ABSTRACT
The issue of sovereignty and the right of indigenous people to be actively involved in determining their course is central to the notion of indigenous philosophy of education. Indeed, this was the defining characteristic of indigenous education for Nuraan Davids and Yusef Waghid, especially for indigenous students who must engage with both their worlds in interrelationship. Thinking through globalization and the various forms of Western imperialism that globalization has exacerbated—including, in this case, Western philosophies and approaches to school leadership—induces fruitful reflection of the need for culturally relevant and philosophically grounded approaches to education. With this aim in mind the authors identifies six underlying themes or principles that seem to cut across these cases, namely; the principles of trust, sovereignty, survivance, community partnership, culturally relevant pedagogy and cultural sustainability. Survivance term first popularized by Gerald Vizenor and, applied to study of Native Americans, denotes both overt struggle and resistance against the oppressive forces of colonization and unified efforts to survive.
