Washington Education Association and partners launch Future Native Teachers Initiative

May 17 2016

There are approximately 29 federally-recognized tribes with 64,0000 Native American students but only 640 Native American educators according to the Washington Education Association, that’s about 1% of the 68,000 teachers in Washington. This means that most of our Native American students have never had the opportunity of having a Native American or Alaskan Native teacher.

The Future Native Teacher Initiative is a collaboration by colleges/universities, Washington Education Association, OSPI Native Education, and the Tribal Leaders Congress on Education. FNTI brings Native students together from around the Northwest region for the purpose of exploring the career of teaching. This includes being on a college campus and visiting a classroom in a local school district. This past year, FNTI was held on the University of Washington campus and their site visits were in Seattle Public School classrooms.

University of Washington writer Dustin Wunderlich interviewed Krista Goudy-Sutterlict, a lead FNTI trainer and public school teacher and coach from the Wapato School District. She participated in the initiative all three years and watched participants grow more empowered throughout the workshops.

"It's important for Native individuals to be able to share their culture and history in classrooms," she said. "If more Indian people are in the school building serving in teaching and leadership roles, it will help build trust in our schools." Teachers like Krista are able to advocate for Native students from a cultural lens that helps build that meaningful caring adult relationship that is needed between student and teacher. Native teachers can also help their colleagues understand the disconnect that can often occur between tribal communities and the institution of public education. The mission of FNTI is to widen the pipeline for teacher preparation so more teachers like Krista can be recruited and supported to reach their goal of teacher certification.