This paper considers my relationship as a co-learner (i.e., evaluator) with the Indigenous Early Learning Collaborative (IELC). I draw on my history of relations and conversations with IELC partners and explore what it means to be a co-learner along a number of dimensions (e.g., roles, responsibilities, reciprocity). Throughout the paper, I discuss the use of metaphor and story as forms of knowing that can support co-learning and Community-Based Inquiry in consequential ways. I conclude by reflecting on what it means to listen for and hear goodness as a co-learner.

This research explores traditional weaving knowledge and values as a context for language learning. I focus on Twulshootseed, also known as Southern Lushootseed or Puget Sound Salish, and Puget Sound weaving traditions to better understand the role of community in language revitalization. Where programs may often compartmentalize language learning, this project frames weaving as an expression of language, situates community spaces as a site to bring together fragments of revitalization, and engages specific traditions around weaving to build a model for language learning that is holistic and individual. To do so, I draw on research pertaining to language learning, history around the documentation and revitalization of Lushootseed, traditional and modern applications of Puget Sound weaving, as well as my own family’s knowledge.

American Indian Recruitment (AIR) is a student initiated, student run project sponsored by the American Indian Student Association at the University of California, Los Angeles that focuses on outreaching to Native students in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas. Founded in the 1990's, AIR is the culmination of decades of work by former students done on their own time and with their own resources. Since its establishment AIR has employed Native American undergraduate students at UCLA as recruiters on behalf of a university. This research examines the experiences of former Native American student recruiters, their understanding of the history of AIR in relation to their work, and how their work shaped their outlook as a student.

Anti-black violence in schools has contributed to a myth of low aspirations and persistent inequities that seek to limit the ways that Black adolescents dream of and imagine for themselves and their communities. While there is a growing number of research that centers Black teenage dreams for their adult selves, little research foregrounds and highlights the dreams that Black youth have for their adolescence. With significant research documenting the ways that Black adolescence are adultified and not treated or understood as children, exploring Black youth dreams in this area, in addition to Black youth futures, is a significant area of study. This project uses qualitative methodologies to explore and illuminate the dreams and dream-sharing of Black 10th graders living in South Central Los Angeles. Through a portrait of a 10th grade English classroom, and portraits of three Black students, this study finds that Black youth dream of adolescence and adulthood in capacious and diverse ways. This study finds that Black youth describe multiple dimensions of their dreams, and include critical sense-making, vulnerability, and relationality. Lastly, this study contributes and offers nuance into methodologies for Black dreaming research, by urging researchers to consider dream-sharing as a deeply vulnerable act, with implications for researchers.

Community partnerships present opportunities for expanding students' learning experiences outside traditional classroom settings. However, under-resourced low-income communities often lack access to such opportunities. This qualitative study explores how high school teachers, community liaisons, and community partners establish and sustain collaborative partnerships to implement project-based learning experiences for high school students. Through semi-structured reflective interviews, experiences of key stakeholders from four high school sites reveal insights into partnership motivations, connective structures, the vital role of liaisons, systemic barriers, and strategies for extending partnerships into project-based learning. While community partnerships increase access to authentic learning experiences, co-designing of PBL curricula predominantly lies with teachers, offering opportunities for community partner contributions. These findings explore how school community partnerships come to be and thrive, illustrating the voices and perspectives of formal and informal educators engaged in collaborative work to deepen student learning.

This dissertation draws on Indigenous research paradigms including Critical Indigenous Research Methodology, the 4 Rs, and Indigenous Storywork to explore the ways Indigenous student affairs professionals (SAPs) navigate the university. Conversational interviews and talking circles were the primary methods for gathering Indigenous SAPs stories of their experiences working at higher education institutions. A bottom up and top down approach was used to code the interviews and generate themes. Indigenous Feminisms was used analytic lens during the coding process in order to foreground how Indigenous SAPs experience the settler colonial history of universities. Participant profiles were crafted in order to further analyze the stories that were shared. Findings are presented in the form of story composites with researcher reflections interwoven between composites. Participants' stories showcase how Indigenous SAPs draw on their experiential knowledge to translate university admission policies with Indigenous students and communities. Their stories showcase the intellectual work Indigenous student affairs professionals engage in as they move between Indigenous communities and the university, or what I call cultural knowledge brokering. Learning from these Indigenous student affairs professionals can shed light on how to inform better university policy for Indigenous students and staff at public four-year institutions by creating a cultural knowledge brokering framework.

