This session will introduce participants to pedagogical approaches based on traditional Alaska Native ways of teaching and learning. Through a series of exercises, participants will have the opportunity to reflect on their current teaching practices and the possibilities for broadening them to include these ancient approaches. Together we will explore how pedagogies from indigenous cultures can enliven our teaching practices and help prepare a wide range of students for the daunting challenges of the 21st century.  

Facilitator Libby Roderick is Director of the Difficult Dialogues Initiative at the University of Alaska Anchorage and co-author of Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education. The book grew out of a Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues project in which faculty at two universities engaged in a yearlong learning community to apply indigenous ways of teaching and learning in their classrooms.