: Tradition, Community, and Red Power, was published by University of Oklahoma Press in 2015.

Expanding student understanding of Indigenous worldviews
This OER will showcase how using examples and discussions of comparable indigenous experiences benefits both Native and non-Native student cultural awareness in the classroom. While IEFA focusses upon Montana Indian histories and experiences, I use film, art, and other forms of material culture to ask students to engage broadly with other indigenous communities within and outside of the United States. Often these examples are shown next to local forms of cultural expression. This exposure, its comparative component, and the analytical discussion of such, has proven to help them understand and appreciate the local indigenous perspectives more clearly than when these local perspectives are studied/discussed in isolation. The OER will outline several exercises and assignments that have proven successful in enabling both Native and non-Native students to develop a wider cultural consciousness than they began with.

Access the OER here: 

Download: OER Expanding student understanding of Indigenous worldviews.docx


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