Coyote Goes To School: The Paradox of Indigenous Higher Education

Abstract

This article explores the contradictions involved in teaching Native studies or First Nations studies in Western educational institutions that require us to teach in decidedly non-Aboriginal ways. If we use the kind of experiential, holistic learning techniques that are typically used in Indigenous communities, our courses and programs are labeled unscholarly and frivolous by the more "academic" programs. The article outlines how as an Indigenous educator I try to negotiate a space in the academy and concludes with one of our most effective teaching tools: a Coyote story.