The New Mexico Indigenous Instructional Scope is designed to support educators in being intentional in their lesson planning and programmatic planning while taking specific considerations into account that may impact indigenous students and communities. It is intended to be a tool to support all educators as they provide high-quality culturally responsive educational experiences across New Mexico. The NM Indigenous Instructional Scope includes a set of tenets comprised of elements and considerations, that, when combined, provide encouragement and inspiration to support the creation of learning environments which incorporate culturally and locally aligned supports for indigenous students from the 23 sovereign Pueblos, Tribes, and Nations across NM.
In consideration of the importance of the cultural and linguistic diversity of our learners, the creation of this tool, written by a committee of indigenous people from across NM who were nominated by their tribal leaders, is intended to provide a resource that guides educators in considering and incorporating the rich backgrounds of students at the local level. The Scope is not curriculum. Rather, the NM Indigenous Instructional Scope is a tool that can be used alongside the other NM Instructional Scopes Scopes (Language Arts, Spanish Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies, click here for NM Instructional Scopes Homepage) and is intended to help assure that all students have access to culturally and linguistically responsive instruction that respects students. This tool also seeks to help educators understand the importance of indigenous identity, with suggestions for how and when to incorporate the rich backgrounds of NM students within the school and classroom environments.
What is included in the Indigenous Instructional Scope:
- 8 Tenets: a set of overarching topics to help educators direct their focus as they consider the complex identities and lived realities of their indigenous students. Each tenet includes the following nested information:
- Elements are actions that should be taken by educators to ensure cultural responsiveness in their schools and classrooms.
- Considerations are specific ideas that need to be thought about when planning for instruction and are meant to drive action.
- 10 Themes of Strategies/Resources: a set of ideas that can be incorporated with each of the 8 tenets in lesson planning and/or school programmatic design.
You are encouraged to read the Indigenous Instructional Scope in its entirety.
Should you need assistance, please contact Jacqueline Costales (jacqueline.costales@ped.nm.gov), Christopher Vian (christopher.vian@ped.nm.gov) or Jed Duggan (jed.duggan@ped.nm.gov) with the Curriculum and Instruction Bureau.
FOREWARD
Tenets
Tenet 1: Holistic learning
- Elements
- Element 1: Promote of the well-being, participation, and engagement of the whole student
- Element 2: Understand identity of Indigenous student: physical, social, mental, spiritual
- Element 3: Expect that all students can succeed in education
- Element 4: Understand the importance of experiential learning and how it can build community
- Element 5: Create a learning space in a holistic, reflective, and relational form of teaching that relates back to community and Indigenous teachings
- Element 6: Create an inclusive learning environment
- Considerations
- Consideration 1: Focus on all the senses when student is learning
(How are all of the senses used by students in while they are learning?) - Consideration 2: Teachers and students are learning with and from one other and this leads to equal presentation and shifted metrics of accountability
(How do teachers and students learn from one another and share equal time and accouuntability in a classroom?) - Consideration 3: Creating positive connections with culture and community
(How is positive connections with culture and community created within and by the classroom?) - Consideration 4: Creating pathway(s) to future planning for preparation for sustainable Indigenous culture
(How can the classroom prepare for sustaining Indigenous culture?)
- Consideration 1: Focus on all the senses when student is learning
Tenet 2: Gaps in Understanding
- Elements
- Element 7: Examine their own identities and privileges
- Element 8: Understand historical trauma and colonialism and how it impacts Indigenous students
- Element 9: Collaborate with and participate in tribal preparation programs and professional development opportunities
- Considerations
- Consideration 5: Bias-free educational materials
(How should educational be analyzed to determine bias and what should be done to mitigate bias in instructional materials?) - Consideration 6: Examine assumptions and pre-conceived notions
(What assumptions and pre-conceived notions underpin a teachers beliefs about their students and the communities they work in?) - Consideration 7: Reflect on power relationships in professional and teaching practice
(What are the power dynamics the underpin the educational system?) - Consideration 8: Identify educators’ limitations and reflect on areas for ongoing learning (flexibility and learning how to adjust for the educator)
(What are our limitations and how can we use reflection and ongoing learning to address these limitations?) - Consideration 9: Take time for reflection and deeper understanding of Indigenous students’ lived experiences
(How can taking time to reflect provide a deeper understanding of Indigenous students’ lived experiences?) - Consideration 10: Change dispositions of educators
(How can we change educator disposition to improve supports for Indigenous students?) - Consideration 11: School districts and charter schools should provide professional development and supports so that school leaders are knowledgeable about MOUs with school districts/charter schools and sovereign NM tribes, pueblos, and nations (and tribally-developed standards, if available)
(How are school districts and charters being intentional about collaborating with NM tribes, nations, and pueblos to create professional development to ensure educators are knowledgeable about MOUs between the school district/charter and the NM tribes, nations, and pueblos as well as tribally-developed standard (if available)?)
