A Foot in Both Worlds: Supporting Aspiring Indigenous Teachers in New Mexico

The history of the Native American boarding school is rife with trauma, persecution, and forced assimilation. But by the time Dr. Amanda Montoya attended Santa Fe Indian School in the 1990s, all that had changed.

Gone were the days when the school, one of 417 boarding schools founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the U.S. government, removed Native children from their homes, stripped them of their language and culture, and subjected them to all manner of abuses. Instead, Montoya found a sense of community at the school, by then owned and operated by a coalition of New Mexico’s 19 Pueblos, Tribes, and Nations. She learned the history of her people and felt inspired by teachers who looked like her and shared her cultural values.

“It felt like family,” says Montoya, Executive Director of the Santa Fe-based Chamiza Foundation and a member of Taos, Ohkay Owingeh, and Isleta Pueblos. “You saw your teacher as your auntie or uncle, your grandma or grandpa. There was a different level of respect and comfort. It was a powerful thing.”

A bevy of research backs up Montoya’s experience: When students learn from teachers of who reflect the communities they serve, they see boosts in academic performance, graduation rates, and social-emotional outcomes. And yet, in New Mexico, this same-race dynamic is rare for Native students. While 12% of New Mexicans identify as Native American, only about 3% of the state’s teachers do.

A host of historical impacts (boarding schools included) and present-day barriers have made it difficult for Native Americans to pursue — and persist in — careers in education. The Golden Apple Scholars Program in New Mexico is working hard to remedy that.

Navigating Two Worlds

The Scholars Program launched in New Mexico in 2022 with a goal of training aspiring New Mexico teachers to succeed in New Mexico classrooms. Golden Apple recruits high-achieving students from communities across the state, supports them with up to $15,000 in financial stipends, classroom experience, training by highly qualified teachers, and ongoing mentorship after graduation.

In 2024, the Golden Apple Foundation for Excellence in Teaching, which runs the Scholars program, tapped Montoya to serve as the organization’s first New Mexican and Indigenous board member.

“Native students have to navigate two worlds — and be successful in two worlds,” Montoya says. “We have our cultural life, and we have our Western life. Golden Apple is there to help Indigenous teachers be successful in the Western world.”

Diversity is baked into Golden Apple’s mission. Of its 120 Scholars in New Mexico, 73 percent identify as non-White – and 11 percent are Native. This is in part thanks to a concerted outreach effort in underrepresented communities, rural communities, and schools of need.

Since connecting with Golden Apple, Montoya has had a chance to engage with aspiring teachers from Indigenous communities across the state. Some of the barriers they face, including mistrust of the Western education system, mirror her own experience.

Thanks in large part to the boarding school system, which claimed the lives of at least 973 Native children between 1819 and 1969, Montoya says some elders in her community retain a heightened sense of skepticism about Western education. Why, they reason, commit to Western learning when Native communities have built a deep well of Indigenous knowledge over generations?

A self-proclaimed career student who holds a master’s degree from the University of New Mexico and a PhD from Arizona State University, Montoya says she understands the sentiment. But she harkens back to that dual identity. It’s possible to keep one foot in Western society without stepping away from your native identity. And she has always seen education as critical to the ability to build a stable financial future for herself and her family. 

And yet it is this same need for financial stability that may keep some Native students from pursuing a career in education.

‘This is Where We Shine’

Between 40 and 50 percent of new teachers in New Mexico leave their career within the first five years. They cite myriad reasons for the change, among them lack of support and low pay.

Native teachers, who are more likely to come from communities with lower median household incomes, may find it more difficult to pay for the degrees, certification courses, mentorships, and professional development opportunities that help them advance their careers and feel supported.

The problem, then, becomes cyclical: Without support – financial and otherwise – to persist and advance, Native teachers may turn to another job entirely, not only leaving their communities, but leaving Indigenous students to grow up without teachers who share their cultural experience.

And if they do persist, Montoya says they’re often faced with another problem when they return to their communities to teach.

“People often say, ‘Go off and get your education, and come back and help your people,’” she says. “But trying to make your way home isn’t so easy. There’s a lot of different factors that come into play.”

Aging school infrastructure and lower pay may dissuade Native teachers from returning home. The support that Golden Apple offers can help.

Stipends support students to advance professionally and reach higher pay brackets. Mentorship helps new teachers feel supported in a sometimes high-stress, high-stakes job. And training institutes ensure Scholars are prepared to meet the challenges of high-need schools.

“This is where we shine,” says Julie Lucero, Golden Apple’s Chief Program Officer for New Mexico. “Not only are our Scholars high achievers, but they’re also well-positioned to return to their home communities to teach. That is one of our core values. Our state deserves nothing less.

And across the board, Scholars have something else that carries them forward, Montoya says.

“Some teachers just have that passion inside them,” she says. “If we can find those people in our Indigenous communities and give them the tools they need to be successful, we can make a big impact for our kids.”