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RC 008 167
Orvik, James, Ed.; Barnhardt, Ray, Bd.
Cultural Influences in Alaskan Native Education.
Alaska Univ., Fairbanks. Center for Northern
Educational Research.
Ford Foundation, New York, N.Y.
74
94p.; Papers presented at a Symposium on "Cultural
Influences in Alaskan Native Education," at the
Annual fleeting of the Society for Applied
Anthropology (Tuscon, Arizona, April 1973)
NF-$0.75 BC-$4.20 PLUS POSTAGE
*American Indians; *Bilingual Education;
Communication (Thought Transfer); *Cross Cultural
Studies; Cultural Awareness; Educational
Anthropology; Educational Innovation; Educational
Needs; *Effective Teaching; Eskimos; *Speeches;
Teacher Behavior; Teaching Methods
*Alaska
ABSTRACT
These papers were originally presented at the
Symposium on "Cultural Influences in Alaskan Native Education", which
was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Society for
Applied Anthropology in Tucson, Arizona, April 13, 1973. The nine
papers describe some of the recent efforts to better understand and
build on the diverse cultural resources embodied in the people of
Alaska. Topics cover: (1) a broad perspective of the prominant issues
of education in Alaska; (2) some issues of teaching practices and
behavior; (3) the informal aspects in the analysis of cross-cultural
teaching; (4) bilingual education--a significaat force in the push
for greater cultural sensitivity in schools; (5) cross-cultural
communication within the sphere of educational program development
and the politics of educational control; and (6) a theoretical
perspective analyzing the potential contributions of anthropology to
cross-cultural understanding. (AN)
CULTURAL INFLUENCES
IN
ALASKAN NATIVE EDUCATION
EDITED BY
JAMES ORVIK AND RAY BARNHARDT
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA, FAIRBANKS
PRESENTED AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY rot APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY,
TUISON, ARIZONA, AWL 1973
US DEPAUTMENTOPPNALTN.
EDUCATION A WELFARE
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OP
EDUCATION
THIS DOCUMENT HAS SEEN REPRO
DUCFO EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM
THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN
*TING IT PO.NT S OF VIEW OR OPINIONS
STATED DO NOT NECES!,ARILY REPRE
SENT OFFICIAL NATION_ INSTITUTE OF
EDUCATION POSITION OP POLICY
Center for Northern Educational &march
University of Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska 99701
March 1974
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pap
Preface
i
Trends in the Development of Cross-Cultural Education
in the Circumpolar Nations
Frank Darnell
Educating Across Cultures: The Alaskan Scene
Ray Barnhardt
1
5
Effective Teachers of Indian and Eskimo High School Students
J. S. Kleinfeld
11
Covert Clans: Factionalism as an Additional Consideration for the
Alaskan Bush Teacher
Michael S. Cline
39
A Classroom is Not a Fish Camp
John Collier. Jr
49
The Eskimo Language Workshop
E. Irene Reed
57
dilingual Education and Cultural Identity
James M. Orvik
63
Native/Non-Native Communication: Creating a Two-Way Flow
Bill Vaudrin
71
Anthropological Research as an AppJach to a Science of Cross-Cultural
Education: The Comparative Method and Theory Building
Charles D. Rider
85
PREFACE
The unique physal and cultural ondatious in Alaska provide a rich and stimulating backdrop for
examining and applying Mac Anna! processes across a wide range of human needs and circumstances.
Efforts to understand the forces shaping the future of Alaska are. however. rarely able to keep up with
the thrust to develop the State's human and natural resources. In the educational arena. programs that
attempt to deviate from traditional practices are often times overwhelmed by the momentum of the
traditkmal educatkmal machinery. Recent developments do. however. show a trend toward the
establishment of alternative educational programs in response to demands for greater cultural sensitivity
in the schools. The following papers describe some of the recent efforts to hitter understand and build
upon the diverse cultural resources enduklied in the people of Alaska.
While each of the papers represents a discrete individual effort. there are sonw themes around
which they can he grouped. At the risk of imposing a structure not entirely warranted, we will note our
reasoning for the order of presentation. The initial two papers ( Darnell and Barnhardt). provide a broad
persiwctive for viewing some of the prominent issues of education in Alaska. The foPowing three papers
!Kleioleld, (line, and Collier) deal with sonic of the pressing issues of teaching practices and behavior.
The hotter three, however, are not emwerned directly with formal academie preparation hut, rather, with
informal aspects so often missed but by no means less important, in the analysis of cross-cultural
teaching. The next two papers (Reed and Oreik) deal with bilingual education in Alaska and are
included because bilingual edneation is rapidly becoming a significant force in the push for greater
cultural sensitivity in the schools.
The eighth paper (Vaudrin) approaches the theme of cross-cidtoral communication within the
sphere of educational program development and the politics of mlucatkmal eontrol. Finally. a
theoretical perspective is offered by Bider analyzing the potential contributions of anthropology to
cress - cultural understanding.
In addition to the papers described above. the original symposium included the film.
"Tuntseremiut" (The People of Tnnimak). presented by Lenny Kamerling. The film is not included
here fur (*Mons reasons. but is recommended viewing fin anyone interested in eontemporary Alaskan
village life.
The symposium co-chairmen wish to thank the participants for their timely contributions to
understanding the cons- cultural situation in Alaska. We also wish to express our appreciation to (lam
Wolcott (University of Oregon) for his constructive assessment of the papers while serving as a
discussant for the symposimn and to the Society for Applied Anthropology for providing the fonim for
their presentation. The extensive .efforts of Debbie (glom and Judy Fox in preparing the present
manuscript are also greatly acknowledged. Funds to underwrite the printing costs were provided
through a grant from the Ford Foundation.
The reader is asked in advance to recognize that no one collection of readings can adinpiately
describe the panorama of educational programs and perspectives that exist in Alaska today. The pace of
change is too quick and the obsolescence of ideas too advanced for so vast ao undertaking.
J. NI. ( trvik
P.. I. Barnhardt
11444. pillben weer unfbualh prrwna'd At a 5%1111141%111111 Oil "1:111111fal I 1111114'MM in Alaskan \ Ithi Efillt11111111." held in
1 in son Aritimis Apnl I -i. 197:1. m t /wpm film Muth Ow annual meeting of Ili Smug% tin timilied Atithreimilog%
TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
CROSS-CULTURAL EDUCATION IN
THE CIRCUMPOLAR NATIONS
FRANK DARNELL
Center for MIAs", Educations: Research
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Concepts from many disciplines applicable to potential cross-cultural educational processes have
only recendy become factors for consideration by some educational administrators in the development
of plans for the educational systems they oversee.
A few of those responsible for the design of education programs are becoming increasingly aware of
the need to place the processes of education for indigenous people in the North in cultural perspective. It
is hoped that these papers will help educationists, their allies in the behavioral and social sciences. and the
Native residents to better understand what frustrates the education process in the multi-cultural setting
of the North and thereby lead to creation of more positive, alternative educational processes.
The indigenous people of the North face many complex problems as they learn to cope with an
invasion of culturally alien and numerically dominant groups from other areas. Formal education
systems in the North in all circumpolar nations as one of the several outside elements confronting Native
groups have theoretically been organized on principles of democracy and responsiveness to local
community needs. But it has become increasingly obvious that existing educational programs are
designed primarily to accommodate the language, cultural values, economic system, and general
interest of the dominant group from the south.
The extensive variety of possible topics in the circumpolar nations and the broad geographic areas
they embrace preclude the development of detailed conclusions on the subject of Northern education as
a whole. There ate. however, certain elements of a general nature which I have identified from a year of
travel in the circumpolar countries and from an analysis of the papers given at the First International
Conference on Cross-Culttiral Education in the North.
It U clear that unrestricted. two-way cultural transmission has not been encouraged by the education
systems in the North with the possible exception of certain situations in the Soviet Union. Acculturation,
when considered in its best sense as the process of multi-directional cultural diffusion and the equitable
transfer of cultural element! from one group to another for the overall betterment of each has been
discouraged. Instead. the process of cultural dominance, or assimilation, can be observed. Assimilation,
as a negative force, regardless of whether planned or unintentional, has often been the end result of
public education in the past rod emains so to a discouraging degree today in the North. This condition is
no longer being tolerated by many of the Northern Native peoples. School programs contributing to
assimilation arouse increasingly negative emotions on the part of many, especially those persons
sensitive to the identity they have been denied through submersion of inherited culture. Many
indigenous groups throughout the North are now seeking ways to reject iniposed cultural. econonik and
administrative processes are examined. It has been found that single societies in the North are usually
coterminous with single cultures. i.e., the society and the culture are common. This fact may be
attributed to the condition that in the North many societies have :en and in some cases are still small,
isolated and relatively stable. This situation is in contrast to the heavily populated sections to the South
where it may be observed that most large societies are multicultural. Now. however, with the
northward movement of pluralistk societies and their complex economic systems. we are faced not ()lily
with the problems of change brought shout by the introduction of alien cultural element-. but with a
1
situatkm wherein the basic nature of the social structure itself is undergoing change from simple to
comdy% Individuals in more omples social structures may require more elegant wan. to cope with
their more involved relationships and subsequent frustrations than occurs in a simple society. Existing
school wstems were not designed to provide these means.
Tlw problem of providing for balance and equality in multi-directional (lawnl transmission has
bom a critical factor in determining the success or failure of future educational programs mud their
consequential effects on economic and administrative situations. 'Ile tragedy of educational programs
with to few of the ekinents necessary to moire multi-directional flow of cultural componentsand Of
learning situations that so seldom reflect respect for the lessdominant culture iu the diffusion proves!:
may 1w observed in the Imitations of Native populations throughout the circumpolar North.
The premise of Ceorge F. Kw Iler that reality exists only insofar as culture had made it possible and
that vulture ultimately controls how we think about the world and defines how we perceive it might well
become the prevailing argument for new educational development in the North. I
We cannot understand individual behavior of others without taking into account their
language.
economy and cultural settink. Therefore. in order for cross - cultural settings to hear positively on
educaton. it is necessary to know to what extent Native cultural factors influentr the
aceeptane of
reiretioo of educational programs an& most importantly. goals of education. Where educational
systems have been designed, either deliberately or unknowlingly, with harriers to multi-directional
cultural transmission, failure can he observed. Educational goals. curricula, teaching
strategies and
administrative structure of schools must he analyzed in light of this concept in order to foster educational
systems that meet the nerds of the people they serve.
Tlse most direct approach to educational improvement. when considered in this :Wit. may call for
simply abandoning existing practices and allowing conditions which would encom age alternative
educational processes to develop on their own without outside interference. (This process generally
describes how the existing school system came into being. but, of coarse, in a different place, at a
different time. for members of different society.) But now in the North. because of involved economic
factors, disconnected administrati e arrangements, well entrenched pedagogical practices imported
from elsewhere and ever increasing diverse cultural relationships all bearing hard on the people. the
simple solution in reality has the least likelihood of happening. As the situation continues to grow more
complex those presently responsible for educational systems invent more complicated ways out of the
ma...e. Regardless of whether new processes are going to emerge in simple or involved fashion if they are
to he developed successfully at all, they will in all likelihood be conceived in the light of multi-cultural
eqoality.
Each nation has its own peculiar problems and the extent of inadequate programs varies from place
to place. A few situatiorai observed indicated positive situations now observable in the North,
particularly in the
Elsewhere the developing social awareness by some members of the nonNative society who are responsible for school systems has given rise toa much higher degree of attention
to educatkmal programs based on local conditions than in the past. It remains. however, that too much
attention has been in the form of overly specific categorical programs. usually funded for periods too
short to determine their value. and not necessarily directed toward the bask. issues. Even the description
of favorable situations in the Soviet Union may be less than promised when examined in light of
conflicting information. meager as it is. that has been reported from a few Soviet sources. Lamentably,
one may conclude, changes in basic educational processes even though sometimes proposed, are
infrequently carried out and when carried out are done so inadequately or incompletely.
Grts"
knriler. #:(116(10*(1'1111 Anthrneoloitv: An Introdurson. %art and Son+. Int.. New lurk lam, pp 41-411.
2
It most he stressed that inv stink was essenetially that of taking inventory and IN It solving problems.
invention did, however. give rise to certain questions and suggested tentative answers w hick may
lead to more meaningful el Iticateo on !bow 1101 the l'Inwerm low en tss-ctiltitral imnptality that 1ten:v.14H
circumpolar sitnatk um hi' Iwo ought to bear ion the existing ethicational system? I low may the principles id
democrat% and mummify. ins cavement really be put into praetk and guaranteed as the' controlling
philosophy in the educational systenn! The general tome !ing wt in the North, tend. to man I a single but
complex answer for both questions.
II indeed .whoops have IWINI l'INWeiVed on the principles of democracy and responsiveness to hand
community nerds lint in prartim programs reflect the antithesis of these prin ciples. and if roneetek
cross-ctelheral equality are still funnel wanting. the means to alter thew tiditioms need to lw It'Veltiled.
Re alignment. of control of 141m:diem is generoltv the f irst means suggested and Is the I no neeessary part
of a two part answer. Itv examining this suggestion we note that authority is ideally exercised by an
individual or an instihnin 111WWWilln of three efennentary fumes of influence: ) legal authowitv toad.
2) adequate I Mancini resources. and :I) a thorough linderstanding of the problem he med of solving.
I int' ortimately. all three elements are sekle me Fortnight to bar simultaneously on any given program I in the
North. If reality tady exists insofar as culture has made it accessible. it f Ale tws that tlw ula jeority of pettiele
(wreath. holding legal antis wits. and fiscal control cannot la issibly perceive the problems as they really.
are. Thew officials are not of the grass roots tuition. (with a few notable exceptiems) and no matter how
well-meaning their intentions. a necessary ingredient is typically lacking. %hen the existing educational
establishment wt about to develop educational programs and designed administrative flow charts
"cutting up" the lines of anthonty for Northern schools. they were well authori/ed by law, and in recent
velars have been timidly well funded. Hot no matter how well defined their authority and how well
financed the' third ingredient. thorough understanding of the problem. often has been funnel wanting.
Throughout the North it is the Native population who has the exclusive cultural pereptinn and bask
factual intim-in:Mom inherently denied. through no fault of their own, to those prewntly in control of the
education !truces. It might be' added that this holds true for administrators of many minority groults,
elsewhere in the world. However. in the North the relationship of the Native popedatiem to the total
society still represents a 'venation which distinguishes it from some minority populations elsewhere. For
the most part the Native populatilm is not alienated trim' the male wity and is still to 111 found within the'
mepassing the total Northern society. This situation enhances the opportunity I or improved
circle
conditions. bed how long such a large seem tent of the society can he' denied substantive inf haven% and still
stay within the circle. is in itself one of the critical questions which needs consideration.
1 hr universal conewns expressed by the Native potpie of the' North may be looked upon as
essential elements necessary for substantive change: ways for their itereeption to influence programs
mint he brought to hear on new programs. Hitt like the statements of educational theorists and
behavioral scientists. they may not, by themselves. resolve the issue.
And this gives rise to one' last observable universal point as part two of the common answer.
