Alaska Native Education: Views from Within

Over the past century, the outside world has increasingly encroached on Alaska Native communities, and one of the consequences of that change has been a shift in the purpose and structure of schools in Alaska Native communities. Alaska Native Education brings together a variety of experts in the field of indigenous education to show the ways in which Alaska Natives have adopted and adapted outside ideas and rules regarding education—and how they have frequently found them problematic and insufficient. The authors follow their analysis with suggestions of ways forward, emphasizing the benefits of blending new and old practices that will simultaneously prepare Alaska Native students for the future while preserving and strengthening their ties to the past.

Ray Barnhardt is professor of cross-cultural studies and director of the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley is associate professor of education in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.