- Consideration 5: Bias-free educational materials
Tenet 3: Language and stories
- Elements
- Element 10: Use oral traditions
- Element 11: Understand the diversity and validity of all tribal languages
- Element 12: Understand bilingual or multilingual students’ learning and communication (understanding, syntaxes, structures, meanings, and norms may be different in first language/primary language)
- Element 13: Create a space for students to use their tribal languages
- Element 14: Commit to revitalizing the local tribal language(s) and culture
- Considerations
- Consideration 12: Educational materials by Indigenous authors
(What educational materials are available that were authored/edited/created by Indigenous authors?) - Consideration 13: Reciprocal, respectful relationships
(How do we create and ensure reciprocal, respectful relationships between students, educators, and communities?) - Consideration 14: Connecting elders and knowledge keepers with students and educators
(How can educators connect Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers with students and classrooms?) - Consideration 15: Understanding the importance of acknowledging that Indigenous people may speak more than one tribal language
(Why is it important to acknowledge that some Indigenous people may speak more than one tribal language?) - Consideration 16: Encourage the use of tribal languages in student projects
(How can classrooms encourage the use of tribal languages in student projects?)
- Consideration 12: Educational materials by Indigenous authors
Tenet 4: Culture and cultural expression
- Elements
- Element 15: Recognize the complexity and diversity of Indigenous cultures (non homogeneous)
- Element 16: Understand Indigenous student identity
- Element 17: Understand their responsibility and accountability to community
- Element 18: Understand and foster Indigenous belonging
- Element 19: Understand cultural competency and awareness framework
- Considerations
- Consideration 17: Develop understanding of Indigenous students and the context they are coming from, i.e. tribal land, border town, urban setting, rural area, and/or close to border/across the border, etc.
(What are the contexts that Indigenous students might be coming from (ie: tribal land, border town, urban setting, rural area, and/or close to border/across the border, etc)?) - Consideration 18: Right to maintain, protect, and develop cultural heritage and traditional knowledge and when it can be shared
(How can educators ensure students right to maintain, protect, and develop cultural heritage and traditional knowledge and when it can be shared?) - Consideration 19: Indigenous histories, philosophies, epistomolgoies, theories, knowledges, worldviews, and cultures are well founded, sustainable, and valid
(How can educators show that Indigenous histories, philosophies, epistomologies, theories, knowledges, worldviews, and cultures are well founded, sustainable, and valid?) - Consideration 20: Understanding Indigenous students’ relationship to self, community, other living things, non-living things, the land, and the cosmos
(What is the impact of a Indigenous student’s relationship to self, community, other living things, non-living things, the land, and the cosmos?) - Consideration 21: Connection to ancestors and teachings that have been passed down through generations
(What impact do connections to ancestors and teachings that are passed down through the generations have on Indigenous students?)
- Consideration 17: Develop understanding of Indigenous students and the context they are coming from, i.e. tribal land, border town, urban setting, rural area, and/or close to border/across the border, etc.
Tenet 5: Community and family engagement
- Elements
- Element 20: Collaborate and work with elders
- Element 21: Engage with families on the establishment of mutually beneficial relationships
- Element 22: Understand service and giving back to community
- Element 23: Acknowledge only what is shared and credit appropriate sources
- Element 24: Understand urban Indigenous families and communities
- Considerations
- Consideration 22: Respect, trust, and positive relationships – bring the community into the classroom and go out into the community
(How can educators ensure respect, trust, and positive relationships by bringing the community into the classroom and by going out into the community?) - Consideration 23: Working in partnership with Indigenous parents to better meet their children’s needs
(How can educators working in partnership with Indigenous families to better meet their needs of their students?) - Consideration 24: Building a bridge between school and home
(How can educators build a bridge between school and home?) - Consideration 25: Understanding the role of families, clans, and tribal societies
(What role do family, clans, and tribal societies have in the lives of Indigenous students?) - Consideration 26: Engaging in intergenerational sharing and learning
(What impact does intergenerational learning and sharing have on Indigenous learning?)
- Consideration 22: Respect, trust, and positive relationships – bring the community into the classroom and go out into the community
Tenet 6: Indigenous ways of knowing
- Elements
- Element 25: Understand nature is a teacher
- Element 26: Understand responsibility to take care of the land/environment
- Element 27: Honor the elders, knowledge holders, and cultural leaders
- Considerations
- Consideration 27: Indigenous ways of knowing are valid
(How can educators ensure Indigenous way of knowing in regards to nature are shown to be valid?) - Consideration 28: Acknowledge, value, and honor Indigenous excellence
(How can we acknowledge, value, and honor Indigenous excellence?) - Consideration 29: Recognize and build upon the interrelationships that exist among the natural, human, and spiritual realms in the world around the Indigenous students
(How can educators recognize and build upon the interrelationships that exist among the natural, human, and spiritual realms in the world around the Indigenous students?)
