Decolonizing Agency: A Framework for an Inclusive Co-Design of Behavioral Support Systems in Indigenous Land
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| Title: | Decolonizing Agency: A Framework for an Inclusive Co-Design of Behavioral Support Systems in Indigenous Land |
|---|---|
| Language: | English |
| Authors: | Dian Mawene (ORCID |
| Source: | Exceptional Children. 2025 92(1):90-109. |
| Availability: | SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com |
| Peer Reviewed: | Y |
| Page Count: | 20 |
| Publication Date: | 2025 |
| Document Type: | Journal Articles Reports - Descriptive |
| Education Level: | High Schools Secondary Education Higher Education Postsecondary Education |
| Descriptors: | Special Education, Disproportionate Representation, Decolonization, High Schools, American Indian Education, Personal Autonomy, Colonialism, School Community Relationship, College School Cooperation, American Indian Students, Student Behavior, Behavior Problems, Discipline |
| Geographic Terms: | Wisconsin |
| DOI: | 10.1177/00144029251350059 |
| ISSN: | 0014-4029 2163-5560 |
| Abstract: | Racial disproportionality in special education and school discipline remains a persistent social justice issue in the U.S. education system. Drawing from a 4-year-long school-community-university partnership within an Anishinaabe Band of Ojibwe in northern Wisconsin, we propose a theoretical and practical framework called "decolonizing agency" to address racial disproportionality through systemic transformation. Decolonizing agency transcends the recognition and utilization of others' support in solving wicked education problems. It requires policy actors to draw from the historical legacies of oppression, racism, and systemic racial violence embedded within everyday schooling routines. It also entails surpassing epistemic ignorance to understand inequity problems, shifting from an individual approach to a systemic one. Lastly, the decolonizing agency demands that policy actors and educators center the epistemology, ontology, and value system of families, communities, and students from historically marginalized backgrounds as the knowledge producers. Informed by data and theory, we suggest six dimensions of decolonizing agency as core principles that educators and policy actors across decision-making levels can adopt to address their unique inequity issues. |
| Abstractor: | As Provided |
| Entry Date: | 2025 |
| Accession Number: | EJ1483005 |
| Database: | ERIC |
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| FullText | Links: – Type: pdflink Url: https://content.ebscohost.com/cds/retrieve?content=AQICAHj0k_4E0hTGH8RJwT4gCJyBsGNe_WN95AvKlDbXJGqwxwFAxMAhotzdEsNQrfmcGVk1AAAA4zCB4AYJKoZIhvcNAQcGoIHSMIHPAgEAMIHJBgkqhkiG9w0BBwEwHgYJYIZIAWUDBAEuMBEEDMS6s1sibVGT5XRmAgIBEICBmwNun_Ce8XpQgOB-A_9txfCLkha0DowQqROIoqebq4JrPagFJsIQxy_ELkDkdBxqkITxm6CrPFzIXlFZWMApzA79Kbpr4JriU93ZZZh_LXA96FndjV__G34T79rKKeaOHFCQR6tpaiEg0NsIuPnmXDGw8l-ntRqtfJC4yqhvaVzIFJHlrAjWqEow8og-MrV5l_GlTyDQJyhMVjet Text: Availability: 1 Value: <anid>AN0187842520;exc01oct.25;2025Sep11.06:02;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0187842520-1">Decolonizing Agency: A Framework for an Inclusive Co-Design of Behavioral Support Systems in Indigenous Land </title> <p>Racial disproportionality in special education and school discipline remains a persistent social justice issue in the U.S. education system. Drawing from a 4-year-long school-community-university partnership within an Anishinaabe Band of Ojibwe in northern Wisconsin, we propose a theoretical and practical framework called decolonizing agency to address racial disproportionality through systemic transformation. Decolonizing agency transcends the recognition and utilization of others' support in solving wicked education problems. It requires policy actors to draw from the historical legacies of oppression, racism, and systemic racial violence embedded within everyday schooling routines. It also entails surpassing epistemic ignorance to understand inequity problems, shifting from an individual approach to a systemic one. Lastly, the decolonizing agency demands that policy actors and educators center the epistemology, ontology, and value system of families, communities, and students from historically marginalized backgrounds as the knowledge producers. Informed by data and theory, we suggest six dimensions of decolonizing agency as core principles that educators and policy actors across decision-making levels can adopt to address their unique inequity issues.</p> <p>Keywords: racial disproportionality in special education; inequity issues; community partnership; disproportionate representation; emotional/behavioral disabilities; formative intervention</p> <p>The overrepresentation of American Indian<sups>1</sups>/Alaska Native (AI/AN) students in special education and school disciplinary practices in U.S. schools remains a persistent social justice issue. Despite making up only 1% of the K-12 population, AI/AN students with disabilities account for 19% of those served under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part B ([<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref1">36</reflink>]), the second-largest group after African American students. AI/AN students with disabilities are more likely to drop out compared to peers from other racial/ethnic groups (NCES, [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref2">36</reflink>]). In discipline, AI/AN students, especially those with disabilities, face higher rates of suspensions, expulsions, and law enforcement referrals than White students for similar behaviors ([<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref3">27</reflink>]; Office for Civil Rights, [<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref4">50</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref5">44</reflink>]). They are nine times more likely to receive in-school suspensions and 10 times more likely to face out-of-school suspensions ([<reflink idref="bib56" id="ref6">56</reflink>]). These disparities lead to lost instructional time, lowered expectations, and increased involvement in the juvenile justice system (Cruz et al., [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref7">11</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref8">18</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref9">31</reflink>]; Welsh &amp; Little, [<reflink idref="bib55" id="ref10">55</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-2">Understanding Overidentification of American Indian Students in Special Education</hd> <p>The overrepresentation of AI/AN students in special education and disciplinary actions must be examined within the cultural-historical context of the U.S. education system and the broader social, historical, and spatial contexts of the United States as a settler colonial state ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref11">4</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref12">5</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref13">24</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref14">23</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref15">29</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref16">33</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref17">38</reflink>]). To begin, it is critical to note that Native American identity is deeply tied to tribal sovereignty and the unique political relationship between tribes and the U.S. government. Federally recognized tribes hold the authority to define their membership, following the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934. However, this process is complicated by the religious-colonial practice of using blood quantum measures to determine Indigenous ancestry, reflecting broader racialized structures in U.S. society ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref18">16</reflink>]). These intertwined issues of sovereignty and racialization are critical to understanding the disproportionate representation of American Indian students in special education and school disciplinary actions.</p> <p>Racial disproportionality in special education and disciplinary practices extends beyond numerical calculations of demographic characteristics. Evident through history, school disciplinary practices and disability identifications have been settler colonial instruments for cultural erasure and assimilation of Indigenous students into Eurocentric ways of being and doing ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref19">6</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref20">17</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref21">26</reflink>]; Lomawaima &amp; McCarty, [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref22">30</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib58" id="ref23">58</reflink>]). American Indian students were displaced from their lands, separated from their communities and families, and forced into U.S. capitalistic industries through settler colonial boarding schools ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref24">17</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref25">26</reflink>]). While Indigenous students and families have strong survivance—survival and resistance—([<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref26">51</reflink>]) amidst the disruption of their Indigenous cosmologies, historical trauma and deep-seated distrust persist. Moreover, efforts to address racial disproportionality are often fragmented and focused on meeting compliance standards rather than addressing the historical, spatial, and political forces that sustain the issue ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref27">23</reflink>]; Voulgarides, [<reflink idref="bib52" id="ref28">52</reflink>]).