Pueblo Voices: Defining the Role of Pueblo Education

The Pueblo community perspective, as articulated by parents, students, traditional elders, and contemporary educators regarding the role of Pueblo education is essential to positive school change. With this premise in mind, I conducted extensive interviews in an attempt to understand more clearly what parents, traditional elders, and other Pueblo community members perceived the role of Santa Fe Indian School and other schools for Pueblo students to be. I found a strong consensus among the people I interviewed. The purpose of education was defined as being to educate students so they can get good jobs and support their families, and to enable them to contribute to keeping their Pueblo community strong by retaining native language and tradition. There is strong evidence to support the theory that the most important factor in retaining native language and culture is the means of earning a livelihood. There was very little erosion of traditional cultural practices when subsistence farming was the primary source of livelihood. However, as large numbers of community members began to seek employment off the reservations, the change in means of earning a livelihood was accompanied by rapid erosion of native language use and traditional cultural practices. Effective education such as Community-Based Education, a model program at Santa Fe Indian school, holds promise for accomplishing the purpose for Indian education defined in this study.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Schultz, Holger S.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Coombs, Fred,

• Education, Administration

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9904580

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/80268