Implementing Indigenous Studies Curriculum Standards: Case Studies of a Complicated Curricular Process

Sage Hatch

Sage Hatch is a citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, who was born and raised in Siletz, Oregon.  His dissertation research examines the implementation of the Oregon Tribal History/Shared History policy that mandates curriculum content about Oregon's Indigenous peoples be included at every grade level and across all major subject areas. Mr. Hatch's work challenges the idea that the work of implementing such curricular mandates is contained primarily in the classroom--in lesson planning and instructional delivery. He documents the way teaching Indigenous studies content inevitably challenges pervasive settler colonial ideologies, precipitating pushback from students, parents, and even educators unfamiliar with this material.  Mr. Hatch argues that it makes more sense to think of curricula as existing at a collective level in shifting, self-replicating discourses that circulate in communities. One of the implications of this study is that education for a more inclusive and just world will require more than preparing teachers to be truth tellers who dispel ignorance about various subjects. Ignorance is resilient; it reasserts itself and is reinforced by popular media and political culture.  Such teaching aimed at social change will additionally require teachers to become part of local communities, integrated with organizations and local conversations that can collectively sustain curricula like the Tribal History/Shared History mandate.

About Sage Hatch

Sage Hatch (he/him) is a Citizen of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, born and raised in Siletz, Oregon. A 4th-year PhD Candidate in the Critical and Sociocultural Studies in Education program at the University of Oregon. His scholarship contributes to the literature on curriculum studies, Indigenous survivance in educational systems, theories about non-human agency in contemporary Indigenous studies and philosophy of science, and how we can prepare teachers to better support Indigenous students and communities.