Twelfth Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research: So That Any Child May Succeed: Indigenous Pathways Toward Justice and the Promise of Brown

Abstract

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepared to rehear for the second time the case of Brown v. Board of Education in 1953, the 83rd Congress passed House Concurrent Resolution 108 and Public Law 280—policies that would terminate federal treaty and trust responsibilities to Native Americans. Even as post-Brown desegregation went into effect, thousands of Native American children continued to attend segregated, English-only federal boarding schools. This lecture considers the Brown legacy and broader issues of education equality in the context of research, policy, and practice in Indigenous education. Focusing on a core argument in Brown—that equality of opportunity is a prerequisite “so that any child may succeed”—I examine hard-fought pathways toward education justice forged by Indigenous educators, parents, leaders, and allies; the larger settler colonial project in which those efforts are embedded; and the ways in which Indigenous initiatives are braided with those of other racialized groups. Key to this analysis is recognition that equal access and uniformity of education approach are not synchronous with equity. I conclude with the ongoing challenges in fulfilling the promise of Brown—in particular, the simultaneous homogenizing and stratifying effects of current education policies—and what can be learned from diverse models of contemporary Indigenous education practice.