</p> <p>Addressing racial disproportionality in special education and school discipline requires a collaborative effort between all stakeholders in the school/district to co-design the solutions rather than relying on external experts. However, educational decision-making traditionally is the responsibility of educators, more particularly administrators. Parents and students, especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds, tend to be at the periphery of decision-making. To challenge this imbalance, a growing subfield of Research-Practice Partnerships (RPPs; [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref29">40</reflink>]) has gained attention for facilitating collaborations. However, RPPs often overlook the complex power imbalances among stakeholders ([<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref30">22</reflink>]). Specifically, RPP scholarship does not sufficiently engage with systemic issues such as racism, colonialism, or other forms of intersectional oppression that influence collaborative efforts (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref31">10</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref32">40</reflink>]). While several scholars have devised research-practice-community partnership models that explicitly address racialized educational inequities and elevate the voices and agency of historically marginalized families and communities (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref33">22</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref34">21</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref35">32</reflink>]), a specific focus on Indigenous students remains relatively unexplored. The framework of <emph>decolonizing agency</emph> we propose in this paper expands the current conversations and efforts in RPPs, particularly building from Edwards' conceptualization of relational agency ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref36">12</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref37">13</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref38">14</reflink>]). We expand the existing efforts in attending to racism in research-practice-partnership by arguing that for meaningful collaboration with Indigenous students and families to take place, RPP research design and interventions need to consider the unique socio-spatial-historical contexts of discrimination and oppression within the partnership school.</p> <p>In this paper, we offer a new framework—decolonizing agency<emph>—</emph>to reimagine a school system that honors and nurtures Indigenous sovereignty. Decolonizing agency emphasizes one's capability to attend to the historical and systemic roots of oppression and racism, including settler-colonialism embedded in educational decision-making, including co-design of the school system. Shifting away from ahistorical and acontextual understandings of educational inequities is central to developing decolonizing agency. It centers the knowledge and values of marginalized communities, empowering them as co-designers of policy and change. We will explore the concept of decolonizing agency in greater detail in the Theoretical Framework section of this paper. The study presented in this paper took place in Newhope High School (NHS) (we used pseudonyms for the names of places and people in this paper) in rural north Wisconsin, serving Anishinaabe students and families. We delved into how local policy actors—administrators, teachers, students, families, and community members—through the Indigenous Learning Lab (ILL) intervention, developed their decolonizing agency when co-designing a school-wide behavioral support system. We addressed two research questions:</p> <p></p> <ulist> <item> How did members of ILL develop decolonizing agency to confront the legacy of settler colonialism within the behavioral support system?</item> <p></p> <item> What were the outcomes of nurturing decolonizing agency in co-designing the school's behavioral support system?</item> </ulist> <p>This paper contributes to the ongoing discourse and research, policy, and practice endeavors to address systemic inequities in special education. First, it proposes a process-driven model that is led and owned by local policy actors rather than based on outcome-driven strategies. Second, this paper expands the literature on school-community-university partnerships with multiply-marginalized communities by addressing issues of racism, colonialism, and other forms of discrimination and oppression through collaborative efforts. Finally, the framework of decolonizing agency highlights how individuals collaborate to resolve complex problems within a racialized education system.</p> <p>At the micro level, educators can apply decolonizing agency in mandated school-family collaboration, such as co-designing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), addressing behavioral concerns, and engaging in shared decision-making. Traditionally, local-level educational policies and practical decision-making have been perceived as the exclusive territory of school personnel. This assumption relegates parents, community members, and students—especially those from non-dominant groups—to the sidelines due to a perceived lack of expertise. However, we acknowledge that the framework of decolonizing agency alone is insufficient to address the problem fully, and special education interventions, including IEPs, operate within the settler colonial infrastructures. Entirely disentangling these interventions from colonial systems is a complex and lengthy process. Nevertheless, a decolonizing approach represents a critical first step towards fostering cultural change and empowering historically marginalized communities in educational decision-making.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-3">Theoretical Framework: Decolonizing Agency</hd> <p>We propose a framework called decolonizing agency, which mainly builds on the concept of relational agency developed by Anne [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref39">12</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref40">13</reflink>]) and is grounded in decolonizing methodologies ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref41">5</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref42">29</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref43">45</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref44">46</reflink>]). Initially developed for teacher professional learning, relational agency emphasizes identifying, actively seeking, offering support, and effectively using other people's knowledge as legitimate resources to address complex education problems ([<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref45">12</reflink>]; 2007). In collaborative work, relational agency involves two key actions. First, co-designing actors must recognize the motives and resources others bring to interpret the problem and solution. Second, relational agency occurs when one builds upon others' knowledge and aligns their interpretation of the problem with a shared, collective understanding (Hopwood, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref46">19</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref47">37</reflink>]). The concept of relational agency is widely used in the field of education, including special education, both within the United States and globally, particularly concerning collaboration among individuals (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref48">32</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref49">39</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref50">43</reflink>]).</p> <p>However, we argue that the framework of relational agency is limited in its ability to capture power imbalance and intergenerational systemic discrimination within the U.S. education system. It does not adequately address the roles of racism, settler colonialism, power imbalance, and the multiple intersecting identities that people bring to collaborative efforts. In the context of this paper—addressing the complex issues of racial disproportionality in special education within the racialized U.S. education system—relational agency must incorporate an understanding of these dynamics.</p> <p>To enhance relational agency and make it relevant to school-family-community collaboration within the racialized (special) education system, especially in working with Indigenous communities, we expanded the original framework by incorporating decolonizing epistemologies ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref51">4</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref52">5</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref53">7</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref54">24</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref55">46</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref56">48</reflink>]). Decolonizing epistemologies emphasize the cultural historicity of the issue (e.g., racial disproportionality) and reframe the problem by centering Indigenous epistemologies and value systems. Decolonizing epistemologies emphasizes place as a fundamental source of knowledge ([<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref57">48</reflink>]). The roles of place and context in research and collaboration with Indigenous people transcend the first dimension of place (e.g., information about the location; [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref58">1</reflink>]) to the second dimension of place (interactions) and the third dimension of place (sense of place). From this perspective, place is conceptualized as a site where social life, power dynamics, struggles, resistance, hopes, and future imaginations take place ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref59">33</reflink>]). This perspective of place is central to Indigenous scholarship ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref60">5</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref61">7</reflink>]; Tuck &amp; McKenzie, [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref62">48</reflink>]).</p> <p>Decolonizing agency requires policy actors involved in the co-design process to confront the historical legacies and everyday experiences of oppression, racism, and systemic racial violence to address these complex problems. It also calls for a shift beyond epistemic ignorance to recognize that racial disproportionality is rooted in systemic factors rather than assumptions about dysfunctional individual behaviors or problematic mindsets of educators (e.g., implicit bias). Finally, decolonizing agency requires policy actors to center the value systems of families, communities, and students from historically marginalized backgrounds as legitimate knowledge producers and co-designers in the design, implementation, and monitoring process.