Communities of Practice: An Alaskan Native Model for Language Teaching and Learning

About the Editors

171 About the Editors Patrick Marlow is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the Alaska Native Language Center and the School of Education at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He has been a principal investigator and/or major contributor on numerous US Department of Education grants supporting Indigenous graduate and undergraduate students interested in addressing Indigenous language issues. Marlow’s research and creative work seeks to understand the language planning goals of Alaska Native communities in an effort to facilitate those goals and by extension, to facilitate community ownership over language programs (both K–12 and community). His work is applied, interdisciplinary (drawing on the fields of education, linguistics, and sociology of language), and collaborative. Furthermore, his research is “critical ” and seeks to empower community members to change their situation in ways that are meaningful and appropriate to them. Since 2002, Marlow has focused largely on collaborative work with Central Yup’ik communities in the Bethel area. Sabine Siekmann is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Foreign Languages at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She holds a PhD in second language acquisition and instructional technology and directed the Languages Resource Center at Gettysburg College. She has been a principal investigator and/or major contributor on a number of US Department of Education grants supporting Indigenous language teaching and learning through teacher professional development and materials development. 172 • About the Editors Her research focuses on applications of sociocultural theory to classroombased language teaching and learning, including computer-assisted language learning (CALL) with an emphasis on peer mediation and activity theory. Since 2006, Siekmann has focused largely on collaborative work with Central Yup’ik communities in the Bethel area. ...