This document summarizes a presentation on sacred purpose from an indigenous perspective. It discusses interviews conducted with indigenous elders to understand their teachings on sacred purpose and how it relates to adolescent development and education. Key findings include that sacred purpose provides dignity, respect, trust, love and teaches one to share their gifts. Sacred purpose also provides a multidimensional responsibility to learn, teach and create while maintaining balance and healing relationships. The presentation suggests implications for developing non-traditional curriculum centered around an honored role in the community and the fulfillment of one's sacred purpose. Next steps proposed include developing culturally-based programs and aligning the teachings to educational settings.
Sacred Purpose: Transformative Indigenous Teachings Informing Education and Beyond
1. Sacred Purpose:
Transformative Indigenous Teachings
Informing Education and Beyond
Paper Presentation:
American Indian/Indigenous Teacher Education Conference
Ricardo A. Medina, Ph.D.
July 11, 2014
rmedina30@cox.net
2. Sacred purpose: A Qualitative Indigenous
Research Study
1. Background:
Researcher & Research
3. Analysis of Data,
Findings, Curriculum,
Discussion and
Questions
2. Methodology:
Research Question,
Design, Data Collection
Presentation Road
Map
5. Sacred purpose: A Qualitative Indigenous
Research Study
“The essence of knowing one’s [sacred purpose]
was seen as the most significant element of
keeping balanced and being well rooted.”
Background
6. Sacred purpose:
You have a Sacred Purpose. Within you
are gifts that were sent to you in this
world to fulfill. Use your Sacred Purpose
to contribute in a positive way to the
world.
7. Research from the 21st Century
Victor Frankl Psychological
well being, life
satisfaction
Pro-social,
moral action,
generosity,
altruism
Boredom,
depression,
disengagement,
suicide
Holocaust survivor Purpose promotes
psychological well
being
Helping others is
beneficial to finding
one’s purpose in life
Lack of purpose is an
important factor in
producing feelings of
boredom.
Logotherapy High levels of purpose
= strong subjective
well being
Higher purpose =
greater involvement in
social and political
activities
A connection between
sense of purpose and
an individual’s level of
depression.
Existentialism Having identified a
purpose in life =
greater life satisfaction
in adolescence,
emerging adulthood,
and adulthood
High levels of purpose,
more likely to be
characterized as
extrovert and enjoy
social situations
Lack of purpose leads
to greater usage of
drugs; alcohol
dependence; suicide
8. Purpose and Adolescents
Stage of
Adolescence
Damon’s Path to
Purpose
Adolescent
Purpose
Benefits of
Adolescent
Purpose
Adolescents have a
great expectation that
something tremendous
is supposed to happen
in their lives around the
age of 15 or 16; a
greatness exist within
them; an intense
longing within them.
(Pearce, J.C.)
1,200 young people
surveyed about how
today’s youth are
finding – or not finding
– purpose in their lives.
Findings:20%
Purposeful/ 25%
Dabblers/ 31%
Dreamers/
25% Disengaged.
Adolescent purpose
linked to psychological
health, overall physical
health and well being.
More able to cope with
developmental crises.
Committing to an
inspiring purpose is an
important component of
healthy identity
development. Purpose
in life serves as a
powerful source of long
term motivation
Erickson’s 8 stages of
psychosocial (1968)
development suggest
this is a time period
where there is a conflict
between identity and
role diffusion; in search
of an identity and
purpose plays a key
role in helping to
resolve identity crisis
Discussion and
Implications: Purpose
can be facilitated and
developed. Those with
purpose are motivated,
full of energy,
optimistic, happy,
compassionate, agents
of change. Those who
lack aimlessly drift with
indecision, confusion,
High ability youth are
not more likely to
commit to purpose
compared to typical
adolescents.
Strong academic
abilities are NOT
required or even
preferred for the pursuit
of purpose.
When students take on
purpose and connect it
to their daily lives, it
serves as an important
source of academic
motivation.
9. Purpose in Educational Settings
The Need for Purpose
in Schools
Benefits of Purpose
in Schools
Purpose Interventions
in Schools
Flow Theory
Students need schools
that are more than test
prep training grounds.