</p> <p>In our work, we understand decolonization as the means toward Indigenous sovereignty in our historical analysis as a foundation for envisioning decolonial futures:</p> <p>Indigenous sovereignty is the ability of Indigenous peoples and nations to unimpededly use Indigenous knowledge, languages, and ways of being to guide and shape how the Indigenous nations and people wish to be in this interconnected world. Indigenous sovereignty would be realized when there is widespread, Indigenous, higher education and research built upon Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and axiology ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref63">4</reflink>], p. 187).</p> <p>Decolonization is a process (verb) and an end (noun) toward achieving Indigenous sovereignty and educational equity for future generations. We did not intend to simply appropriate decolonial language as a metaphor for the organizational reform or be complicit in "colonial equivocation" (Tuck &amp; Yang, [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref64">49</reflink>]). Concurring upon [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref65">49</reflink>] criticism, we conceptualize settler colonialism as an ongoing structure that prioritizes settler power and resource accumulation while erasing Indigenous peoples to sustain colonial subjugation. We also recognize that our work operates within settler-colonial systems and cannot fully address the material demands of decolonization, such as land repatriation. However, it is meaningful progress (decolonization as a verb) by centering Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and axiology in policymaking and fostering new political relationships necessary for systemic transformation ([<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref66">4</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-4">Current Study: Co-Designing a Behavioral Support System Through ILL</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0187842520-5">Local Contexts of Racial Disproportionality</hd> <p>At the time of this research, Newhope High School (NHS) struggled with overrepresenting AI/AN students in exclusionary school discipline and special education placement for behavioral problems. In addition, when the collaboration with NHS began, AI students accounted for about 20% of the NHS student population. Still, they received 64.3% of in-school suspensions and 52.2% of out-of-school suspensions ([<reflink idref="bib57" id="ref67">57</reflink>]). Racial disproportionality at NHS had deep socio-spatial-historical roots in Newhope as a settler colonial town ([<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref68">33</reflink>]). The city of Newhope was the epicenter of the anti-Indian movements via anti-spearfishing protests that peaked in Wisconsin during the 1980s and early 1990s. Despite state and federal court affirmations of the Anishinaabe treaty rights, which granted Tribal people the right to harvest fish in their ceded lands, backlash from White community members prevented the full exercise of Anishinaabe families' rights. The settler colonial tensions are still visible in Newhope today, manifesting in persistent community conflicts regarding access to land and waters. For Anishinaabe students, transitioning to NHS from their tribal district, where they attended elementary and middle schools, represents more than moving from one school to another. It marks a shift from being part of a majority ethnic/racial group to becoming a racialized minority.</p> <p>The researchers approached Anishinaabe elders and the principal of NHS to propose the ILL. The principal saw this school-community-university collaboration as an opportunity to collaborate to strengthen school-tribal community relationships and address racial disproportionality. At the same time, the Anishinaabe community also viewed this collaboration as an opportunity to remedy distrust and mend broken relationships. When leadership changed at NHS, we presented our vision to the incoming principal, Mr. Kevin Archer, who joined the ILL intervention. NHS leadership decided on racial disproportionality in behavioral outcomes as the primary issue to tackle in our collaboration. Together, ILL members determined the goals of each stage of ILL: design, implementation, and sustainability.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-6">Researchers' Positionality</hd> <p>The research team for the ILL project consisted of scholars from diverse backgrounds, including Indigenous, immigrant, and White researchers, each bringing unique perspectives regarding coloniality and a shared commitment to addressing systemic injustices impacting historically marginalized students. Rooted in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT; [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref69">15</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib54" id="ref70">54</reflink>]), our role as researchers was to support the ILL team in their collective learning and efforts to develop a new system, while at the same time collecting data. We facilitated discussions and asked questions to guide the team toward achieving their goals. However, we also recognized that we lacked knowledge about the community as outsiders to the Anishinaabe community and NHS. Therefore, we continued to seek suggestions and advice from tribal elders, school leaders, and staff.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-7">Data Generation</hd> <p>We utilized ethnographic data collected during the design phase of ILL, which took place during the 2019–2020 academic year. ILL included 14 members representing multiple roles and demographic backgrounds: teachers, students, administrators, parents, and community members. Member recruitment occurred in several steps in collaboration with the project liaisons. After obtaining approval from the Anishinaabe elders, NHS, and the institutional IRB, we established a project liaison team that included the NHS Assistant Principal, NHS's American Indian Mentor, and a representative from the Anishinaabe Tribal Education Department. The liaisons provided critical insights into the local school and community. To facilitate the brainstorming for potential members, we asked: "Who should be included in the team?" and "Whose voice is missing?" In response, the project liaisons and NHS leadership, identified several potential members. The research team then approached these individuals to explain the purpose and expectations of the project and obtain formal consent. Members met monthly for an average of 90 min per session. We provided stipends, meals, and childcare for each meeting. We were mindful of power dynamics and tried maintaining cultural sensitivity while students sat at the same table with their elders, teachers, and administrators. We accomplished this by creating small group discussions (dyads or triads) in every session, and meeting with the students separately to hear their perspectives when they could not physically attend the meetings. Additionally, the adult members of ILL strived to provide a safe space for student members to share their perspectives.</p> <p>This study's primary data consists of transcripts from video recordings of the 10 monthly meetings. ILL sessions were guided by the cycle of systemic change ([<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref71">3</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref72">15</reflink>]; see Figure 1). Researchers facilitated each meeting. Once the team was formed, members engaged in these problem-identification stages, including questioning and analyzing the problem (i.e., racial disproportionality). This analysis involved (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref73">1</reflink>) examining the current quantitative behavioral (e.g., school discipline and E/BD data) and academic achievement data, and (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref74">2</reflink>) mapping the existing system to deepen understanding of students' lived experiences and identify the breakdowns in the current school disciplinary system. During these stages, ILL members examined school-level quantitative data, shared their own experiences, and engaged in critical dialogues regarding local, cultural, and historical roots of racial disproportionality. Members reflected on critical questions such as, "What happened when a referral took place?" and "Who is the current system for?" Once a shared understanding of the problem was established, members moved to the modeling and examining stages. Members collectively created their ideal behavioral support system and evaluated its feasibility in those stages. Guiding questions/prompts, such as "What does an ideal behavioral support system look like to you?" facilitated discussion and the development of a new, culturally responsive behavioral support system. Lastly, during the planning stage, the team brainstormed strategies to disseminate the new system and how to increase buy-in from the larger community. At this stage, we asked questions like, "What's next?" and "What should we do to move forward?" Members brainstormed several strategies, including identifying key school and community events to introduce the new behavioral support system. Further planning and implementation of the behavioral support system occurred during Years 2 to 4 of our collaboration.</p> <p>Graph: Figure 1. Cycle of Systemic Change</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-8">Data Analysis</hd> <p>We employed an abductive data analysis approach (Rinehart, [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref75">42</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref76">47</reflink>]). Abductive analysis involves an exploratory, creative, and speculative approach to inference (Rinehart, [<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref77">42</reflink>]), integrating deductive and inductive strategies for interpreting data. This method is particularly valuable for theory construction and enabled us to adeptly synthesize data with established theories ([<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref78">47</reflink>]).