Cross-Cultural Issues in
Alaskan Education
Vol. I
Field-Based Education for Alaskan Native Teachers
by
Ray Barnhardt
Cross-cultural Education Development Program
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
In the following paper I will attempt to reconstruct the conceptual and
operational evolution of a program for the training of Alaskan native teachers.
I will describe the first six years of the programęs development, focusing
on those aspects that reflect consideration of the unique cultural environment
in which the program operates. I address these issues from the perspective
of an academic coordinator for the program since its inception. My formal
training is in anthropology and education. To the extent that a native point
of view is expressed in this paper, it is a product of my interpretation
of that view as a non-native, and should be judged accordingly.
Background
The program, known originally as the Alaska Rural Teacher Training Corps
(or ARTTC), was established in 1970 as a four-year experimental program with
the primary purpose of training native elementary school teachers. The original
proposal specified that the training would be field-centered, and that it
would meet the usual requirements for a Bachelor of Education degree and
an elementary teaching certificate. Under a somewhat ambiguous administrative
arrangement involving two universities and the State-operated school system,
three staff persons (one representing each of the above) were hired and charged
with implementing the program. Eleven training sites were established in
rural native communities around the State, each with a team of four to eight
underqraduate students (primarily native) and a full-time, certificated “team
leader.”
Under these conditions, we (the three program staff and eleven team leaders)
set out to produce teachers. We began planning for a six week orientation
program that was to prepare everyone for the years ahead. As we proceeded,
however, we gradually realized that our task was not going to be simply a
matter of applying the latest teacher training techniques to this particular
group of students, thus producing a new and improved breed of teacher for
rural Alaska. With this realization, we found it necessary to step back and
ask ourselves a few basic questions:
- Why train natives to be teachers?
- What is a “native” teacher?
- How do you train “native” teachers?
Why Train Natives To Be Teachers?
Our initial response to the question, “Why train native teachers?” was to
point out that nearly every recent study and report on native education in
the country recommended such action. In addition, there was the political
pressure from the natives themselves to become a part of the action. But
that didnęt answer the basic question, “Why?” It soon became obvious that
we were moving into relatively uncharted territory and the only landmarks
we could see were a few untested assumptions, such as:
- A native teacher will be better able to assess and respond to the learning
needs of a native child. This assumption presumes that similarities in
cultural background between teacher and child will improve communication
and thus foster greater mutual understanding and learning.
- A native teacher will provide a model with which native students can
identify, thus motivating them to achieve greater educational success.
This assumption presumes that a native teacher will acquire status in the
eyes of the native community.
- A native teacher will remain within the State and acquire greater cumulative
teaching experience which will result in a broader and deeper understanding
of local educational processes. This assumption is sometimes viewed as “parochialism,” but
it addresses the very real problem of transciency.
We proceeded with these as untested assumptions, because the State had too
few practicing native teachers to provide any basis for determining otherwise.
We, then, had to explore another question, “Why have so few natives become
teachers in the past?” On the basis of our own training and experience, we
were confident that the native students possessed the necessary capabilities
to become teachers, so the easiest response to the question was to blame “the
system. Only a few Native students were coming to the universities for an
education, fewer were enrolling in teacher training, fewer yet were completing
a four-year degree program, and of those who did complete a teacher training
program, only a small number returned to a native community to teach. But
blaming the system did not satisfactorily resolve the question either. So
again, we had to postulate some ideas through which we could determine how
best to proceed with a program that was supposed to address this particular
problem. Our assumptions were:
- The university campus, as a detached and somewhat impersonal learning
environment, contributed to the low academic achievement rate of native
students. Coming to the university was a one-way street for many native
students. A successful campus experience required familiarity with and
adherence to a wide range of socio-cultural patterns, many of which were
not compatible with the attitudinal and behavioral skills required for
survival in the village. Thus, a native person who learned to survive on
campus often was no longer satisfied with, or acceptable to, his home community.
- The teacher training curriculum did not address the needs of students
desiring to teach in a physical and cultural environment different from
the unidemensional, ethnocentric model around which most teacher training
programs were designed. Contemporary teacher training curricula placed
a great deal of emphasis on preparing the teacher to assess and provide
for “individual differences.” Students were saturated with a psychological
perspective of learning and teaching, derived largely from the study of
individuals and small groups within Western society. While such training
may have been useful, and even necessary, it did not provide an adequate
perspective for assessing and responding to the needs of children in rural
native communities. Their individual needs had to be assessed within the
context of the broader social and cultural environment within which they
existed.
