Artful Teaching

Brenda Beyal, program coordinator for the Native American Curriculum Initiative, Stephanie West, an instructional designer working on the NACI asynchronous professional development course, and Heather Sundahl, a writer and editor with the Native American Curriculum Initiative, join Cally Flox to discuss the term ‘sovereignty.’ What does it mean to be a sovereign nation? How can we talk about tribal groups versus tribal nations versus sovereign nations?

Five Native American Tribal Groups in Utah

First, the hosts define what it means to be a “tribe.’ There are five tribal groups in Utah; within those tribal groups are eight sovereign nations. Cally shares a pneumonic device: “SUNG-P” that helps her remember the names of the five tribes: Shoshone, Ute, Navajo, Goshute and Paiute. The Navajo and Shoshone want to be called Nations; the others—Goshute, Ute, and Paiute—want to be called Tribes. These three groups have two sovereign nations each, which makes eight sovereign nations total in Utah when added to the Navajo and the Shoshone.

What is a Sovereign Nation?
Heather, Cally, Stephanie, and Brenda discuss the various meanings and layers of a sovereign nation. To Brenda, sovereignty is having the ability to self-govern, much like states self- govern themselves. While the definition of sovereignty denotes a nation-to-nation relationship with the federal government, Stephanie reminds us that sovereignty existed long before colonizers came to North America. Over time, the definition of sovereignty has evolved due to changing laws and attitudes.

Why Sovereignty Matters to Indigenous People

574 sovereign nations exist in the United States, eight of which are in Utah. However,over 200 more tribes are seeking federal recognition through a long and elaborate process. Sovereignty is important because it provides access to resources and funds, but most importantly, it provides opportunity for reclamation and recognition.

The Utah Flag bears an outdated representation of the tribes of Utah. When it was created in the 19th century, Utah was home to six tribes,represented by an eagle with six arrows in its beak. Now, since the Bannock Tribe has been relocated to Idaho, there are only five tribes. Heather hopes the flag will offer a more accurate representation of Utah’s native tribes when officials completed its redesign..

The hosts explain that the money Native Americans receive towards healthcare and scholarships is treaty money. This money was given by the federal government as a compromised remuneration in exchange for Native land, and was probably under-negotiated at the outset. A current Supreme Court ruling allows for abrogation of Native treaties, or the modification of treaties over time without the consent of the relevant indigenous group: every single Native American treaty has been changed over time, often without the consent of Native Americans. To summarize: previously negotiated funding is not a gift; it comes at a price.

Land Acknowledgements: What is a land acknowledgement? How do I make one?

Another way listeners can move toward reciprocity and restitution is by practicing the act of land acknowledgement. Understanding that the definition of Native land is complex and includes three sometimes distinct types (tribal, reservation, and ancestral), land acknowledgement is the awareness and appreciation of the ancestral lands of a group of people who were caretakers much further back than our ancestors were. Brenda shares an example of a land acknowledgement in this episode and in this blog post.

As part of a land acknowledgement, offer a pledge to be a thoughtful steward by sharing specific ways that my family will help care for the land: pick up trash, or donate to a program that helps spread awareness about environmental consciousness, contributing to a scholarship fund for people whose ancestors were once on this land.

In an effort to create awareness, activate empathy, and learn the beautiful principles that the Native people have to teach us about caring for our land, the BYU ARTS Partnership regularly offers land acknowledgements at conferences and professional development meetings.can. Brenda and Cally remind listeners that although mistakes and injustices have been made in the past, we live in a time when we can make a difference. We don’t have to look back and feel shame, but rather we can propagate a spirit of unity that propels us forward towards reciprocity and restitution. We can help Native people reclaim their history and heritage now by communicating, validating, and honoring their feelings and stories.

Learn about tribal land, reservation land, and ancestral land.

Native land includes tribal land, reservation land, and ancestral land. Sometimes these things are the same, and sometimes they’re not. Tribal lands include lands that tribes bought back from the federal government. Reservation land is federal land set aside for tribal use and legal jurisdiction through the recognition of the federal government. Ancestral land includes land on which native peoples used to live; these lands are often difficult to reclaim due to the forcible removal of native peoples from their ancestral land in the 1800’s. For example, some tribes’ ancestral lands are in the SouthEast, but their current tribal lands are in an entirely different location. Those tribes have lost their ancestral land, which often had fluid borders.

Find more information on this topic at our blog post titled “Utah Native Nations Fact Sheet: Five Tribes Eight Nations”.