</p> <p>At the beginning of data analysis, we recognized the limitations of relational agency. Engaging with this concept in our work required incorporating Indigenous perspectives, given the historical impact of settler-colonial violence in the education system. This insight prompted us to pause and revise our conceptual framework and coding approach. After discussions informed by tribal epistemology ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref79">5</reflink>]; Tuck &amp; McKenzie, [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref80">48</reflink>]) and the data, we expanded relational agency to decolonizing agency and began the coding process.</p> <p>Each author was assigned two transcripts to code based on the newly updated framework: decolonizing agency. While we started the coding process with predefined codes of decolonizing agency such as "epistemic tension" and "socio-spatial-historical understanding," we remained open to new codes emerging from the data. For instance, new codes included "negotiating power dynamics" and "trauma-informed system." Each author categorized the codes, and we presented them to the team. This phase involved refining the categories and resolving any disagreements. We then consolidated the categories into themes, which we discussed in the results section. After completing the data analysis, we synthesized key insights from decolonizing agency. Further, we developed six dimensions of what decolonizing agency should encompass, which we elaborate on in the discussion section.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-9">Member Checking</hd> <p>In this research, member checking transcends accuracy checks ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref81">28</reflink>]), focusing on collaborative emancipatory research processes leading to transformative changes ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref82">9</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref83">35</reflink>]). Transformative member checking is a deliberate invitation for participants—especially those from marginalized communities—to engage directly in envisioning and crafting solutions to their issues ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref84">9</reflink>]). Member checking in ILL unfolded organically throughout the ILL intervention. Researchers and participants collectively learned together, revised their collective understanding of the problems, and co-developed solutions, which materialized in the new behavioral support system. As a result, the study's findings are reflected and fundamentally shaped by ILL members' interpretations and perspectives.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-10">Findings</hd> <p>This section is organized around the following research questions: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref85">1</reflink>) How did ILL members develop decolonizing agency to create a culturally responsive behavioral support system, and (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref86">2</reflink>) What were the initial outcomes of developing decolonizing agency at NHS? Decolonizing agency represents a collective paradigmatic shift, especially for those unfamiliar with the Indigenous knowledge systems. Therefore, in the result section, we purposefully included quotes that indicate shifts in the epistemologies of ILL members, especially those in positions of power, such as NHS administrators and teachers, to illustrate our findings. We also highlighted the voices of Indigenous members to emphasize their ongoing efforts to center Indigenous sovereignty, history, cultures, and cosmology throughout the ILL process.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-11">RQ1: How did ILL Members Develop Decolonizing Agency?</hd> <p>Three themes emerged relevant to the first research questions: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref87">1</reflink>) Exposing epistemic dissonance, (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref88">2</reflink>) Developing a cultural-historical understanding of behavioral issues, and (<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref89">3</reflink>) Moving beyond epistemic ignorance to reimagine a new behavioral support system.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-12">Exposing Epistemic Dissonance</hd> <p>Because ILL members brought diverse lived experiences and understandings, encountering epistemic dissonance—competing perspectives on different forms of knowledge, beliefs, and ways of understanding racial disproportionality—was inevitable. However, this epistemic dissonance played a crucial role in building decolonizing agency. Initially, members with bureaucratic power (i.e., school administrators) exhibited epistemic tensions. Their understanding of schooling reflected an epistemology grounded in an ahistorical and acontextual perspective stemming from neoliberal ideas of education ([<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref90">20</reflink>]). On the other hand, Indigenous ILL members understood schooling within the historical contexts of the settler colonial agenda of cultural erasure and Indigenous peoples' ongoing struggle for sovereignty. For example, Mr. Jeremiah, NHS's American Indian mentor, interpreted the school's racial disproportionality data within the context of settler colonial practices and the erasure of Indigeneity ([<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref91">8</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref92">26</reflink>]):</p> <p>The group has to realize, and a lot of us as tribal members realize, that this system [special education] that we're being taught is new to us. It's not that old from going from the boarding schools to what we have now. Our culture basically was learning by seeing and by doing. We didn't have books, we didn't have anything that related to us doing actual study and it was physically providing for hunting, fishing and gathering. ... It's hands-on and it's passed down from generation to generation. I had a reading disability. I hated school plain and simple. But I love being outside, and I strived to be what I am. I struggled but I made it through it, [and] again I revert back to doing the things that make me who I am and who my culture is. (ILL Session #1)</p> <p>Mr. Jeremiah set the epistemological tone for the ILL by framing the discussion of racial disproportionality through cultural and historical lenses, particularly emphasizing the role of the settler colonial education system—such as special education—in the erasure of Indigeneity. He reminded ILL members that education is an organic, culturally embedded activity for Indigenous students and families rather than a series of isolated, book-based tasks confined to the classroom. He then applied a historical perspective to underscore the enduring legacies of settler colonialism, particularly the impacts of forced assimilation perpetuated through special education and disciplinary systems. He pointed to the historical and ongoing violence of racism and colonialism embedded in the very structures of special education practices—from identification to curriculum design to the physical organization of learning spaces—and underscored how these practices are deeply felt by Indigenous students and families who carry the legacies of colonial trauma.</p> <p>While Indigenous members utilized cultural-historical understanding, some school administrators framed education through ahistorical and acontextual lens. For instance, Mr. Archer, the NHS principal, described the educational experience of Indigenous students in NHS through the lens of neoliberal metrics such as test scores:</p> <p>We are one of the most diverse high schools in northern Wisconsin. I think that's part of what makes us a great spot. As you can see, we out-distance the state in every category except two or more races on that particular data. ... That year when the line representing the overall graduation rates and the Native American student graduation rate was exactly the same at 97%. ... That year, the State Superintendent stood in front of a room full of people and handed me a plaque and said that the graduation rate is the best in the state of Wisconsin and probably the best in the country for Native American students. (ILL Session #1)</p> <p>Mr. Archer interpreted the data through the lens of schooling as a business, focusing primarily on achievement metrics. This perspective prevented him from recognizing the historical accumulation of educational debts ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref93">25</reflink>]) embedded in everyday schooling practices and from acknowledging the daily challenges faced by Anishinaabe students at NHS. His understanding of schooling ran counter to Mr. Jeremiah's perspective on education. For Anishinaabe members, a historical and contextual understanding of schooling, including educational data, was critical in resisting the current school system and reimagining a new system that prioritizes their everyday knowledge and experience. The administrator's ahistorical and acontextual interpretation was then challenged by Anishinaabe members, who pushed for a disaggregated analysis of the behavioral and academic data to better highlight the specific struggles of Indigenous students. When examining disaggregated data over the years, we noticed that administrators, particularly Mr. Archer, shifted his understanding of the problem from ahistorical and acontextual to one that is deeply grounded in a socio-spatial-historical understanding of Indigenous sovereignty (Mawene et al., [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref94">34</reflink>]).