ED459990 2002-01-00 Preparing

Teachers To Support American Indian

and Alaska Native Student Success and

Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Development Team

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Preparing Teachers To Support American Indian and Alaska Native

Student Success and Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest................. 1

VALUING INTERCONNECTEDNESS...................................... 2

EFFECTIVE PEDAGOGY AND CURRICULUM...........................3

CONCLUSION.................................................................. 4

REFERENCES.................................................................. 5

ERIC Identifier: ED459990

Publication Date: 2002-01-00

Author: Jacobs, Don Trent - Reyhner, Jon

Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools Charleston WV.

Preparing Teachers To Support American

Indian and Alaska Native Student Success and

Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest.

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ED459990 2002-01-00 Preparing Teachers To Support American Indian and Alaska

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This Digest briefly summarizes literature related to preparing educators to bring about

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) student success and discusses what

"success" in life means for Indian students of all ages and their extended families. We

draw our information from both Native and non-Native sources, with the idea that

educators need to prepare AI/AN students to live in and give back to both local and

global communities.

Nearly 30 years after Fuchs and Havighurst concluded that schools "should follow the

Indian voice" (1973, p. 306), Deloria and Wildcat echo the idea that Indian education

must become a process "that moves within the Indian context and does not try to avoid

or escape this context" (2001, p. 85). This is the expressed, yet unmet, goal of the

federal government's policy of Indian self-determination, one that shapes the content of

this Digest, which is in two parts. The first part points to the goals of Indian education,

and the second part focuses on how to reach them.

VALUING INTERCONNECTEDNESS

High expectations. Too often student success is defined in terms of test scores. While

not discounting academic achievement, traditional expectations for AI/AN learning

involve the whole child. Although the Indian voice differs some from one community to

the next, Brendtro, Brokenleg, and Van Bockern, in "Reclaiming Youth at Risk: Our

Hope for the Future" (1990), describe a model for expectancy patterned after

accumulated American Indian wisdom that, although intended for "at-risk" learners,

seems especially applicable to AI/AN children. They challenge traditional Western

expectations relating to learning theories, discipline, youth empowerment, and school

structure. Like Jacobs and Jacobs-Spencer's "Teaching Virtues" (2000), it brings virtues

such as courage and generosity back into the education equation, not as behavioral

tools, but as a way to give meaning to academic mastery and enhance social

responsibility. These two books offer an American Indian and Alaska Native perspective

that supports a "democratic consequences" model of classroom management as

described by McEwan (2000).

Values and reciprocal contributions. Many publications address the fact that spirituality

and reciprocity (giving back to others) are vital to Indian learning, and more and more

educators believe, in the words of Slattery (1995, p. 79), that "curriculum must include

the wisdom embedded in Native American spirituality." New books such as "Ecology,

Spirituality, and Education: Curriculum for Relational Knowing" (Riley-Taylor, in press)

are evidence that Slattery's call is being heard. American Indian voices speaking on

AI/AN spirituality are found in Deloria and Wildcat's "Power and Place: Indian Education

in America" (2001). In examining the issues facing Native students, they write how

teachers must be prepared so Western (European American) paradigms can coexist

with Native worldviews about life's complex interconnections among peoples and with

nature. They focus especially on the need to relate to one's local community and

geography, an approach to learning referred to as "place-based education," a relatively

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Native Student Success and Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest.
new term for how American Indians traditionally viewed teaching and learning.

Since most teachers of AI/AN students are non-Indian (Pavel, 1999), it would be helpful

if teacher candidates planning to teach AI/AN students learned at least some of the

spiritual traditions of the local population. Teachers can support parent and community

teachings, realizing that "book knowledge," while having its place, should not

thoughtlessly supplant the "collective wisdom" learned through the ages and passed on

to each new generation by elders. Teachers cannot be expected to carry the major

responsibility for facilitating the development of Native identity, but they can honor the

important contributions of families and elders. To the degree that spirituality represents

the sense that all things are related, educators must also work carefully to address

racism issues in the classroom, a subject addressed well by Cleary and Peacock

(1998).

