These
findings and their possible significance are the subject of this
section of the study.
The characteristic pace of Native children
and adults was, relative
to the Anglos, slow. While there was some variation in pace with
changes in activity,
it was essentially the same in all circumstances: in school,
around the
villages, at home and in church. This slow pace was accompanied
by a style of movement
best described as soft and rounded. By this I mean that motions
tended to be circular in direction and rarely abrupt. The consistency
of this
pace
style
and the fact that it was shared by both adults and children suggests
that it is the characteristic pace of Eskimos in this section
of Alaska.
The Anglos seen in the footage came from
a less homogenous cultural background and experience than the Eskimos.
Correspondingly,
there was more variation
in their pace and movement styles. Within the range of variation,
with two exceptions, they did form a clearly definable group
with regard
to pace and
movement style. Characteristically, their pace was fast to
moderate and movements were linear and often abrupt. On an individual
level, these
patterns were
quite consistent, although there was a suggestion in the footage
that Anglos in stressful
situations tended to speed up their pace. (Eskimos, on the
other
hand, appeared to slow down in stressful situations.) I assume
that pace
and movement patterns
are reflective of people’s cultural background. Assuming
this, the individual consistency and relatively similar patterns
of Anglos seen in the films at
least suggest that these are patterns of pace and movement
characteristic to Anglos in general. This suggestion is reinforced
by the fact
that the pace
and movement patterns of Anglos in footage taken by Edward
Hall in New Mexico was quite similar to that which I have just
described.
Interestingly, the two
non-Native teachers who did not fit into this general Anglo
pattern are known to come from different backgrounds than the
other Anglos.
One was raised in
the Kuskokwim region and the other was of Eastern European
background (Collier, private communication).
The pace of each
group appeared to be independent of the other
when they were together. The pace of Anglo teachers did not
seem to be affected
by the pace
of the Eskimo children or adults with whom they dealt. Likewise,
the pace of Eskimo children seemed to operate independently
of the pace
of
their
teachers. There were few cases of mutual adjustments in pace
between individuals of
the
two groups.
These differences in the pace of movements
carried over into the pace of activities. These differences were
clearest
in
the classroom activities.
Anglo teachers
generally ran their classes on a schedule that gave relatively
short periods
of time to each activity. Transition points are clearly defined
and sharp. Eskimos handling similar processes structured
the processes
differently.
Things took longer and the transitions between activities
were less sudden and
distinct. Anglo teachers were generally brisk in helping
individual students, making corrections, pointing things out and
leaving.
The two Eskimo aides
seen in the footage took a different approach: helping, waiting,
watching, helping
again, waiting some more for long periods of time, even to
the extent in one case of remaining with two students well
into the
next period
of activities.
The significance of these differences
between Anglos and Eskimos is not that they show Anglos and Eskimos
to be
different
from
each other.
That
is already
known. What is more important is the effect that these
differences have on interactions between people. The three patterns
of
pace and flow in
interactions
which I listed at the beginning of this discussion begin
to suggest the effect of differences in pace and movement
styles
on communication.
I
shall now
discuss these three patterns in more detail.
The first pattern
was one of great differences in pace and low levels of flow. This
was the characteristic pattern
of
Anglo-taught
classes.
Three
of the classes
described earlier exemplify this pattern: Mr. Principal’s,
Miss Kinderbelle’s
and Mr. Music’s. In all these cases the teachers
move in abrupt, linear movements, considerably faster
than the children. They are usually several
feet away from the children. Visually, the children and
the teachers often appear to be operating in different
rooms from each other because their movements
are so unrelated. The children are not clued into the
movements of the teachers; they do not follow them, repeat
them or
make adjustments for them. They rarely
focus on the teachers for more than short periods of
time. There is no flow; the movements of the children
are unrelated
to those of the teachers. The teachers,
on the other hand, appear equally oblivious to the children.
They do not respond to the movements of the children,
make no adjustments for them. Again,
there is no flow; the teachers’ movements are unrelated
to those of the children.
Is this lack of flow a function
of distance? Are the teachers too far away? While proxemic
factors appear
to be important
in communication
in Alaska,
they do not seem to be the significant factor causing
low flow in these particular cases. There are times
when the
teachers
move close to the
children. Rather
than improving the level of interrelationship of movements,
the differences and difficulties are only dramatized.
