This article was originally published in South Dakota Searchlight.
The survey results show that nearly two-thirds of South Dakota public school teachers teach the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings, but the number of respondents is lower than the previous survey.
The Essential Insights are a set of standards adopted in 2018 for teaching students about Native American culture and history. “Oceti Sakowin” is the collective name for Lakota, Dakota and Nakota speaking Native Americans, many of whom live in South Dakota. There are nine tribal nations within the state.
About 62% of teachers are using the standards, based on a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education in 2023 — a “notable increase” from 45% in 2021, said Fred Osborn, director of the Office of Indian Education, which includes the oversight of the state Department of Tribal Relations. He presented the research results to the Indian Education Advisory Council earlier this month.
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Using the standards is optional. The survey is used to understand how the standards are being implemented and to help state officials encourage statewide adoption.
“The key is that there is improvement,” Osborn said. “It’s not perfect yet. There is still work to be done, but we are a long way from 45% of teachers. We hope this increases every year.”
Osborn added that since the first survey, the Office of Indian Education has provided 10,000 copies of Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings books through a Bush Foundation grant, and last fall sent out education packets for all grade levels.
Fewer survey responses
Only about 385 teachers participated in the 2023 survey, compared to 554 in 2021.
The 2023 survey also does not mention how many public school districts were represented in the survey, while the 2021 survey included responses from 125 of the state’s 149 school districts. The school district’s identification question was changed between 2021 and 2023, department spokesperson Nancy Van Der Weide said. The department does not have data to determine how many school districts were represented in the latest survey.
Removing the school district identification question allowed participants greater anonymity, Van Der Weide told South Dakota Searchlight.
Neither Osborn nor council members addressed the potential impact of fewer responses on the validity of the survey results. The survey was voluntary and available for one month, Van Der Weide said, with an announcement in a newsletter sent to teachers across the state.
“The teachers who did respond provided informed recommendations,” Van Der Weide said in an emailed statement. “Some of these were teachers who had already incorporated many OSEUs into their classrooms, while others were those who wanted to make them part of their teaching and responded with ideas for tools that would help them integrate the standards into their classrooms.”
Advisory board member Sherry Johnson, director of tribal education for the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, helped shape the standards and is participating in the standards update. She questions whether the survey is an accurate representation of how the standards are used in the state.
“We have parts of the state that are doing well, but it’s not ubiquitous. It’s not necessary,” Johnson said. “If nothing else, there should be direct teacher training and a mandate to have this Indian education for all.”
Megan Deal, a second-grade teacher in Pierre and advisory board member, said her school participated in a pilot program to help create lesson plans for standards at each grade level, but not all teachers have incorporated the teachings into their classrooms.
“I don’t think they’re taught in very many schools in the state right now,” Deal said.
Councilman Brian Wagner, director of tribal education for the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, said he is concerned about the lack of “teeth” with the standards. Lawmakers have introduced bills to require the use of the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings in classrooms, but those efforts failed in the Legislature.
“Knowledge is power,” Wagner said. “If people don’t learn about history, we run the risk of it repeating itself, and unfortunately the repeating of history would be the racism and discrimination that many tribal members have experienced because people don’t understand tribal sovereignty or treaties and treaty rights. ”
Anticipated impact of social studies standards
Although the standards are optional, said Joseph Graves, secretary of the South Dakota Department of Education, the new social studies standards to be implemented by 2025 will include references to the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings. These will encourage more teachers to use the cultural norms, he said.
“We will see more Native American history and culture taught in the schools than ever before,” Graves said. “This is actually a step forward, not a step back. I think the social studies standards have gotten an unfair black eye, and I think once you put them in place, you’ll find that we’re teaching more of them instead of less, and, I think, from an enlightened perspective.
The controversy over the social studies standards began in 2021 because the department removed more than a dozen references to the Oceti Sakowin from the draft committee to review the social studies standards. After Governor Kristi Noem formed a new working group and ordered the process to start over, the group produced standards that drew criticism for its emphasis on rote memorization over inquiry-based learning.
Graves added that the department plans to provide teachers with materials weekly to help them use the social studies standards and encourage them to use the Oceti Sakowin Essential Understandings.
According to the 2023 survey results, approximately 84% of teachers said they were aware of the standards, and 77% said it is important to implement the standards in every classroom. Only 55% of teachers said they knew the concepts well enough to teach them, but that was an increase of 18 points from 2021.
Nearly 40 administrators participated in their administrator survey in 2023, compared to 164 in 2021. The 2023 survey does not indicate how many public school districts were represented in the administrator survey.
Nearly 80% of administrators said it is important to implement the standards in every classroom, but two-thirds of administrators reported a lack of confidence in implementing the standards in their schools, while 56% reported uncertainty about how the standards and 44% were concerned about the appropriateness of content – an increase of 28 points from the 2021 survey.
The study does not address how use of the standards affects Native American student achievement, but Osborn said it would be “interesting to cross-analyze that.”
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