American Indian/Alaska Native Education. Fastback No. 367.

Overview & Synopsis

Historically, efforts to educate American Indians have focused on "civilizing" and assimilating Indians into White society. During the early 1970s, Congress passed legislation encouraging self-determination of tribes in educational matters. Despite changes brought about by the Self-Determination Act, testimony at Indian Nations at Risk Task Force hearings in 1990 and 1991 indicated many Native students still attend schools that fail to promote appropriate academic, social, cultural, and spiritual development. They also found that schools that respect and support students' language and culture are significantly more successful in educating those students. Training for teachers of Native students should cover the sociocultural and historical foundations of Indian education, instructional methods and styles suitable to Native students, bilingual and English as a Second Language methods, culturally relevant curriculum, and whole language and whole math approaches. The Task Force declared four national priorities: (1) developing parent-based and culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate early childhood education; (2) making the promotion of students' language and culture a responsibility of the school; (3) training more Native teachers; and (4) strengthening tribal colleges. In addition, they adopted 10 national Indian education goals addressing such things as literacy; achievement; graduation rates; adult education; and parental, community, and tribal partnerships. (KS)