Mary Hermes

Complicating Discontinuity: What About Poverty?

Abstract In this article, two white science teachers at tribal schools in the Upper Midwest of the United States, who were identified by community members and school administrators as “successful” teachers, describe experiences of how they wrestle with the daily effects of generations of oppression. Most vividly, they talk about poverty. This article provides a description of some of the beliefs and attitudes, described by the teachers, that help them to be effective allies and teachers for Native American students. Their interviews offer a glimpse into the internal struggle with the contradictions of oppression. This article broadens the discussion of Native American culture-based education and raises questions for the general applicability of cultural discontinuity as an all-encompassing explanation for Native American school failure.

Indigenous Language Revitalization and Documentation in the United States: Collaboration Despite Colonialism

In this article, Hermes brings together literature from disparate areas to give a perspective of indigenous language revitalization and documentation efforts in the United States as situated in the context of global revitalization. Much of the narrative surrounding indigenous languages has been dominated by the idea of language death. In stark contrast to the picture of impending doom, the author brings attention to long-standing efforts of change characterized by community building and collaboration with academics across disciplines, cultures, and ideologies. In this narrative of change, indigenous languages are central to a sustainable future rather than relics from a dying past.

Why Is This So Hard?: Ideologies of Endangerment, Passive Language Learning Approaches, and Ojibwe in the United States

This paper describes 3 language learning approaches common in many urban and rural Ojibwe communities, as well as the ideologies of endangerment that drive and sustain them. Drawing from collaborative language revitalization work with teachers, learners, and community leaders, we analyze some of the teaching and learning practices that lead to the common mismatch between language learner goals and expectations, on the one hand, and the outcomes of language learning, on the other. We outline how these 3 approaches to language learning relate to cultural identities and place-based notions of authenticity as well as to current findings in the field of second language acquisition. We then profile 2 speakers who have learned Ojibwe successfully as adults to illustrate how their success was possible largely because they were able to engage with the Ojibwe language in interactive ways that run counter to common language learning approaches. We suggest that for language revitalization efforts, and individual learners, to experience higher levels of success, greater attention needs to be paid to how ideologies of endangerment impact language learning approaches.

Indigenous Language Revitalization and Documentation in the United States

In this article, Hermes brings together literature from disparate areas to give a perspective of indigenous language revitalization and documentation efforts in the United States as situated in the context of global revitalization. Much of the narrative surrounding indigenous languages has been dominated by the idea of language death. In stark contrast to the picture of impending doom, the author brings attention to long-standing efforts of change characterized by community building and collaboration with academics across disciplines, cultures, and ideologies. In this narrative of change, indigenous languages are central to a sustainable future rather than relics from a dying past.

Special Series on Multiculturalism in Curriculum Inquiry

Abstract In this article, two white science teachers at tribal schools in the Upper Midwest of the United States, who were identified by community members and school administrators as “successful” teachers, describe experiences of how they wrestle with the daily effects of generations of oppression. Most vividly, they talk about poverty. This article provides a description of some of the beliefs and attitudes, described by the teachers, that help them to be effective allies and teachers for Native American students. Their interviews offer a glimpse into the internal struggle with the contradictions of oppression. This article broadens the discussion of Native American culture-based education and raises questions for the general applicability of cultural discontinuity as an all-encompassing explanation for Native American school failure.

Unbecoming Standards Through Ojibwe Immersion: The Wolf Meets Ma’iingan

In this chapter Hermes and Haskins closely investigate examples from Haskins’ teaching at an Ojibwe immersion school to show the way the Ojibwe language itself brings the institutional racism of the state standards to the surface. As educational standards are becoming less local and more uniform at a national level, they are promoted as being universal and, in fact, an equalizing factor for minority students. In this chapter, we show clearly how these standards are in fact not universal but very culturally specific when understood in relation to the enactment of an Ojibwe language-centered curriculum.