Dynamics of indigenous cultures

Supported by a planning grant from the Ford Foundation, the Graduate School of Education and Counseling and its Oregon Center for Inquiry and Social Innovation has begun developing a breakthrough program for Native American studies titled Indigenous Ways of Knowing. The project seeks to infuse tribal cultures, histories, and worldviews into existing coursework for master’s degree programs at the school and to establish relationships with and commitments to indigenous communities.

“When the program is fully realized,” says Dean Peter Cookson, “we will be able to better prepare Native and non Native counseling and teaching students for work with tribal communities.”

“This program will draw its dynamic authority from the indigenous people of this region and the world,” says Mary Clare, director of the Oregon Center for Inquiry and Social Innovation. “While we will survey other Native American studies programs, and supplement our curriculum with recognized scholarship, the core of the graduate school’s program will be the identified interests, concerns, and ancestral knowledge and practice of indigenous people.”