Although realignment of guano contributing to the influence of educational programs and of the
amalgamation of the existing system w ith the Native populations is au tort net need. it is still necessars to
keep this need in proper tvrspective. less the issue of control. pens r !wet um. an end unto itself. 11 hill.
programs in the past as imports f rout elsewhere have been patentiv inappropriate and
educatim
inapplicable to Northern twopl. no go earantee exists that programs to hollow will neeessarilv improve.
motels because of the' transfer o tr sharing of entietrol. )move a new strowture emerges the teal work of
tali twine* new edtwational processes will begin. A new base for influence vim indeed be the instrument
by which alternative systems of education nema.. fun the new base should not be' considered the
alternative itself ( :ertain inherent problems will generate disagreement among Native groups
themselves as they acquire more en tutrol Research designed to resolve olisagrements remains it pressing
need. Native groups might to be to a janitiou to make ow of findings Irmo the lie
winces to
learn as well what methods will work best for them Post as any large. consoles enterprise
retains a
research &venom to resolve new jirohlems. For example. how far &Pt% (littoral g mditioning of Northern
people affect the rejection or act-gunner of educational innovatious? 11 ith the cultural
situation
changing rapidly. what subject fields will assist Northerners in adjustina to continuous accelerating
change which is inevitable? How can Northern tulturett be retained in light of the increasitud
sPecialired knowledge and skills that the more technolgica!
vultures will require? And most
importantly. how will new edocational systems allow pupils to adapt to events that are unforeseen but
hound to happen?
The predicament in the Siorth, therefore. is one of inconsistency through faikre to communicate.
On the tine hand. the estublishment with legal and financial means to influence the educational system
and a growing batik of academic awl research skills now recognises that new pregrams which will
enhance the ',maim, of the cultural minority mint he developed and implemented. Conversely. that
very segnwnt of society for whom such educational pt entrants are desiwratel sought holds the key to
nwaningful prngram development but does not have the the background nor legal and fiscal means
necessary to cope with all toe problems. Obviously. was ought to he tound ;o bring the two elements
together. Each has much Os tiller the other. Such a merger has the potential to eliminate the chaos evident
within the nuajority on the one hand and the frustrations of the minority on the other:11w ensuing dem?
to which positive concepts of entwoiltuntlism are applied to ethwational program development win
determine the slimes% of the amalgamation.
In summary them the trends in the North clearly indicate that increased participation by the
Northern people themselves is the essential ingredient to a inure realistic Northern social environment
although a great deal can still he offered by scientists and educationists. 11 hether the present school
system or whether a new tysteiti cis ethwation Ls to evolve to permit this cogwrative involeownt -say
heti nue the ultimate issue. The degree to which a group of people is ready hi make changes or move .utts
different spheres of ntiluence whether the dominant or nondontinant grorp, is a nebulous conditions to
assess. Northerners mav or may not he more ready than the world as a whole to create a new educational
system and social realm, but clearly in the North todas a departure from the sterns quo is essential and
inounwnt.
It has been frequently said in low way or another In many spokesmen that a recurring universal
notion ot the ultimate end of education. regardless of geographic' region. political subdivision. or cultural
heritage. is simply to make certain that the good is there to contemplate. Individoals, by attainment of
such au end. regardless of where they kid dwitneles in the maze of any en osscultural mist. imis then lw
Tres- to make whatever choices they must to acquire tin means to meet their own objective.
educat it mal jsrt tura t is certain to
in the North may wen contain lessons for all groups st ri tattling to
establish their own identification.
4
EDUCATING ACROSS CULTURES:
THE ALASKAN SCENE
RAY BARNHARDT
Alaska Rwei Teacher Training Corps
University of Atoka, Fairbanks
No educational June in Alaska today is treated with as much concern and as little understanding as
the nile of the school as it relates to the Native people in the State. Those persons who see the school as a
facilitator in the process of assimilation find it extremely slow and cumbersome in carrying out such
role. Those who desire to use the school as a means to perpetuate the traditional Native culture find it
limited in application to only superficial aspects, such as Native arts and crafts. history. and some
lemplege. Those who take "the best of both worlds" approach find it difficult to design a school program
which will reconcile the attitudinal and behavioral expectations inherent in the "dominant culture" with
those implicit in the cultural framework of the Native community.
The typical response to the above dilemmas has been. and continues to be. a patchwork of programs
designed to respond to particular needs. but usually lacking in overall coherence or continuity and
sometimes incompatible with programs already operative at the same time and location. The lack of
coherent framework for dealing with educational issues in rural Alaska is partially due to the
ethnocentric nature of "schooling" as an educational process. The vast mainrity of educational literature
is derived from and focuses on a unicultural environment. As a result. the issues usually are viewed only
from the schools perspective rather than as an interaction of two cultural systems. 01IP reflected in the
school, the other in the Native community. The uniqueness of the problems CV disregarded in the search
for underlying similarities.
In order to explore the role of the school as it relates to the Native people. it is necessary to
conceptualize the components that are involved and the conditions under which they exist. The
following diagram is intended to bring into a common perspective the various issues of concern to
i. ople involved in Native ediwation. It is offered as a way to view the conditions that exist. not as an
explanation of then existence.
The diagram pulls toAether five principal components in the education process: the teacher.
student, parent. schooi, and community. tf rider ideal educational conditions, the diagram appears as
follows:
Community
'11w two large circles represent the soio-cultural milieu of the school and the community. The three
smaller circles represent the experiential domains of the teachers. students, and parents. The complete
diagram represents the interrelationship of the various emoluments. The size of the circles, however, is
not intended to represent the relative influence' of the various components. An underlying assumption is
that the greater the degree of congruence (overlap) of the components. the greater the opportunity for
5
meaningful and outselling eiltwational development. 'Ilw extent to whii.h the components overlap
nnesents the pntential for esperiential continnity and conceptual integratinn as a result of their
Wean% . under Iterlect inaultinatinnal conditions. the siwin-cilltistal unliru ill the school and Ow
communits. are klential. Tlw itistoms. beliefs. values. behavii or pattenn. and in toceptual sorieutations
eshibited iii the %lams' (formal education) ilwrespond to those eshibited ill the C111111111111i1V
I infonnal
ediaation). Conti, mends the esperiential domains of the teachers. students. and parings .166 are
tdntical. TItev all an. oriented to the same cultural 1111111 Ns they share a common bakgrouncl cif
lienrignal and conceptual esperietwec. They we things. think ablaut things. and behave in similar ways.
Therefttre. theV ar alik to engage in prialniiive interaction aml communication and move toward
comprehensible and agreeable goals. Unifier thew conditions. education is a .11110101111..
constnictive and inimulative process.
Spolloollon of Ilse Memo
No school -community sitoatii on can 1w esiwcilx1 to fully exemplify the bleat. %lost m. hools in typic al
"middle class" Am erivan communities. howetiv. are intendd to refk.ii to a large degree the sods,
cukural ulilietl of the tnamminities they serve. The curriculum anti the organizational structure of 111
school are designed around the needs and exitciathms of the community. The teachers are usually
martinis of a cukitral envirommt similar to that of the students and parents. I )iagninimatknilly. the
varktus components are positioned to represent a large nverlapping area (as designated by the shach.d
area in the above diagram). indicating a high ;agenda! for positive educational exiwriences. V. hether er
not the ;potential is achieved depends ion the willingness and effort id the individual participants and the
effective ntiliration of available resourees. It does not depend on the cismpigibiliry of the hehackw and
value orientations of the parthipants shier these are presumed to hi. congruent.
When the siaiimniltund milieu of the efialialliary deviates (nun the prototype Iwlt of which the
American school system evolved. the congroency between school and community diminishes. 'Ile
presence Ida school in a culturally different setting (a.; in rural Alaska) introduces an interaction system
involving alternative sets of values atef behavior ;::ittents with varying pi gimbal for incongruence. l'hew
conditions usually are characterized by terms such as rom-cukural.
inter-iittaral. or
trans-cellars!.
Regardless of the educatioruil mails of the school in such in immunities. the nveraf l
unship 1 if the
diagrammatic comportinits is the Wail'. Whether the teacher is oriented to "culturaltcrincervation" or to
"assimilation." his of forts can he represented as the confluence of t' s-o modes of thought and behavior.
Sigh orientations assume di
al OW cultural system OVIK another. lit ..-ither case. the success of
the teacher's effort is affected by the compatibility of the particular laiale. Ili thooslit and behavior
represented in a particular situation.
Schools In In Muni Halloo Common1Nos of Atoka
l'he schools low atoll in the rural Natit.e commtmatim of Alaska represent situations involving the
of different sociocultural
The relationships sof the various cumin meats with regard to
these siica& and Vtallailliata'S all` illustrated as follows:
into
.21
Although variations in the iatterns tot interowtient tot certain (muniments exist am mngst the various
schools and communities. thew sariations are insignificant with regard to the impart et the overall
vont iguration on the (Airline opal esiwrienem of the students.
shaded area. where the cultural milieu
of the school and community and the esperiential domains of the teachers and parents converge in
relation to the educational experiences of the students. designates the limited potential for positive.
integrated educational esperiencev
horirontally lined area represents students involvements other
than those provided by coordinated parent-teacher efforts. Thew include peer-group associations.
interaction with parents in relation to the school, and interaction with teachers in relation to the
eonmasnit. Although these various involenwnts are assumed to he consistent since they are within the
cultural I ramework of both the school and comemmity. the burden of compatibility rests on the students.
Such involvements may or may not lead to a coherent whole, depending on each students' ability to
integrate the various experiences.
l'he two s ertialk lined areas represent those aspects of the Native student.' esperiential don mins
that are not directly compatible and that can not he integrated into a consistent whole. These consist of
seseio-esoltural forces that have their origin in separate cultural milieu, and that often arc in mutual
opposition. The areas represent the attitudes and expectatk on. of the parents and the teachers. regarding
the studeots. which arc derived from different life stvk's and different world views. These divergent
aspects of the students' esperiential domain contribute to an ambivalent conceptual orientation and
discontinuity and disharmony in the students' educational development.
The mainrity of the issues in niral Alaskan education can he classified into the vertically lined area.
11w runt of most problems can he attributed to the differences in conceptual understanding of the issues,
based on the different cultural perspeetives of the school and community.
Won Schools and Boarding Schools for Alaskan Naives
A third configuration of the diagram is needed to represent the experiences of Native students
attending urban based schools or boarding schools outside their home community.
t school and the community are separate entities representing di, relent cultural milieu. Virtually
the only connection between what 'Icons in the school and what meows in the community is provided by
the students perkklie movement from the one to the other. The parents seldom interact with the school:
the teachers seldom interact with the community. The students are provided with two distinct sets of
experiences originating from mutually exclusive cultural systems. The task of synthesizing the two sets of
experiences into an integrated and meaningful whole is left to the students.
To achieve satisfactory integration. the students must learn to accommodate two different
conceptual frameworks. If they are unable to achieve the critical synthesis they must either abide by one
ramewoth at the expense of the other. or lace the consequences (A conceptual disharmony. If the
students are given a choke, the most reasonable alternative for them is to kohl to the cultural patterns
from which they emerged. (*.consequently. the educational efforts of the school are tolerated but never
accepted or corweptinilly
Instead. a third cultural system is binned as the teachers and students develop a el msistent pattern of
non-interaction bawd on mutual expectations derived from past experience.
Native students are
esiwted by the teachers to have certain deficiencies and display certain behavior patterns many
incompatible with the goals of the school. The teachers. therefore. establish certain response pat.rwi to
ai.commodat the situation. The students follow the same patterns with regard to the teachers:
k.ventuall. a mutually agreed-on system is developed whereby each of the participants "do their own
thing." However. when the results of the educational program are evahuited and the students are below
national standards, the accusation of failure is directed to the students not the school.
Toward Wed Undue Wang
The discrepancy between the two latter diagrams and the ideal el wiliguratinn of school-community
and teacher-student-parent interaction patterns is apparent in the lack of significant overlap. indicating
the differences in cultural milieu and experiential domains under these conditions. Three means of
reducing the discrepancy are possible: the parents and students can shift then values. beliefs. customs,
behavior patterns, and conceptual orientations to accommodate those represented by the school: the
teachers can shift their efforts and goals to accommodate to the background of the students: or. a
combination involving mutual accommodation can he worked out.
Since the goal is to achieve compatibility of educational exp eriences. any of the above means can
aor imidish that task. However, the three means are not equally realistic. Although the Native people can
no longer maintain an independent existence oriented to "the old ways." they alsocannot be expected to
abandon their heritage and assume a life style often inconsistent with that heritage. I Yen if they wanted
to. they could not automatically switch to a different conceptual orientation without residual affects of
the previous orientation.
Non-Native teachers, likewise, cannot he expected to comprehend the complexity of the
relationship between the school and a Native community on the basis of their background and
standardized training. They cannot switch conceptual orientations any more than can the Native parent
or student. In addition to their own ethnocentrism they are caught in a system that allows them to
operate only in prescribed ways. The physical isolation of the schools and teacher housing illustrates this
point. Rarely do the teachers move beyond the classroom in an effort to improve the quality of
education.
The most reasonable approach for bringing the school and MillIonitY closer together is to Increase
mutual understanding between the various participants in the educational process. This may he
accomplished by enhancing the interaction and flow of communications through reciprocal
involvement of the participants in the alternate experiential domains and cultural milieu. Community
members can become involved in the school and teachers can timeline involved in the community.
teethe Teachers in the School
The presente of local community members in the school. particularly as teachers. represents the
most logical means of encouraging greater school-community understanding. However, such an
approach is not as simple as it first appears. It the community members are thrust um, the rigid structure
of a traditional domain) and are not allowed to establish alternate patterns of interaction and
eommunicat ion. their experience as Nati. es is of littlevalue and Islay even be detrimental to their of forts
as "teachers." If their training has so inoculated them with the stereotypical attitudes and expectations of
a "teacher" that they are unable to establish a free-flow of communications with their students in their
own male. they have little more to contribute than the teacher f rem "outside.." Native teachers must be
allowed to approach the students and "classna an" on their own terms if they are to use their expertise as
Natives of fetively. As representatives of the ts mt tun nit y. they can !emi the f orneal aspects of schooling
IV
with the informal aspects of child rearing in the community. Nut to do so requires a freedom of
moement beyond that usually associated with strict tumid education. The community becomes the
classroom. mid the classroom reflects the community.
In the training and on the job. Native teachers must be accorded the flexibility to make extensive
deviations from standard eurriculmn au,ef strutnial patterns. School policy and objectives nowt be
expanded to allow for new and different means and ends with regard to educational attainment. Thus
the concepts of teaching and schooling themsels es must be called into question if such a transformation
of attitudes and expectations is to occur.
Non-Ns llve Teachers In the Community
The second means of enhancing school-community understanding is to increase the involvement of
achieve a genuine understanding and accentuae between
non-Native teachers in the community.
the teacher and the Native community. however, requires more than their exposure to each other: it
requires more than factual or inferential knowledge: it requires a sensitivity to a wide range of subtle and
complex factors that affect the various participants' perception of each other.
"Mutual understanding" implies a consensual recognition and itceptancr of the worth c id dignity
of the individuals or soups involved. The Native parents and students must be a: cepted for what they
are. not for what they once were or for what they "should" be. An appreciation of Native people because
they are descendants of the "noble savage" or represent a "vanishing breed" offers little consolation to
contemporary Natives. Likewise, to express an interest in helping Natives because of "their
impoverished and decadent condition." on the assumption that they need to be raised to a certain white
man's standard, only contributes to the problem rather than alleviates it. To attempt to make a Native
into an artifact of a romantic age. or a prototype of contemporary middle-class white standards. is to
dixtegard the unique qualities of his present existence. Teachers must be willing to learn as well as teach,
in situ, if they are to respond to contemporary eircomstantia needs and be able to accurately assess the
impact of what they teach.