</p> <p>Similarly, Mr. Bart, the Dean of Students, demonstrated an epistemic dissonance in his understanding of racial disproportionality. He viewed the issue through an ahistorical lens, disconnecting the current disparities in behavioral problems from the historical legacies of racism and settler-colonialism embedded in the educational system:</p> <p>Sixty percent of our suspensions go to Native American students. That's horrible. But, I don't feel like there's a discrepancy between how we lay out the disciplinary actions. As [students] come to us, we deal with all situations in a similar manner. But because of the fact that it's the referrals, I think we believe that there are a lot more American Indian students that are referred and get sent down. So, it kind of catches me. I'm responsible for this because I'm one of the people that suspends kids. But at the same time, I don't feel like I'm going out of my way and targeting a certain group of students. (ILL Session #3)</p> <p>There are three indications of dissonances in Mr. Bart's initial understanding of school behavior. First, Mr. Bart perceived behavioral issues and referrals within ahistorical, aspatial, and acontextual lenses. Within this perspective, Mr. Bart perceived behavioral incidents as isolated at the individual level rather than understanding disproportionality as a continuum of race-based interactions deeply entrenched in the schooling system, including behavioral referral. Second, he situated race as merely a personal identity, failing to recognize the racialized organizational structures inherent in formulating behavioral expectations and interpreting rules and norms (Ray, [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref95">41</reflink>]; Voulgarides et al., [<reflink idref="bib53" id="ref96">53</reflink>]). Additionally, Mr. Bart revealed his vulnerabilities and adhered to bureaucratic rationality when interpreting the overrepresentation of American Indian students in exclusionary school discipline. Epistemic dissonance played a significant role in unraveling members' perceptions of racial disproportionality. While it may create discomfort, this dissonance ultimately led to the development of shared knowledge among the members.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-13">Developing Cultural Historical Understanding of Behavioral Issues</hd> <p>Situating behavioral issues within socio-spatial, historical, and political contexts of settler colonialism was a critical dimension in developing relational agency. We observed this development of decolonizing agency as members built on each other's knowledge and perspectives to analyze suspension data within the broader historical context of colonial violence embedded in the school's behavioral norms and practices. For example, when members analyzed disaggregated behavioral data (e.g., out-of-school suspensions), their shifting understanding of the overrepresentation issue reflected a deeper awareness of the school and community's larger cultural and historical context. This process unfolded in the second and third ILL sessions, representing a progression from the first ILL session. For instance, Ms. Jane Eyre, an English teacher, interpreted the overrepresentation of Indigenous students in behavioral issues as being situated within the larger contexts of cultural alienation and disconnection rather than attributing it to individual students:</p> <p>I wonder if those high suspension rates are because kids don't feel necessarily at home and represented in the school. Kids just do not feel like [Newhope] is also theirs, like [Newhope] is representative of their values and culture. (ILL Session #2)</p> <p>Here, Ms. Jane Eyre alluded to behavioral issues as not necessarily stemming from the intrinsic qualities of the students but rather as being inherently mediated by cultural understanding rules and artifacts that materialized in NHS's behavioral norms and expectations. We argue that Ms. Jane Eyre's ability to situate racial disproportionality as a symptom of a broader, systemic issue indicates developing decolonizing agency. Joining Ms. Jane Eyre, Mr. Archer, the NHS principal, and Mr. Black, an Indigenous parent, engaged in a deeper dialogue about how cultural dissonance mediates behaviors between the students and the structures of the settler colonial educational system.</p> <p>Mr. Archer: To pick up Jane 's thought and maybe try to take a look at it, I think a lot of our students [come from], I don't want to say sterile environment, but where they're coming from because they expend their Pre-K-8th grade year there [the Reservation]. There's a lot of hay in the barn during those years, right? And when a kid comes to our place, they don't look at our place as theirs. They come to our place, "Oh I'm at the high school" and "I'm a [school mascot]" or "I'm a [school mascot]. "And now I come here. What's this [NHS mascot]." ... At the end of the day, we're still not home. We only reside in one community of the 12 that we serve, and that's a challenge for us. (ILL Session #2)</p> <p>In this discussion, Mr. Archer joined Ms. Jane Eyre in exploring the systemic causes of the overrepresentation of Indigenous students in behavioral issues. They suggested that these behaviors are not simply individual shortcomings but reflect a more profound cultural alienation—perhaps the consequence of being in a system that fails to align with their ways of being and knowing. Mr. Archer demonstrated his developing decolonizing agency by framing the behaviors as a structural issue rather than attributing them solely to students' inability to regulate emotions or control their actions. Despite NHS being located on ceded Indigenous land and just a few miles from an Anishinaabe reservation, the school's behavioral values are firmly rooted in the cultural norms of the settler colonial education system.</p> <p>Mr. Black, an Anishinaabe parent, joined the conversation and helped solidify the understanding of the disconnect between students and NHS, situating it within the larger context of trauma caused by the settler colonial education system.</p> <p>Mr. Black: I think maybe what we're all forgetting here is, the students here, your parents from here probably went to [Newhope] and they all have bad experiences.</p> <p>Mr. Archer: Maybe they didn't have a great experience. You got it! ... Time is healing, but time is moving slow.</p> <p>Mr. Black: And that's what you're dealing with, you're just not dealing with new problems. It's an old problem with grandparents, [with] parents my age. (Session #2)</p> <p>Here, Mr. Black reframed the collective meaning-making of racial disproportionality, situating the lack of belonging of Indigenous students within the cultural-historical contexts of the settler colonial education system, particularly the intergenerational impact of the settler colonial education system. This alienation represents a continuation of generational trauma caused by settler colonialism. By doing this, Mr. Black emphasized a deep historical understanding of behaviors as a culturally mediated process, indexed in a history of distrust fostered by forced assimilation, abuse, and cultural genocide through schools.</p> <p>This conversation served as a springboard for future discussions in the ILL. For example, members decided to include a teacher from the K-8 school from the Reservation to bring her expertise regarding behavioral expectations and norms from K-8 schools. Additionally, members recruited two more student members to join the ILL. Later, during the modeling phase (i.e., the design of the behavioral support system), ILL members incorporated the teaching and continuation of behavioral expectations from K-8 schools to NHS classrooms in the new behavioral support system.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-14">Shifting Epistemology to Reimagine a New Behavioral Support System</hd> <p>When ILL members aligned their interpretation of racial disproportionality, their gaze on the problem moved from individual students, teachers, and parents to the entire school system. For instance, during the fourth session, when members were analyzing their existing behavioral system, Mr. Jeremiah, Ms. Gwenwyn, and Ms. Lola built on each other's interpretations of the everyday acts of school discipline. Mr. Jeremiah introduced the concept of "street smart" students, referring to Anishinaabe students who demonstrate survival skills and resistance while navigating the school system ([<reflink idref="bib51" id="ref97">51</reflink>]). In this conversation, Ms. Gwenwyn questioned the assumed familiarity with school cultures and the effectiveness of punitive measures:</p> <p>We assume that all of our freshmen come in here and understand this is how you're supposed to behave. And that is not the case. Take language for example. I had a number of EBD students, and it was normal and acceptable at home and with their friends and the community to "F bomb." When I was teaching English, we did a poetry unit and when they were writing, I was not restricting language in there, because that was part of how they told their story. Long story short ... someone else saw some language and some of their poems went all the way to our administrator. They [students] are writing what they know, and they are meeting every piece of the assignment, the expectation. To penalize them as they're trying to learn how to exist in that bicultural scenario [referring to what Lola refers to as biculturalism] is not helping them at all. (ILL Session #4)</p> <p>Ms. Gwenwyn built on the lived experience and expertise shared by her colleagues, Mr. Jeremiah and Ms. Lola (both are Anishinaabe), to understand the contradictions in NHS' existing disciplinary practices. Their collective analysis led Ms. Gwenwyn to conclude that Anishinaabe students navigated two cultures. She was not suggesting a deliberate use of curse words in school. Instead, she argued that the interpretation of problematic behaviors, such as using curse words or "inappropriate language," was narrowly book-based, taken out of context, and often resulted in unnecessary referrals.</p> <p>Similarly, during the modeling session, when members were designing their ideal behavioral support system, Ms. Jane Eyre, NHS's English teacher and Ms. Hannah, an Anishinaabe K-8 teacher located in the Reservation, built on each other's observations of the current discipline practices to question the effectiveness of out of school suspension:</p> <p>Jane Eyre: When you guys send somebody home for three days, do they just go home? I mean, that's like a treat. So, what is the alternative to that?