The children go one way and the
teachers go another. Their movements are totally unsynchronized;
they throw each other off balance. The children freeze
up, practically
tripping
over
their
own feet. The teachers move quickly and drag the children
after them; mutual frustration becomes evident. The proximity
of
the teacher and
the children
does not improve flow. It serves only to define its absence.
A
particularly striking aspect of interactions that fall
into this first pattern is the effect of Anglo/Native
relationships on interactions
between
the Native
children. The lack of flow in interactions between Anglo
teachers
and the Eskimo children in these circumstances appears
to undercut interactions
among the
children. While they move at the same pace, their motions
are not synchronized. They have a low level of awareness
of each
other as well as a low level
of awareness of the teacher. Heads turn aimlessly, bodies
rock back and forth,
posture is often limp. Most of this behavior is discordant:
one person is rocking one way while another is rocking
in a different
direction;
eye
focus
drifts
in different directions; postures and arm motions are
unrelated. This uncoordinated behavior gave many classes
an air of
loneliness and waiting
with no purpose.
This kind of behavior is most uncharacteristic of a group
which is supposed to be together for a purpose (Mead
and Byers 1968:
66-105).
In effect,
there is no group, but only a collection of isolated
individuals.
What caused this isolation with its chaotic
movements and behavior? One factor is the lack of flow between
teachers
and children.
The teachers do not provide
a focus or direction for the group because their pace
and movement styles
serve to isolate them from the children and disrupt
communication on all levels.
The teachers are in control of the physical space of
the room. Not only do they intrude upon the flow of
movements of the
children by
their own
actions,
they also arrange rooms and activities in such a way
that
isolation is encouraged. Most teachers depend heavily
on workbooks and
worksheets which children are
expected to do alone with no help from other students.
These individual activities cut across group-wide currents
of interaction
and made teacher/student
interactions
brief, one-way communications regarding the contents
of the assignments. The same curriculum, indeed the
same worksheets,
could have been
handled in different
ways. In several classes this isolation was further
emphasized by taped boundaries on the tables to separate the children
from each other,
usually
by three
or four feet. These factors served only to exacerbate
problems caused by the lack
of flow between children and teachers. Had these
teachers
been aware of what was happening, could they have taken
actions
to
avoid or soften
the
consequences?
The second pattern of pace and flow in
interactions was one of shared pace and high levels
of flow. This
was
the pattern
characteristic
of
interactions
in the villages and in the Head Start class. Movements,
even apparently random movements, were often highly
synchronized. While children in
many classes
rocked in different directions, the children in Head
Start rocked together, in and out, in and out, like
a pulsating
unit. While
other teachers
dragged children along, throwing them off balance,
even disciplinary
movements
in Head Start were so well coordinated between child
and teacher that they almost
took
on the appearance of a dance when they were viewed
in slow motion. The hook-up between children and teachers
was so
close that a
slight rise
of the teachers’ head
would be mirrored by a slight rise of all of the children’s
heads.
In home scenes, this unity and synchrony
made it possible for diverse activities to take place in
small quarters
with little
visible sense
of congestion.
Both in homes and in Head Start, relationships were
characterized by a certain air
of restraint or, perhaps more accurately, a sense of
carefulness and delicacy. The effect of this synchrony
and care was
a level of intensity
that was
totally lacking in most Anglo-taught classes.
The initial
key to the high level of flow was certainly the fact that pace
was shared; people operated at the
same pace.
This
made it possible
for
them to coordinate their motion and activities. Movement
styles were also similar,
so that motions could be easily meshed. People usually
operated in close proximity to each other. This was
possible because
they moved
together
but it also made
it easier to be aware of each other.
The first pattern
was characterized by the isolation of individuals; the second pattern
was characterized
by the
unity of the
group. People were
close together:
they moved together; they worked together on the
same things; and there were few individual activities.
In
prefirst the
children sat isolated
from each
other when coloring and looked sleepy and bored.
In Head Start, they crowded close together and
appeared animated
and excited.
It is significant that an Anglo teacher
was able to create a class with these characteristics. That
class
was Mr.
Scout’s class, already described
in detail. He was obviously highly sensitive
to non-verbal signals and perhaps inadvertently
had
created a class structure which did not cut across
the currents
of interaction among the children. Many activities
were group activities in which he was only marginally
involved. The pacing of these activities was
largely in the hands of the children. Many of
Mr. Scout’s
interactions with students then became relatively
low-pressured, one-to-one communications. They
often
took the form of the extended help, watch, wait,
help again process described for the aides. By
placing many interactions on this level, Mr.
