Educating culturally responsive teachers

By: 
Ryan Winn
Columnist

Dr. Lauren “Candy” Waukau-Villagomez is a “change agent” for Native American education. In the administrative world, that moniker refers to someone who is hired from outside an organization to be a catalyst for reinvention. For the College of Menominee Nation professor known endearingly as “Dr. Candy,” it means transforming the Western model of education into one that produces culturally responsive teachers.

Serving for the past decade on CMN’s teacher education faculty, Waukau-Villagomez’s commitment to empower future educators has not gone unnoticed in our community. Yet, this year was one in which she was justly lauded.

In April, Waukau-Villagomez was recognized as the 2021 Wisconsin Indian Education Association’s Indian Elder of the Year Award winner, and this past May, she was presented with CMN’s Faculty of the Year Award. While Waukau-Villagomez appreciates the awards, the praise for her efforts is not what motivates her.

“I love teaching,” she said. “I come from a family of educators, and we each try to empower our young people to be excellent teachers and leaders in their schools and in the community.”

Waukau-Villagomez credits her mother and stepfather, Delores and Mani Boyd, for her professional calling.

“My mother ran the Head Start Program on the reservation as a part of The War on Poverty. She served as the director for at least 25 years,” she said. “My stepfather didn’t graduate from school, but he was a traditional teacher who’d joke he earned a degree from the school of hard knocks.

“My mother and stepfather had a strong belief in the necessity of educating young people and helping all Menominee people to aspire to something beyond what they were doing. My sisters, Lynn Skenadore, Lisa Waukau, Leslie Teller, and I all became teachers. My daughter, Samantha Villagomez, is a special education teacher at the Menominee Tribal School.”

Waukau-Villagomez explained that the trauma of previous generations’ Western education resonates with their descendants.

“Education is still difficult for Natives because of the Boarding Schools whose goal was to change Native children into the white man’s image,” she said. “It didn’t work for many because Natives were too resistant. Native people want an education, but not accultural assimilation.”

Waukau-Villagomez received a bachelor’s degree in child development and preschool from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a master’s degree in guidance and counseling from the University of Wisconsin-Stout, a master’s degree in special education from D’Youville College in Buffalo, New York, and her doctorate in educational administration from Penn State.

Waukau-Villagomez conveyed that, while her educational journey wasn’t always easy, it was necessary for her to become the educator she wanted to become.

“When things were difficult, I would tell myself that if Grandfather Keshena could make it through Carlisle Indian School, I could make it through Penn State,” she said.

Waukau-Villagomez’s first post-doctorate employer was the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, which was followed with a stint serving the Lac du Flambeau Indian Reservation in northern Wisconsin. Next, Waukau-Villagomez joined the faculty of her alma mater, D’Youville College, which included teaching future Canadian educators who came to the United States to earn their teaching license. In those positions, Waukau-Villagomez honed her skills for changing a process to reflect the value a strong education brings to a community.

While reflecting on teaching with her sister, Lisa, the two siblings recognized the necessity of using the regional language known as Menominee Indian English versus teaching solely within the American Standard English vernacular.

“We found that Menominee students learn best from hearing stories read aloud, which is, of course, reflective of the oral tradition,” Waukau-Villagomez said. “They can then discuss concepts using the Menominee Indian English they grew-up with. For formal presentations, we expect American Standard English. My daughter, Samantha, recognized this process as the ‘code switching’ required in academia.”

Waukau-Villagomez is happy to be sharing her knowledge as a member of the CMN faculty.

“I love what I do, and I know that my mother and stepfather would be proud that I am helping to train pre-service teachers in the Menominee community,” she said. “I am happy to teach non-Natives too. All teachers need an education that values and responds to cultural differences.”

Waukau-Villagomez’s stepfather gave her the name, Keskesakaeh, which means “the time just before dawn.” The name is prescient, as it evokes the image of a change agent for Native American education that Waukau-Villagomez embodies.

Maec Waewaenen for your service to education, Dr. Candy.


Ryan Winn teaches communication, English, and theater at College of Menominee Nation. For more information about the school, visit www.menominee.edu.

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