"A Viable Path for Education"—Indigenous-Language Immersion and Sustainable Self-Determination. Issue 5 (3rd September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McCarty, Teresa L.; Noguera, Joaquín; Lee, Tiffany S.; Nicholas, Sheilah E.
• Is Part Of: Journal of language, identity, and education. Volume 20:Issue 5(2021)
• Page Start: 340
• Page End: 354
• Publication Date: 2021-09-03
• Subjects: Indigenous education -- Indigenous language revitalization and reclamation -- Indigenous self-determination -- language immersion; Language and education -- Periodicals; Multicultural education -- Periodicals; 306.44
• DOI: 10.1080/15348458.2021.1957681
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1534-8458

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines Indigenous-language immersion (ILI) schooling, an innovative approach in which most or all instruction occurs in the Indigenous language, with a strong culture-based curriculum. With the goals of promoting language revitalization, academic/holistic wellbeing, and cultural identity and continuance, ILI is a form of sustainable self-determination. We ground our analysis in a growing body of ILI scholarship and preliminary findings from our research in a mixed-method, multisite, US-wide study of ILI schooling. The study asks: What can ILI teach us to improve education practice for Native American learners? How can such a study inform research, theory, practice, and policy for Indigenous and other minoritized learners? We begin with a brief history of ILI movements in the US and then discuss ILI's de/anticolonial aims, highlighting connections to sustainable self-determination. We illustrate these processes with examples of pedagogical, communal, and nation-building goals and practices evident in our national study. We conclude with the broader implications of ILI as a "viable path for education" for sustainable enactments of Indigenous self-determination.