Implementing Indian Education For All

I found looking through the Indian Education for All Standards for Alaskan educators was especially interesting. The following five standards are the expectations for Alaskan Educators to help incorporate Native American studies into their curriculum. I appreciate that they recognize teachers who follow these standards as "culturally-responsive" educators. Especially in communities with high percentages of Native American populations (such as Montana and Alaskan towns), this "cultural-responsiveness" is easily accessible and extremely important.

A. Culturally-responsive educators incorporate local ways of knowing and teaching in their work.
B. Culturally-responsive educators use the local environment and community resources on a regular basis to link
what they are teaching to the everyday lives of the students.
C. Culturally-responsive educators participate in community events and activities in appropriate and supportive
ways.
D. Culturally-responsive educators work closely with parents to achieve a high level of complementary
educational expectations between home and school.
E. Culturally-responsive educators recognize the full educational potential of each student and provide the
challenges necessary for them to achieve that potential.

As an English teacher, it's easy to incorporate Native American literature into curriculum. In order to meet standards in both traditional and modern Native American education, books from older and newer authors can be used. For example, books such as "Bead on an Ant Hill" by Delphine Red Shirt and "Fools Crow" by James Welch, are excellent works describing traditional Native American culture. You can also introduce modern Native American texts such as "Diary of a Parttime Indian" by Sherman Alexie, which describes more modern challenges for Native Americans in a prominently white dominated society. The combination of these three texts would supply a well rounded view of Native American culture and the challenges and successes they've achieved throughout their many years in the North Americas.

In terms of achieving standard B, English classrooms have great incentives to visit/participate in community events. Events such as pow-wows and poetry readings or cultural presentations are great opportunities to bring students on field trips.