This study explores and evaluates a rural practicum experience for pre-service Master of Arts in Teaching students. Using questionnaires, journal analysis, and interviews we share the experience from pre-service teachers' point of view. We learn about their attitudes about rural schools and rural school students. We asked, "does the…

Since its beginnings in 1970, a field-based teacher education program aimed at preparing certificated Alaska native teachers has graduated 80 teachers. Until then, the University of Alaska's teacher training program had been a traditional campus-based program aimed primarily at preparing teachers for urban schools, with no course that reflected…

This paper discusses issues involved in teaching culturally diverse students and questions current practices in multicultural teacher education. The central portion of the paper describes and discusses an alternative approach to multicultural teacher education through the Teachers for Alaska program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Teachers…

The 80-year history of education at Eagle on the Yukon (Alaska) includes 40 years when a dual system (white-Indian) was in operation, times when only one school was open, and changes following statehood. Eagle City was founded in 1898; the first white school opened in 1901 with seven students. The Indians lived at Eagle Village, 3 miles upriver.…

Recent organizational changes in the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) as well as the formation of Alaska's Rural Education Attendance Areas (REAAs) have important implications for the education of rural Native American children. The Title XI Education Amendments passed in November, 1978 (P.L. 95-561) aim at solving some of the administrative…