ITCA Policy Brief: The Teaching of Native Education Nationally and Its Implications for Arizona

“The Teaching of Native Education Nationally and its Implications for Arizona”
policy brief coming soon…

This Brief’s Purpose: ITCA produced this policy brief to present a comprehensive picture of the current and evolving extent of education about Native peoples in public K-12 schools across the country, with a particular eye trained on the state of implementation of “Native education”* laws in other states and its implications for the effective teaching of Native education in Arizona’s public K-12 schools. Based on this analysis, this brief presents key policy recommendations for amending and administering State of Arizona laws to strengthen and expand the statewide teaching of a quality Native education to all of the State’s K-12 public school students. This brief does not focus on the actual content of any existing or potential Native education curriculum, but why it should be mandatory, who should create it and how, what successful implementation requires, and how it can be refined, expanded, and sustained over time.

Who It Is For and Why: ITCA developed this brief to equip tribal leaders, Native education advocates and practitioners, state policymakers, state agency leaders and staff, public school board leaders and school administrators, and other key stakeholders in Arizona with a deep understanding of what’s working and what’s not in the design and implementation of state-level Native education efforts across the country, and their implications for the policy solutions they together should pursue.

* For the sake of consistency, this brief uses the term “Native education” to inclusively refer to the various terms (“Native history education”, “Indian education”, “American Indian education”, etc.) used in Arizona and other states to name and describe statewide efforts to teach about Native peoples in public K-12 schools.