Such an approach to school-community .understanding requires a conceptual transf urination similar
to that required if a Native is tr( be allowed to teach as a Native. The teacher must break out of the mindset that establishes him as the sole proprietor in the educational training of Native children. Ile must
recognize his status as an outsider and be sensitive to the differences that exist between himself and the
students. rather than placing all the emphasis on the superficial similarities. Even if he takes the extreme
position and openly pursues a course of indoctrination to white ways. he reflects a electer perception of
his position than if he blindly pursues a traditional teaching style. Once the teacher recognises his
ianition relative to the students. parents. and community, he can pursue a course of action which will
. able him to offer a connotative rather than subtractive educational experience. Such an approach infers
a greater understanding and involvement of the community with regard to the school. The one is a
natural eonsemience of the other.
The Community m the Classroom
Whether a Native is teaching in the school or a white teacher is involved in the tommuniiy. the
central issue is to improve the communications and increase the compatibility between what is taught in
the school and what is learned in the community. Although the conditions described above are intended
to illustrate how teacher (in hiensitivity to soio-cultural differences can affect their teaching. such
vicarious accounts cannot adequately prepare a person for ulna! imn Riskin with the issues on a face-toface. day-to-day Imo!.
relationship with the community. they must move
It teachers are to establish more than a superf
beyond the traditional classroom They must strive to view themselves as they are viewed from the
perspective of the community: to listen to what they say as it may he heard by the community: to
establish goals in harmony with the real-life circumstances in the community. Instead of trying to raise
the students to a prescribed percentile level, the teacher should wive to help the students learn
something today they did not know yesterday. The students will then he assessed on the basis of where
they are, not where they should be.
The teacherwhite or Nativewho has the incentive and freedom to explore the educational
envinm with his students will not restrict his endeavors to the formal classroom. Ile will make the
community an integral part of the classroom, building the educational framework around local needs
and resources. Students will learn in the presence of and in cooperation with the adult members of the
community.
By extending the classroom into the community, the schooling experience becomes meani1.4ful and
additive in terms of both the teachers' and the students needs. The teacher becomes better acquainted
with the community and thus can better assess the implications of his efforts. The students are treated to
a schooling experience that coincides with their extra-school experiences. Formal and informal
education are blended into a coherent, integrated whole.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cole. M.. Gay. J., Glick. J.A.. and Sharp. D.W. The Cultural Context of Learning and Thinking. New
York: Basic Books, Inc., 1971.
Collier. John Jr. Alaskan Eskimo Education. New York: Holt. Rinehart. and Winston, 1973.
Kleinfeld, J.S. Alaska's Urban Boarding Home Program. Fairbanks: Center for Northern Educational
Research, University of Alaska. 1972.
Spadley. J.P.. Ed. Culture and Cognition. San Francisco: Chandler Publishing Company. 1972.
Wallace. A.F.C. Culture and Personality. New York: Random Douse (Second Edition) 1970.
Wax, M.L. Diamond. S.. and Gearing. F.O. Anthropological Perspectfv's on Education. New York:
Basic. Books. Inc.. 1971.
Wolcott. ILK A Kwakiutl Village and School. New York: Holt. Rinehart. and Winston. 1967.
10
EFFECTIVE TEACHERS OF INDIAN AND
ESKIMO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
J. S. KLEINFELD
Institute of Social, Economic and Government Research
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
Port
INTRODUCTION
The ethnocentric teacher, who strives to destroy his students' cultural identity in order to propel
them into the American mainstream and then quotes chapter and verse of cultural deprivation texts to
rationalize his own teaching failure, is a prominent villain in Indian education.
While the characteristics of such ineffective teachers are well known, very little information is
available on the characteristics of successful teachers of Indian and Eskimo students. The purpose of this
study was to develop a theoretical model defining the psychological characteristics of effective as well as
ineffective teachers of rural Athabascan Indian and Eskimo students. In view of the policy shift from
edur ng Indian student. in isolated federal schools to integrating them into the public schools, it was
also : umlaut to explore a second question: Is the type of teacher who is successful with rural Indian and
Eskie students also successful with urban White and Black students or are different teaching styles
more productive with different types of students?
Review of the Uteritur.
Studies concerning teachers of Indian students have tended to focus on the broad cultural conflicts
that lead to a learning deadlock in the classroom. The White teacher is viewed as ineffective because he
personifies the antogonistic values and reformist attitudes of the predominant culture which are resisted
by Indian students. In Wax, Wax, and Dumont's classic study of formal education amonla the Sioux, for
example. the classroom is analyzed as an arena where the value conflicts separating the Indian
community from White society come to a focus.' Teachers tended to disparage their students' culture
and potentialities and viewed their instructional mission as reforming students by teaching the manners
and morals of White society as absolute goods. Sioux adolescents expressed passive resistance and
cultural group solidarity by creating the "silent classroom." The Indian peer group united in refusal to
participate overtly in classroom work.
Such silent classrooms, however, did not occur with a few successful teachers. However, the
description of their teaching style is unfortunately brief:
. .. there area few teachers who develop fine classrooms and teach their
pupils a great deal. These teachers are difficult to describe because they
are remarkably different in background and personality and some are
"real characters" in the sense that this word was used fifty years ago. In
general, they differ from the less successful instructors in that they
respect their pupils. By this, we mean that they treat them as if something
of respect was already there.... Thew teachers are strict disciplinarians
and do not tolerate nonsense...all are very fair and all are extremely
skillful in avoiding a situation which would embarrass a shy student
before the class. They tend to place a heavy emphasis on scholastic work
and often behave as if such matters as pupils' neatness in dress and eating
habits, or how pupils spend their money, do not fall within their
province.2
This description provides a few tantalizing clues to the characteristics of effective teachers.
'however. shave the study is directed toward other issues, it does not detail the was general attitudes are
expressed in specific teaching behaviors. Such specificity is essential because Indians and Eskimos may
hold very different views from Whites about the particular behavior that expresses such feelings
as
respect.3
Progress toward defining characteristics of effective and ineffective teachers is made in Dumont's
classification of three types of teachers of Cherokee. students.4 Teachers in the first group are "nice" to
students, but have given up attempting to teach them. They resort to busy work or let the class carry on
without them. Teachers in the second group place high value on learning. but have m. understanding of
cultural differences and the appropriate ways of interactina with students. In their classes, students are
apathetic and, the teachers react to student apathy with hostility. The third group of teachers work
within the framework of cultural differences. With the help of students who act as mediators between
the teacher and the Indian peer society. they create an Intercultural classroom." The hallmark of media
classroom is verbal dialogue between the teacher and the student, in contrast to the normative silent
resistance. In the intercultural classroom. students "will do such remarkable things as engage in lengthy
conversations with the teacher about academic subjects."5
Exactly how these effective teachers work within the framework of cultural differences is not
described. However. Dumont's reports of specific teacher-student interactions in the "intercultural
classroom" in the light of other stitches raises the possibility that the teacher's interpersonal orientation
may be a critical characteristic. Among traditional Indians and Eskimos. the value of social harmony
takes precedence over task achievement .° and a task "cannot he separate J from the relationship of the
individuals performing it."7
Modern industrial societies, in contrast, attempt to separate the
interpersonal aspects of an enterprise from the task dimension so that personal feelings do not interfere
with the more important value of tall achievement. Thu:c. fo- Indian end Eskimo students, the teacher's
ability to establish appropriate interpersonal relationships may be a necessary condition for teaching
effectiveness. For White middle class students, who are accustomed to differentiating the interpersonal
and task dimensions of a situation, such social sensitivity may not be as critical a factor.
Such a view is supported by Wax's intriguing finding that Cherokee parents and students defined
the good teacher as one who has love" for shidents.8 Apparently ill at ease by the intensity of the
emotion suggested, the researchers attribute the Cherokee's "peculiar usage of the English word 'love
to their limited knowledge of English. They redefine the term to indicate a more distant teacher - student
relationship of "respect, trust, gentleness, and courteous sensitivity."9 However, the results of the
present study raise the possibility that the Cherokee may have meant precisely what they said. The
intense personalism that seems critical to effective teaching of village Indian and Eskimo students often
appears inappropriate to westerners with professional orientations.
In a study of Eskimo education. Collier similarly points to the importance of emotional closeness
between the teacher and Eskimo stiidents.1°
Using the techniepues of film analysis, he describes the way teatieeeN' nonverbal behaviors
con timnicate feelings of warmth versus distance. In a silent pre-first grade class taught by a White male.
the teacher created a classroom climate of emotional distance by standing at a wide physical distance
from the students urd spacing them tar apart in rows. In an animated I lead Start class taught by Eskimo
wom en. the teachers. in contrast. communivated emotional closeness through physical closeness and
through touch.
Collier's film analysis of different teaching styles raises the possibility that it is the teacher's
interpersonal style, not his ethnic group membership, that is critical to success. An Eskimo teacher who
had completed professional iisiversity training evidenced little rapport with students. I however. those
White teachers who were able to use a nonverbal communication style of emotional closeness similar to
that of Eskimo teachers seemed to have similar results:
12
kb Scout moves bunt indiVidlial to individual. trout group to group. Ile
!earls over. sits down. touches. corrects and moves on. Students run to
him with papers . .. The teacher appears very relaxed. and talks slowly to
students. There are no signs of boredom. no yawning. Everyone is busy...
In oun. the literature on Indian education contains abundant maniples of destructive teacher
attitiftl
Iractices. I lowever. description: of successful teachers of Indian and EslOeno students are
Jot detailed. Several studies suggest the critical importance of emotional closeness
teacher and Indian and Eskimo students. Other work draws attention to other
charm o.
charade.
discipline
such as vivid personality. respect for students. and strict discipline. I lowever. bow such
.
as emotional closeness relate to somewhat conflicting characteristics such as strict
A.11 discussed. Nor does the available literature raise the 11111'01On of whether the same or
different teaching shin are effective with rural Indian and Eskimo versus urban White and Black
students.
Method
A review of the extensive literature on teaching effectiveness in the light of exploratory study
concerning the problems of cross-cultural teaching indicated the need for ethnographic analysis as a first
stage in the development of hypotheses about the characteristics of effective teachers in the crosscultural elassroom. The category systems used in conventional analyses of teaching Iwhavior were
developed for teachers and students who share a western cultural background. For two reasons. such
categories appeared to be inappropriate in analyzing cross-ultural teaching relationships involving
Athabasan Indian aftd Eskimo students. First. the categories of teacher behavior masked what might he
critical distinctions in effective rossolturftl instruction. For example. the standard interaction analysis
dimension "Teacher praises student" generally relates only to verbal praise and at best combines verbal
and nonverbal expressions of approval into a single category. Yet. exploratory research suggested that
public verbal praise frequently embarrassed Indian and Eskimo students into silent withdrawal and thus
comprised an ineffective teacher behavior. However, nonverbal praise such as an intimate smile and
sparkle of the eyes appeared to reinforce desirable classroom behavior and thus comprise an effective
teacher behavior. Second, the teacher behavior categories developed for a western classroom situation
omitted entirely dimensions of teacher behavior and subtle distinctions of feeling that appeared to be
critical categories in effective instruction of Indian and Eskimo students. For example. the teacher who
attempted to motivate these students by appealing to their own interests and goals ("Do it for learning's
sake/so you can get a good job/ for a good grade") met with little success. Teachers who attempted to
motivate village students by appealing, in contrast, to the mutual obligations inherent in a personal
teacher-student relationship ("Do it for me/to make mite happy/so that I will feel I am a good teacher")
tended to be quite successful. Yet teachers tended to be extremely ambivalent about appealing to a
personal relationship to motivate students and felt that it was somehow higher for the student to learn for
his own sake rather than for the sake tel someone else. he need to analyze the conflicts teachers felt in
such situations again emphasized the importance of approaching the problem of cross-cultural teaching
effectiveness first through wholistic. ethnographic methods appropriate for considering such issues
before attempting to devise a measurement system appropriate for hypothesis testing.
For these reasons, the primary method used to analyze teaching characteristics was observation of
approsienatel 40 teachers of io udemi subjects in two all-Native boarding schools and five integrated
urban high schools in Alaska during the 1970-71 school year. Semi-structured interviews were held with
each teacher concerning his teaching problems with village Indian and Eskimo students and the
instructional methods he found successful and unsuccessful. Since Indian and Eskimo students
immuniate more freely through indirect. written methods rather than interviews. students' essays and
letters were used to obtain information about reactions to different teachers.
13
Attention ftised primarily on teachers of ninth grade Indian and Eskimo students who are first
expeneming the transition trim; small village elementary 501001 to a large secondary school. Since
instructional problems at this stage are most acute. differences in the effects of different teachers are
likely to be Inure visible. As hypotheses were developed. teachers who represented contrasting teaching
shies were videotaped to 'wring more intensive analysis of their classroom behavior. In addition.
supplementary experiments were designed to permit formal hypothesis testing.
In evaluating alternative teaching styles, it Was necessary to use a measure of teaching effectiveness
that would have some generality across different academic subjects and across different teaching
philosophies. Sine the purpose of this study was exploratory, to develop testable hypotheses. formal
measures were not sought at this stage of the research. f lowever. it was important to have clearly in mind
some unambiguous criterion of teaching effectiveness so that evaloation of different teacher
characteristics would be biased as little as possible by the observer's preference for particular teaching
styles.
12
Studies of teaching effectiveness have generally used three kinds of criterion measures. One is the
opinion of experts. such as teacher supervisors. A second is pupil growth measured by such indicators of
change as achievement tests. A third is an intermediate criterion thought to he related to pupil growth.
such as classroom Attentiveness or amount of academic work performed. Expert opinion is generally
acknowledged to he an unsatisfactory measure. since such opinions tend to be unreliable and depend
substantially on the particular educational theories the expert happens to hold. While pupil growth as
measuml by achievement test gains seems superficially to he the most valid criterion of teacher
effectiveness. it is quite difficult to use. At the secondary level, each subject is taught by a different
teacher and it is difficult to compare student gains across subjects.
For these reasons, this study used as an informal inditator of teacher effectiveness two intermediate
criteria of pupil growth that seemed especially appropriate for Indian and Eskimo students. First, how
much did the Indian and Eskimo students verbally participate in the classroom? Second. what was the
cognitive level (e.g.. repetition of scattered facts versus application of principles) of their verbal
communications as evaluated by Bloom's taxonomy? 13
Verbal participation itself was chosen as one criterion of teacher effectiveness for Indian and
Eskimo students because both the Indian education literature and teacher interviews suggested that
Indians and Eskimos tend to respond to a stressful situation, such as a poor teacher, by withdrawing into
silence. Indeed. classroom silence may he used as a stretegy of passive aggression against the teacher.
Verbal participation has been used, although not exr *.citly. as a criterion of effective teaching in other
studies of Indian classrooms. 14 Moreover, teachers often used verbal participation as a criterion of their
own teaching success.
The second criterion, the cognitive level of student participation. was used to distinguish classrooms
where Indian and Eskimo students felt comfortable enough to speak but were learning little. from
classrooms where verbal participation indicated learning. Moreover, this measure of the intellectual
level of student's partiirition was especially useful in evaluating the teacher's effectiveness with the
urban White and Black students. who were not usually verbally reticent.
Part II
PROBLEMS IN CROSS-CULTURAL SECONDARY INSTRUCTION
Problonts of Indian and Eskimo IfIllago
Students In High School
Athabascan Indian and Eskimo students in Alaska %dm come from small. remote villages without
high schools most attend secondary school away from home. Students accustomed to a one. r two room
multi-grade elementary school. where the other students are relatives or people known all their lives.