“They need schools
that will help them to
find a compelling
purpose to guide them
through life” Damon,
2008).
Promoting purpose
may lead to successful
youth development and
prevent high school
dropout rate.
Make Your Work Matter
– brief intervention
designed to help
adolescents explore,
discover, and enact
purpose in early career
development. No
significant measures
found
Optimal experience –
deep sense of
enjoyment; when
people enjoy a specific
activity and are not
distracted they will do it
longer and approach
more creatively.
If students lack
meaning and purpose
in their lives then they
are less motivated to
learn (Kessler, 2000)
Purpose linked to a
desire to be actively
involved in social
situations and
leadership roles at
school.
Dialogue sessions
focusing on perceptions
of control and purpose.
Findings indicated that
it is possible to
enhance a student’s
sense of purpose
through a short term
intervention.
Best moments occur
when a body or mind is
stretched to its limits in
order to accomplish
something difficult and
worthwhile.
Academic subject
matter can integrate
purpose into
curriculum.
Provide engaging
curriculum tied to each
student’s purpose and
gains will occur in
student achievement.
Schools providing
purpose through action
research projects,
games, service
activities,
Schools tap in to
exotelic experiences –
tasks to accomplish for
external reasons.
Purpose helps to seek
10. Sacred purpose: A Qualitative Indigenous
Research Study
Stories Metaphors Absence of
Teachings and
the Effects
Healing
La LLorona Sacred gifts spiritual amnesia
as a result of
conquest
“In this time for all
of us on the Earth,
the youth are
being asked to
find their true
purpose.
Aztec Calendar Instructions,
blueprint
intergenerational
trauma
When the youth
search for sacred
purpose, the old
wise spirits you
were born with will
be activated.”
A song of purpose
and identity
Seed, soil, song,
Acorn Theory
contrasting
western
Literature Review
11. What are the
principles
derived from
indigenous
elders that can
guide the
development of
a curriculum that
promotes sacred
purpose?
What is sacred
purpose and its
guiding principles?
What
stories/teachings/t
hemes of Sacred
Purpose that can
be identified by
indigenous elders
and how do they
see it actualized?
How does Sacred
Purpose,
according to
indigenous elders,
contribute to
adolescent
development?
How can the
teachings/elements
of Sacred Purpose,
based on the
conversations with
elders, be
actualized in
education?
12. Sacred purpose: A Qualitative Indigenous
Research Study
- Maestro Jerry Tello
- Angelbertha Cobb (Mama
Cobb)
- Maestro Roberto Cintli
Rodriguez
- Maestra Grace Sesma
Phase 2: Acquiring Entry and
Trust
*Protocols & Palabra*
Participants, Protocols, &
Values
•Gender
•Geography
•Community Identification
•Must embrace an
Indigenous Epistemology
•Familiarity and
willingness to share
teachings about sacred
purpose
Phase 1: Acquiring
Access to Indigenous
Elders
13. Sacred purpose:
Dignity
(Dignidad)-
You are
SACRED
just the
way you
are..
Respect
(Respeto) -
Honoring
Someone's
sacredness
Confianza -
(Trust)
Creating a
sacred
place to
grow, learn,
heal
Carino -
(Love)
Living your
life with
love and
value
Teachings of
Maestro Jerry
Tello
15. Sacred purpose:
For Example:
Teach ethically,
compassionately,
lovingly
For Example:
Our ability to inspire
and seek inspiration
from others who
walk with their
sacred purpose
For Example:
Balancing internal
needs with external
world around us
For Example:
We all have our own
lugar and none is
better than the
other.
Sacred Purpose –
Calling of the
Grandmas –
Different Process
for Each
Individual
22. Sacred purpose:
Implications
An Honored Role in the Community;
Fulfillment of Sacred Purpose
What does this provide?
Your ability to provide physically, emotionally, spiritually for
others.
What does this provide?
a degree healthy relationships wisdom Balance
A Developed/Enhanced
Sacred Purpose
Ability to Read the Word
and World
What is the purpose of education?
