Over a 6-year period, a sociolinguistic and sociocultural project was undertaken by Alaska Native expert educators and linguists (aka the Yup'ik Expert Group) from the Yup'ik community in the Lower Kuskokwim School District, Central Alaska. The native experts developed their own culturally sustainable, valid, and reliable Kindergarten through…

This report examines the population of Alaska Native students who are classified as English learner (EL) students and how EL policies function for these students, focusing on EL identification, classification, service provision, and reclassification as fluent English proficient. Alaska is one of several states where Indigenous students make up a…

Six years ago Project Starship MIR, the Russian language "shuttle," launched at Turnagain Elementary, one of the Anchorage School District's 65 elementary schools. The MIR "peace" mission originated with encouragement from the local business community to prepare students for Alaska's future economic, social and political ties…

Math in a Cultural Context (MCC) was developed from ethnographic work with Yup'ik elders and teachers. The need for culturally based curricula seems obvious to those in the field of educational anthropology, but not necessarily to policymakers. Two case studies of novice teachers, one cultural "insider" and one "outsider,"…

This case study examines a sixth-grade teacher and her students in an urban school district in Alaska, engaging in an activity from a module that is part of the Math in a Cultural Context (MCC) series. By analyzing the module, the teacher's practice, classroom discourse, and students' work, the case shows that the teacher and the MCC module…

This case study explores the interactions between a teacher, her students, and a culturally based math curriculum in a fifth and sixth grade classroom in rural Alaska. The case attempts to identify and illuminate factors that created a rich learning environment while implementing Star Navigation: Explorations into Angles and Measurement, a module…

Information Technology and Indigenous People provides theoretical and empirical information related to the planning and execution of IT projects aimed at serving indigenous people. It explores many cultural concerns with IT implementation, including language issues and questions of cultural appropriateness, and brings together cutting-edge…