Family support and role models to provide student motivation. It is critical that teachers

of AI/AN children work with students' extended families to enlist their support for literacy

and academic achievement; reinforce their efforts to pass on their culture; and help their

children develop a strong, resilient, and caring identity. American Indian and Alaska

Native families, reacting to assimilationist pressures in schools, can hurt their children

by creating in them ambivalent attitudes toward schooling (Peshkin, 1997) or even

antischool "oppositional" identities (Ogbu, 1995). Teachers should realize that however

culturally sensitive they might be, students can react to them as members of a group

that often has proven to be insensitive. While educators must work on changing schools

to be more welcoming of AI/AN students' languages and cultures, they also need to

work with American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Through community

partnerships AI/AN students can, as a group, succeed academically and overcome

obstacles that may be placed in their way. Prospective teachers also can learn how to

utilize organizations such as the American Indian Science and Engineering Society,

which can provide support programs and AI/AN role models who prove educational

success can be achieved without cultural loss.

EFFECTIVE PEDAGOGY AND CURRICULUM

Languages, cultures, and bicultural adaptation. Currently, many AI/AN groups are

becoming more aware that, if they do not do something immediately to stem the loss of

their languages and cultures, they will be lost forever. Non-Indian teachers will not be

able to do much about language loss but can contribute much by learning a few key

phrases and otherwise giving respect to the importance of culture and language.

Schools, such as Rock Point Community School in the Navajo Nation, that nurture

bilingual and bicultural perspectives have shown improvements in learning

environments and academic success (McLaughlin, 1992). Also by learning how to

provide place- and community-based curriculum and instruction, teachers can provide

students with a relevant, practical, and motivating education where, in the words of

Corson (1998), Indigenous learners can actively participate in shaping their own

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ED459990 2002-01-00 Preparing Teachers To Support American Indian and Alaska

Native Student Success and Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest.

Page 3 of 7
education.

Pedagogy and curriculum. Cleary and Peacock (1998) found that teaching styles

common in American schools often fail to meet the needs of AI/AN students. Many

studies have found that classrooms across the United States are characterized by

teacher-centered direct instruction where students are expected to sit quietly and listen

to their teacher or do seat work, except when called upon by their teacher to answer

questions (Lipka & Mohatt, 1998). While highly motivated students can do relatively well

in such classrooms, students who may question why they are even sitting in a

classroom can rebel.

Generally, books on Indian education (e.g., Reyhner, 1992) call for teacher preparation

that leads to a constructivist and experiential approach that is both community- and

environment-centered. This allows students a more active role in their own education. In

"Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education" (1994), Gregory Cajete

concludes that "a primary orientation of Indigenous education is that each person is

their own teacher and learning is connected to each individual's life process." However,

this does not mean that teachers do not also need strong preparation in the subject

matter they plan to teach (Deloria & Wildcat, 2001).

Native teacher education programs. The vision statement for Oglala Lakota College's

teacher preparation program reads,

To graduate highly qualified, professional, motivated, committed teachers who possess

and who will teach Wolakota in a multicultural, changing world. (Wolakota refers to the

whole person in balance and in harmony spiritually, physically, mentally and socially.)(1)

Similarly, the University of Alaska's Cross-Cultural Education Development (X-CED)

Program, founded a quarter century ago, is a field-based teacher training program that

believes "traditional cultures face a series of modern choices" and Yup'ik teachers act

as cultural brokers "negotiating a curriculum with the help of both village elders and

outside facilitators such as the professors in the X-CED program" (Lipka & Mohatt,

1998, pp.26-27). Both of these programs also provide critical follow-up support to their

graduates once they start teaching.

CONCLUSION

Discussing the views of one of the many teachers they interviewed, Cleary and Peacock

sum up their research:

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Page 4 of 7 ED459990 2002-01-00 Preparing Teachers To Support American Indian and Alaska

Native Student Success and Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest.
The key to producing successful American Indian students in our modern educational

system ...is to first ground these students in their American Indian belief and value

systems. (1998, p. 101)

Reyhner, Lee, and Gabbard (1993) describe research-based content for specialized

American Indian and Alaska Native teacher training programs that includes

* anthropological, sociological, and historical foundations of American Indian and Alaska

Native education

* culturally responsive, bilingual, and ESL instructional methodologies

* guidance on how to "Nativize" curriculum to reflect the American Indian and Alaska

Native experience

* learning through internships in American Indian and Alaska Native communities

While that content is a start, the goal of teacher education is to produce teachers who

do not disempower AI/AN students and who prepare them to move comfortably among

different cultures while valuing the unique cultural assumptions of their home,

community, and heritage.