Scout created
circumstances in which he and the children could
make adjustments to each other. The result was
that the level of flow between him and the children
was quite
high.
In both Head Start and Mr. Scout’s
class, the instructors had not cut across the
thread of interrelationships. Consequently, they
were able to get
high intensity involvement from the children
because they had only to gain the interest of
a few for that interest to be conveyed to the
whole group.
They tied into the current that held the children
together. For this reason their presence was
not needed for student involvement to develop
and continue.
The remarkable aspect of these two classes is
the degree to which children were involved and
focused in the absence of the teachers.
Comparable
levels of teacher/student flow were seen in the upper grades class
at the Moravian
Mission
near Kwethluk.
The class
was taught by
a young Anglo
woman who had been raised in the area and she
appeared to
have picked up a pace and style of movement
little different from
that of the Eskimo
students
in her class. This made possible the high level
of flow seen in the class which
was quite conventionally structured. For some
reason not evident in the film, the level of
intensity
did not match
that of Head
Start or
Mr.
Scout’s
class although student involvement in activities
was more than adequate.
The effect of this high
level of flow in interactions and the sense
of unity of groups was that both
in school situations
and in village
scenes
there
was a clear sense of direction. A portion of
the footage recorded
the preparation of fishing boats for use on
the rivers as soon as the ice
broke up. Men
are busy patching boats, moving them down to
the river, and overhauling motors
while the children play along the shore, poking
at the breaking ice. In these activities, the
people all move
at the same
pace and move
among each
other
with only subtle adjustments in their movements
as
they pass. Each is intent and simultaneously
aware of the
others. Another
group, sitting
in the sun, play with, the children and watch
the activities. A small number of people scattered
over several hundred
feet of riverfront,
have
more
unified focus and intensity than Mr. Principal’s
classroom of twenty students. This focus and
unity culminates with the men taking their
families, in their
boats, up and down the barely ice-free river.
On the banks the onlookers’ heads
turn, almost simultaneously, as each boat passes.
The
third pattern of pace and flow found in the
footage was an intermediate one. Differences
in pace were
not as extreme
as
in the first pattern
but were still evident. The level of flow was
on occasion relatively high but
inconsistent;
there were periods of low levels of flow. There
were only two cases that fall into this pattern,
both
Anglo-taught classes
at Kwethluk.
In one
case, an upper
grade class taught by Mr. Kweth, a degree of
unity and flow was generated by an imaginative
lecture
on mental
health
which drew
heavily on comparisons
of
life in the village to life in the “Lower
48.” The comparisons
were highly favorable to the village. Mr. Kweth’s
pace was moderate and movements restrained.
At the end of each portion of the lecture,
he would wait
and look around rather than pushing on immediately.
When asking questions he did not pressure for
immediate answers but waited until there were
responses.
These patterns were visible on the film and
confirmed by checking the audio record of the
class. The students had a rough degree of synchrony
of motion,
heads bobbing and turning with some degree
of intergroup unity. There were low key interactions
between individual students which appeared
related to
the lecture, and eye focus on the instructor
was fairly consistent. There were periods,
however, when the unity seemed to slip somewhat,
particularly as the
lecture drew to a close. The film record does
not show the class engaged in other activities
with the teacher, so the overall pattern of
the class is not
clear.
The second example was an intermediate
grades class taught by Mr. Luk. The film shows
the
class engaged
in a number
of workbook-related
activities.
Mr. Luk has a moderate pace and an expressive
linear manner of gesturing which
was relatively unabrupt. He generally worked
in close proximity to students in small group
situations.
When he was with
a group, there
was unity
of focus
and motion among the students and a moderate
level of intensity. Like Mr. Kweth, Mr. Luk
moved somewhat
faster
than the
students, but waited
at regular
intervals
for them to catch up. He also did not push
for quick
answers but waited for responses. However,
once he left a group
of students, the unity
and intensity
fell fairly rapidly. For this reason, there
were little circles of activity and interest
in the
room wherever
he went, surrounded
by relatively
uninvolved
students. He could interest students when he
was immediately involved but was unable to
hook into
the currents of
the class to involve large
portions
of
the class. His structuring of the use of the
workbooks also served to interrupt interactions
among the
students and break
up the
unity of the
class.
In both these cases, teachers who were
somewhat different from the children in pace
and movement
patterns were
able to obtain
interest
and unity
when they related directly to the children.