</p> <p>Hannah: Yeah, I agree with you 100%. Let's be honest, how many [of] those kids that are getting suspended, stay home? How many of them are being monitored at home?</p> <p>Jane Eyre: I think we should also have not only an alternative for our school suspension but a true alternative education place for the handful of kids that aren't functioning.</p> <p>These two teachers from different institutions, who had never met before ILL, built on their shared knowledge of how their school discipline system worked. They aligned their understanding of the problem by centering on the system rather than individual students. They concluded that the punitive approach within the school discipline system was ineffective, which led to a discussion of alternatives. They demonstrated an epistemological shift by questioning their own system and considering students' possible experiences without school suspension. Rather than protecting and defending the existing system, both educators advocated for a non-punitive alternative solution.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-15">RQ2: What Were the Outcomes of Building Decolonizing Agency?</hd> <p>In this research question, the term <bold>"</bold>outcomes" refers to the early signs of cultural shifts among ILL members. These outcomes are small-scale changes in ideas, behaviors, or practices that signal the beginning of a transformation. They embody new values, norms, or approaches that have the potential to spread and gradually influence the broader cultural landscape of the NHS over time. The development of members' decolonizing agency resulted in both tangible and intangible outcomes. Tangible outcomes included materialized solutions that the school could implement. In contrast, intangible outcomes encompassed members' epistemological changes in understanding the complexities of behaviors and school discipline and shifts in their perspectives on expertise and decision-making.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-16">Tangible Outcomes</hd> <p>NHS's previous behavioral support system categorized behaviors as "major" and "minor," focusing on individual actions and reactionary measures when an incident occurred. However, the new culturally responsive behavioral support system captured various interacting activity systems centering on three values: communication between school and family, prevention of behavioral issues, and building relationships. Members suggested a school-wide focus on explicitly teaching behavioral expectations and utilizing a trauma-sensitive approach.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-17">A School-Wide Focus on Explicit Teaching of Behavioral Expectations</hd> <p>During the modeling and examining stages, members collaborated to emphasize the necessity of explicit teaching and modeling of behavioral expectations, rules, and norms, particularly considering that most disciplinary issues arise from freshmen. For instance, in ILL Session #8, Ms. Jane Eyre, an English teacher, Ms. Katie, a health teacher, and Mr. Bart, the Dean of Students, collectively expanded upon the idea of providing explicit instruction on behavioral expectations:</p> <p>Jane Eyre: One of the things that stood out to me was teaching students the handbook and those behavioral expectations. We assume that it happens in the classroom, but a school-wide focus on reinforcing common behaviors seems to be important.</p> <p>Katie: If I may jump in, Jane, and Bart, correct me if I'm wrong, that's a homeroom piece. We've always taught the handbook there. And again, it doesn't really get touched upon other than that first day when everything is getting thrown at. So that's a good plan to revisit if something's going in there.</p> <p>Bart: The way our handbook is written is reactionary in nature. But the expectation of the classroom is set by the classroom teacher, as long as it fits within the standard of that handbook. When you're at [NHS], what are the expectations of a student across the board? I don't feel we have a very clear process of what those core values; and overarching expectations are in our high school. I think that is a need and an issue.</p> <p>In this instance, the need for explicit teaching of school culture emerged. Explicitly identifying and teaching school-wide expectations and norms was one strategy to promote communication, prevention, and relationship building—the three key values NHS aimed to cultivate. This discussion laid the foundation for school-wide behavioral expectations, known as the Eagle-20 Core Values, implemented at NHS beginning in the 2022–2023 academic year. It is also important to note that throughout the ILL process, members fostered a culture of shared expertise. They built on each other's knowledge and expertise to unpack how their current system works and identify solutions. This collaborative approach nurtured shared expertise and surfaced issues that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-18">Trauma Sensitive Lens in Understanding Behavior</hd> <p>The second tangible outcome of building a decolonized relational agency was a call for using a trauma-sensitive lens to understand student behavior. This call served as another strategy to build relationships between teachers and students and among educators. For instance, during a small group conversation during ILL Session #8, Mr. Carson (Social Worker), Ms. Gwenwyn (Special Education Director), and Mr. Jeremiah (American Indian Mentor) highlighted a need for a trauma-informed lens in understanding behaviors.</p> <p>Gwenwyn: I think [teachers] need a deeper understanding of who truly is sitting in their classroom so that their responses to behavior may not be quite so harsh.</p> <p>Carson: I would echo that sentiment. From personal experiences, there were occasions where until I had read the file, no one shared what was going on with X or Y student. And it was profound to have that information moving forward. Those common threads can have real power if they're staff wide.</p> <p>In this small group, the educators recognized the need for a system-wide, trauma-sensitive approach to behaviors, moving from an individualistic perspective to a systemic one. They also defined what trauma-sensitive could look like in their school. For them, a trauma-sensitive approach required consistent communication between educators about students. In further discussion, these educators extended the definition of trauma-sensitive to include an intentional effort to understand students' everyday realities.</p> <p>Gwenwyn: So much of what we're talking about in a classroom is the relationship. And I think if our teachers approach their classroom with an understanding through a trauma-sensitive lens, they would handle their classrooms differently. I truly believe it's just that they don't know. Many of us were not raised and have not experienced the day to day lives that our students experience.</p> <p>Carson: I'm gonna jump right in and Jeremiah, you can jump in here and disagree. I feel like we need to do a better job of using the role of our Indian Ed mentor just to have their advice in the front office. They can either fill in the blanks for us, or they have that first-hand knowledge of what occurred.</p> <p>Jeremiah: I think that needs to be somewhat put in place by management to say that that option is available on a more regular basis. I think that needs to be addressed at a higher level so that we can be involved.</p> <p>The three educators developed decolonizing agency by building on each other's expertise and inviting one another to engage in a dialogue to critically interpret what a trauma-sensitive behavioral approach should look like in the context of NHS. Their interpretation of the trauma-sensitive approach to behaviors indicated a shift from an individual to a systemic approach, implying a recognition of the historical layers of distrust embedded in how behavioral problems and solutions are understood.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-19">Intangible Outcomes</hd> <p>Intangible outcomes were visible through an expanded understanding of racial disproportionality and a paradigm shift in how expertise is viewed in problem-solving processes and decision-making. For example, in a small group during the final ILL meeting, the facilitator, Principal Archer, and Ms. Hannah brainstormed ways to increase the school community's buy-in. Their dialogue indicated a shift in the understanding of behaviors from an individual to a systemic perspective. Mr. Archer initiated the dialogue by suggesting that the culturally responsive behavioral support system should be presented in the Student Handbook:</p> <p>I don't know if it fits into our Student Handbook as a whole. Our Student Handbook right now is written like this: Students can't do this; students can't do this. It's a long list of the things that kids get in trouble for. I'm trying to figure out which parts of these have [to be in the book]. It would kind of be out of place if we put the whole thing in there. Um or maybe not, maybe I'm thinking too much in the box of what we've done in the past. And maybe that's a piece of what the implementation team tackles first.</p> <p>Here, Mr. Archer indicated a paradigm shift toward decolonizing agency in two ways: First, he acknowledged the complexities of behaviors and, therefore, avoided reducing the intricacies of the new behavioral support system to a simple to-do list or checklist. Mr. Archer also expanded the authority of implementation to the rest of the team. The facilitator encouraged further dialogue on the co-design of the implementation process:</p> <p>Aydin: Okay, so the implementation team. Do you like that idea, Mr. Archer?</p> <p>Archer: Yeah, absolutely. I think I want a team because otherwise it'll be all on Bart and I, and that's not the best.</p> <p>Here, Principal Archer expanded the expertise and leadership of the implementation effort beyond the purview of administrators. The facilitator further asked:</p> <p>Aydin: Who are you thinking of?</p> <p>Archer: Ooh ... I don't know. It's a good question.</p> <p>Hannah: Don't you think Jeremiah would be good for your team? Is he already on it?</p> <p>Archer: We're in the infancy stages of putting together an implementation team right now. And so, Jeremiah for sure.