- Consideration 27: Indigenous ways of knowing are valid
Tenet 7: Culturally relevant teaching
- Elements
- Element 28: Acknowledge appropriate and accurate tribal information that is approved and can be shared publicly
- Element 29: Understand Indigenous equity and inclusion
- Element 30: Understand a set of foundational principles and understandings that guide the continued development and engagement of instructional practices that inform pedagogical approaches
- Element 31: Assure that Indigenous students can see themselves in the curriculum and lesson planning
- Element 32: Understand how to approach the community in a respectful and appropriate manner
- Considerations
- Consideration 30: Create ways to nurture cultural safety in educators’ classrooms
(How can educators create ways to nurture cultural safety in educators’ classrooms?) - Consideration 31: Critically question oversimplifications and overgeneralizations about Indigenous peoples and Indigenous knowledge
(How can educators critically questions oversimplifications and overgeneralizations about Indigenous peoples and Indigenous knowledges?) - Consideration 32: Awareness of cultural norms
(How can educators become better aware of Indigenous cultural norms?) - Consideration 33: Inclusion of cultural aspects in the different subjects – relevant by combining both past and current history and knowledge
(How can educators ensure the inclusion of cultural aspects in difference subjects by combining past and current histories and knowledges?) - Consideration 34: Alignment of teaching and instructions to their Indigenous students’ community-based core values, philosophy, identity, and place
(How can educators align teaching and instructions to their Indigenous students’ community-based core values, philosophy, identity, and place?)
- Consideration 30: Create ways to nurture cultural safety in educators’ classrooms
Tenet 8: Contemporary relevance
- Elements
- Element 33: Highlight that Indigenous culture is alive today
- Element 34: Acknowledge current representations
- Element 35: Understand privilege, bias, omission, and misrepresentation
- Element 36: Respect of tribal sovereignty
- Element 37: Understand connection with federal Indian policies
- Element 38: Understand the complexities of being a modern Indigenous person and the continuation of culture and traditions while living in the current time/space
- Considerations
- Consideration 35: Understanding the historical context of Indigenous tribes and how it impacts their students today
(How can educators understand the historical context of Indigenous tribes and how it impacts students today?) - Consideration 36: Indigenous students are unique and diverse and have different language, cultural, and traditional lifeways
(How does the unique and diverse language, culture, and traditional lifeways of Indigenous students impact them?) - Consideration 37: Empowering students to find and use their voices
(How can educators empower Indigenous students to find and use their voice?) - Consideration 38: Understanding the cultural/traditional responsibilities of the Indigenous students
(What are the cultural/traditional responsibilities of Indigenous students?) - Consideration 39: Proactive lesson planning based on the Indigenous students in the educators’ classrooms
(How can educators proactively lesson plan based on the Indigenous students in the educator’s classroom?) - Consideration 40: Understanding that Indigenous students can be multicultural (including multiple tribes and/or multiple ethnicities) and/or multilingual (speak Indigenous languages and non-Indigenous languages)
(What impact does Indigenous students potential multicultural (including multiple tribes and/or multiple ethnicities) and/or multilingual (speak Indigenous languages and non-Indigenous languages) have in the classroom?)
- Consideration 35: Understanding the historical context of Indigenous tribes and how it impacts their students today
10 Themes of Strategies/Resources
1. Indigenous student identity and representation
- Strategy: Invite elders and/or tribal members into the classroom: oral storytelling, cooking, music, historical knowledge, art, pottery, etc.
- Strategy: Encourage Indigenous students to incorporate culture into their projects
- Strategy: Encourage teachers to learn the tribal affiliation(s) of their students
- Strategy: Acknowledge cultural backgrounds of students in lesson plans
- Strategy: Utilize Indigenous content written by Indigenous authors
- Resource 1A: IndigNM Identity
- Resource 1B: The Story of DEAP
- Resource 1C: 5 Things to Know About Indigenous Knowledge When Working With Indigenous Children, Youth, and Families
- Resource 1D: What is white fragility, and why is it a problem?
