Handbooks
UAA’s two handbooks are designed for faculty, faculty developers and university administrators who seek fresh ideas and skills for productively engaging difficult dialogues on campus—on everything from race to climate change to evolution to indigenous issues!
Stop Talking
For 10,000 years, Alaska’s Native peoples have survived and thrived in some of the
harshest conditions in the world. During that time, they perfected teaching and learning
practices that ensured the survival of their communities and the well being of their
natural environments. Those ancient practices offer fresh insights for educators who
care about the state of our world and seek ways to make education more relevant and
engaging.
This book describes a unique higher education project that broke some difficult silences between academic and Native communities by introducing a small group of non-Native faculty members to traditional Alaska Native ways of teaching and learning. It presents a model for a Native-designed and run faculty development intensive, strategies for applying indigenous pedagogies in western learning environments, reflection on education by Alaska Native Elders, and reports from participants on what they learned and what they tried in their classrooms. It is intended to stimulate discussion and reflection about best practices in higher education.
Complete Handbook (pdf)
Stop Talking: Indigenous Ways of Teaching and Learning and Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education
Individual Chapters (pdf)
Chapter 1: Ground Rules
Chapter 2: Indigenizing Education
Chapter 3: Difficult Dialogues
Chapter 4: One Day with Elders on the Land
Chapter 5: Into Our Classrooms
Chapter 6: Assessment
Chapter 7: Pausing for Reflection
References & Recommended Reading
Start Talking
The University of Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Pacific University created Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in Higher Education, a field manual for professors who wish to engage their students more effectively
in conversations about the most important issues of our time. The book addresses themes
of academic freedom; classroom safety; rhetoric and debate; race, class and culture;
science and religion; and business, politics and social justice. For information about
the project, including faculty intensives on difficult dialogues and indigenous ways
of teaching and learning, see UAA Initiatives.
Complete Handbook (pdf)
Start Talking: A Handbook for Engaging Difficult Dialogues in the Classroom
Individual Chapters (pdf)
Introduction
Chapter 1: Ground Rules
Chapter 2: Rhetoric, Debate
Chapter 3: Race, Class, Culture
Chapter 4: Science, Religion
Chapter 5: Business, Politics
Chapter 6: Outcomes
Chapter 7: Keep Talking
For related information please read about the Toxic Friday book and video.