On Our Own Terms: Indigenous Histories of School Funding and Policy

On Our Own Terms explores the racial and settler colonial dynamics that have shaped Indian education and an equally long and persistent tradition of Indigenous peoples engaging schools, funding, and policy on their own terms. It provides an interdisciplinary, methodologically expansive look into the ways federal Indian education policy has been a tool for structural violence against Native peoples and highlights the diverse strategies families, educators, and other community members have used to creatively navigate schooling on their own terms.

Format: Hardback
Length: 252 pages
Publication date: 01 June 2024
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

On Our Own Terms: Indigenous Education and Federal Policy in the United States is a book that explores the historical and contemporary relationship between federal education legislation and Indigenous peoples in the United States. The book contextualizes recent federal education legislation against the backdrop of two hundred years of education funding and policy to explore two critical themes: the racial and settler colonial dynamics that have shaped Indian education and an equally long and persistent tradition of Indigenous peoples engaging schools, funding, and policy on their own terms. The book is primarily focused on the years 1819 to 2018 and provides an interdisciplinary, methodologically expansive look into the ways federal Indian education policy has often been a tool for structural violence against Native peoples.

One of the key themes of the book is the historical budget analysis that lays bare inconsistencies in federal support for Indian education and the ways funds become a tool for redefining educational priorities. McCoy shows how families, educators, and other community members have used creative strategies to navigate schooling on their own terms, embodying what Gerald Vizenor has termed survivance, an insistence of Indigenous presence, trickster humor, and ironic engagement with settler structures. By gathering these stories together into an archive of survivance stories in education, McCoy invites readers to consider ongoing patterns of Indigenous resistance and the possibilities for bending federal systems toward community well-being.

The book also highlights the importance of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives in education and the need for greater recognition and inclusion of Indigenous voices in policy-making processes. It argues that federal education legislation has often failed to recognize the unique needs and experiences of Indigenous students and communities and has instead perpetuated harmful policies and practices.

Overall, On Our Own Terms is a powerful and important book that sheds light on the complex and often challenging relationship between federal education legislation and Indigenous peoples in the United States. It provides a valuable resource for policymakers, educators, and community members who are committed to promoting equity and justice in education for all students.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781496232496