- Resource 1E: Ideas and Insights: A Discussion on Decolonizing and Indigenizing Classrooms, Schools and Systems
2. Connecting tribal communities and schools: culture, language, and food
- Strategy: Remember that Tribes are open to questions and/or discussion with and/or from teachers
- Strategy: Request tribal community tours with tribal education departments
- Strategy: Learn about Indigenous cultural calendars and/or feast days (Resource: Indian Pueblo Cultural Center)
- Strategy: Learn about traditional foods and utilize them in lesson planning
- Strategy: Invitation to visit tribal community and/or feast day, followed by a reflection protocol/activity
- Resource 2A: IndigNM Language
- Resource 2B: National Indian Education Association (NIEA) Native language immersion program resources
3. Land-based learning and intergenerational learning
- Strategy: Learn and share about Indigenous innovation
- Strategy: Utilize land-based learning and curriculum
- Strategy: Incorporate gardening (seeds, planting, harvesting) into lesson planning
- Strategy: Create an outdoor learning space/opportunity
- Strategy: Connect Indigenous students back to traditional knowledge
- Strategy: Remember Indigenous student interactions and experiences: learning by doing, engaging, etc.
- Strategy: Understand the importance of intergenerational learning and utilize model if possible
- Resource 3A: National Indian Education Association (NIEA) culturally-based curriculum
4. Historical trauma and trauma-informed care
- Strategy: Acknowledge historical trauma and its impact on Indigenous students today
- Resource 4A: National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Native Knowledge 360 degrees
- Resource 4B: What is Trauma-Informed Care?
- Resource 4C: Tribal TTA Center Healing-informed Care Handout | SAMHSA
- Resource 4D: Trauma-Informed Caring for Native American Patients and Communities Prioritizes Healing, Not Management | Journal of Ethics
- Resource 4E: Ticking the box of ‘cultural safety’ is not enough: why trauma-informed practice is critical to Indigenous healing
- Resource 4F: Trauma and Resilience in Native Communities
- Resource 4G: Trauma and Resilience Resources
5. Whole Indigenous child
- Strategy: Utilize Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which is originally adapted from an Indigenous perspective/foundation
- Strategy: Utilize Indigenous students’ five senses in lesson planning
- Strategy: Incorporate socio-emotional learning (SEL) in lesson planning
- Strategy: Recommend teachers take a holistic approach to teaching (i.e. asking questions, be open to making mistakes, connect and/or partner with tribal education departments, etc.)
- Strategy: Understand students’ cultural and/or ceremonial obligations/events
- Strategy: Highlight Indigenous excellence for students
- Strategy: Utilize gradual release of responsibility model (model of teaching that provides a structured framework for releasing the responsibility from teacher to the student)
6. Historical, political, and policy contexts
- Strategy: Understand tribal historical context
- Strategy: Understand federal and state Indian policies (i.e. water rights, BLM land, relocation, etc.)
- Resource 6A: IndigNM historical timeline
- Resource 6B: IndigNM Urbanization
- Resource 6C: IndigNM Religious Persecution
7. Current day events
- Strategy: Understand and learn about the New Mexico Legislature and how it currently impacts Indigenous people
- Resource 7A: Coolangatta Statement on Indigenous Rights in Education
8. Bridging the gap: understanding cultural norms, protocols, customs, and prohibitions
- Strategy: Cultural norms – connect with Indigenous students’ guardians/parents/caretakers
- Strategy: Cultural protocols – connect with Indigenous students’ guardians/parents/caretakers
- Strategy: Take the time to learn about tribal customs and relation to natural world and/or seasons
- Strategy: Understand tribal/cultural connections and prohibitions (i.e. eclipses, science and dissecting certain animals, field trips (*certain tribes have different protocols/prohibitions related to different animals, including owls, snakes, etc.) recommend teachers reach out to tribal education departments to inquire if the teachers’ students have prohibitions related to animals, etc.)
- Strategy: Learn and share about tribal pageant representatives and how they can serve as role models for Indigenous students
- Strategy: Utilize local resources and local expertise
- Strategy: Request presentations from tribal leadership on lived experiences, professional experiences, and tribal sovereignty
- Resource 8A: IndigNM Cultural expressions
- Resource 8B: Understanding Native Minnesota
- Resource 8C: Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy by Django Paris
9. Teacher dispositions
- Strategy: Sense of humility when building understanding
- Strategy: Utilization of relational skills in building authentic connections
10. School district and charter school internal resources and events
- Strategy: Utilize Indian education departments and/or offices
- Strategy: Utilize Indian parent committees
- Strategy: Utilize Native liaisons
- Strategy: Utilize Indian education coordinators
- Strategy: Share with parents and community what is available – resources and programs for Indigenous students
- Strategy: School district and charter school land acknowledgements
- Strategy: Create parent academies (i.e. Hozho Academy, Dream Diné, etc.)
- Strategy: Utilize 520 certificate holders/Indigenous language teachers to support other educators in other content areas
- Strategy: Utilize educators who teach culture classes
- Strategy: Utilize parent navigators (i.e. Cuba Independent Schools, etc.)
- Strategy: Request Instructional Materials state funding to pay for culturally relevant instructional materials
- Strategy: Events – graduation, powwows, JAG, tutoring, inviting former students to come back and present on their successes, etc.