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Culturally-Responsive Classrooms: Helping Students Become Global Citizens

Chris Roberts, Provo City School District Arts Coordinator and Beverly Taylor Sorenson Arts Integration Coach, became involved in the Native American Curriculum Initiative when he and Brenda Beyal connected while teaching together in Nebo School District. Brenda and Chris’s “creative discontent” with teaching the same way everyone else did inspired them to do something more for children. They asked: “What is best for the students in our classrooms?” and “What will help them to become global citizens?” Together, they developed a multi-age program for students based on the arts and environmental education.

Native American Content at Arts Express Summer Conference for Elementary Teachers

Shared ideas about culturally-responsive teaching—specifically around Native American content—shaped Brenda’s and Chris’ presentation ideas at the Arts Express Summer Conference for elementary educators. Their presentation responded specifically to teachers’ questions about how to teach indigenous content appropriately and how to create culturally-responsive classrooms. Teachers developed new confidence and an “opening to a door that they were previously nervous about entering, especially when it comes to culturally-responsive pedagogy.”

Helping Elementary Teachers Create Culturally-Responsive Classrooms

All teachers are doing the best they can with the information and knowledge they possess. When Chris sees a teacher struggling to teach with cultural sensitivity, he asks questions such as, “How did you get the idea for your lesson plan?” or “How do you think a Paiute in your classroom would have reacted to your lesson?” These questions prompt empathy, which is a learning journey that supports understanding and sensitivity.

Teachers must be careful and intentional about the stories they share and the language they use. Chris shares a story about students’ replicated masks of the False Face Society, a healing society from the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois people). These masks are meant to represent evil spirits trapped inside of a sick person’s body and members of this society wear them while dancing to scare the evil spirits away. However, because the False Face Society is a very spiritual and sacred healing practice, it is culturally insensitive for teachers to ask their students to create the false face masks themselves.

Brenda continues by sharing how the term “_kiva_” has been used for a long time to represent a central space within a school. However, a “_kiva_” is a spiritual place that the Hopi and Pueblo people use for their sacred ceremonies and their councils. Brenda has met many teachers willing to become allies with the Pueblo and Hopi people to reclaim their voice by letting go of language that is culturally inappropriate and insensitive. She acknowledges that it can be difficult to approach an administrator or a team member to initiate change and understanding, but reminds teachers that being in a place of learning, the environment must allow for learning and changing to continue, especially when “no” is the answer.

Mistakes Are a Part of Developing Culturally-Responsive Pedagogy

Goodwill, or accepting that others make mistakes, is a NACI guiding principle. Brenda reminds listeners that from our mistakes, we learn, fix what we can, and move forward. Chris shares a story of a mistake: towards the end of his teaching career, he taught the Bear Dance, which is a special ceremonial dance that represents the awakening of a hibernating bear. He recognizes now that not asking anyone and not contacting the tribe to see if it was culturally appropriate to teach this content was a mistake: now, he knows that this dance is not one that the Ute tribe teaches to those outside their culture.

As Chris’s story demonstrates, Native American pedagogy sees mistakes as opportunities for learning:the hope of the NACI team is that if someone makes a mistake, that we also recognize their learning, and encourage forward momentum.. The Native American Curriculum initiative will continue to provide context, background information, and accessible culturally-responsive resources to help teachers cultivate an atmosphere of inclusion in their classrooms.

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Partnering with Native Tribes

Over the past three years, Brenda Beyal and her Native American Curriculum Initiative team have worked to create a culture of respect and inclusivity, building relationships of collaboration and creating lesson plans that include the native voice. The inception of this work began when the NACI team asked representatives from native tribes, “What do you want the children of Utah to know about your tribe?” Teaching artists collaborated with tribal representatives to create lesson plans with relevant and appropriate content, as well as a tribal seal of approval.

As the NACI team worked with tribal representatives and other partners across the state, seven principles emerged as a code of conduct and philosophy for how the team and partners engage in the NACI initiative.

1. Embrace Partnership & Reciprocity
The first principle is to embrace partnership and reciprocity. Cally, Brenda, and Heather reflect on an experience with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. Patty Timbimboo Madsen contacted the NACI team, looking for someone that could film the nations annual commemoration ceremony of the Bear River Massacre—the largest single slaughter of Native American lives in American history. Heather reflects on the sacredness of the event and the privilege of helping this tribe reclaim their story. Reciprocity—the act of offering something without expectation of receiving anything back—always leads to receiving more than you give.

