Indigenous Thinkers

Research Articles & Literature

Begay, S. M. and  W. Begay.  (1982).  Comparison of Navajo and Western Scientific Theories of Cognitive and Personality Development, Birth through Adolescence.  Rough Rock, AZ: Rough Rock Demonstration School.          An interesting comparison of the cognitive and personality development between two cultures: Navajo and Western. Shows the spiral progression of Navajo pedagogy. Begay, T. K.  (2003). Community Presidents Leadership Development Program.  PowerPoint Presentation. Tucson, AZ.          Begay presents a Vygotskian approach to Community health leadership addressing the social cultural impact of assimilation on health and well-being. His community empowerment model is based on Cultural Historic Activity Theory (CHAT) with an emphasis on proactive community dialog.

Bodrova, E.  and D. J. Leong.  (1996). Tools of the Mind: The Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Pretice-Hall.          Bodrova and Leong write about Vygotsky’s theories in a manner accessible and practical to the average teacher.  A thorough overview of the complex theories of Vygotsky’s in a “spiraling” scaffolding of laden cognitive development examples.

Cox, M. (1990). “Interview: Paulo Freire.” OMNI, April: 74-94.          This is an interview with Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educationalist, whose work emphasize dialog and praxis within the community’s domian of knowledge. Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, work includes social justice and curriculum that reflected the community.

Donato, R.  (1994). “Collective Scaffolding in Second Language Learning.”  Vygotskian Approaches to Second Language Research.  J. P. Lantolf & G. Appel (Eds.).  Norwood, New Jersey: Ablex, 33-56.          Donato’s study of how students’ social interaction increases scaffolding and language acquisition. Uncovering how Vygotsky’s developmental theory is observed in the social dialog.

Farrer, C. R. (1991).  Living Life’s Circle: Mescalero Apache Cosmovision. Albuquerque, NM: UNM. A controversal work by the anthropologist, Claire Farrer, whose fifteen years of research led to the “emerge[nce] of ethnoastronomy” due to her mentor from the Mescalero Apache Tribe. A powerful example of the complex symbolic representations that hold volumes of cultural historic connections.

Gilmore, P., David M. Smith and  Apacuar L. Kairaiuak.  (1997). “Resisting Diversity: An Alaskan Case of Institutional Struggle.” Off White: Readings on Race, Power, and Society. M. Fine, L. Weis,  L.C. Powell, and  M. L. Wong (Eds.) New York, NY: Routledge, 90-99.           A case study of the academia white privilege faculty sweep racial issues under the robes of the university.  The minority voice is silenced through the acquiescence of investigative policies, and “gatekeeping” practices that do not address the issues of race, class and gender.

Gee, J. P.  (2001).  “Reading as Situated Language: A Sociocognitive Perspective.” Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 44:8, 714-725.          Gee presents a discourse about reading as a social language which is as distinctive as the different disciplines of academic studies: medicine, education, architecture or rap, oral communications, and cultures. He linguistically analyzes the literacy of an event by text, social language, genre, cultural model and identity. Herold, J.  (1999).  “Showing the Sun: Mythological-Ceremonial Foundations of Jicarilla Apache Baskery.” American Indian Art Magazine. 24:3, 66-79.          A symbolic dialog between the Jicarilla Apache basket makers the curator of Ethnology of Natural History in Denver Colorado. Herold examines ceremony and origin stories associated with the baskets design.

Lantolf, J. P. and G. Appel,  eds.  (1994).  Vygotskian Approaches to Second Language Research. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.          A collection of articles on second language acquisition using Vygotsky’s theories grouped into three parts: Zone of Proximal Development, Inner Speech, and Activity Theory. An excellent overview of Vygotsky’s theoretical framework is presented in the first chapter.Lantolf, J. P.  (2003). "An Informal Discussion of Vygotsky and Socio-Cultural Theory." Dept. of Language, Reading, and Culture: Brown Bag Presentation. Oct, 2003.          A candid discourse with Dr. Lantolf about Vygotskian theories, social-cultural theory, and Piaget’s theories who specializes in Vygotsky.

 ______(2003) “On the Other hand: Gesture/Speech Interface in L2 Performance.” Manuscript, SLRF: UofA, Oct. 2003.          Lantolf explores gestural differences in second language acquisition between native and non-native speakers. There is evidence through gestural differences that cognitive mapping is related to the first language.

McCarty, T.L., R.H. Lynch, S. Wallace &  A. Benally. (1991).  “Classroom Inquiry and Navajo Learning Styles: A Call for Reassessment.”  Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 22:1, 42-59.          This Article presents a unique framework mapping of Navajo cognitive development and school curriculum. McCarty and et al utilize Navajo cultural experts for comparison and contrasting Western pedagogy to indigenous design.

McCarty, T.L. (2003).  “Revitalising Indigenous Languages in Homogenising Times.”  Comparative Education, 39:2,147-163.          McCarty presents data on the effectiveness of immersion curriculum programs that support heritage languages for Native American children. She examines the power relationships for indigenous self-determination and language rights.

McGreevy, S. B.  (1999).  “Embellishing the Spiral: Design Development in Navajo Baskets.”  American Indian Art Magazine, 24:3, 44.          McGreevy examines the spiral design as a base metaphor in Navajo baskets. Beautiful examples of Navajo baskets guided by the Navajo pedagogy of hózhö. 

Moll, L. C.,  C. Amanti, D. Neff, and N. Gonzalez.  (1992).  “Funds of Knowledge for Teaching: Using A Qualitative Approach to Connect Homes and Classrooms.”  Theory into Practice, 31:1, 132-141.          Moll and et al form the pedagogical bases for their “funds of knowledge” which is an ethnographic analysis of household dynamics. They examine classroom practices and an after school program using qualitative methods.