These teachers made adjustments in their
behavior to allow the students to “catch
up” and appeared
to have some awareness of differences in pace.
The content of Mr. Kweth’s
lesson may have stimulated the involvement
of the students. The problems and conflicts
common in many other Anglo-taught classes had
been modified but not
eliminated as interest and involvement was
dependent on the immediate presence of the
instructor.
In general, the Native pattern was
one of slowly paced activities and movements,
carried on
with a great deal
of interpersonal
awareness
and adjustments.
This interplay of movements created a sensation
of unity of people and purpose, a current moving
slowly
but steadily
toward
some
distant destination.
Most
of the Anglo teachers, with their quick pace
and abrupt, impersonal style, cut across this
current
and left
the students stranded
in the classrooms
like
so many pieces of driftwood on the shore waiting
for different waves and tides to take each
person away.
Mr. Scout and
the teachers in Head
Start
demonstrated
what could be achieved when this current was
used and not disrupted.
What possible significance
is there to these patterns? How can they help explain the difficulties
and
successes of cross-cultural
education?
Human communication is a complex
subject that occurs on many levels that are both
interrelated
and independent.
The process
of schooling
in Alaska,
primarily
a process of attempted communication, is
an illustration of the complexity of the
process.
The non-verbal
patterns discussed
here are but one
set of factors in many that decide the
course of events in these
classes. Success or difficulties
on the non-verbal level reflect as much
as they decide the course of interactions on
other levels.
They
sometimes reflect
difficulties
on
the verbal level
as well as cause difficulties on that level.
Factors beyond
the confines of the
schools, or the villages, or even the state
of Alaska influence the course
of non-verbal interactions in the classes.
Likewise, the course of non-verbal events
may at times
serve to compensate
or cancel
out difficulties
caused
by other factors.
An example of outside
factors influencing the course of non-verbal
interactions can
be illustrated
by
the two Head
Start teachers.
Their smooth interactions
with the children reflected the fact that
they were members of the same village:
they were
known to the
children,
no doubt related
to
many of
them and were
part of the same world. Their style of
relating to the children confirmed and
continued these
relationships. They could have
been self-conscious
about their
roles and taken stereotypical teacher positions
and
destroyed
the creative and dynamic class that they
had created.
Likewise, the Anglo teachers
arrived with handicaps: strangers in an intimate community,
representatives
of an alien and
generally hostile
culture, a
type of people known to be difficult
and incomprehensible. Their non-verbal behavior
reflected these negative factors and
served to confirm them. A few broke away from
the standard
Anglo pattern,
thereby
not only improving
the
immediate process
of communication with the students, but
also to a greater or lesser degree negating
some
of the
handicaps
that
they arrived
with.
On a specific level, the film analysis
showed that the fast pace and aggressive,
linear
style of movement
of
many teachers
was
deadly. In
every case, the
students responded with confused behavior
indicative of the failure of the communication
process. In extreme examples, the students
froze up; the harder the teachers tried,
the
worse
it got. This
situation
was aggravated
by
school assignments
and class structures which isolated the
students from each other and from the
teacher. The
fast pace of the
teachers’ movements, together with
the form of those movements, made it
difficult for any real communication
to take
place between students and teachers about
anything, let alone the school work.
The teacher’s role became impersonal
and distant. Significantly, communication
among students became equally distant
in these cases. Apparently, the tone
of teacher-to-student interactions can
set the tone of student-to-student relationships
as well.
In contrast, Anglo teachers who
made some form of adjustment for the
difference
in
pace by
waiting and not pressuring
the students got significantly
more
response from the students and more interest
in the
school process. One teacher, Mr.
Scout, who structured his class in a
fashion that allowed many activities
to proceed
at student pace
and style
was rewarded
with an intensity
of involvement equalled only by the Native-taught
Head Start. Related and
equally important,
his structuring of the class and relationships
in it allowed him to spend extended
periods of time with individual children,
giving him and them time to adjust to
each other and
communicate. Over
the period
of the school
year,
this
individual interaction would carry over
into group-wide relationships with the
teacher,
as was evident in the film.
The patterns
of Mr. Scout’s class and Head Start
suggest that Native children responded
best to classes that were slow to moderately
paced with
a great deal of close, low key, unpressured
interaction with the teacher and other
students. This pattern was also the pattern
of activities and interactions
outside the schools in homes and village.