2. Know Your Own Culture
Knowing your own culture is the second principle: everyone participates in a multifaceted culture with many layers. Taking time to learn and embody our own culture enables confidence and deep listening when learning about other cultures. Developing awareness around the traditions and values of your family’s culture makes it easier to be curious about other groups and how they explore and live those same aspects in different ways.

3. Ask with Genuine Intent, Listen Attentively

Asking with genuine intent and listening attentively is the third guiding principle. At the onset of the initiative, the NACI team asked native people, “What would you like the children of Utah to know about your tribe?” Listening with genuine intent and letting go of preconceived answers enabled the team to receive their authentic answer.

4. Accepting ‘No’ Gracefully
The fourth principle is accepting the ‘no’ gracefully. Often the NACI team asked questions, hoping for a certain answer but quickly learned that they were in the wrong. Disingenuous conversations or manipulating a ‘yes’ out of someone are not really consent: it’s not a true offering and it’s not a real partnership. Accepting the ‘no’ completely and gracefully empowers both the giver and receiver, opening the door for more meaningful opportunities and conversations.

5. Allow the Time Needed for Authentic Growth

The fifth guiding principle is to allow the time needed for authentic growth. At the outset of her work, Brenda assumed meeting all the tribes in a conference room and asking questions would provide all the content they needed. Three years later, the team still works to build authentic relationships. Trust, understanding, and a willingness to share takes time— there can be no deadlines.

6. Importance of Original Sources

Principle number six is the importance of original sources. Using multiple voices and broad perspectives helps the NACI team make sure they are bringing forward accurate and authentic sources in history into the present moment. Seeking authentic voices actively helps establish relationships, balance perspectives, and enrich lesson plans.

7. Assume Goodwill, Learn from Mistakes

The last principle is to assume goodwill and learn from mistakes. NACI team members gently inform each other of new information so they can learn to do better. Mistake-making is an inevitable aspect of learning for everyone involved: partners, tribal members, and other collaborators are all experiencing a process of trial and error: growing together requires respect and grace from all sides.

Weaving a Tapestry of Understanding and Collaboration

Bringing the seven guiding principles together into a coherent whole, Brenda shares a memory of her mother, a Diné, Navajo weaver, setting up her loom. The part of the loom holding the vertical threads is called the warp. The warp provides foundational support to the intricate designs created by the weft threads, just as the guiding principles of the Native American Curriculum Initiative act as the warp of the tapestry that their team is weaving. Every part of the NACI, whether it’s working with artists, tribal nations, or partners like UEN or USBE, is woven through these guiding principles that help amplify native voices. Cally hopes the guiding principles will help others move forward, weaving a tapestry of understanding and reciprocal relationships in cultural situations.

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Don’t forget to peruse the bank of lesson plans produced by the BYU ARTS Partnership in dance, drama, music, visual arts, media arts, and more. Search by grade level, art form or subject area at www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons.

Cally Flox, the Director of the BYU ARTS Partnership, seeks to build teacher leaders and administrative capacity in people to serve the needs of public education. She loves working with people, finding creative and innovative solutions, and making an immediate difference in people’s lives. Directing the BYU ARTS Partnership has given her concrete evidence that change happens one person and conversation at a time.

Brenda Beyal, a Navajo Diné educator, formally introduces herself in Navajo by establishing her relationships with those who are listening and letting them know that her roots run deep in history and ancestry. Brenda grew up on the Navajo reservation, graduated from high school in a small town, and received a Bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University. She taught at Reese Elementary school for 34 years and now works with the BYU ARTS Partnership.

What is the Native American Curriculum Initiative?

At Reese Elementary, she worked with a team that created a multi-age section of the school, which they called mahopa: a Lakota word meaning interconnectedness. Early on, she and her team realized that it is essential for children to learn using all of their senses. Being outdoors and making art are primary ways to learn through sensory input. After her retirement, Brenda connected with Cally Flox and the BYU ARTS Partnership, and she currently serves as the program director for the Native American Curriculum Initiative, helping connect all children with authentic Native content through the arts.

Amplifying the Native Voice to Help Teachers Create Culturally-Responsive Classrooms

Brenda’s passion is “looking for ways to help teachers understand the importance of an equitable education” by building relationships, having conversations, and laying the groundwork for changing attitudes and deepening perspectives. She has "a great interest—if not a deep sense of urgency—that we bring the native voice into the classroom; that we allow for reclamation; and that we make the ground fertile, for kids to feel confident and be able to express themselves honestly and authentically because of the honest and authentic curriculum that reaches them, their inner person.”

