Dissertation Research

Ecosystems of Teaching and Learning: An Ethnography of Two Iñupiaq Dance Groups

There is a jarring dissonance between Alaskan educational policy and Alaska Native ways of teaching and learning, a divide especially visible in how cultures interact with nature. As policymakers reconcile the colonial history of education in Alaska, they should look to how education has always happened among Alaska Native people. One foundational Native educational practice is dance. My dissertation is an ethnography of two Iñupiaq Alaska Native dance and drumming groups, drawing from decolonial participatory action research and extensive interviews of Iñupiaq elders, educators, and youth. These groups are what Wenger (2002) describes as communities of practice; groups that learn situated within a shared interest. Exploring how teaching and learning happens in Indigenous arts-based communities of practice, I (1) reconceptualize Wenger’s community of practice to allow for Iñupiaq understandings of animals and the land as integral interlocutors in the learning process, creating what I term an ecosystem of practice; (2) outline what is taught and learned including moral, social, and skill-based critical cultural knowledge; and (3) investigate potential educational outcomes including youth empowerment, cultural transmission, and addressing pressing current issues. As an expansion into the growing field of arts-based culturally responsive pedagogy, this research has important implications for educational policy across cultures and borders, through better understanding the transmission of Indigenous knowledge and elucidating the relationship between education, humanity, and nature.