Assuming then, that native teachers would provide a unique and desirable
service to rural native communities, and that the detachment of the campus
experience and the inadequacy of the teacher training curriculum were partially
responsible for the limited number of such persons, we now had a rationale
and some points of departure from which to proceed on our evolutionary journey.
What Is A “Native” Teacher?
We did not proceed far, however before we realized that in order to develop
and operate a teacher training program we had to have some idea of what we
were trying to produce, or at least a direction in which to move. We had
an alternative to the campus setting, in that the program would be largely
field-centered, but we could not develop an alternative curriculum until
we had some idea of the kind of teacher we wanted. We could have taken the
traditional teacher training curriculum and delivered it to the students
in the field, on the assumption that such an approach would at least succeed
in placing some natives in the teaching profession. But this approach would
not capitalize on the unique strengths the students might possess as natives.
Worse yet, it might even destroy some of those strengths.
On the other hand, we could deviate from the traditional curriculum by defining
the teachersę role in the form of “competencies” and judge the studentsę teaching
ability on the basis of “performance criteria” assessed in terms of “measurable
behavior.” In this way we would at least have some flexibility in developing
the program. But defining the competencies required for a “native” teacher,
proved to be an elusive endeavor, for no prototype existed. The handful of
teachers of native descent in the state had all gone through a traditional
teacher training program and were barely distinguishable from other teachers.
In addition, no one prototype of a teacher, native or otherwise, could possibly
satisfy the diverse cultural and educational needs of the rural native communities.
We were also concerned about becoming too bound up in the mechanics of a
strict “competency-based” approach and losing sight of the original purpose
of the program. The competency approach, therefore, seemed more inhibiting
than helpful for our purposes.
We knew, from the limited literature on the subject at the time (primarily
Collier), that subtle differences between native and non-native “teachers” in
their relationships with native children appeared to have a significant impact
on the response of those children to formal learning, even though the materials
presented and the learning environments were otherwise similar. The differences
seemed to be related, in part, to more compatible communication and interaction
styles between native teachers and students, derived from prior associations
and common cultural experiences. One of our major concerns then, was to avoid
destroying those characteristics inherent in the native personęs attitude
and behavior that might allow them to relate more effectively to native children.
Although we still could not define the ultimate end product, we could at
least now state that the program would attempt to protect and nurture the
intrinsic qualities that the students brought with them. But we were no further
along in explicating those qualities.
We were also aware that the institution of “schooling” and thus, the role
of “teacher” as we know ii today, were once alien notions in the rural native
communities, introduced to the native people within this century by well-intentioned
outsiders who only vaguely understood or anticipated the consequences of
their action. While “education” was viewed primarily as an informal and life-long
process prior to the arrival of schools in rural Alaska, it had since become
synonymous with those activities that occurred within the large, luminated
building on the hill, and had been further confined to six hours a day, five
days a week, 180 days a year. Consequently, the parents and children in the
remotest community in Alaska had developed expectations regarding the role
of “teacher” similar to those held in any other community where a school,
a classroom full of children, and a teacher existed.
Any effort to define the native teacheręs role in the context of a specific
cultural background was further constrained by the desire on the part of
the students themselves to be prepared to teach not only in a rural Alaskan
native community, but in any school in the country where an Alaskan teaching
certificate could be parlayed as an acceptable license to teach. They did
not want a second rate education. We resolved, therefore, that the best judges
of what constitutes a native teacher would be the students we were about
to train, so the most logical course of action was to obtain their assistance
in the development of the program. In that way, we could help the students
define their role as we went along. Maybe in the end then we would have some
basis for determining whether a native could be a native and a teacher too.
Consequently, what follows is as much the product of student thought and
effort as it is that of the program staff.
How Do You Train “Native” Teachers?
With a few assumptions in hand to serve as guidelines, a limited conceptual
framework within which to work, a vague direction in which to move, and a
group of enthusiastic students to lead us, we ventured forth on our journey.
Following a brief getting-acquainted and settling-in period in the field
sites, all the students and staff came together for an intensive six-week
orientation and work session. It was during this session that the essence
of the program evolved.
The individuals from each field site, including the team leader, began to
work together, gradually forming a closely knit working team in which the
whole became more than the sum of its parts. Team members assisted each other
in their work and openly exchanged ideas and opinions to their mutual benefit.
Native and non-native students viewed each other as equals and began to explore
their similarities and differences. Natives from different ethnic backgrounds
within the State discovered they could learn much from each other. They learned
how to communicate and understand each otheręs views through direct experience.