One goal of the BYU ARTS Partnership is to amplify teacher voices. When Brenda found bias in some of the ARTS Partnership’s lesson plans, Cally gave her a platform to build her leadership skills, let her voice be heard, and help amplify her message. Brenda’s mission to create culturally-responsive classrooms resonated with many teachers who were concerned and scared of using culturally-sensitive material in their classrooms. Understanding how important this topic is to educators across the state, Cally Flox and Jean Tokuda Irwin funded a project to uncover and research the questions many teachers were asking.

Brenda proposed questions that teachers could ask themselves to develop a more culturally-responsive pedagogy, including “Am I reinforcing stereotypes?” Or, “Am I homogenizing culture?. These relevant and timeless questions created a foundation for the Native American Curriculum Initiative.

Differences in tribal norms, reactions, and preferences prevented Cally and Brenda from offering specific or standard answers about what could or could not be taught in classrooms: various tribes responded very differently to the same question. The formative questions for initiating conversations became: “What do you want the children to know about you and about your tribe?” and “What do you want me to know about you to help me be your teacher?”

Native American Themed Arts-integrated Lesson Plans

Chris Roberts helped Brenda and her team develop a plan to support culturally-responsive classrooms by recognizing a lack of appropriate lesson plans available to teachers. Creating a tribal seal of approval for lesson plans officially certifies that the lesson material is approved by the original source. Team members Emiliy Soderborg and Rachel Gonthier collaborate with state-wide partners and tribal representatives to continue answering the question, “What do you want Utah children to know about your tribe?” Brenda was always shocked at Cally’s willingness to invest so much time and money on this project. Brenda was hesitant to spend many hours on culturally appropriate Native curriculum materials and wondered if this was an important enough issue to justify spending BYU’s money and “white people’s” time.

To this, Cally responds: “Each one of us, as we find our voice, will continue to question: do I have something of value? Or do I not? Brenda had her personal journey of when or does her personal voice matter or not…Her question, ‘Is this voice worthy of white people's money?’ The simple answer is: our entire society will be blessed and will benefit from increasing our understanding of each other, and from creating a society where there is more love, more understanding, more acceptance, more listening. It isn't a white people or a brown people issue. It's a humanity issue.”

Promoting Native Teaching Artists for Elementary Education Classrooms

True partnership exists when each member of the partnership gains or offers equal fruits. The Native American Curriculum Initiative provides a strong foundation for other recent creative projects that naturally evolve from the desire to amplify native voices. Promoting Native artists on a section of the Utah teaching artist roster allows teachers and community programs across the state access to authentic Native experiences and cultural presentations. The ARTS Partnership also connects teachers, students, and other individuals to Native culture and art forms through relationships with artists like Jamie Kamala Wood and BYU Living Legends, Lorraine Mariano, Michelle Reyes, and Connor Chee.

Native American Collaboration with BYU ARTS Partnership

When we engage in a partnership, “We don't get to decide how it benefits each partner. What we know is that each partner's voice gets to be heard, so that their needs are being met.” For non-Native community members, this means the need to develop deeper understanding in order to stop making mistakes is as great as the need of Native Americans to be heard and have a voice.

According to Cally, the story of the birth of NACI demonstrates that all voices matter, individual needs evolve, and each person’s opportunities, strengths, weaknesses, and challenges bring value to a partnership. A true partnership is where members are acknowledged, heard, and valued: true partnership goes beyond just having a seat at the table.

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Don’t forget to peruse the bank of lesson plans produced by the BYU ARTS Partnership in dance, drama, music, visual arts, media arts, and more. Search by grade level, art form or subject area at www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons.

Music provided by Connor Chee, Navajo Dine composer and performer.

Heather Francis provides three examples of action research related to arts education and arts integration in the classroom.

First, an example of a teacher studying their own practice of self-care. A seasoned teacher at the end of her career is discovering burnout. She turns to self-study to determine how a practice of self-care can help her handle the stress of life and a teaching career with greater resilience. She worked with a critical friend to attempt leaving work at school, reconnect with friends, and spend quality time with family on the weekends. She journaled and reflected and discovered that she definitely needs more time to take care of herself, but she also needs to balance that with a need to be prepared each day. Preparation also reduces stress at school.