</p> <p>Suggesting the inclusion of Mr. Jeremiah in creating the Student Handbook signaled a materialization of an epistemological shift, situating the system beyond the bureaucratic expertise of school administrators to intentionally include Indigenous knowledge. Centering the epistemologies of Indigenous students and families in the new behavioral support system is particularly notable, given the racialized history of the community and the desire to heal from generational trauma caused by settler colonial harms.</p> <p>Similarly, concerning expanding expertise and centering the epistemology of the Anishinaabe community, Mr. Bart suggested further inclusion of elders' perspectives in envisioning the school-wide core values of behaviors, a suggestion he had collectively devised with other members during the earlier ILL sessions:</p> <p>When [NHS] was erected in [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref98">19</reflink>]57, two of the board members were tribal members. I believe those families have some advice as to, at least, the story behind how our mascot came to be the [Eagle], and hopefully, they could at least provide a history and then perhaps some guidance as to who to check in with to get some of that some of that cultural teaching to move forward. (ILL Session #10)</p> <p>Here, Mr. Bart indicated a shift in his understanding of cultural values and a willingness to reach out to the Anishinaabe elders to learn about the philosophy of [Eagle-20]. He once again positioned Anishinaabe community members and elders as a source of knowledge that the school needed to utilize, especially regarding the school's philosophy and how that philosophy was extended to everyday teaching and learning, including behavioral practices.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-20">Discussion</hd> <p>Examining racial disproportionality is our entry point for disrupting the legacy of settler colonialism and centering Indigenous sovereignty. Our study focuses on Indigenous cosmologies, practices, and histories through a collaborative effort between Indigenous students and families, educators, and university researchers. Decolonizing agency formed through ILL emerged as a three-stage process: First, it involves recognizing the motives and resources other people bring to the table in interpreting the shared object. In the present study, the shared object was racial disproportionality and, subsequently, the behavioral support system. The interpretation of the object necessitated a shift in epistemology and a recognition of the historical and ongoing sedimentation of racism, settler colonialism, and other forms of oppression permeating everyday educational practices. The second stage entails aligning one's own response with these expanded interpretations of the problems and solutions ([<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref99">37</reflink>]). The findings presented herein are rooted in these stages, showcasing the extended principles of fostering decolonizing agency within racialized and politicized educational settings. Decolonizing agency in racialized educational contexts occurred when members: (<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref100">1</reflink>) shifted their gaze or understanding of the problem from individuals to systems and subsequently expanded the conversation to examine the complex, multiple marginalizations situated within the historical, political, and spatial context of schools and communities; and (<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref101">2</reflink>) built on each other's knowledge and expertise grounded in a socio-spatial-historical understanding of racial disproportionality. Our analysis showed that innovation and learning occurred when members engaged in shared expertise. Once decolonizing agency was established, transformation aimed at dismantling the settler colonial school system became possible as the third stage.</p> <p>Based on the present study, we suggest that decolonizing agency entails six dimensions:</p> <p> <bold>Dimension 1</bold>: Acknowledging the historical legacies of educational debt and systemic racial violence entrenched within everyday life and routine school practices, including disciplinary measures, spanning both historical and contemporary contexts ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref102">25</reflink>]). Local policy actors' ability to recognize these legacies manifests as drawing upon historical narratives and interpretations of systemic oppression and racism when they collectively work to interpret the problem. Such a capacity informs those in bureaucratic roles and functions, such as school administrators and teachers, in interpreting racial disproportionality within their localized socio-spatial-historical contexts.</p> <p> <bold>Dimension 2:</bold> Shifting epistemology regarding inequities, such as racial disproportionality in special education and school discipline, and recognizing these problems as systemic rather than individual.</p> <p> <bold>Dimension 3:</bold> Recognizing and acknowledging diverse interpretations of place and their implications for human interactions. These include racialized experiences that are visible in the present but have historical roots in the past. This acknowledgment of intricate socio-spatial-historical contexts contributing to racially disparate educational opportunities and outcomes for historically marginalized students opens avenues for diverse policy actors to actively seek various perspectives, particularly those of historically marginalized students and their families, and to address the issue collectively.</p> <p> <bold>Dimension 4:</bold> The capacity to acknowledge and confront personal vulnerabilities, including emotional, moral, and epistemological dissonance, White fragility, and bureaucratic rationality, when discussing racism, settler colonialism, and related topics. This involves transcending vulnerabilities to promote courageous dialogues and encourage others to do the same, rather than avoiding difficult conversations to maintain emotional and bureaucratic comfort.</p> <p> <bold>Dimension 5:</bold> Recognizing that historically marginalized students and families have endured and persevered amidst systemic oppression. They possess legitimate knowledge to co-create solutions to enduring inequity issues. This capacity includes leveraging historically marginalized students' and community members' perspectives, knowledge, and experiences when addressing systemic inequities. Placing these policy actors at the forefront of systemic changes acknowledges their expertise in navigating racialized experiences within the educational system, and facilitates the development of locally informed solutions.</p> <p> <bold>Dimension 6:</bold> Navigating power dynamics and hierarchy in collaborative, co-design processes. This dimension includes policy actors' willingness to transgress the taken-for-granted power structures within boundary-crossing works ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref103">2</reflink>]). It also consists of the capability to genuinely listen and understand the perspectives of others beyond the logistics of time, physical space, or agenda.</p> <p>These dimensions are not exhaustive and complete, and we welcome further efforts to expand upon this concept.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-21">Conclusion</hd> <p>Enduring racial disproportionality in special education and school disciplinary practices serves as a critical indicator to practitioners, researchers, and policymakers that this issue is a byproduct of settler colonial practices, oppressions, and discriminations entrenched in everyday schooling. Relying on exclusionary punitive measures to segregate "good students" from "bad students" is, at best, a short-term remedy that perpetuates centuries-long systemic discrimination and oppression. In this paper, we presented a working framework that local policy actors can use to address inequity issues, such as racial disproportionality, within the historical context of colonialism. The six dimensions of decolonizing agency proposed in this paper, resulting from the dialogue between data and theory, serve as both theoretical and practical tools that students, teachers, parents, district leaders, community members, and researchers can consider while developing locally meaningful, sustainable, and adaptive solutions to complex, ever-evolving injustices in education. Educators and local decision-makers can begin transforming their school systems by challenging decision-making processes that often marginalize parents, community members, and students—particularly those from nondominant groups. Adopting a decolonizing approach is a critical first step toward fostering cultural changes in school decision-making, ultimately empowering historically marginalized students and families as legitimate knowledge producers. Through this paper, ILL members highlighted early signs of cultural shifts in decision-making and their understanding of racial disproportionality. While potentially only the beginning, these outcomes offer hope for broader cultural changes within the school.</p> <hd id="AN0187842520-22">Note</hd> <p>1. In our work, we recognize that the term "American Indian" is factually inaccurate, but it holds significant political importance and material consequences in the everyday life of Indigenous people ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref104">16</reflink>]). We use the terminology preferred by the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes region, where our study took place. 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Journal of Genocide Research, 8(4), 387–409. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0187842520-24"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibtext> The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research is supported by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Education's Grand Challenge Program.