FOREWORD
A recurring theme in nearly all discussions of classrooms
and teaching in cross-cultural situations is the need to attend to the non-verbal
aspects
of teacher-student
interaction and communication. Malcolm Collier’s use of film to study
five classroom situations amongst the Yupik Eskimos in the lower Kuskokwim
region of Southwestern Alaska has given us some important insights into the
mechanisms by which non-verbal communication enters into the learning process
in a cross-cultural classroom setting. Building on the work initially reported
by his father, John Collier, Jr., in Alaska Eskimo Education: A Film Analysis
of Cultural Confrontation in the Schools, Malcolm has elaborated on two
particularly important dimensions to cross-cultural interaction, “pace” and “flow.” The
detailed descriptions of how these two factors affected the quality of interaction
in the five situations analyzed in this study provide vivid illustrations
of how the educational process can be helped or hindered by the way teachers
and
students come together in the classroom setting.
Anyone who has any role in
shaping educational processes in Alaska will find that this study provokes
some critical questions about how one goes about
structuring the way we do schooling, and who the primary participants in
that process
should be. Must students and communities adapt to the pace and flow of
interaction reflected in the school, or should the school adapt to the pace
and flow
of interaction in the community? Is it possible for teachers whose background
has instilled in them a particular style of patterned interaction to modify
their behavior in such a way that is compatible with a different style?
What are the educational consequences of placing Native teachers in schools?
Is
it possible to change the structure of interaction without changing the
structure of the setting in which it occurs? These and many other questions
are derived
from seriously thinking through the implications of this study for our
schools. Until we begin attending to such questions we will continue to perpetuate
an
educational process that is highly inefficient and extremely limited in
its
potential for productive teaching and learning in cross-cultural contexts.
In
addition to the light this study sheds on the way classrooms operate, it
breaks some new ground with regard to the research tools and techniques
available
for studying the complex phenomena associated with cross-cultural interaction.
The use of film as a research tool is a relatively recent development,
but its potential for adding to our understanding of human behavior is
well documented
in Malcolm Collier’s work. Anyone interested in using film or video
as a data source for microanalytic research is encouraged to review the
methodology
section of this study for important guidance in the techniques employed
in such research.
In addition to the study of Alaskan classrooms reported
here, Malcolm Collier has worked with his father on a comparable film
study of the
Rough Rock
School on the Navaho Reservation in Arizona, and he is currently working
on several
projects using film to analyze interaction in various bilingual/bicultural
classroom situations in the San Francisco Bay area.
Ray Barnhardt
June 21, 1979
PREFACE
This text was originally written as a master’s
thesis. Except for changes in the section on methodology, only minor
revisions have been made.
The purpose of this preface is to briefly discuss some considerations
which may not be immediately evident in the text.
Most important
is the fact that pace and flow are only two of the non-verbal factors which
affect and reflect the course of
communication
in classrooms.
Practical use of the ideas discussed in this writing should
not be limited to consideration of these two factors alone. Nonverbal
behavior
includes
such variables as the use of space, body posture and expression,
eye behavior, facial expression, movement, style, etc. All
of these must
be considered
in looking at what occurs in the classroom, with a constant
sensitivity to the fact that all are shaped by cultural and situational variables.
Observers
should also be aware of the ways in which the physical environment
of schools and surroundings, the structure of curriculum,
the content
and character of lessons, can all shape or limit human behavior.
The fact that
these are
often built-in factors does not make them any less culturally
determined. The very concept of schools and classrooms with the
bizarre habit
of placing children
in rooms for years on end is itself a product of the Western
world.
We should also not forget that, while good communication
may be a prerequisite for successful education, it does not in itself
produce
it. Schools
remove children from their wider environment in which they
would ordinarily learn a variety of things and restricts them to the
contrived environment
of
the classroom. What do they gain from this process? The learning
of the
skills
of writing, reading, and mathematics does not require all of
the
day, day after day, for twelve years. It does no good to have
wonderful communication in this
restricted environment if what is communicated is useless,
negative, limiting
or in other ways destructive to the children’s personal
and cultural potential. What. is being communicated? This question
should include both the
implicit messages as well as the explicit content.
I make these
comments because I think that in our explorations of the delicate
and important issue of cross-cultural communication
in education,
it is
easy to forget that there are other factors which affect the
final outcome of
education. In particular, I think we have become too complacent
about
the content of curriculum,
assuming that it is relatively easy to create culturally and
situationally relevant materials. I suggest that we all take
a very hard look
at this assumption and at the materials which are being used
in the
schools. Just what is the
content, message, and quality of the materials which the teachers
present to the children?
I point out these other considerations
to emphasize that education is a complex process with many variables. The
practical importance
of non-verbal
factors
is that they help to shape the circumstances in which education
takes place.
The value of increased awareness of non-verbal behavior and
communication with their cultural variability is that these
can provide an
additional source of
information or understanding concerning the educational process
and the individuals involved in it. Sensitivity to non-verbal
signals and patterns
of behavior can often alert teachers to problems and successes
long
before these become apparent in more “conventional” forms
such as verbal responses and school work. In particular,
they can provide the teacher with
important insight into those often forgotten children in
the middle who do not cause trouble, are not obviously and
verbally
precocious, who do their
school work consistently with neither great success nor great
failure. Awareness of the cultural variability of non-verbal
behavior should alert people to the
need for careful observation and assessment in place of automatic
and culturally conditioned reactions.
If there is one clear
lesson to be learned from this study, it is the paramount
importance of Native participation in
and control
of
education
in their
communities. That participation has to be in a framework
that allows for full use of Native cultural skills and patterns
of communication.
I have,
in this writing, said some harsh things about Anglo teachers.
These statements are not intended to question the teachers’ dedication
or potential contribution to the education of Native children.
Where dedication and potential have not
been properly used and developed, however, the teachers’ skills
and contributions are going to waste.
Perhaps the ideas presented
in this book will help those involved with Alaskan Native
education in their consideration
of all
these issues.
I hope that
they will be of particular use to those Native teachers
and community members whose
special skills and experience hold the key to the future.
Malcolm Collier
San Francisco
1979
