Iskotew : fire-keeping the fire lit Indigenous Iskotwew (women) leading in decolonizing education systems
department or school: Education, Faculty of
department or school: Educational Studies (EDST), Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Desjarlais-Smith, Juanita Chastity
issued: 2024-12-23T17:54:12Z
issued: 2024
related degree: Doctor of Education - EdD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Indigenous leadership is still an emerging field of study within educational leadership, where Indigenous women’s voices and experiences are largely unaccounted for, especially in the K-12 educational system. This study explored Indigenous women’s wholistic leadership perspectives where they were often “the only one” or the sole leaders in their districts. This qualitative study utilized a purposeful sampling of seven Knowledge Holders. By using an Indigenous approach to research, this study employed storywork as a means to capture the finer details of the Knowledge Holders’ perspectives and lived experiences of leading. Specifically, seven Indigenous women shared their conversations using the Conversational Method and Sharing Circles, responding to the main research question: “How do Indigenous women leaders leading within large urban educational organizations retain their ‘inner fire’?” What is their lived experience leading in decolonizing education systems? Are they surviving, surthriving, or not? Data was collected through conversations via Zoom and field notes. The conversations were transcribed and analyzed using multi-level coding and thematic analysis. The key finding of the research is that Indigenous women struggle to keep their Indigeneity intact while navigating their leadership in decolonizing educational systems. They are often the sole Indigenous leaders in a system, who lean in to their cultural teachings, families, and mentors to help keep their inner fire stoked and burning brightly. This research contributed to the current emerging research in the field of study on Indigenous women’s leadership. There will continue to be a significant absence of Indigenous women leaders in leadership positions in educational organizations if changes are not made to the culture of these organizations. Further research is needed to expand and include the voices of those who identify as Black, People of Colour (POC), and LGBTQIA2S+ who are similarly leading in the K…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/89980
note: Iskotew: Fire—Keeping the Fire Lit Indigenous Iskotwew (Women) Leading in Decolonizing Education Systems by Juanita Chastity Desjarlais-Smith B.F.A., University of Victoria, 1998 B.Ed., The University of British Columbia, 1999M.Ed., The University of British Columbia, 2014A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF EDUCATION in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Educational Leadership and Policy) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2024 © Juanita Chastity Desjarlais-Smith 2024 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Iskotew: Fire—Keeping the Fire Lit Indigenous Iskotwew (Women) Leading In Decolonizing Education Systems submitted by Juanita Chastity Desjarlais-Smith in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy Examining Committee: Dr. Fei Wang – Associate Professor, Department of Educational Studies, UBC Supervisor Dr. Alison Taylor – Professor, Department of Educational Studies, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Tracy Friedel – Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Margaret Kovach, Professor, Department of Educational Studies, UBC University Examiner Dr. Moss Norman, Associate Professor, School of Kinesiology, UBC University Examiner Dr. Jeannie Kerr, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University External Examiner iii Abstract Indigenous leadership is still an emerging field of study within educational leadership, where Indigenous women’s voices and experiences are largely unaccounted for, especially in the K-12 educational system. This study explored Indigenous women’s wholistic leadership perspectives where they were often “the only one” or the sole leaders in their districts. This qualitative study ut…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2025-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0447610
language: eng
degree discipline: Educational Leadership and Policy
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Wang, Fei (Professor in educational leadership and policy studies)
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89980