Ensuring American Indian Students Receive an Equitable, Just, and Appropriate Education - A Matter of Personal and Professional Concern

Oct 15, 2026

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The text examines how American Indian students can receive equitable, just, and appropriate education, rooted in the author’s experience as an American Indian parent, educator, and scholar. It highlights harms from lacking Native teachers and leaders, learning history from non-Native perspectives, and not having educational systems recognize students’ talents. It argues for culturally and academically affirming schools, urges educators to confront racism and rethink preparation, and stresses Native survivance, self-determination, and reclaiming languages and traditions through education.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Personal and professional concern

Challenges and guiding questions

Becoming an Educator

Early awareness of racial and cultural divide

Family history and schooling experiences

The role of tribal education institutions

Ensuring American Indian Students Receive an Equitable, Just, and Appropriate Education A Matter of Personal and Professional Concern By Susan C. Faircloth Alicia Strawn, a first-grade teacher at Heronville Elementary in Oklahoma City, reads The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola as part of a lesson to celebrate Native American culture in 2019. PHOTOS COURTESY OF OKLAHOMA CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS A s an American Indian woman, parent, educator, and scholar, I find myself grappling with the question of how to ensure American Indian children receive an equitable, just, and appropriate education. I know firsthand the detrimental effects of not having American Indian (also referred to as Native) teachers or school leaders, of learning history from a non-Native perspective, and of feeling as if the educational system did not see my talents nor take the time to ask me about my dreams and aspirations. As the parent of an elementary-age Native student, I want a different experience for my child and for others like her—an educational experience that sees and values not only our children, but also our cultures, languages, and stories. The creation of culturally and academically affirming schools for Native children requires us, as educators, to ask ourselves some difficult questions: Are we confronting the racism that American Indi- Susan C. Faircloth, an enrolled member of the Coharie Tribe, is a professor in and the director of the School of Education at Colorado State University, where her scholarship focuses on the education of Indigenous students. She currently chairs the Technical Review Panelfor the National Indian Education Studyfunded by the Office of Indian Education within the US Department of Education. ans continue to face and preparing our students todo the same? Are we recognizing the gifts and talents of American Indian students, not simply seeing their struggles? Are we working to recruit Native teachers and ensuring they receive the support and preparation to become leaders within our schools? And arewe working to recognize, honor, and incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, learning, valuing, thinking, and being into our teaching?1 Honest answers to these questions will provide us a sense of where we arein our readiness and willingness to engage in the education of Native youth. For many of us, this will require us to unlearn or, ata minimum, challenge much of what we learned in our educator preparation and professional development programs.* For others, it will mean opening our heartsand mindstonew learnings about this nation’s first peoples and the role that the formal education system has played in the tragic taking of Native languages, cultures, and lands. Regardless of where we are in this process, Ihope we will all come to recognize and honor the resilient nature of Native peoples; in spite of sustained attempts at assimilation and acculturation, Native peoples are surviving, and in many cases, thriving. *For more on the need to build cultural and racial awareness for instructional practice, see “Race to Improve Teacher Education” in the Fall 2019 issue of American Educator: [aft.org/ae/fall2019/milner](aft.org/ae/fall2019/milner). 28 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | WINTER 2020–2021 At the core of this survival is Native peoples’ recognition of education as a potentially powerful tool for increasing tribal selfdetermination and for reclaiming and sustaining our Indigenous languages, cultures, traditions, and lifeways. As professor Leilani Sabzalian writes,“Native courage, creativity, intelligence, determination, and artfulness—acts of Native survivance—are our inheritance and our legacy as Indigenous peoples.”2 Becoming an Educator As a member of the Coharie Tribe, one of eight American Indian tribes in the state of North Carolina,† I was conscious from an early age of the racial and cultural divide that set me, and my community, apart from many of my peers. Much of my understa

FAQs

Why does the author emphasize having equitable, just, and appropriate education for American Indian children?

Because the author describes firsthand harms caused by not having American Indian teachers or leaders, learning history from a non-Native perspective, and feeling unseen by the educational system. The goal is an experience that values students’ cultures, languages, and stories.

What questions does the text propose educators and schools must confront?

Educators are asked to address racism, recognize gifts and talents rather than only struggles, recruit and support Native teachers to become leaders, and incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing, doing, learning, valuing, thinking, and being into teaching.

How does the text connect education to Native communities and future self-determination?

It presents Native peoples’ recognition of education as a powerful tool for increasing tribal self-determination and reclaiming and sustaining Indigenous languages, cultures, traditions, and lifeways, framed through Native survivance.

Oct 15, 2026

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