The article reminded me of my placed based education class. In that class we talked a lot about Alaska native education and how it works and should be working.One issue we covered is the difference in the western ways of knowing and the native way of knowing. Cultures are different in many ways including ways of knowing.
One of our guest speakers in that class brought up some interesting ways to teach Alaska Natives while still maintaining the old ways of knowing in the native culture. The article talks a lot about placed based learning and how this is an increasing movement looking forward to different ways to improve Alaska native learning. This makes sense because as a teacher i’m trying to teach my students so why wouldn’t I like to find the way that best educates them in that subject. I think this is really the only option that seems to work in this setting and that we should move forward in that direction.
I agree with the article that we need to get over this notion that the western way of knowing is the only way of knowing and need to embrace other cultures ways of knowing in order to reach and educate the masses.