Dine Youth Define Community: Finding Routes to School and Community Partnerships

Abstract

The three purposes of this qualitative research study were to: Create a platform for Dine youth to describe their community in their own words; identify effective partnerships between the school and community to promote academic success for Dine youth; and critique the colonizing ways of an old order of Western research that contributed to the dysfunction that now exists within Native American education and communities. The researcher worked collaboratively with four Dine youth participants through an indigenous social constructionist methodology. Findings were based on individual interviews, talking circles and the researcher's discussion of participants' responses through a framework of k'e. K'e is the Dine concept of recognizing and maintaining harmonious relationships and all the positive virtues that should be inherent within a family. Through this study, the researcher contributed to the ongoing struggle of decolonization of research and of our lives as Dine and indigenous peoples by working with the participants throughout the entire process and utilizing a Dine philosophy of community as the framework. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone [phone]. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]