Rhetorics of Authority, Space, Friendship, and Race: A Qualitative Study of the Culturally Responsive Teaching of Native American Literatures.

Abstract

This dissertation is a qualitative research study of a ninth grade English classroom in which the teacher and students are reading the first novel by a woman of American Indian descent: Wynema: A Child of the Forest (1891) by S. Alice Callahan (Muscogee Creek). The researcher posits the term “understanding gap” as a site of inquiry into the difficulties faced by non-Native students and teachers: e.g., confusion about cultural differences, anger about the representation of different cultures in the texts, and lack of accessible background information. Using a Grounded Theory approach to data analysis, which emphasizes critical discourse analysis in concert with visual and spatial analysis, the study explores teacher authority, space, race, and friendship as methodology. The teacher’s authority in this classroom is complex, ambivalent, and dynamic, and she invokes cultural legitimacy to help her non-Native students connect with Native American issues. A spatial and discursive analysis of a privilege walk activity shows how such an intervention can mitigate the colormuteness in a racially charged classroom and desegregate the white/black boundaries of the customary seating arrangement. Authorization of talk about race led to specific kinds of student understanding demonstrated in their writing: empathy, self-knowledge, and perspective. An intensive action research approach led to problematizing friendship as a methodological approach, suggesting rhetorical listening as a possible way to mitigate the potential risks. A hybrid discourse and spatial analysis leads to an articulation of the understanding gap that non-Native students experience when reading indigenous texts. A theory-based understanding of the gap creates the foundation for a greater understanding of effective Native pedagogy, insight into the particular challenges of teaching Native texts, and a re-visioning of what the project of culturally relevant pedagogy entails. Finally, this dissertation concludes that culturally relevant research—which includes holding high standards, valuing language, valuing community, enacting an ethic of caring to include friendship, and fostering social critique—is appropriate for studies on pedagogical approaches to Native American/American Indian literatures. It is the element of synergy, coupled with deep self-reflection, that give a theory of culturally relevant research the flexibility needed to adapt to different cultural contexts.