Next Steps: Research and Practice to Advance Indian Education

What is "Indian education" today? What will it look like in the future? The editors and 12 other Native scholars respond with 13 chapters that help readers explore two important themes: (1) education for tribal self-determination and (2) the need to turn away from discredited deficit theories of education to an approach that builds on the strengths of Native languages and culture and the basic resilience of indigenous peoples. Writing about past and present foundations of Indian education are K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Muskogee/Creek), John W. Tippeconnic III (Comanche), and Linda Sue Warner (Comanche). Curriculum and practice issues are explored by Gregory A. Cajete (Santa Clara Pueblo), Venida Chenault (Prairie Band Potawatomi), Sandra J. Fox (Oglala Lakota), Linda Skinner (Choctaw), Deborah Wetsit (Assiniboine), Tarajean Yazzie (Navajo), and Michael Yellow Bird (Sahnish/Hidatsa). Clara Sue Kidwell (Choctaw), D. Michael Pavel (Skokomish), and Wayne J. Stein (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) write about the higher education experience. Swisher and Tippeconnic provide a summary chapter discussing research and other steps needed to advance education for American Indian and Alaska Native students.