Participant: Josephine (Pseudonym)
Josephine was a returning college student in her mid-20s from the Midwest. Born to a
White mother and a Native father, Josephine had tribal affiliation to the Lakota Sioux tribe and
identifies herself as Indigenous biracial. One of nine siblings, Josephine was married with two
small children. Josephine explained her family had economic problems when she was growing
up, and this made it difficult for her to be a good student, saying:
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I was not a great student but it’s because there was other things going on, like my family
didn’t have a lot of money, so it was difficult to like . . . kind of I don’t know that the
question . . . like explain this it’s difficult to like . . . juggle dealing with family. . .
familial issues and then on top of it, try to go to school, so I always . . . all my life got
super bad grades . . . like I never was an A student . . . never made honor roll . . . always
had like Ds and Fs . . . I graduated high school, just like regular . . . like I did okay, I
didn’t do great, and then like when I went from college, right after I didn’t do great my
first time around, either. But now that I’m older, I think I think there’s like I don’t know,
maybe like a maturing thing happening I’ve been able to maintain like really great
grades, which is awesome and I think also like having flexible classes more, you know
what I mean? And I like having other . . . having a different teaching experience, I think
has like really helped this time around to like . . . kind of learn and understand. It’s much
easier, this time.
The problems Josephine’s family faced during her childhood made it difficult for her to see
herself as a good student. Although she has in later years become a better student and was
motivated by her current program and teachers, she has had negative experiences in school that
contributed to her self-perception as a poor student. She explained how during a meeting with a
counselor in high school, the counselor expressed to her she would never succeed in college,
saying:
When I was a junior . . . or senior . . . I had a like a counselor . . . like a school . . . like
guidance counselor telling me that, because of my grades, and because of like . . . I guess
my circumstances that I would never be successful in college. Like never . . . like he said,
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like just he said, like based on how you’ve done so far, like in your freshman . . .
sophomore . . . junior year and he’s like there’s just no way you would ever make it and
go to college, and I think that kind of put like a lot of . . . I don’t know . . . anger and
animosity for me to like want to succeed, and like really try hard to continue to go back
to school.
Josephine took the counselor’s comments as a challenge, and as she has grown older and
achieved more maturity, she has felt compelled to prove that counselor wrong and do well
enough in school so she can become an educator herself to change the system. She said:
And that’s why I’m doing this, I just think like you have to have an education, you know?
like it’s just really important to have a broader perspective on like your life and other
people’s lives, you know I’ve always kind of been like someone who . . . I don’t know . .
. I’ve always been someone who’s been like really bullied in school and had a hard time
fitting in so that, for me, has made me want to do well in school and hopefully help others
do well in school, like my goal is to do work in education and I want to get my master’s
in education and just be able to like maybe work as a principal or superintendent to kind
of transform the way people think about students, and think about students situations in
relation to school, you know, like their home situations they’re growing up like I think it
takes a big perspective, like a broad perspective to understand how to make students
successful in the long run, you know.
Josephine wanted to become an education administrator to improve the conditions for students
like herself; she explained:
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My eventual goal is to be like our principal or superintendent like those are the big ones, I
want to be able to make the big changes in the school districts, you know what I mean
like the fundamental pieces that are important, because I think those fundamental pieces
are what held me back initially in my education. I think the way that they taught from
2000 . . . well like let’s say 1999 to 2010 is not extremely detrimental but it’s detrimental
to students who face oppression. You know what I’m saying? Because if my teachers
were a shred empathetic or a shred understanding, instead of judgmental, I think it would
have helped me grow as a student. I think I would have grasped concepts easier . . . you
know what I’m saying?
Josephine faced many challenges growing up and explained the form of oppression she
experienced was not because of the color of her skin because she was half White and has light
skin and European features. For her, oppression manifested itself as the result of growing up in
poverty and having father addicted to drugs and alcohol. She shared:
I guess like for me oppression wasn’t necessarily because I’m light skin. I didn’t get it on
the basis that I was White. It was more being poor right? Because I was dealing with
things like my clothes weren’t clean . . . I didn’t . . . My mom didn’t force me to bathe . . .
We didn’t have . . . We we’re eating out of Food Banks constantly. My dad has a huge
drug and alcohol issue so dealing with these big, heavy things as a child and having to
raise . . . so like my older siblings were not around . . . I raised my two younger sisters
and my mom had a stroke, when I was 15. So, taking care of her and taking care of my
siblings on like a in a big way, I think made it really difficult for me to not only like
relate to my peers in the classroom but be able to focus on studies and focus on math and
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science, you know what I mean? Just like it put me on a farther behind place than I
should have been.
Josephine’s childhood has been difficult, and as a child she had to take on adult responsibilities
to help raise her two sisters and care for her mother. As a result, she faltered academically and
found herself unable to relate to her peers in school. She has been a victim of bullying and has
been told by adults whom she trusted she was not good enough to succeed in college. Despite all
of this, Josephine has persevered, and with an increased level of maturity she is on an upward
trajectory in her education this time around. Her life experiences, combined with her experience
taking HyFlex courses, made her a well-suited participant for this study.
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