by Diane Wilson
Even with an Ed.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership and a career that has included international travel to work with indigenous groups in other countries, Roxanne Gould is reluctant to be considered an expert in the field of education. But when asked to speak as a mother and grandmother with 25 plus years of working in education, Roxanne readily offers a wealth of innovative ideas on how to provide a better learning experience for Native kids. Her family roles “keep me ever mindful of the responsibility that we have to future generations and the legacy that we’re leaving for those that come after us,” Roxanne explained.
Borrowing a story from the Maoris in New Zealand where she studied indigenous education movements for her dissertation work, Roxanne told about an octopus, Te Wheke A Toi, with big arms that reach out to many different places in the world, finds good ideas, and brings them back home where the people make them Maori. This metaphor represents Roxanne’s mission in traveling throughout the world, searching for good ideas to bring home that might help improve the educational system here. For example, when the Maoris set a goal of training 500 Maori Ph.Ds in five years, they started schools wherever they could find space: in empty garages, people’s basements, even in abandoned buildings. People volunteered their time to help teach, developing programs that were not only accredited by the government, but also achieved the original goal of 500 Maori Ph.Ds in only three years. “What they attempted to do was create a language revitalization movement,” Roxanne said. “What they accomplished was a political revolution. It was very inspiring.”
When people ask why she wants to travel in search of new ideas, Roxanne describes her process as a way of stepping back from the educational system here to get a “mountain top view” that not only helps her see what others are doing, but also to appreciate the strengths and successes in this country. With help from a Kellogg Fellowship in the early 1990s, Roxanne traveled to Guatemala, Cuba, Sweden, Norway, China, Canada, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica, meeting indigenous people around the world who welcomed her and shared their stories. Two countries that she found especially inspiring were Guatemala and Cuba. Guatemala is 85% indigenous, a country where people survived genocide attempt after genocide attempt and still kept their culture and language alive.
“We always think money is the answer to everything but like the Maoris, they said, the heck with it, we’re just going to start our own,” Roxanne said. “[Young men] were being trained in Guatemala City but they were going back to create a Maya University. There weren’t any dollars for them to do it. They wanted to have an institution of higher education where they could teach in their language.” Cuba offered an example of a country that was relatively poor compared to our standards yet its socialist government took care of the people in a way that is similar to traditional Native communities.
Roxanne has also been inspired by indigenous scholars like Linda Tuhiwai Smith who said, “I have a small goal. That’s to train enough Maoris to run a country.” Or at least enough people to run a university or a school district, Roxanne added. To create effective programs and institutions, “we need to be both reflective on past traditions and past scholarship but ever mindful of the future,” Roxanne said. “We need indigenous researchers that will not research on us but will work with us to generate research that’s meaningful that will help us move forward. To see what’s working and what’s not.” We need educators who can examine theory from a critical perspective and also create theory that is specific to Native people. It’s not enough to just teach tradition to young people, although that will always be the foundation of indigenous education. Citing Vine DeLoria’s work, Roxanne explained, “we would never truly be sovereign until we’ve figured out how to be indigenous in a contemporary society.” Education has to be relevant to the lives of our kids. Lecturing abstract topics, even if it’s an interesting topic, can become boring.
But there are examples of schools in this country that are putting together exciting programs that combine theory, critical thinking and relevance in ways that are motivating Native kids to stay in school and graduate. A charter school in New Mexico run in three trailers offers a study abroad program that begins in 9th grade with a trip to Washington D.C. to learn about the interaction between the United States government and Native nations. The second year students travel to Mexico; the third year to India; and they spend an entire semester in New Zealand in the fourth year. By the time these students graduate, they have college credits. Another school in New York, “City in the School,” does most of its learning in the community, where students experience directly how a subject like science is relevant in hospitals and laboratories. Roxanne also points to the tribal college movement as the best example of an indigenous education movement in this country.
When asked about the path that led her to work with indigenous peoples around the world, Roxanne said, “It’s a privilege to be able to do that.” Although she is Odawa and Ojibwe from the Grand Traverse and Little Traverse bands of Michigan, Roxanne was born and raised in South Dakota, attending Flandreau Indian School for a brief time. Raised by teenage parents, Roxanne said it was never her plan to do all that she has accomplished. She knew that she would go to college because her mother always told her that she would get to go, even scrimping to save $350 for her tuition.
“I loved learning and I loved books,” Roxanne said. “Even though it wasn’t in my plan to do all these things, I think it was spirit’s plan.”
After graduating from the University of South Dakota with a degree in American Indian Studies and Social Behavior, Roxanne completed a Master’s in Educational Psychology before getting her doctorate at the University of Minnesota. She worked fulltime at the University as the Director for the American Indian Learning Resource Center for nine years before being laid off. Roxanne was hired to teach at Fond du Lac Tribal Community College, describing it as one of the best jobs she’s ever had, because she was working in an indigenous learning community. With the freedom to create her own courses, Roxanne could incorporate Indigenous concepts and critical theory into everything she taught. This experience, combined with her research and international work, has also helped Roxanne develop her own understanding of what works best in teaching indigenous youth.
“You need to establish a relationship because we’re very relational people,” Roxanne said. “If you don’t do that you’re not going to have rapport with these kids.” She strongly recommends that each child should have an individualized learning plan. At the college level, it was important to Roxanne to start each course with ceremony, smudging and holding a talking circle, regardless of the course topic, which sent a strong message about the intrinsic importance of ceremony.
“It’s important to assume the best, not the worst,” Roxanne continued. “To assume that there’s gifts, strengths, that each student brings. Believe in them and never give up on them. I still believe they’re going to make it, even when they leave. They’re part of my community and I have a vested interest in them succeeding, however that may be.” One of the ways to help students succeed is to find out their passions and try to incorporate that into the coursework, offering activities that suit multiple learning styles. This approach can sometimes help students discover their best learning style, adding to the self-awareness and personal growth that also needs to be incorporated into each class, making the topic relevant to students as individuals. For example, in talking about economics in her sociology class, Roxanne assigned her students to work in groups and create a budget for a single mom who made $8 an hour, an experience that many of her students had known firsthand.
In each class, students were asked to critically examine the materials that were presented to them, to ask from whose perspective is this, whose perspective is left out, who benefits. The impact of colonization was explored so that students would understand the trauma that has been created in their communities and in their own lives. Students also study decolonization projects through the work of organizations whose missions are to undo the harm of past generations. That way, Roxanne said, she hopes her students will also understand, “We’re the only ones that can change this.”