‘Aboriginal teacher training’, ‘Aboriginalisation of staffing in Aboriginal schools’, ‘Aboriginal self-determination in schooling’, ‘bicultural education’, ‘Aboriginal control of schools’, ‘Aboriginal excellence in the 3Rs’ are all phrases used by people with some commitment to seeing Aboriginal interests achieved through schooling. These statements in relation to traditionally oriented Aboriginal schools are often used as if they all contained mutually supporting ideals. The reality is not, however, without dilemmas and it is the purpose of this paper to point out some of those dilemmas and to demonstrate that quite often the choice is not a simple one but between the lesser and the greater good, or between individual Aboriginal teacher preferences and recognition of the better good of the language group as a whole.

In the recent years, major economic developments have occurred in rural Alaska that have permanently changed the social, political and institutional landscape. The 150 Eskimo, Indian and Aleut communities have borne the brunt of these changes. Few have had available to them the indigenous human resources, the technical skills and educational preparation necessary to assume full control over these forces. In 1980 the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, in cooperation with several native organisations, successfully approached the Bernard van Leer Foundation with a proposal to assist Alaska Native communities in developing their own capacity to shape their future. This is the story of how the ‘Van Leer Project’ has attempted to respond to those developments.

Success in teaching reading does not depend simply on materials and schemes. Locked into our own cultural norms as we are, we may overlook other fundamental influences.

To go into an isolated Aboriginal community as the only teacher requires very careful preparation and demands a unique type of individual. However, out of the challenge of the situation can develop warm and lasting friendships and the arrival at the position where the school is a key point in the community, playing a vital role in the growth of the locality and the individuals in it. The teacher must initiate the effort to develop sound relations and the best place to start is in the classroom.