In our second story Heather describes a teacher who tested out mind-mapping and visual art strategies in their classroom during their action research project. The teacher in this example felt they had spent so many professional development hours on literacy that they had completely neglected social studies, science, and the arts in their classroom. They hypothesized that they could touch on all these subject through mind-mapping and that this strategy might even cut down on planning and preparation required too. This research led him to validating and encouraging results.

The third part of this episode is a recording of a teacher describing their self-study research that they conducted as their master's thesis in graduate school. Tina McCulloch, graduate of the Arts Integration Endorsement program, was recorded presenting her story to a classroom of teachers during the program in 2019. She describes the context of her classroom, the problems she was facing and how she found solutions in arts education to address those problems. Her description of her study is a great example of how to use critical friends and utilize self-reflection for greater understanding of your practice.

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When it comes to action research you have a lot of choices, you can study a behavior, an intervention, an attitude, an instructional tool, your environment or you can study yourself. When you are studying yourself as the main subject of your action research you are conducting a self-study project. If you're studying anything else, it's action research from another vantage point, and not self-study.

Self-study might sound like a selfish form of research but it is far from it. Yes, it is self-centered, but is not for wholly selfish purposes. The purpose of self-study is to uncover your teaching practice so you can be a better teacher for your students in the future. It's the unveiling of your teaching attitudes, choices, practices and behaviors that helps you to advocate for what you are doing well and realize where improvement can still be made.

Whether you are doing action research on an intervention or environment or self-study research where you, the teacher, are the subject of inquiry, you can use a critical friend to help you along your journey. A critical friend is a friend who works in tandem with you as you thinking critically and constructively on the evidence of your teaching practice and student responses or student work. A critical friend helps us see elements of our experience we cannot see because of our own goals or tunnel vision. They can also encourage us and support us when we feel discouraged or disappointed in the results we see from ourselves or our students performance in the classroom. Critical friendships are based on trust and understanding, they can take time to develop but they are certainly worth it.

This episode doesn't state that action research or self-study is better than the other, although Heather is certainly biased towards self-study research. But knowing the differences between the two can help teachers determine the best course of action for their personal research experiences.

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Show Notes:

Heather Francis, co-host, and Heidi Dimmick, a 3rd-grade teacher discuss the value of action research for teachers improving their practice of arts integration in the classroom. This episode is for any teacher interested in systemic inquiry and reflective practice as a method of professional learning and advocacy within the field of education and arts education.

This episode demystifies the term "research" and describes how practicing teachers can and already do fit action research into their professional practice and how tweaking a few of the intentional data collection and analysis strategies can lead to large dividends in professional learning. Heather is definitely team research, but she's paid to do research, Heidi, the guest on this episode is a practicing teacher who understands the effort involved and also the value and benefit of that effort.

If you're interested in improving your practice as a teacher and bringing the arts into your classroom, consider a self study or action research project to help uncover the best practices for you and your students. Find a critical friend, someone who has high expectations of your performance, who believes in you and will encourage you along your path of improvement. A critical friend is a colleague throughout the action research process who can help you find your blindspots, reflect from a new perspective, and try new ideas or strategies you may not have discovered on your own.

Teachers are doing action research all the time, or at least parts of it, as they collect and analyze data in an effort to improve their practice and student learning in the classroom. There are certain things already for the state of Utah that are required like Dibels tests at the beginning of the year for reading. We take a mid year assessment and look at the score, and then and end of year assessment, and then we see how what we are doing for fluency is working. Or what needs to change to improve fluency. This naturally happens. Sometimes teachers are doing action research without actual realizing they are doing action research.

Links Mentioned:

• BYU ARTS Partnership Arts Integration Endorsement Program
• Action Research: Three approaches

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Don't forget to peruse the bank of lesson plans produced by the BYU ARTS Partnership Arts in dance, drama, music, visual arts, media arts. Search by grade-level, art form or subject area at www.education.byu.edu/arts/lessons.

Cally Flox and Heather Francis discuss what they've learned about resilience and share their experiences of living through a global pandemic. This episode is a recap of the six episodes in Series 2 of the Artful Teaching Podcast.

We can discover our voice as artists and individuals by knowing when we want to say yes and when we want to say no. Join us to practice four different, grounded ways to say "no". This episode is a recap of the workshop Cally facilitated in the "Learning to Thrive Not Just Survive" series she held for classroom teachers in the Fall of 2020.