School of Education grant to expand Indigenous teacher initiatives
November 12, 2020
A renewed three-year grant will allow the UAF School of Education to continue its work on the Sustaining Indigenous Local Knowledge, Arts and Teaching project, or SILKAT. The SILKAT project addresses the broad issue of Alaska teacher recruitment and retention by supporting the recruitment of local teachers and providing preservice and early career teachers with training in teaching through arts and culture.
In the previous six years of SILKAT efforts, the UAF School of Education has partnered with the Bering Strait School District to help paraprofessionals in BSSD work toward teaching licenses, and to collaboratively design teacher-led professional development opportunities for early career teachers.
A major outcome from these efforts has been the development of core practices for culturally responsive teaching and arts and culture units for grades K-12. These core practices and units were collaboratively developed by participating teachers and faculty. The core practice framework has guided professional development initiatives and been integrated into course work for preservice teachers.
Looking forward to the next three years, the UAF School of Education will continue to partner with the BSSD and expand partnership to the Northwest Arctic Borough School District. These collaborative partnerships will continue SILKAT initiatives for the recruitment and retention of teachers versed in culturally responsive education through recruiting local teachers, providing scholarships, and offering arts and culture training to preservice and early career teachers.
In addition to continuing SILKAT objectives, this new grant introduces a series of Alaska Indigenous Teacher Initiatives. The Alaska Indigenous Teacher Corps was started in 2018-2019 using a cohort model with designated faculty and advising to support Alaska Native students pursuing teaching degrees from high school through to degree completion.
In this next grant, SOE will scale up its efforts in preparing and graduating Indigenous teachers for Alaska’s schools. In addition to expanding resources for the Alaska Indigenous Teacher Corps, SOE will form an Alaskan Indigenous Teacher Network working to support Indigenous educational leaders and facilitate post-graduation community building and professional development. SOE will also work to develop regional Alaska Indigenous teacher alliances composed of tribal organizations, businesses, school districts, the UAF School of Education and UAF's rural campuses. The drive for gathering these alliances is to establish teacher preparation strategies that reflect Indigenous and local priorities and identify partnerships to fund local teacher preparation and certification.
SILKAT and Alaska Indigenous Teacher Initiatives have been made possible by grants from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies.
For more information about the SILKAT and AITI grant, please contact UAF School of Education director Amy Vinlove at alvinlove@alaska.edu.