8 When Monday Comes
While it may seem frustrating that yet another bill must be heard in order to assure Tribal-centered curriculum is taught, the struggles in implementation cannot be attributed to a lack of effort or even support. Many educators believe in the importance of this curriculum and want to see it taught to their students. One of the largest real problems in implementation stems from a phenomenon Shana Brown—a veteran middle and high school US History and English teacher in Seattle Public Schools—calls “Monday Comes.” As she puts it, “I am a teacher of seventeen plus years; I’ve learned one very, very important reality: time marches on. You get your rhythm, catch your stride, and once you’ve gotten it, it’s damned hard to let go of it,” (Smith et al. 2011, pg. 7).
Brown recalls experiences of encountering excited teachers eager to learn from her expertise in conferences about implementing Indigenous resources in various classes, and leaving these conferences confident that she has made a real impact. The problem is, she argues, that teachers think about these exciting new materials, then are forced to look at what they’re teaching, what they still have to teach before June, and then can’t decide what to throw out to make room for that new unit. Then… Monday comes, and teachers must continue to prepare their students to excel at state tests, and those new exciting materials collect dust on a bookshelf somewhere (Smith et. al. 2011).
Another barrier to implementation before the updated 2015 bill was that news about the new curriculum was largely spread through Tribal leaders on reservations—excluding the urban and non-Indigenous population. The urban Indigenous population has no central office or education department for such matters to be brought to, and the non-Indigenous population seldom seeks out new resources in indigenizing education without being prompted. This led to the schools which did implement the curriculum being exclusively those with large Indigenous student populations, and/or being located on or near a reservation.
Another issue facing implementation is not that good teachers who have not adopted this curriculum don’t want to because they are racist or insensitive—it is often because they are in fact too scared of being deemed either of these things that they omit these topics entirely in fear of getting it wrong or offending someone. In a survey conducted throughout multiple university campuses in Australia, “While 63% of participants reported that they included Indigenous content in their teaching, 60% also noted they felt ‘awkward, unsure or avoided teaching Indigenous content’ (p. 649). Reasons attributed to these behaviours included being worried they would make mistakes, not knowing what to teach and finding it ‘too hard,’”(Wolfe et al., 2018, p. 654).
Additionally, already overwhelmed and overworked teachers may find educating their students on a topic they themselves are not very familiar with too daunting, choosing to push this issue behind in their priorities. Those who are not familiar already with the content can also feel that Tribes in their area feel inaccessible to those who are not Indigenous, or that they would be unwelcome in an attempt to reach out and consult on topics they are unsure of. While most Tribes actively fought for the Since Time Immemorial curriculum’s creation and implementation and in reality would be mostly eager and forthcoming with resources and information, teachers may feel like outsiders and choose not to engage at all. An issue which exacerbates this problem further is the lack of Indigenous educators in public schools.
Multiple researchers have found that non-Indigenous educators are largely, “Institutionalised in a colonial system, founded on an ethos of exclusion and its inherent racism, they have frequently received an education that did not teach Indigenous knowledges and perspectives as parallel ways of knowing (Smith, 1999). They are unwilling or unable to see the relevance to their discipline (Williamson & Dalai, 2007), are time poor, feel they have no expertise, are afraid of doing the wrong thing (Bullen et al., 2021; Wolfe et al., 2018); or fail to understand the importance of becoming educators of culturally competent future professionals (McLaughlin, 2013 p. 254),” (Murray and Campton 2023, pg. 14).
In order to educate students on any curriculum, it is first crucial that their educators establish a strong and confident level of knowledge in these subjects themselves. As Murray and Campton state, “The expansion and enhancement of the student learning experience is uniquely dependent on the quality of their educators’ understanding, knowledge and capability—and their own sense of wellbeing,” (Murray and Campton 2023, pg. 2). While dedicating resources to training programs and workshops for non-Indigenous educators is important, it is not the only way to accomplish the goal of obtaining educators capable of teaching this content— many Indigenous peoples are already well-versed in this knowledge. This idea does not assume that all Indigenous peoples are capable of teaching the content required in all Indigenous curriculums, but it is important to note that many potential Indigenous educators have the knowledge of their own personal experiences to guide these teachings. Why should Washington state dedicate budget resources to educating a white instructor on the culture of the Tulalip Tribes, for example, rather than hiring a Tulalip Tribal member who has obtained this knowledge already through lived experience?