As California begins implementing Ethnic Studies as a high school graduation requirement, environmental advocates and educators are pushing for integrating climate literacy into K-12 education so students can attend to our worsening climate crisis. Ethnic Studies is poised to incorporate climate literacy since the climate crisis and environmental injustice most often and disparately impact low-income Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities. Indigenous Land education affirms the importance of moral relationships with Land (Whyte, 2018) and centers the political goals of decolonization (Brayboy & Maughan, 2009; Cajete, 2000), making its approach to climate change congruous with the goals of Ethnic Studies. This dissertation examines how an earnest engagement with Indigenous Land education can expand curricular possibilities within Ethnic Studies classrooms, the difficulties encountered, and the support such an undertaking requires. Drawing on Critical Indigenous Research Methodologies as a guiding paradigm and Participatory Design Research as a meta-methodology, I collaborated with an early career Ethnic Studies educator of color working in a public high school in Los Angeles, California, as we sought to implement Indigenous Land Education into their classroom over ten months. The following research questions guided this work: 1) When co-designing an Ethnic Studies a year-long scope and sequence that seeks to embed foundational concepts of Indigenous Land Education embodied in the units, what design questions arise? 2) How is the design of the year-long scope and sequence enacted? 3) What challenges and opportunities arise during co-design and enactment? I use case study methods and narrative inquiry to describe and examine our processes. Working with a collection of information sources, including interviews, planning meetings, curriculum materials, and my research memos, I present the story of our design process, foregrounding the challenges faced and the supports needed to transform lessons and engage with Indigenous Land Education. This dissertation provides insights into how engaging with Indigenous Land Education develops the pedagogical and political commitments of Ethnic Studies educators as we face growing societal and ecological challenges.

This doctoral dissertation is an interview-based study in which dance educators working in urban K-12 schools participated in a series of 3 dance-based Choreographic Interviews to discuss their theoretical, philosophical, and practical understandings of the role of the body in learning, and their relationship to movement and justice within the larger schooling system. The professional experiences and vision of dance educators brings a unique perspective to the role of the body in teaching and learning and contributes important ideas about the purpose of dance and education in urban schools – building towards an inclusive theory of embodied teaching and learning for K-12 urban schools.

Exploring the misrepresentations in the mass media of California Native Americans identifies the root of dehumanizing stereotypes: American Literature. With a historical context of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, this thesis explores the stereotypical misrepresentations that supported European colonizers’ genocidal actions against California Natives. As for misrepresentations impacting today’s educational institutions, examining Amah Mutsun elders’ academic experiences explains how biased ideals and stereotypes impact California Natives’ livelihoods. This thesis uplifts California Native voices through indigenous literature, oral history, and storytelling to highlight accurate representations that honor their ancestors and their modernity to combat misrepresentations. Meanwhile, oral history and storytelling empowers the Amah Mutsun community to nation-build and decolonize through cultural revitalization for self-determination to uphold sovereignty on their terms as a non-federally recognized tribe. Oral history also combines indigenous knowledge systems and education research, where oral history serves to prioritize the voices of participants.

Black women student affairs professionals are essential figures and play a vital role in the development and learning of students attending college (Jackson, 2003; Turrentine & Conley, 2001). While the presence of Black women students continues to rise on campus, Black women student affairs professionals continue to be disproportionately represented in comparison. Black women mid-level student professionals are underrepresented and face unique challenges while they are navigating the intersecting identities of race, class and gender while working in student affairs. This qualitative study examined the personal and professional experiences of ten Black women student affairs professionals at a public university. This research study utilized a conceptual framework developed from Intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989) and Black Feminist Thought-BFT (Collins, 1986, 2000, 2009) to guide this analysis to reveal the thematic elements of shared experiences. The findings highlighted six themes that illustrated the personal, professional experiences and challenges that these Black women mid-level student affairs professionals faced. The findings illuminated the tensions between their experiences and their social identities. The themes related to their experiences were: Black Woman-ness, Faculty Bullying and Incivility, Black Superwoman Syndrome, Quality of Life, Lack of Support and Community. These themes offered a nuanced view of their challenges and the mechanisms they utilized to survive and thrive while working at the university, showing the ways they navigated these tensions. Ultimately participants struggled with lack of support and sought community to enhance their quality of life. Recommendations for practice, policy and future research consisted of the institution being pro-active and intentional about building internal structures within the university to provide opportunities for Black women to be mentored. Further, institutions should encourage community by promoting affinity groups that cater to the development of Black women. Institutions must be more deliberate and strategic in the hiring and retention of Black women working in the academy, as well as implementing better institutional supports to encourage the success of Black women student affairs professionals.