Once established, this interaction process carried over on their return to
the field sites. The native students learned how to cope with “the system” from
the non-native students, who in turn learned how to cope with village life
from the native students.
Following the return of the students to the field, we discovered that one
of our earlier assumptions needed a broader interpretation: The native community,
as a remote but intensely personalized learning environment, was contributing
to the low academic achievement rate of non-native students. The non-native
students, who comprised one-fourth of the student population, were responsible
for nearly one-half of the drop-outs during the first year. They were experiencing
the same problems of adjustment to the native community that native students
experienced coming on campus. But while this approach created some adjustment
problems for the non-native students, it provided numerous advantages for
the native students, and for the program as a whole. The delivery of the
training to the rural native communities permitted the native students to
control the effect of the learning experience by allowing them to encounter
it on their own ground and on their own terms. With the help of fellow team
members, including the team leader, the students approached their coursework
as a cooperative enterprise. When a student had difficulties with a particular
assignment, someone was close at hand to help him out. Also, the students
did not feel threatened by the instructors (who were sometimes 1500 miles
away) or a large classroom environment, so they did not hesitate to provide
feedback to the instructors regarding the courses they were receiving. Instructors
working with the program frequently commented on the high quality of work
and degree of interest shown by the students in the coursework.
The most significant consequence of the field-centered approach was that
it permitted the native students to maintain contact with their own community.
Their relationships in the community were often strengthened and several
students moved into leadership positions as they developed their abilities
to understand and deal with community and school problems. Although the native
students were developing many skills and ideas of non-native origin, they
were learning and changing within the context of the community, so that no
major discontinuity was experienced. Changes within the students and within
the communities were continually blended through cohabitation, thus allowing
for compatibility of interests and roles as the new life styles evolved.
The same process applied to the native studentsę experiences in the schools.
They gradually worked their way into the classrooms and assumed a variety
of roles, sometimes adapting to the situation, other times adapting the situation
to themselves. In this way, each student was able to define and carve out
his own role as a native teacher in the school and community.
Curriculum
So far I have focused my discussion on two particular structural elements
of the training program, namely the team concept and the field-centered approach.
What about the “curriculum?” What were the students doing, and what were
they supposed to be learning during their stay in the program? In the development
of the training design for the program, our concern was focused on the totality
of the studentsę experience-not just the particular courses they would take.
Thus, curriculum was viewed in its broadest sense, as encompassing context,
process and content. In that sense, the team concept and field-centered approach
were integral parts of the curriculum.
The context was the community, within which the school
was viewed as one element in the total educational experience of each child.
The students spent nearly all of the first year living, working and studying
out in the community. The training program attempted to capitalize on the
resources available to the students through activities that brought the students
in direct contact with the realities they would face as teachers.
Within this context, the students learned through an experiential process-that
is, they came to understand the world around them and their role in it through
direct experience. They learned how a community operates by living in and
studying their own community. They learned how a child grows by interacting
with and observing real children. They learned how to teach by teaching.
They learned how to learn, from each other as a team. Most importantly though,
through this “confrontation with reality” process, they learned about themselves
and how their lives are affected by and affect those around them, which sometimes
necessitated a considerable reconstruction of the individualęs view of “reality” and
his role in it.
On top of all this, we had the curriculum content. This
could be partially summarized by running down the course list on a studentęs
transcript. But the course titles cannot adequately portray the learning
experiences associated with each course, particularly those offered in the
field. The field courses were drawn primarily from the social sciences, the
humanities, and education, since these could be most easily adapted to, and
capitalize on the field setting. So a course that appeared on the transcript
as “Anthropological Field Methods” included, inherent within the course activities,
a variety of concomitant learning experiences not necessarily represented
in the course outline. For example:
- The students prepared a detailed map and household directory showing
all the buildings in their respective communities and listing the residents
by age and level of schooling. This brought them in contact with everyone
in the community through a purposeful activity, and resulted in a document
that was useful to many people in the school and community,, not to mention
the specific field method skills the students acquired in the process.
This activity placed emphasis on the participant-observeręs role, with
the native and non-native students sharing their observations from an “insider” and “outsider” perspective.
Each activity was preceded by background reading and discussion, and followed
by analysis and write-up.
- The students prepared and conducted open-ended and structured interviews,
focusing the questions on an education-related issue that was of immediate
concern to themselves or to some element of the school or community. In
this way they provided a useful service while gaining experience in interviewing
techniques.