REFERENCES

Brendtro, L. K., Brokenleg, M., & Van Bockern, S. (1990). Reclaiming youth at risk: Our

hope for the future. Bloomington, IN: National Education Service.

Cajete, G. (1994). Look to the mountain: An ecology of Indigenous education. (1st ed.).

Durango, CO: Kivaki.

Cleary, L. M., & Peacock, T. D. (1998). Collected wisdom: American Indian education.

Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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ED459990 2002-01-00 Preparing Teachers To Support American Indian and Alaska

Native Student Success and Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest.

Page 5 of 7
Corson, D. (1998). Community-based education for Indigenous cultures. Language,

Culture, and Curriculum, 11(3), 238-249.

Deloria, V., Jr., & Wildcat, D. R. (2001). Power and place: Indian education in America.

Golden, CO: Fulcrum.

Fuchs, E., & Havighurst, R. J. (1973). To live on this earth: American Indian education.

Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Jacobs, D., & Jacobs-Spencer, J. (2001). Teaching virtues: Building character across

the curriculum. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.

Lipka, J., & Mohatt, G. V. (1998). Transforming the culture of schools: Yup'ik Eskimo

examples. Sociocultural, political, and historical studies in education. Mahwah, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum. (ED 431 565)

McEwan, B. (2000). The art of classroom management: Effective practices for building

equitable learning communities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

McLaughlin, D. (1992). When literacy empowers: Navajo language in print.

Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico.

Ogbu, J. U. (1995). Understanding cultural diversity and learning. In J. A. Banks & C. A.

M. Banks (Eds.), Handbook of research on multicultural education (pp. 582-593). New

York: Macmillan.

Pavel, D. M. (1999). Schools, principals, and teachers serving American Indian and

Alaska Native students (ERIC Digest). Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural

Education and Small Schools. (ED 425 895)

Peshkin, A. (1997). Places of memory: Whiteman's schools and Native American

communities. Sociocultural, political, and historical studies in education. Mahwah, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum. (ED 431 565)

Reyhner, J. (Ed.). (1992). Teaching American Indian students. Norman, OK: University

of Oklahoma.

Reyhner, J., Lee, H., & Gabbard, D. (1993). A specialized knowledge base for teaching

American Indian and Alaska Native students. Tribal College, 4(4), 26-32. Retrieved

January 25, 2002, from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jar/TCarticle.html

Slattery, P. (1995). Curriculum development in the post-modern era. New York:

Garland.

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Page 6 of 7 ED459990 2002-01-00 Preparing Teachers To Support American Indian and Alaska

Native Student Success and Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest.
Don Trent Jacobs (Creek/Cherokee) was formerly Dean of Education at Oglala Lakota

College on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and is currently an associate professor at

the Center for Excellence in Education at Northern Arizona University. He is the author

of 10 books on learning and consciousness.

Jon Reyhner is an associate professor of education at Northern Arizona University,

where he teaches bilingual multicultural education courses.

This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and

Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027. The

opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI,

the Department, or AEL.

Title: Preparing Teachers To Support American Indian and Alaska Native Student

Success and Cultural Heritage. ERIC Digest.

Note: Online version contains an annotated reference list with links to full-text

documents.

Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs)

(071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073);

Available From: ERIC/CRESS, P.O. Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25325-1348. Tel:

800-624-9120 (Toll Free). For full text:

http://www.indianeduresearch.net/edorc01-13.htm

Descriptors: American Indian Education, Cultural Maintenance, Educational Needs,

Elementary Secondary Education, Family School Relationship, Higher Education,

School Community Relationship, Student Needs, Teacher Education, Teacher Role,

Values

Identifiers: American Indian Students, ERIC Digests

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