Teachers' Cultural Knowledge and Understanding of American Indian Students and Their Families: Impact of Culture on a Child's Learning

Abstract

This manuscript discusses educational practices used in a K-12 reservation school system and speculates how these practices may be culturally insensitive to American Indian students and their families in the community. Focus group discussions were conducted with seven teachers, who were students in a graduate program, and were working on a reservation school located in a rural community in the southwestern United States. The students were queried as a group during class meetings on educational practices. These discussions revealed a list of commonly used teaching methods that are incompatible with this population and reasons for the incompatibility. Since the teachers were familiar with the American Indian culture, they were able to generate a list of culturally responsive educational practices (solutions) to address each problem area. These findings have major implications for this population of students as they have one of the highest special education referral and placement rates of all minority groups.