- The students constructed and administered a questionnaire to a sampling
of students, teachers, and parents, obtaining information regarding their
attitudes on certain school-related issues. They compiled and analyzed
the data, and made comparisons to determine the similarities and differences
in the three sets of responses. In addition to learning about sampling,
and the strengths and weaknesses of questionnaires as a data-gathering
technique, they stimulated a lot of discussion in the community regarding
the issues and were able to better understand some of the problems they
would face as teachers.
- Each student selected an informant from the community and prepared a “life
history,” focusing attention on the educational development of the individual.
This activity stimulated dialogue between the students and other members
of the community, and gave the students some perspective on the processes
of cultural transmission, culture change, and acculturation, all of which
are highly significant processes for teachers to understand in contemporary
Alaska.
- The students at each site were provided with film, cameras, and a complete
set of darkroom equipment, and trained in the use of photography as a research
technique. Each team prepared a photo essay of their community, including
a photographic overview, incidents of social interaction, a survey of the
technology evident in the community, and a pictorial summary of their own
activities as a team. These albums were then brought to the campus during
the summer and shared with their fellow students from other teams. This
enlarged their perspective on the diversity of cultures and environments
existent within their own State.
- Finally, all of the above information, along with a variety of additional
data, was compiled and reported in the form of a community study. The information
contained in these reports was of subsequent use to the students, and in
several cases, accomplished useful purposes for others. For example, the
household directory compiled by the students in one community was instrumental
in convincing the U.S. Census Bureau that they had made a 40% error in
the official 1970 census conducted the same year. In a community of 500
actual population, an error of this magnitude can result in a drastic misappropriation
of critical funds and services that are allocated on a per capita basis.
Such results can stimulate a great deal of motivation and interest on the
part of the community as well as the students.
I do not wish to imply that all courses were as able to capitalize on the
resources of the field setting as the one I have described. Indeed, many
courses were simply re-runs of the same courses as taught on campus. To the
extent, however, that the instructors were familiar with the field setting
and able to adapt their course to that setting, they usually did so.
The conceptual and methodological framework embodied in the curriculum and
program design drew heavily on the social sciences, in particular, anthropology.
While this may be, in part, a reflection of the educational background of
those of us responsible for the academic component of the program, it did
not occur without purpose or reasoning. If the students were to eventually
overcome the ethnocentric confines of the existing educational system, and
see beyond the usual narrow definition of concepts such as “schooling” and “teaching,” they
would have to develop a perspective that transcends cultural boundaries and
provides a holistic and adaptive framework for assessing needs and resolving
problems. For that perspective we looked to the content and methods of the
social sciences. We employed the concept of culture in its many and varied
manifestations, as a means to help the students better understand and assess
the needs of the children they were preparing to teach. We used the methods
of anthropology to guide us in the development and implementation of the
program design. As the program evolved, we gradually developed a separate
undergraduate curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus on cross-cultural
education, which has since been incorporated into the universityęs degree
offerings.
What Have We Learned?
Since the program was intended to be experimental in nature, we have taken
advantage of the rare opportunity to do a lot of experimenting. The whole
program has, in effect, been an experiment in the techniques of survival
in a bureaucratic society. We have experimented with alternative models in
teacher education. We have experimented with different approaches to the
delivery of academic coursework. We have experimented with a variety of conceptual
frameworks for viewing the process of education. And we have experimented
with peopleęs lives, to the extent that we have ventured forth with them
into the unknown.
By 1974 we had completed a four-year cycle of the program and forty-two
of the original sixty students had graduated, so we took stock of our experience
and revised the program to expand on its strengths and reduce its weaknesses.
We changed the team leader role from a certificated teacher to that of a
university faculty member who remained in the field, but whose responsibilities
were expanded to encompass a region rather than a single community. In this
way the instructors could become more familiar with student needs, and more
students could have access to the program.
We also expanded the curriculum beyond the elementary teaching emphasis
to include the preparation of bilingual teachers and teachers for small rural
high schools, and the development of a non-teaching degree emphasis in “human
resource development” to prepare persons for the educational development
roles in the new regional and village corporations (see Gaffney, this publication).
Since the programęs efforts were expanded beyond the preservice training
of teachers, the program name was changed from ARTTC to the Cross-cultural
Education Development Program (or X-CED), reflecting the broader application
and focus of concern. In addition, a Masters program in cross-cultural education
has been developed and is now available through the same field delivery system
established for the undergraduate program.
