Professional Development for Teacher Educators to Help them Prepare their Teacher Candidates to Integrate Montana’s Indian Education for All Act across the K-12 Curriculum

The Indian Education for All (IEFA) initiative is an unprecedented reform effort thirty- seven years in the
making. IEFA is now a funded reality. This audacious legislation has acknowledged the inadequacy of
curriculum which excludes American Indians. By including the teaching of American Indian cultures and
histories in the statutory definition of a quality education, Montanans are narrowing the achievement gap.
Providing professional development opportunities for K-12 teachers and faculty in higher education across
the state was key to integrating culturally relevant curriculum in all disciplines at all grade levels. In this
paper I describe the initial survey administered to teacher educators in a department of education at a land
grant university and the subsequent professional development initiatives I provided in response to the
participants’ feedback. I also describe the educational context in Montana, review the evolution of the IEFA
legislative mandate, characterize a typical educational journey teacher candidates take, highlight the role
teacher educators are expected to play in preparing teacher candidates to integrate IEFA, in addition to
reviewing the professional development opportunities provided. I am proposing that these IEFA initiatives
can serve as a model for a variety of international contexts where educators are concerned with best
practices to ‚level the playing field‛ and provide educational opportunities to All students while promoting
social justice.