In this episode, Dan and Michael chat with Sarah Shear, Leilani Sabzalian, and Lisa Brown Buchanan about their new Social Studies and the Young Learner article, “Affirming Indigenous Sovereignty: A Civics Inquiry.”

Books, Articles and Other Amazing Resources

1. Shear, S. B., Sabzalian, L., & Buchanan, L. B. (2018). Affirming Indigenous Sovereignty: A Civics Inquiry. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 31(1), 12-18.
2. For more on how state standards address Indigenous Peoples and Nations, see Sarah’s study on the standards: Shear, S. B., Knowles, R. T., Soden, G. J., & Castro, A. J. (2015). Manifesting destiny: Re/presentations of indigenous peoples in K–12 US history standards. Theory & Research in Social Education, 43(1), 68-101.
3. Dolores Calderón’s work is often ignored by social studies scholarship, but addresses issues like “First Americans” or “First Texans”: Calderón, D. (2014). Uncovering settler grammars in curriculum. Educational Studies, 50(4), 313-338; Calderón, D. (2014). Speaking back to manifest destinies: A land education-based approach to critical curriculum inquiry. Environmental Education Research, 20(1), 24-36.
4. NCSS Position Statement “Toward Responsibility: Social Studies Education that Respects and Affirms Indigenous Peoples and Nations”: https://www.socialstudies.org/positions/indigenous-peoples-and-nations
5. Debbie Reese’s website on American Indians in Children’s Literature: https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com
6. Debbie’s podcast with Visions of Education: https://visionsofed.com/2017/09/13/episode-67-american-indians-in-childrens-literature-with-debbie-reese/
7. Debbie Reese’s blog post “Are we people of color?”: https://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/we-are-not-people-of-color.html
8. NPR “A Few Things to Know About Why Treaties Matter”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bexvE4lZRGo
9. Background on Indigenous land tenure issues from the Indian Land Tenure Foundation: https://iltf.org/land-issues/issues/  

Biographies

Sarah B. Shear, Assistant Professor, Social Studies Education, Penn State University-Altoona. Her work examines race/ism and settler colonialism in K-12 social studies curriculum, specifically state-mandated standards and textbooks representations of Indigenous peoples and nations. Sarah’s work also examines settler colonialism in teacher education, film, and qualitative inquiry. You can find out more about her by visiting her website, http://sarahshearphd.com.

Leilani Sabzalian (Alutiiq), is an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Studies in Education at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on creating spaces to support Indigenous students and Indigenous self-determination in public schools, and preparing teachers to challenge colonialism in curriculum, policy, and practice. Learn more about Dr. Sabzalian at https://education.uoregon.edu/users/leilani-sabzalian.

Lisa Brown Buchanan is an Associate Professor of Elementary Social Studies at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. Her research focuses on preparing preservice teachers to teach for topics of race, rights, immigration, family structure, and religion through the use of film, children’s literature, historical sources, and discussion. Learn more about Dr. Buchanan at http://people.uncw.edu/buchananl/.