Self‐determination through self‐education: culturally responsive schooling for Indigenous students in the USA

Abstract

In this article, we outline culturally responsive schooling (CRS) for Indigenous youth and situate this concept within a larger history of US federal and community‐based efforts to educate Indigenous youth in the USA. We examine what we know from the research literature about the impacts of CRS among US Indigenous youth. In exploring the research, we rely on national datasets of Indigenous youth's achievement on standardized tests, qualitative approaches to examining CRS in schools serving Indigenous youth in the USA, and case studies of successful efforts at CRS. We pay special, though not exclusive, attention to the evidence regarding Indigenous students' reading and literacy skills since this is an area that is particularly revealing of what happens when CRS is not engaged. We will argue throughout this paper that a growing body of literature points to the fact that community‐ and culture‐based education best meets the educational needs of Indigenous children.