14
enter urban public schools of over one thousand students or Native boarding schools of several hundred
students. The student body of the high school is often larger titan the total population of their home
village.
physical environment of the high schoolits massive size. labyrinth of corridors, strange
machines. and waves of noise
frequently unnerves students. linable to work the combination of their
lockers and too embarrassed to ask for help on a trivial task which any White student can do. Indian and
Eskimo students often wear parkas to all their classes. To find an Indian or Eskimo young man crying in
the halls or vomiting in the restroom because he cannot find his next class is not an exceptional
occurrence. Since Ind.ans and Eskimos are socialized into a stringent ethic of making feelings of
discomfort.15 such breakdowns testify to the extreme stress village students undergo.
Village students, however. adapt fairly rapidly to the stress of the physical environment. although
they may remain somewhat uncomfortable. It is rather the social environment of the high school that
creates the subtle and enduring problems. In brief. village students tend to perceive the social
environment of the school as hostile. This perception is in part realistic and due to the actual preludice of
many students and a few teachers. However, this perception is also based on misinterpretations of the
meaning of western social behavior. In brief. village students tend to interpret the impersona! social
relationships characteristic. of modern industrial society in terms of the personalized social nouns of a
small village.
Village students are amistomed to the diffuse, affectively intense. particularistic relationships
characteristic of small, traditional societies where everyone knows everyone else as full personalities
occupying many different roles.'" A., one student put it, "At home everyone knows everyone by heart."
The social structure of the secondary school. in contrast is organized in terms of the social norms of
modern, industrial societies. As Dreehen17 points out. "What is learned in school" is in part to accept as
legitimate being treated according to the norms of public life. in contrast to the norms of the kinship
group. By being placed in a classroom with strangers sharing primarily the collation attribute of age and
by having similar behavior expected regardless of one's personal charaeteristics, the student learns to
accept being treated according to universal nornus as a member of a category. As relationships with
teachers change from the diffuse affection and prolonged contact characteristic of the early elementary
grades to the impersonaiism and specadization of the secondary school, the student acquires the difficult
emotional attitudes congruent with a detached, narrow scope of one person's concern with another.
In contrast to urban students. village Indian and Eskimo students are not familiar through prior
socialization with impersonal social settings where anonymous, fragmented task relationships are the
norm. Observation of their parents' behavior in the village obviously does not teach these role
orientations. Nor has their elementary school socialization gradually prepared them for such
impersonalista to the extent it does the turban student. In many small villages, a husband and wife
teaching team instructs all classes in a multigrade damn-man. The other students are net strangers. While
the teachers rarely become part of the village. they do become known as fuller personalities due to their
cut ter roles such as nurse or radio operator and to their social dependency on villagers for some social life.
In sum. elementary' school relationships in the village school, while of course more impersonal than in the
village society. are nonetheless considerably more diffuse and particularistic than the typical urban
schoul.
Thus. village students tend to expect similar person:dimd relationships in the secondary school
setting, and atoms mous situations which turban students accept as a matter of course make village
students acutely d1 at ease. Out' killative student. for esample. recommended to a friend that he attend
school elsewhere because "Ion won't feel comfortable here. WItv I've been here la high school of close
to 21100 students) three years already. and I has en't even met the principal yet." Other students say they
feel Immo hatable when they don't kinIN the mum. of the driver of the school bus er the names of esvry
other student in each of their classes. Some heroine upset when teachers do not know their names and
15
call on them by pointing or saying "the girl in the hack of the room." W hilt. urban students might
similarly prefer the teacher to know their names. they tend to accept the anonymous situation without
such intense distress.
Interpreting social interactions in the large secondary school from the meaning system of a
ersonalited folk society.. village students !remittently misperceive rejection. For example. Indian and
Eskimo village students tend to view themselves as the strangers in the new school which they are
assuming is a community where everyone knows everyone else. If the urban students indeed had
friendly feelings toward them. the village students reason. they would make positive friendly overtures
just as the village students would if a new person visited their hometown. Urban stndents, however.
accustomed to the anonymity of a large school where there are many students they do not know.
generally take no not ice of village students and make little effort to he friendly. Village students interpret
this behavior as active rejection and prejudice. as indeed it would bell they treated a visitor to the village
in this fashion. When village students become accustomed to the impersonal norms of the school.
generakv in their second year. they frequently remark that they had initially misunderstood their
classmates' affinities and perceived them as prejudiced and unfriendly when most of them were riot.
Village students tend to desire highly iwrsnaliled. affectively intense relationships not only with
their classmates out also with their teachers. The yearning of students to become personal friends with
their teachers and to resolve academic problems in a social, not a taskoriented situation. is strikingly
apparent in the following students' analysis of his difficulties in the classroom and the way they could be
solved:
The thing we lack ultra is friends. We gotta find a way to get more
friends. That how I think about everything. Why don't the teachers here.
you guys, and we Native students have a party somewhere and become
friends (which we lack most) and also settle everything comfortably.
tnaccust lied to the neutral affective tone of professional relationships, village students consider it
legitimate to expect a teacher to "care about" them as total persons. not as learners of a particular subject
matter. These students often remarked that the teachers did not care about them or were not "human."
The teacher behavior on which they based these judgments was that the teacher made no effort to get to
know them personally, for example, by talking to them after class. As one student put it in
complimenting an unusually good teacher:
Well. when I first yam. here I noticed no one talks to von. Cast year when
I didn't know nobody and you talked to me after class I was surprised
that someone was !Inman.
The feeling that the school environment is hostile also derives in part from the family soialiration ut
Indian and Eskimo students, which often creates highly generalised fears of Whites. Oven the need for
strong controls on aggression within a small group. hostile feelings tend to be projected onto glaciations
external agents. Traditionally, these external beings were spirits and monsters: more recently. they have
become White people. Village parents. for example. may induce obedience by warning children that a
W kite stranger will get them if they do not behave. Such socialisation often leads to a pervasive fear of
W bites that creates tiara'sAna anxiety. As one boy put it:
East year when I was in the Pith grade, I was making fairly good grades.
and this year when I was admitted to high school I started to make low
grades like D's. became I canine work with White people. watching.
sitting. and talking all around me. and it is very hard for me to study
around those people I don't know.
The actual prejudice and hostility of a number of students and a few teachers in the school created
substantial realistic fears in village students. White students mocked the "funny noises" made by Indian
16
and Eskimo students. especially when they spoke in their own language. Some derided
villagers by
imle wan yes. such as "salmon (munchers." Selene imitate '1 the village student's walk when he
was called out
of class for special counseling ((r medical treatment. Such hostility increased village
students'
estrangement in the school:
An Eskint young man. carrying a briefcase symbolizing his split identity
by pictures of western school culture drawn on one side and pictures of
Eskimo culture drawn on the other, walked up to his best friend in
Speech Class and said, "You stink." The other young man retorted, "Who
saki ?" "I heard it about me," he admitted, moodily taking his seat.
Ignoring the lesson. he proceeded to read a magazine and to label all the
pictures with Eskimo words.
School procedures and school personnel often aggravate the hostility of urban Malmo.
For
example. village students are often placed in classes with urban students of similar achievement
levels.
These low socioeconomic status. frustrated urban students are especially likely to hold prehaliced
attitudes and to displace their aggression on the con venient target of the village student, who rarely
fights
hack. is addition. well - meaning school personnel often give Indian and Eskimo students
special
treatment such as individualized assignments
or easier grades. Urban students often feel that the village
students "get away with everything, If I got hosted. I would go to jail. 'MIT would
get away with It."
Village students sometime maintain an almost catatonic silence in class in fear that White students
will humiliate then' for errors. Yet, the village student is caught in a double hind. If he does
speak. Whites
will laugh at his mistakesif he does not speak. Whites will call him a "dumb Native." As
one girl wrote in
a letter asking for all-Native classes:
The reason I am writing this letter is because I hope you can help. I don't
feel very open when I am working with White students. Even though I
really like to speak up and answer some questions you or some other
teachers ask I am always afraid to because I always be af raid that if I give
the wrong answer or talk funny they will make fun of me. I think it would
be of a great help to most of the Natives if we could be separated from
the White students so we can be more opened to speak up and not be
made fun of. I know we just can't go on in school like this. We really have
to move. Sometimes I think that most of the White students think that I
am dumb just because I don't answer questions.
While teachers are rarely guilty' of the overt prejudice characteristics of some students. they may
inadvertently behave in ways that village students perceive as rejection. For example, village students
find it very difficult to follow the last-paced. conversational English of the classroom and may not know
the meaning of such idioms as "hit the boks." Almost invariably, the students complain that the teacher
"talks too fast and uses too many big words." however. since students do not differentiate sharply
bete.en the task and social aspects of a situation. they tend to interpret these academic' difficulties in
interpersonal terms. The teacher's use of big words. for example. may be viewed as a sign of the teacher's
superior attitudes and hostile feelings. Since. the. teacher must realize that they cannot understand the
words and vet goes on using them. village students reason. obviously the teacher does not care about
them or does not like them. As one student wrote about very well-intentioned teacher interns:
Why I I late College Teachers
Because they don't teach as good as older teachers. 11 -y try to be tough
on you. and try to make you think they are smart by using big words even
they know we' don't understand them they go on. I've noticed the one in
the Study hall wears glasses, she. unconsciously plays with them and she
puts them on they slide clown to the end of her nose. And the one in art
class wears round ones. Maybe they want to look smart. 18
17
The response of Athabasca') Indian and Eskimo high school students to the physical and social
him)l is the classic pattern of mute withdrawal reported among other Indian
gronps.19 Enclosing themslses in a protective shield of silence, students may sit in the classroom but
refuse to mewl the teachers eyes, answer a question. or ask for needed help. In the urban, integrated
shemil where the stress is grratest, village students tend to huddle together at the far hack corner of the
room, a position symbolitilig their 'psychological withdrawal Irmo classroom life. Since many students
have severe hearing loss from otitis media and vision problems that are only gradually noticed and
corrected. their retirement tee the back of the room virtually guarantees that they cannot understand the
stresses of the secondary
lesson. In esicially stressful classes such as speech. where the village student is expected o give a formal
talk before the critical eyes of the White students. village students may withdraw physically by hiding in
the restrooms or by refusing to go to school at all.
While many students drop out. those who remain gradually betsnne less reticent. The transition
from silent withdrawal to at least some verbal partiipati.m occurs more quickly in allNative hoarding
schools. ChM' the student dues not have to ovrmine his fear of White strangers. The transition also
mews more easily in those integrated schools that establish an all-Native orientation class generally
for entering village students. In integrated as well as all-Native
covering English and social studies
schools. however. the student's degree of withdrawal appears to depend to a surprising degree on the
behavior of individual teachers. Some teachers succeed in evoking high levels of intellectual
parricipati: n from Indian and Eskimo students, whereas others teach in silent classrooms.
Problems of High School Teachers
of Indian and Eskimo IfIllooe Students
High school teachers, especially those in urban, integrated schools where the student is most likely to
withdraw into silence tend to view their fundamental problem with village students as
"ctunimmication." Since village students often refuse to speak in class. teachers find it very difficult to
11M their customary question and answer methods to find out if students understand the lesson. Village
students' ref
to speak in class is also extremely upsetting and embarrassing to many teachers. The
teacher asks a question and the Native student may lower his eyes and head, hunching his body into a
shell. While the teacher waits. debating how long to pause for an answer, the restless urban students go
out of control or shout out the answer. Angry and humiliated in a contest that the village. student almost
always wins. the teacher finally moves on with no clue as to whether the village student has undershmal
the concept presented
Not only do teachers find it difficult to use village student's verbal responses as indicators of their
understanding. but also they have great difficulty using their nonverbal «minitinications. Teachers are
accustomed to reading nonverbal signals, such as facial expression or bodily posture. to see' if %Indents
understand the point. feel bored. or are interested in the lesson. Teachers and mime' students have
developed ritualised nonverbal signals. such as the 1111//1111 frown, which communicate thew feelings
without the need for direct question and answer. However. village students' laves tend to be
expressionless in the classroom Slane teachers believe that such facial expression is a !male!
characteristic of Inch:in and Eskimo %tin hulls rather than a response to the stress of the c.lassneeun The
espressii mks% lace indicates f ear of loss of face if the student admits he dims not understand. Only after
rapport between teacher and student develops does the villain. student s (ulnae the puttled frown that
indicates lack of understanding. Mortswer. in order to save. lace. village students sometimes send
nonverbal messages indicating they understand a lesson when they actualls do not.
Its
A university student guest is giving a special lesson on electricity to a class
of urban students and village Indian and Eskimo students. Ills talk
is
invomprehensible to the observer. The White students are sprawled back
in their seats with bored expressions. 'the Native students are leaning
over their desks with expressionless faces and appear to be taking notes
(riskiest misly.
When village students do use nonverbal signals to communicate with the teacher, the teacher
frequently misses them because their nonverbal signals tend to he much more subdued than those of the
urban students. For example. the teacher may ask a question to which the answer is "1 loly War." and the
urban students show out the answer while the village students may whisper it. An attentive teacher could
see the rounded mouth indicate the broad "iv" in "I Ioly." However. teachers accustomed to the shouting
and angular. sweeping gestures of urban students frequently do not notice the slight. circular gestures or
expectant look that village students may use to communk.ate their readiness to answer.
A second pervasive prei
felt by teachers of Indian and Eskimo students is a tension between
being kind and sympathetic to the student by bending their academic requirements or treating the
student like everyone else by holding him to the ac ademie requirements of the class. Especially in urban.
integrated classroom. teachers constantly ask themselves: "Should I he understanding or demanding?'
If a student refuses to answer a question. even when the teacher believes he knows the answer, should the
teacher press him? Should the teacher adjust his requirements. tests, and grading system for the village
shident?
Most teachers veer toward the undemanding end of the continuum,, which they view as an expression
of kindness and flexibility. Teachers tend to be sympathetic to village students in view of their limited
academk. backgrounds. Moreover. such sympathy is easy to maintain, since the village students rarely
present discipline problems. Also. some teachers are reluctant to demand because of school folklore
about the disastrous results of pushing village students too far. In one school, for example. the cmunselor
recounted the tale of a teacher who asked a village student to read in 1 ront of the chu.s. The studentcould
not read and wildly threw the book, accidentally cutting the teacher's lace. Yet. as other teachers point
out:
hen one tries to treat them to gingerly, some take advantage, and, for
example. drink a can of pop between each class (and cow late). What do
you do about down-to-earth problems like this?
This dilemma about how much to demand of the village student is compounded by what teachers
view as the ventral moral question in cross - cultural ellueation. If education is culture change., is any
instmction legitimate? The ethnexmntric teacher who is unAelfemisciously trying to indoctrinate students
into the American Way of Life can still be found. However. such teachers are being replaced more and
more by sophisticated teachers who have absorbed notions of cultural relativism and cultural
preservation. These teachers continually ask themselves whether their teaching is destroying the
shalent's cultural identity. II they require the student to come to class on time. are they undermining his
present time orientation? What are they preparing students forcity life or village.
If the %Indent
does intend to return to the village, do he and the teacher really need to sutler through chemistry or
geometry or French or whates er other subject is being Nimbi? As one teacher put it:
Some real thinking is needed as It, goals desired in educating thew other%%antral students. lust what are we' trying to aeomplish? Is it to orient
these. kids to the predominant culture? It that isn't it. what is?
