A Community-University Partnership: Collaborating to Improve Teacher Preparation for an Urban Indigenous Community

<p>This qualitative case study explored a community-university partnership for teacher preparation with an urban Indigenous community organization in Chicago, Illinois. In the examined partnership, Indigenous participants collaborated with university faculty to prepare graduate-level students in an initial preparation program. I examined the impact of the partnership on the participating Indigenous community members, emphasizing how their interactions with university faculty and teacher candidates impacted the Indigenous organization and participants. Indigenous participants considered what teachers must understand to serve urban Indigenous children and the community's role in teacher preparation.</p><p>I collected data through focus groups with Indigenous participants before and after engagement with the partnership; direct observations of partnership activities where Indigenous participants interacted with teacher candidates and university faculty, and offered individual interviews for all participants. The collected data was audio recorded and transcribed, then analyzed using conventional content analysis. With Indigenous Postcolonial Theory (IPT) guiding the study, I examined the perspectives of urban Indigenous community members interacting with a non-Indigenous university teacher preparation program preparing teacher candidates to serve the needs of diverse children and their families. This study held implications for continued development of Indigenous community-university partnerships, policy and practice in urban Indigenous education, and potential for partnerships to advance self-determination and postcolonialism through self-education.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School of Education

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Lees, Anna

• Community Partnerships
• Field Based Teacher Preparation
• Indigenous Educaton
• Indigenous Postcolonial Theory
• Qualitative Case Study
• Teacher Education and Professional Development

Repository record dc:identifier

https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1279

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.luc.edu:luc_diss-2278