General facts and constructs Pedagogy of the Eagle and the Condor
Presentation is 3 fold. Giving you a little context for this research on Sacred Purpose and me as the researcher. More importantly we will go very into depth into the research on sacred purpose analyzing specific research questions that guided this work……..
Slide 3: This research was born out of struggle. It is the same struggle for many. How do we seek balance? How do we, as we are immersed in scholarly activity, educational systems, and various institutions, navigate with harmony our dual existence? A dual existence that has 2 realities The eagle and the condor.
The Eagle symbolizes the path of the mind, science, technology, industrialism, Western ways, masculinity. The Condor represents the path of the heart, intuition, interconnectedness, non Western ways, and a feminine energy.
It was prophesized thousands of years ago that we would get to a time where Human society, representing these energies, would go on two very different paths.
and it was prophesized that the Eagle energy would become so powerful that they would drive the condors into extinction. However, every 500 years(a pachacuti) we have the capacity to manifest something different. And so today, we are at a time now where it is prophesized that both the eagle and the condor have the potential to come together, fly together, dance together, be in harmony, converge, unify.
So in applying this prophecy to myself as an educator, scholar, community activist, hombre de maiz, and in looking at other work such as Gregory Cajete who also names this same imbalance but calls it pingeh heh(split mind) I began to question how do we create this convergence and unification eagle and condor realities?
How can I dare to study new ways of thinking, ones that do not reinforce systems of domination, of imperialism, racism, sexism or class elitism? How does a school system, which has ultimately been the root of oppression and harm, become a source of healing? How can a pedagogy engage students in the development of an academic identity? How can it challenge students to seek the solutions needed for community healing and development? How can pedagogy create a conceptual framework validating a student’s culture, utlizing sense of cultural intuition, how can pedagogies create authentic caring environments constructed upon appreciation and respect for all members of its community, its culture, and historic struggle for educational equality? Discuss elements of framework.
And because the framework – Pedagogy of the Eagle and the condor is a fluid process. I continued to search for more. And through spiritual/revelation knowledge the concept sacred purpose crossed my path and specifically this quote and from there on I began to analyze the potential, capacity of this concept into everything around me. And I began looking at what does research say about purpose and sacred purpose.
Our specific unique reason for our existence; collective and individual responsibility to find and use; connected to all things sacred
You have a Sacred Purpose. Within you are gifts that were sent to you in this world to fulfill. Use your Sacred Purpose to contribute in a positive way to the world.
Victor Frankl
Purpose links to psychological well being, a strong subjective life satisfaction, pro-social, moral action, generosity, altruism
A lack of purpose (existential vacuum) boredom, depression ,apathy
Psychosocial development
Damon’s work around youth purpose
Purpose linked to psychological health, overall physical health and well being, healthy identity, academic motivation
purpose are motivated, full of energy, optimistic, happy, compassionate, agents of change. Those who lack aimlessly drift with indecision, confusion, depression
Purpose from a Western Paradigm – control, conquer, and compete;
Individualistic, proficiency/mastery, personal gain;
Long term intention; beyond the self
incorporates the values and beliefs of indigenous communities in its design, methods, and analysis (Lavallee, 2009). Additional criteria for indigenous research include: The core values, beliefs, and healing practices of the Indigenous community are incorporated throughout the research; the research must develop an ethical relationship with the community; the research equally involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings; the research topic is of importance to the community; the researcher’s personal growth is an important end product; and there must be an involvement of our elders because they carry the traditional teachings, ceremonies, and stories of all our relations. Every single criterion were addressed and utilized within this research dissertation.
Focus on Research Questions – What are the teachings? Themes
Multidimensional, relational, a responsibilty, about sharing your gifts, about lived experiences – A sacred journey, about balance an healing,
Curriculum: mainstream educators forget that curriculum is an active process; not simply the lesson plan, the district guidebook, the standardized test, the goals and milestones, or the textbook ( Slattery, 1995). Curriculum is a holistic life experience, the journey of becoming a self aware subject capable of shaping his or her life path. A never finished product that can be mastered and passed along to an awaiting new generation
Attempting to go back to the root of the word what started out as a fluid process became “concretized” in practice and theory