.1 hew moral uncertainties often sap teachers' energies. Faced with the difficulties and
embarrassment of academically unprepared village students who refuse to participate in class and
honest uncertain on the value and legitimacy of their academic requirements for these students. maiy
teachers choose the course of doing nothing at all. Especially in integrated classrooms. teachers find it
easy to WIN ire the presence of a few Native students huddled in the tar turer. particularly when they are
not behavior problems. As one teacher summed up:
'They are so shy and so unsure of themselves and I an, so homy. MI of my
classes are too higand the poor kid just gets lost in the noise and shuf
It only I had time to sit down with these kids where it was quiet and talk
to them. They do need individual help and attention. but I never have
extra timenor do I really know how to teach them.
Part III
EFFECTIVE AND INEFFECTIVE TEACHERS
Two central characteristics seemed to distinguish effective teachers in whose classes Indian and
Eskimo students intellectually participated from ineffective teachers in whose classes these students
silently huddled in the far corner. The first and most important characteristic was whether the teacher
was able to create a climate of emotional warmth that both dissipated students' fears in the classroom
and fulfilled their expectations of highly personalized relationships. The second was whether the teacher
was able to resolve his own ambivalence about the legitimacy of his educational goals and express his
concern for the village students.. not by passive sympathy. but by presenting and pressing clear demands
for academic work.
Naomi Warmth versus Professional DIstanos
Secondary school teachers have generally been socialized by their university training and
professional associations to regard impersonal professionalism as the appropriate mode of relating to
students. Village students often misinterpreted teachers' impersonalism as disinterest or even hostility. It
was those teachers who could assume the diffuse, affectively charged role of personal friend rather than
specialized professional who were able to create the warm classroom climate where village students
were not afraid to speak in class. The importance of relating to Indians on a personal friend -to- friend
basis in relationships defined by western culture as professional expert-to-client has been emphasized by
professionals in other roles. smith as doctor21) and psychiatrist.21
(her and over again, the effective teacht rs emphasized that "you've got to he personal." "What you
have to do is shed the harrier of formality that you put up between you and the class. Approach them like
people yon know." "The classroom should he a little family." In contrast to other instructors, these
teachers tended to welcome personal friendslips front students. Indeed, they might ht. disappointed
that the turban students. accustomed to professional relationships. were only superficially friendly and
held them at a distance. As one said:
I was thrilled when two of the (Native) girls in the class came and visited
me at home. They had cocoa and talked about the village and after that
they were much less self - conscious. I really enjoyed teaching the Native
kids because you can he personal friends with them. They don't reject
you the way the White kids do. You can make a very individual and touch
closer relationship with them than with the students.
naccost lined to such personalism in their relationship to students and yet aware it had powerful
effects on classroom performance, these teachers in some instances become uneasy. It was difficult for
them to reconcile the professionalism they had been taught with the teaching style they found effective.
20
I' naware of mans classical views of the educatie mai ion 'ems wind' tom ohasizt. the importunes. t of intense
relationships between the teacher and the stude nt. they often worried that such personalism was
inappropriate. At one commented:
To get these kids to open up. I had to open up myself. They weren't
willing to open op to me until I would open lip to them. Gradually. they
asked me trowstioas about my marital status, when I had last seen my
mother. Professionalism makes you feel you shouldn't open up to kids
but I think you can he professional and personal. too.
Teachers similarly became 'mean when they realized that appealing to interpersonal obligatkns in
a learning situation often motivated village students when nothing eke %renaed to work. As one teacher
puilled about a student who was refusing to study a lesson, "Ile said that hr winds! study it if I wanted
him to. But I felt I should tell him that he should study it for himself, not for me." Or. as another teacher
said. "Ile lust wouldn't attend Speech class. Then I told him he was howling th« teachers' feelings becalm
she thought he didn't like her. At that point he said he would go." Teachers found it very difficult to
reconcile the western ethic of learning for learning's sake or learning for totw*s own advancement with
village students' ethic or learning for the sake of a personal relationship:
t *re I was driving a student home after an evening at the city council fa
classroom assignment) and she asked me "Why do you teach?" I said. "I
teach because I like to see kids learn and I get depressed if kids don't
learn." I felt tunny talking like that to a strident. I didn't do it to motivate
her ew anything but the girl tried harder for several days in my class
because I guess she liked rue and didn't want me to he depressed.
Different teachers of course used different methods to develop a personalized relationship with
students. Most. however. emphasized the importance of di veloping friendships with students outside of
the lomat classroom. although it took a great deal of additional time. As one root it, "Establishing a
personal relationship outside of class means a special bond occurs in class" that alleviates such problems
as ommeinieation difficulties. Some teachers were amazed at their improved rapport with Native
students when dies simply remembered their names and were careful to say "Who" to them in the halls.
Many teachers used after school tutoring as a way to get to know village students. Some teachers moved
far out of the professional role by enconraging students to call them in the evening when they had
problems. or by making such gestures as sending (utates to a grandmother in the hospital.
Within the classroom. these teachers tended to use to a great extent individualized instruction.
where close contact was appropriate. Even when teaching a large group. however. these teachers
communicated personal warmth to village. students. Primarily. they did so by the use of nonverbal
channels of communication. Indians and Eskimos appear to be especially sensitive to nonverbal
messages. possibly became awareness tot such subtle signals is critical to minding the open confrontation
that could tear apart a small. interdependent village group.22 As Currie23 observes:
We are a people who use the voice to comeinini ate. We look in a man's
eves. we look at his face when he speaks and this way we' know what he
says ... with the raise of an eyebrow and the shrug of a she udder you can
say so much more to a person.
Teachers' low of subtle nonverbal signals to communicate warmth to village students was especially
important in integrated classmate's. Urban students rarely dete'c'ted the nonverbal messages to which
dhow students tended to be especially sensitive. Theis. the' teacher avoided singling tont the' village
student and showing him favoritism.
21
Since te.achers are rarely trained to become aware of their 111111Verhal eneammacatallw it may he
teem) to c Imelda. in some detail the nonverbal behaviors Oh.. .five teachers tended to use to
conememeate warmth. First. thew teaclrs metaled very Inspiredly. W bile smiling seems obviously
appropriate in the classmate. it was surprising to we how infrequently many to
tealas seemed least likely to slaw when it was newt imps ertant. for esample. when they were placing
a village student under stress
asking him a question before the Hass. 'neertain whether or not then
student would answer or would stare humlly at the floor. many teachers reacted to this potentially
embarrassing situation by assuming a tense. anxious facial expression. Village students. however.
interpreted the teacher's Impression not as flerollSSS. seller it was ineomvivable that a teacher conkl
have such feelings, but rather as hostility. The added stress of the teacher's supposed irritation made the
village student even less likely to answer. Those teachers who elicited a high level of participation. in
contrast. maintained a reassuring snide when (*Whiffling a difficult emwept and an expeelant smile when
asking a student a mambo,' before. the class.
Smiling has been Found to be the behavioral client nicest significance in judging others' interpersonal
warmth M Indeed. Danvin suggests that the universal act of suckling at the mother's breast medial.% the
facial tientiguration of the smile that homes associated with other pleasurable eqwriences.25
Ilirdwhistell cautions that the meaning of the smile may differ across cultures but comments that there
appears to he no reported society where smiling dews nut have friendly. positive feelings as one of its
etwanings.2(i
is possible that smiling has special significance to Eskimos. and perhaps to Athahascan Indians as
well. Eskimo socialization tends to lead to strongly repressed aggression which threatens to break out
into extreme violent behavior such as murder.° Aware of potedtial violence in themselves and others.
Eskimos tend to defend against it by the smiling. placating demeanor which has heroine the Eskimo
stereotype. Thus. Eskimos tend to view a person who expresses good will by observable happy behavior
such as smiling and laughing as a safe person: moody people are feared because they could be plotting
aggression.28
Snelling may have a similar significance among Athabascan Indians. but the evidence is less direct.
Navajos. a group to whom they are closely related. hold the belief that a sad or too serious law can
signify a dangerous or evil person.29 Teachers in Athabasc-an villages have remarked that frequency of
smiling may be used to judge the goodness eef White teachers. People may say. "Ile smiles a lot. hee is a
nice' person."
A second nonverbal cue of warmth used by teachers who elicited high levels of participation from
village students was close body distance:1'1w spatial distance tine places one's self 'win another person is
an index of the emotional distance of the relationship.1)A teacher whet instructs freest% the front of the
room usually stands at a "formal distance." the distance at which impersonal business is transacted.
Successful teachers, in contrast. tended to interact within a "personal distance," the distance which
generates a kinesthetic feeling of closeness. Bather than asking a village student a question from the front
of the rooms. for example, they tended to walk close' to the student's desk. W hen teaching the. class as a
whole'. they might seat themselves on a desk in the midst Of the students. These. teachers also tended to
increase their closeness and decrease their dominance by placing themselves em the some postural level
as the students. sitting next to them or squatting beside then,: when they taught.
Chew body distance may also he especially important in comumnicating warmth to village' Indian
and Eskimo students. Cultures differ in the distances considered appropriate for particular type's of
interactions' 1 While age. and se's differences may lead to some variance. the spatial distant e at which
Athabaan Indians and Eskielem normatively interact in a personal relationship appears to be 'smell
closer than the distance normative for middle class Whites. This cols Hral clif fertiwe in hoc!. ,i,seime,. is
strikinglv apparent. for example. in a loin lineup, where the urban students space then whim
half
a body apart. and the Indian and Eskimo students cram within touch of each other. A nootiwr of
22
observers have inf ()means. remarked that Indian and Eskimo adults, when in rapport with a %% bite' tenon
move so close to them that the 1% kite 'tenon feels uncomfortable and must restrain himself from moving
away
It seems likely that teachers generally staled outside' the range Indian and Eskimo students find
(Imo tortahle for communicating fur two reasons. First, village students temd to view academic work as a
personal transaction. whew a personal laxly distance is appropriate. while teachers do not. Second. even
when teachers do interact within what they consider a personal distance, this distance may be farther
away than village students consider normative.
Pouching is another nonverbal cue that many of the effeetive teachers used to communicate
sense. Indeed, it may he'
warmth. To touch another person, of course. conveys warmth in a very physical
from early
that the use of the term "warmth" to mean kindness. friendliness, and merturance derives
mother. Those teachers who elicited
exp erience. of bodily warmth through skin contact with a mini/ram
participation !nun village students f requently place themselves in positions
a high level of intellectual
shoulder
where' hod v-to-bixly contact quite naturally nelliffed. For example. they squatted shoulder -tomight
conduct
a
while
explaining
a
point.
They
by the student and casually draped an arm around him
or
might
give
the
student's
hands
his
hands
on
the
demonstration which called for the teacher to place
could use' touch succ'e'ssfully
student a quick hug when privately tutoring him. While female teachers
teachers had to be much more cautious. Given the history of
With both nude and female students, male
imes
male teacher who tmiched (or sometimes
sexual exploitation between Whit.. nudes awl Native females, a
could
arouse
sexual
even looked direetly at) an adolescert female. even in the context of instruction.
however. when they
fears that inhibited learning. Male teachers were successful in generating warmth.
preferred a muck
touched male Indian and Eskimo students. In many cases, these male teachers
as
the playful 'stench.
role.
such
the'
male
aggressive style of affectionate touching inure conwnt with
between teachers and .3,/dents. especially at
Since body t -body contact is met considered appropein!..
about toetehing village students. yet aware
the secondary school level. teachers were often embarrasses:
of the rapport it could create.
'touching may he a more important channel for the communication of warmth among Indians and
Eskimos than among middle class Whites. Mainstream American culture. reflecting the Puritan emphasis
Indians and Eskimos. in contrast.
on denial of sensual pleasures. it is considered a "no-tmech" culture: 32
children
generally sleep in separate
engage in a high level of bodily contact. While middle. class White
rooms or at least in their own beds. linlian and Eskimo village children often sleep together in dose
contact with other human bodies. While middle class White babies spend a great deal of time alone.
Eskimo babies are carried in the back of the mother's parka. where they remain in direct contact with her
touching
skin. After :. /bray. middle class Whites touch each other primarily in a sexual context and a
a
boy
putting
his arm
misinterpreted
As
Montagu
notes,
that occurs outside such a context is likely to be
Indian
for
grave'
contyrn.3
Yet.
as
teachers
uneasily
note.
around the shoulder of another boy is cause
with
their
arms
twined
around
each
other.
and Eskimo adolescent boys and adult men can often be seen
Comradeship, not homosexuality. is the meaning of such bodily contact.
Touching may also be. used among Eskimos to signify the acceptance
of a stranger into the group.
Stellar/son. for example, obo rves that the Eskimos stroked him when he was welcomed into the
group. 84 Similar occurrences have been reported by later observers:
( hue' of the stereotypes of Eskimos is they are stoics: actualls they are not.
except in relationships with whites. Among theeive% they are great
patters. huggers. kissers: Ines of touching happens between girls and girls.
he' minute sill/KO "hi"
women and women: bottle sexes and all babies
with any group. you are also "in" in a physical. emotional way. ton. to a
touch greater extt at than our culture considers normal. Corn ersationa:
distance is much reduced.33
Zi
Possibly the teacher input touch has a similar meaning of acceptance. Films its virtual absence in
the education literature itinind Indy under the index heading of (swim mil punishm ent). the subject
of
touching between teacher and student appeilrs to he a taboo topic, W here teacher is able
to use
comfortably
irtablv this primary vommunicatinn channel. he may find it a powerful means of lummulieating
warmth. especially toward Indian and Eskimo students who are accustomed to a larger degree of warm
physical contact and who may view touching as a signal of social acceptance As Peace
Corps cross cultural training manuals warn, people from cultures in which touching it frequent tend to view middle
class Americans as cold and superior because they do not engage in physical vontact.36
Illtwever.
touching cannot he towed it is not natural to the teacher. Emotionally forced
totihings ommunicate
tension and anxiety, not personal warmth. to the student.
In sum, those teachers who stleceeded in eliciting a high level of verbal participation from village
Indian and Eskimo students tended to create relationships of intense personal warmth, rather
than
maintaining a stance of professional distance. Teachers communicated such feelings in large part by
developing friendships with students outside of the classroom in ways that could be considered
drofessionally inappropriate. Teachers communicated personal warmth. within the classroom largely
through nonverbal cues such as smiling. close body distance, and frac. Such nonverbal
communiations were especially effective in integrated classrooms because teachers could convey
personal warmth to the village student without singling him out.
In many studies concerning western population groups. teacher warmth has been found to he a
central dimension of teacher behavior related to a number of desirable outcomes, such as vlassroom
attentiveness:17 work prothictivity.M and achievement39 However. the effects of teacher warmth
upon the intellectual performance of Indian and Eskimo students does not appear to have been
examined.
For this reason. a series of three studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that teacher warmth
leads to better academic performance among Athapascan Indian and Eskimo students. In the first
study .° Indian and Eskimo students in two urban integrated schools were asked to rate the emotional
climate of the classroom in three major subjects. Then. both the students and their teachers in each
subject were asked tut rate the student's perception of a warm classroom climate and a high level of
verbal participation. In an experimental study:" Indian and Eskimo students were given intelligence
subtexts under conditions of nonverbal warmth versus nonverbal affective neutrali. Where the warm
style was used. performance was significantly higher. In a non-obtrusive experitnent.42 Eskimo and
N hits students degree of learning and verhalness was assessed under conditions of nonverbal warmth
versus nonverbal affective neutrality. Warmth generally had substantial effects on learning for both
Eskimo and White students and had sow significant effects on verbal participation.