It should be noted that “unpressured” does
not imply low expectations. Mr. Scout
clearly had high expectations for his
students and traditionally, the environment
of Alaska itself set high standards of
performance.
Another study of teachers
in Alaska found that students responded
best to teachers
who combined
close, warm
relationships with
high expectations
and
standards.
On the other hand, teachers who had warm
relationships with the children without
setting high expectations
got poor results
as
did teachers
who operated at impersonal distances
and set high standards. One of the most
common complaints
of students was that Anglo teachers and
children were cold, distant and “unfriendly.’ This
complaint was often traced to the fact
that the Anglos operated at a greater
distance from people (Kleinfeld, 1974:
11-34).
The findings of the analysis serve
to confirm the importance of Native teachers
for educational
success
in Alaska
with the critical factor
being the nature
of their training. Trained to take advantage
of their communication patterns and skills,
Native teachers
with average ability
would have higher potential
as teachers than all but a few exceptional
Anglo teachers. This last point is important
because
no school program
can plan on
success based
primarily
on the employment of miracle teachers.
The training of teachers in general and
Native
teachers in
particular
is a complex
issue, but both
the analysis
of this film and other work with film
suggests that the
communication process between teachers
and students is the key to good
classes. The absence of
reasonably good communication in the
classroom will negate any curriculum
or program;
conversely, the development of comfortable
and successful interactions may do much
to override
bad curriculum
and programs.
Could Anglo teachers be
trained to behave and present themselves
in a Native style?
Quite
probably not,
as communication
and behavior styles,
particularly
on a non-verbal level, appear to be fairly
automatic; conscious manipulation of
these styles is difficult
over extended
periods of time. The analysis
of the film showed the persistence of
Anglo pace and movement, styles in situations
in which they were obviously not working
as well as the persistence of
Native patterns of pace and individual
movements, regardless of teacher activities.
However, a teacher properly sensitized
to
the existence of differences might be
able
to structure
classroom
relationships and processes
to allow some
mutual adjustments of differences.
In
any case, the analysis suggests that the discrepancy between Anglo
teachers
and Native
children in
pace and movement styles,
with concurrent
absences
of flow, served to destroy the communication
processes in the classrooms. Even minor
accommodations on
the part of
teachers
often served to improve
somewhat
on the unfortunate pattern. In one
class the Anglo teacher’s role in
setting the pace of activities and
interactions was minimized, and the classroom program
created many circumstances where he
could meet at close quarters with
the children. This teacher was rewarded
with high levels of flow, communication,
and student involvement in the learning
process. There is certainly room for
improvement with regard to non-Native
teachers. But the potential of Native
teachers must be regarded as generally
much higher. How that potential can
be achieved is another question.
Both
this study and the earlier study of film raise some question about
the
content
of curriculum.
How important
is it to the
creation of a
successful class? The content of
the Head Start curriculum was in many respects
little different from that of prefirst.
Mr. Scout taught a class with a conventional
curriculum. Mr. Kweth altered the
content of his
class to fit more closely the village
situation
and was rewarded
with
a
great deal of
interest,
while in another case, very modest
attempts at “relevant” subjects
got response only when the material
was presented by Native adults. There
is no
doubt that irrelevant, incomprehensible
content makes bad situations worse,
as in sections of prefirst and kindergarten,
but to what extent can changes in
the content of curriculum compensate
for
poor teaching? Does the creation
of good communication networks in
the class totally make up for curriculum
content that is essentially negative?
The answer cannot be found in this
film record, but common sense suggests
that the content of any school program
has
a cumulative effect. In this context,
an exciting and successful class
such
as Mr. Scout’s has to be viewed
with some reservations, as would
any Native-taught class that presented
a totally Anglo curriculum. The cumulative
effect of classes like these might
be children well educated in Anglo
terms, and even reasonably confident
and secure as individuals; however,
the very
success of the classes might well
serve
to reduce their competence in Native
circumstances. Issues such as these
will become more crucial if political
pressures and teacher training programs
put more Native teachers in the classrooms.
These
matters are beyond the scope of
this film study. The main significance
of this
study is
that it emphasizes
the
persistence of cultural patterns
of interpersonal interactions in
classroom circumstances and the
decisive effect
of those patterns on
the educational process.
Regardless of
educational paraphernalia, curriculum
content, or even teacher dedication,
education
cannot
occur if there is poor communication
in the classroom. It appears that
non-verbal patterns
of pace movements
in interactions
may
make, and
certainly can break, the communication
process in the classroom.