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Dian Mawene https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3908-3942 Dosun Ko https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5159-9736 Jahyun Yoo https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8799-7889</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Dian Mawene; Aydin Bal; Dosun Ko; Linda Orie; Elizabeth Schrader and Jahyun Yoo</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref3"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib50" firstref="ref4"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib44" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib56" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib55" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref15"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref18"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref20"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref21"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref22"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib58" firstref="ref23"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib51" firstref="ref26"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib52" firstref="ref28"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref31"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref34"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref35"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref36"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref37"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref38"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl30" bibid="bib45" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl31" bibid="bib46" firstref="ref44"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl32" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref46"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl33" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref47"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl34" bibid="bib39" firstref="ref49"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl35" bibid="bib43" firstref="ref50"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl36" bibid="bib48" firstref="ref56"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl37" bibid="bib49" firstref="ref64"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl38" bibid="bib57" firstref="ref67"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl39" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref69"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl40" bibid="bib54" firstref="ref70"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl41" bibid="bib42" firstref="ref75"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl42" bibid="bib47" firstref="ref76"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl43" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref81"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl44" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref83"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl45" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref90"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl46" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref93"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl47" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref94"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl48" bibid="bib41" firstref="ref95"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl49" bibid="bib53" firstref="ref96"></nolink> |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Decolonizing Agency: A Framework for an Inclusive Co-Design of Behavioral Support Systems in Indigenous Land – Name: Language Label: Language Group: Lang Data: English – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Dian+Mawene%22">Dian Mawene</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3908-3942">0000-0003-3908-3942</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Aydin+Bal%22">Aydin Bal</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Dosun+Ko%22">Dosun Ko</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5159-9736">0000-0001-5159-9736</externalLink>)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Linda+Orie%22">Linda Orie</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Elizabeth+Schrader%22">Elizabeth Schrader</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Jahyun+Yoo%22">Jahyun Yoo</searchLink> (ORCID <externalLink term="https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8799-7889">0009-0009-8799-7889</externalLink>) – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SO" term="%22Exceptional+Children%22"><i>Exceptional Children</i></searchLink>. 2025 92(1):90-109. – Name: Avail Label: Availability Group: Avail Data: SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: https://sagepub.com – Name: PeerReviewed Label: Peer Reviewed Group: SrcInfo Data: Y – Name: Pages Label: Page Count Group: Src Data: 20 – Name: DatePubCY Label: Publication Date Group: Date Data: 2025 – Name: TypeDocument Label: Document Type Group: TypDoc Data: Journal Articles<br />Reports - Descriptive – Name: Audience Label: Education Level Group: Audnce Data: <searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22High+Schools%22">High Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Secondary+Education%22">Secondary Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Higher+Education%22">Higher Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="EL" term="%22Postsecondary+Education%22">Postsecondary Education</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Descriptors Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Special+Education%22">Special Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Disproportionate+Representation%22">Disproportionate Representation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Decolonization%22">Decolonization</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22High+Schools%22">High Schools</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22American+Indian+Education%22">American Indian Education</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Personal+Autonomy%22">Personal Autonomy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Colonialism%22">Colonialism</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22School+Community+Relationship%22">School Community Relationship</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22College+School+Cooperation%22">College School Cooperation</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22American+Indian+Students%22">American Indian Students</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+Behavior%22">Student Behavior</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Behavior+Problems%22">Behavior Problems</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Discipline%22">Discipline</searchLink> – Name: Subject Label: Geographic Terms Group: Su Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Wisconsin%22">Wisconsin</searchLink> – Name: DOI Label: DOI Group: ID Data: 10.1177/00144029251350059 – Name: ISSN Label: ISSN Group: ISSN Data: 0014-4029<br />2163-5560 – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Racial disproportionality in special education and school discipline remains a persistent social justice issue in the U.S. education system. Drawing from a 4-year-long school-community-university partnership within an Anishinaabe Band of Ojibwe in northern Wisconsin, we propose a theoretical and practical framework called "decolonizing agency" to address racial disproportionality through systemic transformation. Decolonizing agency transcends the recognition and utilization of others' support in solving wicked education problems. It requires policy actors to draw from the historical legacies of oppression, racism, and systemic racial violence embedded within everyday schooling routines. It also entails surpassing epistemic ignorance to understand inequity problems, shifting from an individual approach to a systemic one. Lastly, the decolonizing agency demands that policy actors and educators center the epistemology, ontology, and value system of families, communities, and students from historically marginalized backgrounds as the knowledge producers. Informed by data and theory, we suggest six dimensions of decolonizing agency as core principles that educators and policy actors across decision-making levels can adopt to address their unique inequity issues. – Name: AbstractInfo Label: Abstractor Group: Ab Data: As Provided – Name: DateEntry Label: Entry Date Group: Date Data: 2025 – Name: AN Label: Accession Number Group: ID Data: EJ1483005 |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.1177/00144029251350059 Languages: – Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 20 StartPage: 90 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Special Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Disproportionate Representation Type: general – SubjectFull: Decolonization Type: general – SubjectFull: High Schools Type: general – SubjectFull: American Indian Education Type: general – SubjectFull: Personal Autonomy Type: general – SubjectFull: Colonialism Type: general – SubjectFull: School Community Relationship Type: general – SubjectFull: College School Cooperation Type: general – SubjectFull: American Indian Students Type: general – SubjectFull: Student Behavior Type: general – SubjectFull: Behavior Problems Type: general – SubjectFull: Discipline Type: general – SubjectFull: Wisconsin Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Decolonizing Agency: A Framework for an Inclusive Co-Design of Behavioral Support Systems in Indigenous Land Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Dian Mawene – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Aydin Bal – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Dosun Ko – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Linda Orie – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Elizabeth Schrader – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Jahyun Yoo IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 10 Type: published Y: 2025 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 0014-4029 – Type: issn-electronic Value: 2163-5560 Numbering: – Type: volume Value: 92 – Type: issue Value: 1 Titles: – TitleFull: Exceptional Children Type: main |
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