It seems possible that teacher warmth may have stronger effects among village Indian and Eskimo
students than among White students. It is often suggested that students %m are taskoriented may prefer
and leans more with an interpersonally oriented teacher. Some evidence for this view has been lire iented
by St. lohn.43 who found that Black students' reading achievement gains were higher with an
interpersonally oriented teacher. while White student; gained more with a task- oriented teacher. This
hypothesis is also supported by findings that teacher warmth is more strongly related to the achievement
of wearer students. who tend to be more interpersonally oriented*" and to the achievement of those'
111111 q11111'111% who evidence high needs for of filiatinn 45 The experiment concerning effects of warmth
on the learning and verhalness of Eskimo and White students provides some slight support for the
hypothesis that warmth is more important to Eskimo students' attlievement. However. the similaritiesin
response between the ethnic groups nutweile ed their differences. This one only is. 111 course. not
..onclusisc, esp ecial's. since till' 4110 time period may not have permitt,1 cultural gnaw differences to
appear. Teachers often comment that it takes several weeks for village students to develop sufficient
24
trust in the warmth of the instructor to speak in class. Whether there are cross-cultural dif fermis.% in the
effects of warmth upon achievement. however, these three studies do support the notion that personal
warmth has substantial effects upon the intellectual performance of village Indian and Kskimo students.
Mike Demandinriess versus Passive Understanding
Personal warmth. while a necessary condition for eliciting a high level of intellectnal performance
from Indian and Eskimo students. is not a sufficient emalm. Where teachers were warm but required
little, village students tended to talk freely to the teacher bat did not participate in academi work. The
second major factor that differentiated effective and ineffective teachers was the extent to which they
clearly presented and pressed for a high level of academic work. "Demandinimess" is not as central in
the literature on teacher effectiveness as personal warmth. However. this dimension is similar to such
concepts as academi standards which appear to lead to higher achievement 4H
Active demand inimess may have special importance hi a miss-voltam, teaching situation for several
reasons. First, teachers in a cross-cultural context tend to he more uncertain of the relevance and
legitimacy of their requirements and hence tend to be more hesitant about demanding a high level of
academic work. It is these teachers who made a "separate trace" with this ethical question who can turn
their energies to ef kettle instructit in. Second, Indian and Eskimo students, while actually fearful of the
threatening school situation, in many instances attempt to evade stressful learning tasks by playing the
role of "shy Native." Many students have found over the years that White teachers expect Natives to
stare mutely at the floor when confronted with an academic demand. Students then learn to use this
behavior to avoid difficult tasks. Third. as is often pointed out, village Indian and Eskimo students tend
to have low academic sell-concepts. The operational meaning of a low self-concept in the classroom.
however, is that the student 1nderestimates what he actually can do. Thus, if a student is to produce what
he is capable of. the teacher must demand more than the student thinks he is capable of.
When asked the key to their success with Indian and Eskimo itudents, the effective teachers almost
invariably replied. "I demand." They scorned those instructors who babied Native students and gave
them only "loving kindness." They insisted upon a high level of academic work. Where the overly
sensitive teacher soon stopped calling upon Native students who responded to questions by mute
withdrawal. for example. these teachers continued to call upon them. If the student did not respond. they
casually passed on with a murmured. "We'll come back to you." Not dramatic confrontations hilt
continual pressure "creative nagging." as one teacher called it. eventually led students to respond.
These teachers did not. of course, make demands that were beyond the student's capacity.
Demands were made in a humorous or cajoling rather than bludgeoning style. Most important. these
teachers avoided making difficult demands until rapport had been established. It was after a pemmal
relationship developed between teacher and student that the student was able to interpret the teaher's
academic demandingness as another expression of personal cone'. n.
An important aspect of the demanditigness of these effective teachers was to clearly present the
stricture of learning tasks in a western classroom. Coming from a different cultural background and
Irani multi-grade elementary schools which relied heavily lilt programmed learning materials village
students were often uncertain of what was minima in the high school classroom. They rarely possessed
the cultural maps. the templates outlining the learning task. that urban students could draw upon to
impose order upon a rclatively unstructured learning situation. Especially ill discussion classes, Indian
and Eskimo students often moaned die. "I don't understand what I am supposed to learn." Teachers
socialized in the new orthodoxy ut the open classroom and the free school tended to exacerbate village
students' anxiety by insisting that the student choose what to leant. I laving achievement ideals but
neither the comma) maps necessary to structure the learning task nor the internalized behavioral controls
necessary to cam them out, village students often became anxious and dissatisfied.
E ttective teachers tended to pn (vide a large degree of careful structuring of assignments. For
example. one teacher taught tumid writing style by presenting a model paragraph and telling village
students to write a new paragraph following the precise sentence patterns. then gradually deviating I rum
them Teachers who attempted to gm. tillage students learning options tended to be dismayed Mien the
students inevitable chose the must highly structured learning task the closest possible approsiniation to
Idling in the blanks.
Not only did the of feetive teachers clearly structure learning tasks but also they carefully articulated
the assumptions and en:we:ilium of western classrooms. Many teachers noted. for example, that India::
and Eskimo students frequently would not answer examination (mestions at all when they were
uncertain it their answer was correct and thus received much poorer grades than otherwise. Similarly.
students of ten crumpled partially completed assignments into the wastebasket rather than turning them
in for partial credit. Such behavior is probably rooted partly in cultural traditions of publicly performing
a skill anon after it has been privately perfected in order to save face.47 I Iowever, once teachers explicitly
explained western cultural assumptions concerning the importance of effort and therefore academic
rewards for effort. village Indian and le:skimo students behaved in ways that secured these rewards.
The inqx)rtanceot overt demandingness in effective teaching of village Indian and Eskimo students
was quite surprising in view of strontsk. anti-authoritarian traditional cultural norms.48 This paradox of
highly nominvenve cultural norms together with high demandingness in effective teaching may he
resolved in the traditional expression of authority through suttee techniques of interpersonal influence..
Among Eskimos. authority was not structured in terms (d formal rules such as legal system or in terms of
tormil rules such as a headman or chief.44 While Athapascan Indians did have a chief. his decisions in
issues of social control tended to be an expression of the community consensus rather than an
independent decision resulting Iron his formal role as chief.5() Thus. social control depended not on the
rules and roles of a rational-legal system but rather on the effective use of interpersonal techniques of
infloence or on personal charismatic authority.51 Thus, appealing to the authority supposedly inherent in
the role of teacher or in the rules of the school tended to have little effect with the village students.
Teachers exercised authority rather by a virtue of strong personality or by developing significant
personal relationships that permitted the use of subtle interpersonal influence techniques. This
interdependence of the personal warmth and demandingness factors in effective teaching of Indian and
Eskimo students may retinal! the Indian education literature suggesting the importance of emotional
closeness with the literature suggesting the importance of strong personality and strict discipline.
Fart IV
A TYPOLOGY OF TEACHERS
Teachers of Indian and Eskimo students may he classified by the two dimensions that appear to he
central in eliciting intellectual participation
personal warmth versus prole. sional distance and active
demandingness versus passive understanding. Since teacher warmth and demandingness have been
found to be independent dimensions of teacher behavior 52 such a two-dimensional typology is
appropriate. Moreover. very similar dimensions have been found useful in del fining the characteristics of
successful and unsuccessful persons in other types of cross-cultural helping relationships involving
Eskimos and Athapascan Indians such as boarding home parent'e'd or psychiatrist.54
This classification system yields a typology of four kinds of teachers (sic' Figure I1. These classes
should he viewed as ideal types. %Odell of course do not adequately describe every teacher. I loweyer.
these types 011ml-respond to characteristic syndromes of teacher behavior that are easily observable in
classrooms
Type t "Traditionalists"
Active Demandingness)
(Professional Distance
The traditionalist. a type of teacher who has been in some ways unjustifiably maligned in
contemporary educational thought. tended t' concentrate exclusively on the academic subject matter.
2tf
Ile lomat the interpersonal dimension of the classroom. which he considewd an orefessionally
illegitimate area of concern. These teachers generally preferred formally presented. highly structured
lessons such as lectures % hit+ permitted them to maintain distance from their students. In some instances
these traditionalist teachers were ethnocentric and regarded students as foreign objects to be
transformed its quickly as possible into Americans. I lowever, in as many instances. these teachers very
much cared about the village students in their classes and were concerned only that the students were not
able to learn their subject matter.
For academically competent urban students who were also subject matter oriented, the
traditionalist could be a successful, stimulating teacher. I lowever, this formal. impersonal teaching style.
which relied in the main on oral comprehension. tended to be disastrous with village Indian and Eskimo
students.
When the traditionalist taught in an integrated classroom, he focused his attention on those students
who were similarly subject matter oriented. and the Indian and Eskimo students were merely ignored.
Mr. W. is a nervous man with a perpetually strained facial expression.
The students are seated in rows with the Indian and Eskimo students
predominantly in the far corner of the classroom closest to the door.
During the observation, Mr. W. stood behind his desk lecturing. Ills
lecture and occasional questions were interlaced with sarcasm such as
"That's a good attitude!" Ile placed a summary of the main concepts of
the lechwe, highly technical .erins, on the board. The Indian and Eskimo
students dutifully wrote down the words.
In a later interview, Mr. W. voiced serious concern for village students
and noted that their main problem in the class was vocabulary. They
couldn't understand what he was saving. While some village students
work, Mr. W. nitaitiontA. "tell me that the Native students are afraid of
me because I yell at them. Well. I do jump on them when they are slack on
work."
Sonic of the Indian and Eskimo students complained to their counselor
that Mr. W. was prejudivd, and the ceziaseloo was attempting to remove
them from his class.
W hen the traditionalist taught in an all-Native cla.;%roon, where similarly task-oriented students
were not available to provide him with the satisfaction of teaching subject mastery. the class reached a
deadlock. Teacher-shident interaction in these classrooms resembled the situation most commonly
described in the Indian education literature a silent Native peer group united against a carping, hostile
teacher.insensitive to the interpersonal values that far outweighed his paltry achievement concerns.
Mrs. M. is an older woman who was formerly an assistant principal. The
setting is intended to be an open classroom with carpet. movable chairs.
and space enough for several teachers to work together. Mrs. Si. has
appropriated her space. walled it in with bookcases, and lined up her
students in neat rows.
Throughout the observation. Mrs. M. glowered at her class. "What is the
name of this village on the Yukon'?" she challenged. pointing to a large
map. The class remaintalsilent. although it seemed unlikely that no one
knew the answer. since several students came from the village. One
young man raised his hand and asked for a pencil. "No, you don't mad a
pencil because we don't mark on maps." Mrs. M. snapped.
"Now come on. You may not know now, hot believe me you will by the
time I get through with you."
27
In a later interview. Mrs. M. said that she found this teaching situation
extremely frustrating because she wanted to teach but the students
would not learn. "These kids aren't as dumb as they like to make us
think," she observed "They just play dumb. I'm not teaching anything.
They're just wasting their money paying me. I'm not doing my job,"
Type II: "Sophisticates"
Passive Understanding)
(Professional °Worm
For urban, highly verbal students, these ti whets were a delight. Their professional distance was not
coldness so much as sophisticated reserve. Their !minor was subtle, tending toward irony. They
preferred a discussion class where students could discover intellectual concepts for themselves. The
sophisticate teachers tended to be highly educated and well-traveled. They often had au excellent
background in anthropology and were very concerned about the welfare of village Indian and Eskimo
students in their classes.
As teachers of Indian and skimo students, however, the soAisticates tended to be failures. In an
integrated classroom. the teacher generally found himself teac;iing to the urban students, while the
Indian and Eskimo students watched in tense apprehension. Aenstomed to the highly structured
textbooks and programmed learning materials of many village- schools, village students rarely
understood what was expected of them in theseclassmoms. With their limited English skills, they would
have had a dill ier& time entering the fast paced classroom repartee had they wanted to. In addition,
village students often were frightened by these teachers' ironic comments and indirect instructional
techniques, such as playing "Devil's Advocate."
Miss It., a young teach ,r dressed in Carnaby Street style, has seated her
students in a circle. She began a discussion of the film just shown, an
account of foreign revolt that draws symbolic parallels to repression in
American politics. She attempted to enable students to grasp the
symbolic' implications of the film by skillful indirect questions. The
Native students remained silent, while the other students excitedly called
out answers. Finally. one student understood the film's message. The
teacher responded in a tone of mock horror, "You mean there is no
freedom in America?" The Native students eyes widened in fear, and
they squirmed further down in their seats.
In their concern for the Native students, these teachers made many attempts to he supportive and to
establish a sense of camaraderie. These attempts, however, tended to backfire. For example, students
often misinterpreted their humor. An interpersonal approach that might have established rapport
between the teacher and a sophisticated urban student merely frightened the village student:
An Eskimo girl asked Mr.!). for a hall pass. "What color of slips are we
using today." Mr. I). teased, "blue, green, or chartreuse? You know it isn't
easy to work in a police state." The girl stared at him in confusion and
hastily ran out into the hall.
Attempting to read and apply all the principles of cross-cultural psychology, the sophisticates tried
too hard. As one put it:
My intense efforts to get them to feel comfortable with me may have
been having a reverse effect. They may have sensed that I was tense.
thereby keeping them from relaxing while with me. I found that I
unconsciously developed an attitude almost of dislike toward them
because I had made such efforts to reach them and had been rejected. It
is most likely that this attitude was coming through more than I realized.
While sophisticated teachers in integrated classrooms did little damage beyond making village
students leel uncomfortable 'end teaching them little, the sophisticate in an all-Native classroom could do
serious harm. Interested in the psychology of Native students. these teachers often focused on NativeWhite differences and rend (weed students' sense of being different and estranged. While the following
interaction was stimulated by the video-taping process, it is not dissimilar from what was observed in
other classes of this type:
Mr. C. was teaching an all-Native orientation class in a large urban
school. He attempted to produce an informal classroom atmosphere by
sitting casually on his desk top with the students placed in a circle.
However, his other nonverbal communications negated this carefully
planned message. Mr. C.'s hunched posture with his arms wound tightly
around his body and fingers pressing into his arms, communicated
tension and reserve. The students dutifully seated themselves in a circle,
but had moved their chain to the very edge of the romn so the camera
panned from the teacher to the class in great physical and psychological
vistas.
The camera man teased the students, "O.K. say cheese." Mr. C. added
nervously. "You are assimilated 0to White man's culture. You know you
are supposed to smile when he says cheese." The students giggled
apprehensively. "Why is he taking a picture of the class?" Mr. G. asked.
There is no response except More nervous giggling. "IM you think if this
were a White class he'd be here?" continued Mr. G. Again there was no
response. "He's here because there are quite a number of Natives here.
What is the difference about Ohs class?" One Native boy raised his hand
and said. "Because people who have different backgrounds should share
their opinions." Ignoring the opportunity to develop this student's ideas.
Mr. C. dismissed his answer with a curt "No. There are other classes
where students have different backgrounds like there are Black kids in
this school. What's different about this class? What do most of the Native
students have in common ?" Another student called out, "Skin color."
"No, No, No." Mr. C. saki, quickly, horrified by the racism implied.
In a later interview. Mr. C. cernmented that he had a difficult time
making the students understand that they were in a special orientation
class because they came from villages and were different. "If White kids
were sitting here. I said to them. wouldn't they be arguing and noisy?"
You know, the Native kids made negative comments about the White
kids' verhalness. Perhaps Natives associate loud talking with
aggressiveness and a White identity. That's really an interesting idea," he
mused.
These sophisticated teachers had a tendency to use Native students to advance their own
anthropological interests. Writing assioinients where the students were asked to describe their feeling in
the city replaced training in skills of analytic writing. Moreover, these teachers sotnetimes socialized
village students into the stereotyped fella Our that their anthropological studies had led them to expect:
Mr. N. was reading Indian poetry to the class in an affected tone. The
poems. written in pidgin English, illustrated the Indian value of modesty.