Moll, L. C.  2000). “Inspired by Vygotsky: Ethnographic Experiments in Education.” Vygotskian Perspectives on Literacy Research: Constructing Meaning through Collaborative Inquiry.  C.D. Lee and P. Smagorinsky (eds.) Cambridge: Cambridge U, 256-268.          Dr. Moll elaborates on ethnographic studies that reflect earlier collaborations on “funds of knowledge.” He also introduces four trends in the Vygotsky literature in education: theorizing from practice, changing how teachers teach, conducting teaching experiements, and creating activity systems.

______(2001). “Through the Mediation of Others: Vygotsky Research on Teaching.”  Handbook of Research on Teaching, 4th Edition.  V. Richardson (ed.),  Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association, 111-129.          Dr. Luis Moll summarizes the “basic tents of Vygotskian cultural-historical psychology, highlighting the essential role (of) cultural mediation,” and current examples in Education which refer to Vygotskian research. Dr Moll has assign four major trends in the literature: 1)Theorizing from practice; 2)changing how teacher teach; 3)conducting teaching experiments; 4)creating activity systems, presenting current examples for each.

RedNova (2003). Children Raised Bilingual May Be Smarter.  RedNova News. (http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/2/2003/11/13/story005.html) Dec., 2003.           A recent article which surveys several research studies that support second language acquisition as a precursor for intelligence and exceptional dynamic cognitive reasoning. Some language development is theorized as being located in the cerebellum and associated with motor movement. 

Romero, M. K. (1994).  “Identifying Giftedness Among Keresan Pueblo Indians: The Keres Study.” Journal of American Indian Education, 34:1, 35-58.          Romero presents the Keresan’s complex knowledge domains and compares them with mainstream society in relation to the idea of “giftedness”. She has excellent diagrams and tables visually describing differences in the social cultural values of these two societies.

Satterlee, A.  (2002). “The Carlisle Indian Industrial School.”  Rural Education and Small Schools (ERIC: RC023836): Pennsylvania: RIE Aug.          Satterlee is a register of the Carlisle School: United States Army War College,  and examines the military documentation of the United States polices to eradicate Native Americans by holding the children hostage. Her perspective of the assimilation of Native Americans is interesting since they are sources from inside the US military operations.

Smith, L.T.  (1999).  Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous People. London, UK: Zed Books.          Linda Tuhiwai Smith inspires Indigenous people to decolonize research methods by producing their own corpus of knowledge based in their social cultural history. She has critiqued Western research, pedagogies, and imperialism by examining the philosophical base of western Civilization.

Swisher, K. G.  (1996).  “Why Indian People Should Be The Ones to Write About Indian Education.” American Indian Quarterly, 20:1, 83-90.          Swisher addresses the question of why there is a lack of published American Indians by speculating that there are high demands within the community for their expertise. She gives a survey of American Indian authors who have in creased the academic corpus accrediting American Indian history and culture.

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes.  M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, eds. Cambridge, MA: HUP.          The base of Vygotsky’s tools of the mind in cognitive developmental theory. Vygotsky’s genius was in his approach to learning as being social and language based simular to Indigenous designs which never give up or stigmaitize the learner.  

Web Research Articles & Literature 

American Philosophical Society. (2002).  Samuel George Morton Papers. Philadelphia, PA : March, 2002. (http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/m/mortonsg.htm#bioghist) Nov, 2003.          This site has white privilege rhetoric while offering grants for Indigenous language research. A library of the American based theology that has permeated the “common public schools.”

Cole, M.  and J. V. Wertsch.  (1994).  Beyond the Individual-Social Antimony in Discussions of Piaget and Vygotsky. (http://www.massey.ac.nz/~alock//virtual/colevyg.htm) Oct, 2003.          Cole and Wertsch discuss the differences between Piaget and Vygotsky origin of cognitive development. They present a psychological discourse of various pedagogies from sociology, psychology, linguistic analysis, and philosophy.New Zealand in History.

The Colonisation of New Zealand: French Colonists in Akaroa, South Island. R. Whitmore, ed. 2003 (http://history-nz.org/colonisation4.html) Dec, 2003.          Whitmore has reference links that are to historical institutions but she presents a synapses of the Māori and New Zealand history. This site is well organized and informative about New Zealand: Akaroa, but the Māori language spelling maybe inaccurate.

Official String Theory Web Site. A Brief History of String Theory. (http://www.superstringtheory.com/history/history4.html) Dec, 2003.          This site presents a timeline for the development of String theory with interesting multimedia presentations. Easy to understand science references  with basic and advance descriptions.

Reyhner, J.  (1995) "Maintaining and Renewing Native Languages." The Bilingual Research Journal, 19:2, 279-304.(http://citeseer.nj.nec.com/377714.html) Nov. 2003.The authors bring the experiences of heritage language communities that are successful in maintaining and revitalizing their language.  The introduction to Joshua Fishman’s theoretical paradigm includes the value of bilingualism, minority rights and voluntary renewal and maintenance of native languages.

Smagorinsky,  P. (1994). The Social Construction of Data: Methodological Problems of Investigating Learning in the Zone of Proximal Development.  Moscow: Psychological Institute Russian Academy of Education. (http://psych.hanover.edu/vygotsky/smagor.html) Oct. 2003.          Smagorinsky address issues of creditability in data processing and Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development.” He argues that Western society is biased in assessing all people of cultures different from European-origin middle-class creating a cognitive deficient model.