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Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates how Alaska Indigenous Culture and Native Studies are being taught at select high schools in the Anchorage School District. It also investigates social and natural studies curricula to investigate how much of the material is dedicated to Indigenous Ecological Knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

Anchorage, Alaska has some of the most diverse schools in the country, including enrollment of a significant proportion of Alaska Native students. Previous research shows that place-based education improves learning for diverse students, especially for Indigenous students who often do not have their cultural heritage represented in their schools and classrooms. With the current institutional and academic changes being made across Alaska to implement culturally inclusive lesson plans and curricula, is the Anchorage School District, the largest school district in Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city, following these trends of cultural inclusion in its academics. This current study seeks to examine Alaska-specific cultural material and content in both the official curriculum of the Anchorage School District as well as in the teaching practices of its Social Studies and Science teachers, to investigate how Alaska-specific content is integrated into classrooms and instruction. Results could help improve how teachers engage youth in subjects relating to Alaska and how teachers engage with the materials pertaining to the state history, Indigenous and Native cultures and histories, and the current diverse student population that attends school in Anchorage. The main objectives of this research are to: 1) investigate Anchorage high school teachers' perspectives on if, and how, Alaska-specific content is integrated into their teaching, and 2) explore Anchorage high school teachers’ perspectives on what factors influenced their integration of Alaska-specific content in their teaching (i.e. background, training, previous teaching experience, etc.) Amber Perry and Sasha Addison hope to administer a maximum of 300 teacher online surveys and conduct 20-30-minute interviews with 15 teachers throughout three Anchorage public high schools to explore their perspectives on and experiences with the current district-provided curriculum, in addition to their professional experiences and training on integrating Alaska-specific content.