In explaining them. Mr. N. expanded. "Now this poem shows many of
the things we've laced about. We've commented on how most of the
Native people arm't aggressive. nowhere nearly as much as White
people. The idea f competition and bragging and boasting are alien to
them, and so we think of them as yen quiet and shy and insecure."
29
Them. teachers' fascination with cultural differences also led them to place Indian and Eskimo
students in a special category where they were mempt from the standards of behavior and academic
performance applicable to other him tan beings. Such misplaced kindness sleight teach the village student
to become dependent on the largess of Whites rather than on his own capacities:
After class, an Indian girl came sip to Mrs. I.. and told her that she had
been sick and had missed the last test. "What should I study for it?" she
asked. "I)on't worry." Mrs. I.. said kindly. "I'll make up a special test for
yon and you will do well on it." "But I don't know what to study," the girl
persisted. "I )on't worry," repeated Mrs.
basking in self-approval. "I'll
make it special for you. You'll do well."
Any form of deviant behavior among Native students was viewed as an expression of their culture which
the teacher should be wary of changing. For example, .,ne teacher described the case of a village student
who compulsively stole from other students and the teacher. The teacher believed that this behavior
reflected cultural values of sharing and communal ownership and saw the issue as one of "changing the
child's culture."
Type
"Sentlaventslists"
(Personal Warmth Passive Understanding)
These teachers tended to he extremely warns. kindly people who found it difficult to make
demands upon any students. village and urban alike. The urban students. taking advantage of the
teacher's weakness, tended to defy even his minimal requirements until the teacher reacted with
aggrieved anger. The Indian aid Eskimo students, in contrast, were usually too insecure to challenge the
teacher and valued his personal attentions. Thus, the sentimentalist teacher in the integrated classroom
found himself in a situation where he was behaving with angry irritation toward the urban students, who
defied him. but with great kindliness toward the Indian and Eskimo students, who permitted him to act
in the warm undemanding style he preferred. This apparent teacher favoritism in turn angered the
urban students. already resentful of the special treatment accorded village students in the school. This
complex interaction between the teacher and different student groups resulted in a situation where the
warmth of the teacher toward the village student was nullified by the hostility of urban classmates.
Mrs. M., an outcast among the other teachers because of certain oddities,
strongly identified with the village students. The students had arranged
themselves in a double circle. Two Native girls were sitting together
close to the teacher's desk in the inner circle with a number of empty
chairs separating them from the other students in this ;first circle. In the
back circle two Native boys were seated next to the other students.
Mrs. M. attempted to have the class discuss a movie she had lust shown.
"What do you think is happening?" she asked. There was no response
from the class. and Mrs. M. repeated the question. The class began to
make silly responses, teasing the `rasher, but she ignored them. In the
midst of the lesson, the teacher walked over to the two Native girls and
held a private conversation inaudible to the observer. The lesson stopped
as the teacher and the girls giggled together. When the teacher moved
away, the Native girls whispered to each other in Eskimo. Two Black
girls in the outer circle mocked the mineral Eskimo sounds, "bong,
Dona, Done The faces of the Native boys sitting next to them
contracted into stoic masks.
Extremely sympathetic to the academic difficulties of Native students in integrated classrooms and
wanting to be liked, sentimentalist teachers made few demands upon them. and little learning took
place.
30
An older Indian student sauntered into his last period chum sat down, and
stared out the window. Mrs. 0. came tip to him. put her ann around him.
and joked about a comment he had made. 1 le smiled back at her and told
her about his weekend. The lesson began and he returned to staring out
the window. Mrs. 0. made no attempt to induce him to participate in the
elasswork, although she continued to joke with him at intervals.
In a later interview, Mrs. 0. observed that she was very easy going and
believed in a laissez-faire theory of education. "After all. you can't make
students learn."
While the sentimentalist teacher in an integrated classroom could damage the Native student by
arousing urban students' resentments. the sentimentalist teacher in an allNative classroom did little
damage if little good. Indeed, the sentimentalist is reminiscent of l)umont's categorization of the "nice"
teacher who doesn't teach anything. The class generally performed trivial, workbook type assignments
that did not stretch their capacities.
Mrs. L.. a young teacher with a gentle smile, had given her ninth grade
students the assignment of tracing a map of Alaska. She wandered
around and joked with the students. After a while, she sat at a table and
began a totally unrelated game. "Who would like to make $10.00? Let's
Nee if you can do this match trick!"
Type IV: "Supporlive Gadflies"
(14asenel Warmth
Mtn Deaundlninses)
These teachers tended to he highly successful with both urban and village students in both
integrated and all-Native classrooms. The teaching style that elicited a high level of intellectual
participation with village students tended to be more obvious in all-Native classrooms because the
teacher could more easily emphasize certain behaviors. Similar methods were used more subtly.
however, in integrated classrooms. The teachers in this group have been given the ambivalent label
"supportive gadflies" to emphasize their demanding aspect, which many teachers find distasteful, as
well as their warm aspect, which many teachers find gratifying.
In contrast to most other teachers who plunged immediately into academic work, these teachers
spent a substantial amount of time at the beginning of the year establishing positive interpersonal
relationships, not only between teacher and students, but also within the student group. Interestingly, a
similar procedure is often recommended in cross-cultural training manuals. Frequently. task-oriented
westerners fail to accomplish their goals in a cross-cultural encounter because they attempt to begin
business at once. Members of other cultural groups often consider a lengthy period devoted exclusively
to establishing appropriate social relationships as a task prerequisite. Thus, these teachers might spend
the first days getting to know the students and helping them with nonacademic problems, such as how to
Find their classes or how to work the combination to their lockers. They also made sure that the students
knew each others' names. One teacher. for example, began the year by playing a game where each
student had to learn the name and village of each of the other students in the classroom and call them out
loudly enough to be understood. "Before we could bring them up in the academic area," one teacher
sun m ied up, "we tried to get theni to feel comfortable
dortable in the classroom. Once they feel comfortable, then
they catch up quickly."
Only after rapport had been established did these teachers become demanding. Demands.
however, were ineviteily accompanied by a warm smile. gentle teasing. and other forms of emotional
support. Thus. village students did not interpret the teacher's demandingness as bossiness but rather us
one more facet of his personal concern. For the village student. producing a high level of academic work
became a reciprocal obligation in a highly personal relationship. The emotional intensity between
31
teacher and student in many of the classroom encounters. where academic iterforinant. becomes
untied into the mutual obligations and privileges of personal bonds. is d if ficult to describe. One teacher.
for esample. made a solemn pact with a withdrawn boy. promising that she would stay with him and
help him find the answer as long as necessary if he would only try to say anything except "I don't know"
in response to every question.
Sometimes he would actually bite his tongue to stop from saying "I don't
know." Ile was so used to it. It had saved hint from his other teachers. I
know it was hard for him to translate everything hack and forth from
Eskimo and easy for him to avoid the situation by saying"' don't know."
lint we worked on it.
Unlike the sentimentalists, these teachers used personal rapport to increase academic performance:
Mrs. C. is an elegantly attired Native woman with a radiant smile. She sat
casually on top of a student's desk in the middle of the class and leaned
into the group of village students.
"Who can tell me what a topic sentence is?" She inquired, with an air
%nursling that this information was a secret to be shared between her
and the class. "I see one hand, two hands." She waited calmly. smiling at
the class with anticipation. "Three hands, four. O.K.. Tom." Tom
'umpired quietly. "Main idea." She smiled at hint waiting. Then she
learned toward hint and whispered in an intimate tone. "I can't hear
you." Hearing up in his seat with great effort, he repeated more loudly.
"MAIN IDEA." and slumped back beaming. Other students began to
call ma. "Thing you're going to write about." Very good," Mrs. C. said,
"Very. very good. Now, who would like to read their paper to the class?"
"Loud and clear, please," she added with decision.
In a later interview, Mrs. C. commented that her problem was not to get
village students to talk but to get them to keep quiet. "They're so eager,"
she explained. "even on deadly things like English grammar. They are
reluctant. but they will do it if you demand it. One of the kids came up to
me yesterday and said, "You act like a sergeant." "Yup." I said, "that's
exactly right."
While demanding a high level of intellectual participation. these teachers were highly supportive of
any attempt the student did make. They very cnnscionsly avoided even the most minor forms of direct
criticism. As one teacher said:
You know why they won't talk in class? Because every time they open up
their mouth somebody corrects them. We give them constant
reasslrance that mistakes don't matter You !hive to he 'unitive and try
not to say "no" or "wrong." I say "you're close or I change the question
to fit the answer. For example. if you say "What is a verb?" and they
answer "Name of a person. place. or thing." I say. "That's a beautiful
answer for the question What ha noun? and well talk about nouns later...
'Teachers often commented that what seemed to them to be the most and(' of critical remarks could
cause village students to retreat into silence indefinitely. Indian and Eskimo students' extreme sensitivity
to criticism may he due in part to cultural differences in the meaning of critical messages of similar
intensity. ( :riticism is traditionally conveyed through very indirect verbal messages or through subtle
non-verbal signals. Thus the village students are likely to interpret the direct criticisms mild by western
standards us much more severe than intended.
:12
These teachers used a number of different methods to avoid directly critici/iog students. Om of
these tehnique,. a strategy. common among Indian and Eskimo villagers. was to impersonalize a
situation w here a particular individual might be accused of wrong- doing. The w tong-doing is discussed
in the presence of the offender. but without personal reference to him. For example, at a village meeting,
the problem of getting work done in the community might he brought up without mentioning the names
of the Menders, who are sitting at the meeting and whom everybody knows. Similarly, a teacher
approaching a daydreaming village student might say not "Why did you close your hook?" but rather
"Why is that hook closed? Did the wind blow it shut?"
Another indirect method of criticism used by these teachers which is also common among Indians
and Eskimos, is the penetrating, direct stare. Teachers were often amazed at the sensitivity of more
traditional village students to this control strategy. Since it is a traditional disciplinary measure, teachers
learned to avoid a direct stare where disapproval was not intended, for example. in asking a question.
The penetrating gaze that White people commonly use to signal interest in the speaker may he
mtenneted by Indians and Eskimos as a display of anger.55
Inking was another was' these teachers expressed criticism. Humorous teasing is an extremely
important expressly.e mode among Indians and Eskimos because it provides a socially approved form
fur releasing strongly controlled agsression.56 The appropriate style is broad. straight-faced joshing.
Thus, a teacher might say to a misbehaving student in a tone that mocked not only the seriousness of the
rebuke. big also the teacher herself as a self-important White person who used big words. "lack. I am !N-
O('
of you what are you doing?" A practical fob.r strain is a core element of modal Indian
lwrsonality 54 and popular teachers found themselves chagrined victims of village students' of ten earthy
jokes. such as polling off the teaher's wig.
In integrated classrooms, these supportive gadfly teachers often structured the class in ways largely
for the village students' benefit. However. they avoided giving the students any special attention that
would attract the notice of the other students. For example, since the teacher had a difficult time using
village students' facial expressions or verbal responses to determine if they understood a concept. he
might ask a question and tell all students to write down the answer. Then he would go around the room
barely glancing at papers other than those of the village students. Similarly, realizing that the village
students often did badly on tests not because they did not know the information, but rather because they
could not understand the vocabulary or intent of the questions, these teachers might make up several
versions of the same test for all students. These teachers also tended to individualize Glasswork so that
jwrsonal tutoring of %dhote students could be accepted as a matter of course.
These teachers in an integrated classroom situation also controlled urban student's animosities so
that village students could participate without fear of being laughed at. Some teachers carefully headed
off anticipated hostilitsy by such remarks us "This is new to all of its so let's not be a critical audience."
Others attempted to increase the Native student's status in the classroom group by devising lessons that
emphasied his competencies. One science teacher, for example. found that the problem of urban
students* Hawking of village students abruptly stopped after he assigned a paper on how to survive if lost
while hunting A few teachers attempted to develop inter-group trust by assignments where urban and
village students worked together in teams. Resistance to this idea generally cause from the Native
students who protested. sometimes tearfully. that "the White kids don't like us."
33
Port V
CONCLUSION
This study suggests that the essence of the instructional style that elicits a high level of Intel:et-mai
performance from village Indian and Eskimo students is first to create au extremely wm in personal
relationship and then to present and press clear demands for high level of academic work. Village
students then interpret the teacher's academic demandingness not as bossiness ta- hostility. but rather as
an expression of his concern for them. Sleeting the teacher's academic standards becomes their
reciprocal obligation in an intensely personal relationship.
This study also suggests that those teachers who are effective with Indian and Eskimo students also
tend to he effective with urban students. However, the converse is not true. Teachers who are highly
successful with urban students may be unsuccessful with village students. Teaching village students is a
specialized skill w:iich many otherwise excellent teachers may not posess.
In the past. it has been the traditionalist teacher. especially the highly ethnocentric traditionalist.
who epitomized the undesirable teacher of Indian and Eskimo students. This type of teacher, with his
comical horror of eating fish soup rather than bacon and eggs for breakfast. can still he found. I lowever.
he is becoming an increasingly rare specimen in the cross-cultural classroom.
It is the sentimentalist and sophisticate teachers who are emerging as a new and perhaps more
insidious danger. These teaches may use Native students to gratify their own affiliative needs and
intellectual interests. 'they may socialize Native %talents into sophisticated cultural stereotypes. They
may stimulate prejudit 4. among other students by blatant Native favoritism. When village students make
little intellectual progress, 'hese teachers tend to rationalize their failure to teach by theories about
cultural preservation just as the traditionalist teachers rationalize their failure to teach by theories about
cultural deprivation.
'through what methods can schools improve the quality of teaching received by Indian and Eskimo
high school students? Pre - service and in-strvkr c.ross-cult ural education programs may be of some help.
'their effects, however, should not be overestimated. The impact of short-term training programs on
fundamental interyiersonal orientations. such as personal warmth. which may depend on early family
and peer group eqwriences94 is quite limited. Moremyr. unless carefully planned, these courses can
merely increase teacher( tendency to move toward the sophisticate instructional style. Teacher training
programs. however, can help teachers who find it dif (knit to communicate personal warmth to learn to
arrange their classrooms in informal ways that facilitate personal relationships with students. Moreover.
such training programs can also serve an important function in legitimizing active demandingness so that
teachers come to view high academic standards, not passive sympathy, as the appropriate expression of
their concern for Indian and Eskimo students.
Better methods of teacher selection can probably do a great deal to improve the quality of village
students' instruction. Th;s study suggests the dangers of relying primarily on slfselection to choose
teachers for Indian and Eskimo students. While the traditionalist teacher may indeed prefer to teach
other groups of students who are more task oriented. the sentimentalist and sophisticate teachers, as well
as the supportive gadflies, tend to volunteer for these teaching assignments. Moreover. sentimentalist
teachers are likely to impress school personnel favorably because of their obvious o:erwhelming
concern tos village students. Sophisticate teachers may make similarly good impressions because of their
excellent anthropological backgrounds. School personnel should he aware of both the personal warmth
and active demandimmess required of effective teachers of village students and avoid creating
classroom situations that are both demoralizing for the teacher and damaging for the student. It should
be recognized that eroculttiral teaching effectiveness is a special skill and is by no means the only
criterion of worth as a teacher.
:34
FOOTNOTES
An earlier version of this paper was made available to Alaskan teachers in the publication Effective
Teachers of Indian and Eskimo High School Students. (Institute of Social. Economic and Covernment
Research. Fairbanks. Alaska. 1972). This research was supported by the VS. Office of Education and
the Alaska Department of Education. This paper. in revised form, will be published in a Fall 1974 issue of
the University of Chicago's School Review.
