National University (California)

Faculty Member, Teacher Education

Professor and Course Lead. Educational Foundations

School of Education

About

I am a professor of Educational Foundations at National University, Los Angeles Campus.  I have  taught extensively in the areas of History of Education, Social Foundations of Education, and Policy Issues in Education. Indigenous Educational history in the Americas is my primary research interest.  In particular, my areas of focus are, Genizaro Indians, Coyotes (mixed bloods),slavery, and education in New Mexico.  Early education in Meso-America and Colonial New Spain is also an area that continues to attract my attention.

  I am the author of Literacy, Education, and Society in New Mexico, 1692-1821; co-editor and contributor to Performance Theories in Education: Power, Pedagogy, and the Politics of Identity; co-editor of Indigenous Education and Epistemologies in the Americas: A Special Issue of Educational Studies; and co-editor of the recently published Handbook of Research in Social Foundations of Education.
My most recent publications are: “’Dancing the Comanches’, The Santo Niño, La Virgen (of Guadalupe) and the Genizaro Indians of New Mexico,” in Indigenous Symbols and Practices in the Catholic Church. Kate J. Martin, Editor; and “Subaltern Curriculum Studies,” in the Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies.  I am  currently working on a manuscript under contract entitled:  Postcolonial Indigenous Performances, Education, Genizaros, and Identity.  The book will explore the contours of Indigenous identity, within the context of slave Indian descendents (Genizaros), who were recently recognized by the New Mexico Legislature as Indigenous peoples, and Coyotes (mixed bloods) in New Mexico.  My work is in part auto-historical as I am a Coyote (mixed-blood), of  Genizaro, Spanish, and Zuni Pueblo ancestry.
I have occupied the positions of Professor at California State University, Los Angeles, Professor in the Policy Studies Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Distinguished Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling Psychology at Washington State University. 
Besides teaching and writing, I enjoy spending time with friends and family (especially my two grandchildren), reading, watching movies, walking, listening to  jazz; experiencing sunsets over the Pacific, sunrises over the mountains, and more generally…smelling the roses.   

I live in Marina del Rey, California, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.   

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