So what have we learned from it all? In effect, we have learned most of
what I have presented above. Although we had some vague notions about what
we wanted to do in the beginning, we had no detailed, premeditated plan or
preconceived model from which to work. Since we were unable to obtain an
acceptable training model elsewhere, and we did not want to force the students
into a potentially inappropriate model of our own making, we decided to use
a process approach and let the program evolve. What I have described above
as the program is what we have learned and accomplished through a process
of evolution.
We also have learned that the single most important characteristic that
program personnel must possess, if such an approach is to succeed, is a high
tolerance for ambiguity. Many persons find it difficult to cope with uncertainty
and to proceed with little more than intuition and instinct as guides. They
seek structure or closure on a matter prematurely, thus reducing the opportunity
for flexibility and adaptability. Under contemporary pressures for accountability
and related demands for the delineation of specific objectives and the development
of flow charts in pursuit of explicit end products, it is indeed difficult
to survive on a creed that declares, “We will know where we are going when
we get there.” So far, we have learned enough about what we are doing and
where we are going in time to satisfy our own needs for direction and to
meet the challenges of each step along the way. If we had tried to anticipate
in the beginning all that we know now, we would have been overwhelmed and
given up long ago.
We have learned many other things since we started our journey that have
implications for what we are trying to do. Since some of these are still
vague and undocumented notions, and others are fundamental questions that
may not be resolvable, I will present a few of them in brief, summary form
here, as points of departure for future discussion. We have learned that
it is difficult to be a native and a teacher too. Many aspects of the two
positions are incompatible and the demands of the role are enormous. On the
one hand, as a native, the native teacher is expected to represent the communityęs
interest in the school. On the other hand, as a teacher, he is expected to
represent the schoolęs interest in the community. Until the function and
format of the school is compatible with the needs and cultural milieu of
the community, however, compromise is inevitable for the native teacher.
In addition, the adaptation is usually in the direction of the school, for
it is difficult to significantly change the role of the teacher in the context
of a conventional school environment. So the native teacher faces a Catch
22-the more effective he is as a teacher, the less effective he may become
as a native, and vice versa. Our concern then, is that placing native teachers
in the schools may not significantly improve the education of native children,
if the design of the institution itself does not change. But who is to change
it, and in what direction? (See Barnhardt, this publication.)
We have learned that our program may not really be training “teachers” after
all. Six months into their first year of teaching, we brought the first group
of graduates back together at a meeting to find out how they were doing in
their hard-won profession. They related a variety of concerns, particularly
in reference to the day-to-day routine of teaching. They did not feel satisfied
with such everyday teaching responsibilities as lesson planning and classroom
management. The concensus of the group was that they were frustrated as teachers
in the schools, because they had been prepared as “educators.” They felt
more like general practitioners than specialists. Consequently, many of them
left the schools and took up practice in other types of educational programs.
Our tendency, at this point, is to view this outcome more as a success than
as a failure. We have learned that the literature in education, as well as
anthropology, is often of limited use in our program. Almost all of the literature
normally used to help prepare teachers for work with cultural minorities
assumes that the teacher will be from outside the culture. From the native
studentsę point of view, the literature is “culturally deprived.” While such
issues as “familiarity with the cultural background of the children,” or “ability
to communicate effectively,” are major issues in the “outsider” context,
they become secondary to the native teacher. In most of the literature, the
natives usually find themselves as the objects of study. In an effort to
break down some of the stereotypes embodied in the anthropological literature,
we have focused our studies on groups and institutions in Western society.
So now the native students are taking on the role of anthropologist and studying
the primitive society of the school. They compensate for the lack of appropriate
literature by generating their own.
We have also learned that the training of educators, native or non-native,
requires more than the inclusion of a few anthropology courses in the teacher
training curriculum. Such a limited focus runs the risk of putting just enough
information in teachersę hands to make them dangerous, even when well-intentioned
(see Kleinfeld, this publication). The development of a cross-cultural perspective
in education requires that the person being trained have extensive guided
field experience in which the methods and concepts provided in the training
are blended with actual working experience. Only after having coped with
the uncertainty and confusion engendered in a cross-cultural experience,
can a person fully internalize a perspective which transcends cultural boundaries,
and only when such a perspective is fully internalized can the person use
it productively.
