Journal of American Indian Education
Abstracts — 1994

#489
TOWARD TRUE NATIVE EDUCATION: A TREATY OF 1992. Final Report of the Indian Nations At Risk Task Force Draft 3
G. Mike Charleston Vol. 33, No. 2, pp. 1-56, Winter 1994

This manuscript was the culmination of G. Mike Charleston's work as Project Director for the Indian Nations At Risk Task Force, established by the U.S. Secretary of Education. Written and presented as a final draft report of the project, it was never published by the United States Department of Education. Through strong and often harsh rhetoric, Dr. Charleston portrays the urgency expressed by the voices of hundred of Indian people who met and spoke with the Task Force concerning the need for change in Indian education. It is published here in its entirety to offer hope and inspiration to those committed to such change and to stand as a tribute to Dr. Charleston's passionate commitment to the critical issues in Indian education until his passing in March of 1993.

#490
THE FOUNDING OF CIULISTET: ONE TEACHER'S JOURNEY
Esther A. Ilutsik Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 6-13, Spring 1994

In this autobiographical account, the author describes her development as a learner and a teacher - roles which are intertwined and which, especially for indigenous educators, also are infused with issues of cultural identity and the role of culture in schooling and teaching. This personal history is then used as a foundation to discuss a Yup'ik teacher-leader group, the Ciulistet, in which Yup'ik teachers are studying how their tacit and explicit cultural knowledge can be used in the classroom. The Ciulistet continues to examine everyday experience, with the ultimate goal of transforming the conditions of learning and teaching for Alaska Native people today.

#491
CULTURALLY NEGOTIATED SCHOOLING: TOWARD A YUP'IK MATHEMATICS
Jerry Lipka Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 14-30, Spring 1994

This paper describes one aspect of a long-term collaboration between the author and a Yup'ik teachers' research group, Ciulistet, focusing on the processes and development of Yup'ik culturally based mathematics. The premise behind this work is that the Yup'ik language, culture, and worldview, particularly subsistence activities, contain mathematical concepts. The concepts include a number system that is base 20 and sub-base 5, and ways of measuring and visualizing. This has direct applications to school math. However, just as important, the project participants are increasingly realizing the potential of using their culture and language as a means to change the culture of schooling.

#492
SAAD KAAKIH BEE'ENOOTIILJI NA'ALKAA: RESTRUCTURING THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE AND LITERACY IN A NAVAJO COMMUNITY SCHOOL
Galena Sells Dick; Dan W. Estell; Teresa L. McCarty Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 31-46, Spring 1994

In formulations of school improvement and change, teachers all too frequently are positioned as the passive recipients of top-down curricular mandates. This is especially problematic in indigenous settings when school administrators are imported from outside the community. Here we describe one school change effort in which those relations are being reversed, as Navajo bilingual teachers take charge of pedagogical transformation. Especially significant are the ways in which teachers use their own language and culture resources to create classroom environments in which students can do the same. The process and mechanisms for these types of change are related to larger issues of bilingual/bicultural/biliteracy education in indigenous schools.

#493
CRITICAL LITERACY FOR NAVAJO AND OTHER AMERICAN INDIAN LEARNERS
Daniel McLaughlin Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 47-59, Spring 1994

In explaining the low achievement levels of American Indian and other minority learners, most educational theorists hold one of three views: that students themselves are deficient; that schools are ineffectively organized; or that home-school cultural differences produce missed opportunities for academic achievement. Here a fourth view derived from critical theory is advanced. It is argued that Navajo and other American Indian students succeed to the extent that schools reverse relations of power and domination that characterize dominant and minority groups as a whole. A model for literacy program development is discussed which operationalizes critical notions of language, empowerment, and voice.

#494
SYNTHESIS AND DISCUSSION - VITALITY, VERSATILITY, STABILITY: CONDITIONS FOR COLLABORATIVE CHANGE
Nancy H. Hornberger Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 60-63, Spring 1994

This article is a synthesis by Dr. Hornberger, who relates each of the cases to her work with Quechua-speaking communities in Peru. With over 10 million speakers, Quechua offers a contrast as well as many parallels to Yup'ik, Navajo, and other indigenous North American language groups. In drawing these comparisons, she argues that three ingredients are essential to sustained and lasting improvements in indigenous schooling: a vital native language valued by the community, bilingual personnel who take the lead in effecting change in their schools, and a stable setting within which change can be nurtured.

#495
WHAT SILENCE MEANS FOR EDUCATORS OF AMERICAN INDIAN CHILDREN
Gary A. Plank Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 3-19, Fall 1994

There exists a large body of literature regarding the use of silence by American Indian people. However, this body of literature is not directly related to how silence may impact the educational process for both the educator and the student. This manuscript attempts to describe how teachers of American Indian children tend to react to silence in the American Indian classroom: The lack of speaking may create intercultural communication difficulties for both teacher and student. Consequently, intercultural communication problems could adversely impact the educational process. Methods are included that outline how some teachers have learned to accommodate for the lack of speaking. In addition, some recommendations for remediation of the current American Indian educational process are suggested.

#496
SELF-DETERMINATION IN AMERICAN INDIAN EDUCATION: EDUCATORS' PERSPECTIVES ON GRANT, CONTRACT, AND BIA-ADMINISTERED SCHOOLS
Zoann K. Snyder-Joy Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 20-34, Fall 1994

This study examines federal Indian education policies and the request of American Indian leaders for greater control over the administration of schools in Indian communities. The primary focus is whether self-determination and local control exist and to what degree they are present within Indian schools. The data collection combined in-depth interviews and survey questionnaires of educator's perceptions of self-determination and local control in their schools. The findings indicate that American Indian educators at locally controlled schools perceive that they have greater self-determination in policy design and implementation than do educators at Bureau of Indian Affairs schools.

#497
IDENTIFYING GIFTEDNESS AMONG KERESAN PUEBLO INDIANS: THE KERES STUDY
Mary E. Romero Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 35-58, Fall 1994

In addressing the question of underrepresentation of gifted American Indian learners in New Mexico's gifted and talented education programs, the Santa Fe Indian School, a tribally-operated grant school serving 560 middle and high school American Indian students, initiated a two-year qualitative research study to investigate the New Mexican Keresan Pueblo communities' perceptions of giftedness within their own cultural context. Twenty-two open-ended interviews of traditional tribal members were conducted in two phases in the Keresan communities. Results revealed several essential interrelated elements of a traditional Keresan Pueblo perspective of "gifted" that significantly contrasts with the mainstream or conventional concept of gifted.