For most native students, cross-cultural experience is implicit in the daily
life of the individual. Engaging in academic training, itself, contributes
to that cross-cultural experience. The problem, then, is one of identifying
and understanding the forces shaping that experience, and developing the
capability to deal with it more objectively. By examining and analyzing the
confluence of external and locally derived experiences through close and
sometimes intense personal interaction with non-native team members within
the community context, the native student is able to inductively build and
gradually internalize a “transcultural perspective,” while at the same time
retaining his own cultural integrity.
For the non-native (or native) student without previous cross-cultural experience,
the process of internalizing a “transcultural perspective” appears to be
more difficult, consisting of three identifiable stages, and of at least
one year duration. The three stages may be generally classified as (1) enamorment,
(2) antipathy, and (3) transcendence. In the first stage the new experiences
are all exciting and different. New insights are spawned, the causes of problems
are easily identified, and hope for the future abounds. Then reality sets
in, and we are in stage two. The problems are not as simply formulated as
they first appeared, and the solutions become even more evasive. Human relationships
become increasingly complex and difficult to manage. Basic value orientations
are called into question. Disenchantment reaches the point of anger and frustration.
Careful guidance is necessary at this point to prevent the onset of avoidance
behavior, or complete rejection of the experience. Failure to go beyond stage
two will result in bitterness and an aversion to cross-cultural issues which
is often manifested in a regressive attitude implying “I have been there
and it didnęt work.” Careful planning and support must be provided to insure
that the persons being trained are given the opportunity to reconstruct their
view of reality and basic value system within the context of a transcending
conceptual framework. Once they have achieved such a reorientation, they
have begun to internalize the cross-cultural experience.
Finally, we have learned that the processes by which education takes place
are often more important than the content that is being transmitted. The
field-based nature of the program appears to be more influential in the studentsę development
than the material being presented in the courses. The graduates are frustrated
as teachers, in part, because their field experiences, while progressing
through the conventional teacher training curriculum, exposed them to educational
processes beyond the school. Those experiences are reflected in the behavior
of graduates who are striving to develop comparable field experiences and
approaches in their work as “educators.” If the adage, “You teach as you
are taught” is correct (and we believe it is), then our task as a program
staff is to provide a model whereby the processes through which we train
teachers will also be applicable to the education of children in the communities.
Though we continue to strive for more appropriate and useful content in the
academic coursework, the process through which the content is presented remains
our primary focus of concern.
Another dimension of the field-delivery process that has been critical to
the implementation of this approach is the nature of staff/student relationships.
The closer the personal relationship between staff and student, the more
effective and productive the learning experiences have been, and there is
a big difference between “personalizing” and “individualizing” those experiences.
Using course completion as an indicator, we have had very little success
with canned correspondence and strict competency-based courses. Although
such courses were usually mechanically efficient and flexible in terms of
alternative routes and timelines for completion, if the instructor did not
provide personalized attention to each studentęs needs, the courses were
generally neglected and ineffective. Education is not an efficient process,
and attempts to make it so can often undermine the purpose for which it is
intended-the medium becomes the message.
The most successful courses have been those in which the instructor has
been aware of the studentsę needs and has devoted considerable time and effort
to take interest in, and personally address issues, problems, and concerns
raised by each individual student. Though this may seem obvious, it is often
difficult to achieve because instructors rarely meet students face-to-face
and are not able to convey ideas, feelings, and impressions in the usual
manner to which they are accustomed. A personal note on an assignment becomes
much more significant under these conditions than in a campus context, so
instructors must reorient their perception of students. Since effective teaching
under these conditions can be extremely demanding and time consuming, we
have sought to limit the size of the program and the number of students,
and thus provide an opportunity for strong staff/student relationships to
develop. Without such relationships, though some students might be coaxed
through a limited number of courses, few will complete a four-year degree
program. And while, for some purposes a few courses may be sufficient, the
long range educational needs of rural Alaska call for fully degreed and credentialed
native persons who can begin to assume professional responsibility for, and
control of, the programs serving their people. We, therefore, have attempted
to develop a program oriented to the needs of students working toward a four-year
degree. To offer less would only perpetuate the second class status to which
native people are often relegated in schools today.
These are only highlights of what we have done and have learned over the
past few years. We intend to continue learning, from our successes as well
as our failures, because only through continued exploration of alternatives
can we build upon our experiences and push back the frontiers of our understanding.
Hopefully, then, the education of the children of tomorrow will benefit from
our experiences today.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Barnhardt, Raymond J. “Educating Across Cultures: The Alaskan Scene,” in Cultural
Influences in Alaskan Native Education, Orvik J. and Ray Barnhardt,
eds. Fairbanks: University of Alaska, Center for Northern Educational Research,
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