I. M. L. Wax. R. H. Wax. and H.V. Dimumt. "Formal Education M an American Indian Community."
Supplement to Social Problems. 2141 (1964).
2.
Ibid.. ti. 75.
3.
R. Il. Wax and K.K. Thomas. "American Indians and White People," Phylon. 22 (1961): :105-317.
4. H.V. Dumont. "Cherokee Families and the Schouls," Indian Education. (Washington: Office of
Education. 19611): $1774014.
5. K.V. Dumont and M.L. Wax. "Cherokee School Society and the Intercultural Classroom." Human
Organisation. 26(3) (19611) 2I7-226. p. 223.
6. E.M. Albert. "'11w Classification of Valises: A Method and lUustration." American Anthropologist,91
(19561: 221-24h.
7.
M.1. Wax. H.J. Dumont, M. Dickman. P.F. Petit. and H.II. Wax. Indian Education in Eastern
Oklahoma: A Report of Fieldwork Among the Cherokee. Final Report (Washington: U.S. Office of
Education. 191191. p. 29.
6.
9.
Ibid.. p.
W. I. Collier. Film Evaluations of Eskimo Education. the National Study of American Indian Education.
Series Ill. (4). Final Report (Washington: U.S. Office of Education. 1970).
II. Ibid.. p. 79.
M.l.. Cogan. "The Behavior of Teachers and the Productive' Behavior of their Pupils: II 'Trait
Analysis.' Journal of Experimental Education. 27 (1959): 107-124.
12.
13. B.S. Bloom. Taxfniomy of Educational Objectives, (New York: David McKay. 19561.
14. See. for example. Wax. Wax. and Dumont (no. I above) and Dumont and Wax (no. 4 above).
15. C.D. Spindler and C.S. Spindler. "American Indian Personality Types and their Sociocidtmal
Hoots." American Indiana and American Life. The annals of the American Academy of Political and
Social Sciences, (1957): 147-157: J
Briggs. N ever in Anger:Portrait of an Eskimo Family. (Cambridge.:
Harvard University Press. 19701.
16. S.N. Eisenstadt. From Generation to Generation. (London: Collier-McMillan Limited. 1956).
17. H. Dreehen. On What is Learned in Schools, (Heading. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing
( ;ompany. 1966).
IN. D. Brown. Some Let (Is Learn. (Unpublished Bachelor's dissertation. Bennington College, 196N p.
38.)
35
19. II (:oomeron. "Problems I it Oklahoma l'onth from Traditional Indian !homes." Indian Education.
(11ashillithm: U S. Government Printing Office. 14(19): 846-8414 E.A. Punnet.. Excerpts from "Formal
Education and Culture Change: A Modern Apache Indian Community and Government Education
Programs. Indian Educatin. (Washington: S. (:overni tient Printing Office. 1909: 114 : -1228): W.K.
Poston. "Teaching Indian Pupils in Public Schools," Proceedings of a seminar. Mesa Public Schools.
Armona. April 27 Slav 2. 1907.
20.
C.S. Kemnitier. "11 hiteman Sledicine. Indian Medicine, and Indian Identity on Pine Ridge
Reservation. South Dakota." Indian Education. (Washington: Olive of Edoocation. 19119): 1307.1312.
21.
W. Richards. 'Counseling Eskimos." Unpublished paper. Alaska Native Sledical Center,
Anchorage. Alaska 1972.
c. Deponcim, Kabloona. (New York: Reynel and Ilithcock. 1941): MX. %int/. Education Arran
Cultures. IDubuilow. Iowa: Kendall Hunt. 19(43).
23. "An Interview with Walter Currie." The Indian News. December. 1970. p. 5.
24.
s/ A. Naves. An Investigatkm of the Behavioral Cues of Interperamal Warmth. (Doctoral
dissertation. University of Miami. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms, 1970, No. 70-18. 100).
ZS. E. Darwin. Zomumia, or the laws of Organic Life, Volume 1 (London: J. Joheson, 1794): 109-111.
Cited its A. Montagu, Touching: The Human Significance of Skin, (New York: Columbia University
Press. 1971).
28. B.C. hirelwhistell. Kinesies and Context. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania. 1970).
A.E. nippier and S. Conn, Traditional Northern Eskimo Law W.itts and Their Relationship to
Contemporary Problems of Bush Justice. (Fairbanks. Alaska: Institute of Social, Economic and
27.
Government Research. 1973.) forthcoming.
28.
Briggs. op. cit.
K. Pollacca. "W ays of Working with Navajos Who have Not Yet Learned White Man's Ways."
Journal of American Indian Education. 2(1) 11482):
29.
E.. Hall. Thr Hidden Dimension. (New York: Archer Books. 1909).
31. Ibid.
32. Montagu. op. cit.
33. Ibid.
34. V. Stefannson. My Life with the Eskimo, (New York: The MacMillan Co.. 1913).
35. J. Pender. Personal Communication. 1971.
I. Leach. "Culture as an Invisible Person." Cmss-Cultural and Community Involvement Training.
eds. A.R. Wright. M.A. Ilammons. and 11.1ling (Estes Park. Colorado: Center for Research and
38.
Education. 19091.
37. D.C. Hymns. Characteristics of Teachers, (Washington: American Council on Education. 1900).
39. Cogan. op. cit.
39.
WI. McKeahie and Y. Lin. "Achievement Standards. Debiliatating Anxiety. Intelligence. and
College Women's Achievement." Psychological Record. 19(1909): 457.459: W. J. Mc Keachie. Y. Lin. J.E.
Millholland. and H. Issacson. "Student Affiliation Motives. Teacher Warmth and Academic
Achievement." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 4 (1988): 457461.
all J.S. Kleinteld. "Classroom Climate and Verbal Participation of Indian and Eskimo Students in
Integrated Classroms." Journal of Educational Research. 67 (2) (1973): 51-52.
1.S Meinfe Id. "Effects of Nonverbal Iv Communicated Personal Warmth on the Intelligence Test
Performance of Indian and Eskimo Adolescents." Journal of Social Psychology. 91 (1973): 149-150.
41
I.S. Kleinfeld. "Effects of Nonverbal Warmth on the Learning of Eskimo and White Students."
Journal of Social Psychology. (1974): forthcoming.
42.
4'3. N. St. John. "Thirty-Mx Teachers: Their Characteristics and Outcomes for Black and White Pupils."
American Educational Research journal. 8 (4) (1971): 035-540.
44. McKeachie and Lin. op. cit.
45. McKeachie et al.. op. cit.
40. McKeachie and (.in. op. cit.
47. Wax and Thomas, op. cit.
4$
Ibid.: 14. Nelson. Hunters of the Northern ice. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 11109)
49. nippier and Conn. op. cit.
50.
A. E. !limiter and S. Conti. Tradition! Athabuscan law Ways and Their Relationship to
Contemporary Problems of "Bush Justice,"
(;oertinient Research. 1972).
51.
(Fairbanks. Alaska: Institute of Social. Economic and
Ilippler and Conn. op. cit. (no. 27 above).
52. 11.d. Reed. "Teacher Variables of Warmth. Demand. and Utilization of Intrinsic Motivation Related
to Pupil's Science Interests: A Studs Illustrating Several Potentials of Variance and Convariance,"
Journal of Experimental Education. 5831 11901): 205-226.
Kleinfeld. "Characteristics of Successful Boarding Home Parents to Eskimo and Athabascan
Indian Students." Human Organization. 32(2) (1973): 191.199.
53.
54. Richards. op. cit.
55. Zintz. op. cit.
50. Spindler and Spindler. op. cit: Briggs. op. cit.
57. Spindler and Spindler. op. cit.
50. 11.0. Reed. "The Effects of Teacher Warmth." Journal of Teacher Education. 2(3) (1901): 330-334.
:37
COVERT CLANS: FACTIONALISM AS AN
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATION FOR THE
ALASKAN BUSH TEACHER
MICHAEL. S. CLINE
Alaska Rural Teacher Training Corps
Univenky of Alaska, Fairbanks
People who live and work at the cultural interface are constantly beset with both physical and
cultural issues
which they are ill equipped to cope. Responses to these issues, generally falling under
the nibric of culture shock, make positive adjustment to village living complex. One of the more
pervasive, though covert, cultural influences on "outsiders" living in small Alaskan villages is the
existence of factions. How teachers and other outsiders identify and deal with these groups and how
these groups deal with them is a crucial factor in their acceptance by villagers. If a positive relationship
with some villagers has not developed, most teachers will seek a iransfer or leave the bush altogether.
Whether or not factionalism has conic into play may not be known by outsiders or even teachers
themselves. but normally villagers will have had an influence in the decision. In order that this process be
better understood this paper examines the development of factions in one village and their subsequent
impact upon a series of teachers.
The author lived in the village described for two years and. as teacher, conducted informal research
on factional activity. Subsequent interviews with previous teachers and villagers provided further
information concerning village and leacher it .eraction.
Further. in each of the five rural Alaskan villages where the author has lived, factions have been in
evidence. Discussions with teachers and agency people who have made contact in other villages reveal
that factional activity s common throughout bush Alaska! Anthropologist George Foster states that
devisiveness is the case wherever rapid cultural change is occuring:
Rapid change frequently promotes divisive tendencies in traditional
groups, thus making cooperative efforts even more difficult than under
preexisting conditions ... Faced with many new choices, as are today's
villagers, the opportunities for differing judgments are vastly increased,
wit!, resulting conflicts in opinions (1969:119).
.
Many anthropologists have discussed the stresses of working and living in another culture (Colde
1970. Powdennaker 1968, Briggs 1970) but they have not described their involvement with village
factions; this is such an attempt. The paper is offered as a partial answer to Wintrob's excellent question:
What practical means could be utilized to extend the fieldworker's
understanding of his own psychological needs and responses. and to
broaden his understanding of the psychological significance of the
reactions of the people he sets out to study? (1909:76).
The author will be using Nicholas' description of factions (1985:27.29). Factions are politically
conflicting groups, not corporate groups. They are recruited by leaders who use diverse principles to
pursuade their followers, Factional activity consists of an issue of conflict and recruiting of memb yrsby
leaders concurrent with "battling" of the two sides. Eventually one side wins
issue and has it desires
An earlier paper if :line and !.anser. 11001) examines the et feels of factionalism or the intercultural teacher using case studies f
three Alaskan hush villages
39
dell
II
ill ma! membership may then diminish or become iMyna nt until another In ;int of (grating
arises at which time the process repeted, perhaps with different actors on differing issues with
(littering results. Nattier, group, clang side. and other divisive terms used will all refer to faction as
defined above. Factionalism, then dieters from alliance as described by (41emple and others (Cuemple
1471:2) since it is not institutionalized though its content is negotiable between actors. It also differs in
that alliance forms ( marriage, partnerships. spouse exchanges, and the like) are means to draw disparate
social segments into articulation and prodnce stability, whereas factionalism is a means of infighting.
'Phis paper is organized in tots parts: background, factions and the teacher, a closer view of teacherfaction interaction, and a discussion.
Background
The village of DON (a pseudonym) is located on a major river in the interior of Alaska and consists
of about 140 Athapascan Indian residents. The town itself has been in existence 20 years. Prior to that
tune a smaller village was located upriver, but most families lived there only temporarily as they spent
most of their time at other fishing. hunting, and trapping camps. Early white contact was made by
Russian explorers and a Russian trader established a semi-permanent fur trading camp further south
along the river for a few years. In the earls: 1900 permanent white contact was made in the region by
two trapper-trader-miners. Smith and Johnson, who settled in different locations along the river and
took local wives. Eventually Johnson left the area but his sons remained. By the 1940's the people desired
more direct contact with white see iety and agitated for a school, airstrip, and post office but agency
people told them higher ground must be found before these could he constructed because of periodic
Hooding in their current location. The people discussed moving the village to a new site.
The present village location was chosen by James, the young son of Trader Johnson, because it was
higher than the surrounding country and met the criteria established by agency people. Trader Smith
and his wife. Lilly, were reluctant to move from their old location. In an attempt to prevent the move
Trader Smith reported to federal marshalls that James was planning to run gambling games in the new
village. James had to make a trip to Fairbanks in order to clear himself and declared, "If that old man
won't move his store where the pm nvie want to live, we'll build a store of our own!" Under thispressure
Trader Smith moved, asking for and receiving help from villagers in building his new store. Shortly after
this a school was constructed, an airstrip built, and a post office established.
Eventually another store was started by James but within a year his store burned down. Trader
Smith died and, as the years passed. more active competition grew between Lilly and James. A "co-op"
store was formed by James and his friends. Lilly was postmaster, welfare agent, airline agent, and the
village radio operator, and she operated a lodge and sold electricits . James ran a pool and pan hall, the
village movie theater, and sold electricity as well as informally managing the co-op store.
In terms of thc factional alignments which developed each of the two leaders usually rece;ved initial
support from his close relatives. In Lilly's case this generally meant her two married brothers. James
drew support from his brother and the families of his first two wives. However, apart from this, other
factional members were recruited on different grounds such as the personality of the leader and the
conflict involved. James had an advantage in this respect in that he was an aggressive young man with a
vibrant personality. Villagers would often congregate in his pool and pan hall to listen to hint tell stories
and legends and to discuss a s ariety of subjects. Lilly vitted rarely and did her recruiting in her store
when Iveople carne' to get until, welfare checks, or groceries. Being friends with her assured one of store
credit and welfare assistance if it was needed.
Of the twenty -four households in Dolbi. James could normally count on support from ten young
active heads of households. Lilly received support from si'c families, all of whom were middle-aged or
nit
a'1 'IA,' a% thy% exiiit III Arms% of unif041 %iiiitheinterti
41)
t'5
in this village
older. Some I if these may have given her support because they had traded with her husband. There were
also six apparently neutral families who generally preferred to stay mit of the battling and became
aligned only under extreme pressure.
hay the time of this study it appeared that Lilly's prestige was gradually diminishing. Apparent
pressure tram the other side was causing her to lose some of her agency roles the health aide received
"her own" radio and another person was made welfare agent With the exception III
son. nearly all
the voung people in the village supported James' side. For example. the village council president and a
majority of the council elected by villagers were always supporters of James.
Villages' houses clustered about the homes of tames and I Ally and the visiting patterns reflected
alliances of varicus
11 hen an issue arose the two sides "battled" until one side had won or a
more inn n emit subject of mid het surfaml. Generally such conflicts were related to outside agencies
such as nunanuil of the radio. mail service. welfare payments. or school
.Acording to
villagers. letters were continually helmt written to outside agencies to insure that equitable treatment for
all villagers was maintained.
Villagers' life style revolved around seasonal activities. During the summer men fought fires.
worked as riverboat pilots, or worked on a gold dredge while their wives and children fished. At this time
of vrcr factional activity diminished greatly. In the fall. winter and spring villagers resumed residence in
their log cabins in the village and hunted and trapped. It was at this time of year factional activity
flourished.
Factions and the Teacher
The first teaching couple to remain in the village more than two years was apparently well liked.
When they first came Lilly. whose husband had rmently died, became close friends with them, visiting
often and confiding in them concerning her own economic' status. When a year or so later she became
interested in a white construction worker who visited the village. the teachers found themselves
interacting more with members of the miler side. They Felt that Lilly's new husband not only divided her
from them but also separated her lurther from the other side. They saw themselves as belonging to
lames' group. In their fifth year they were joined by a third teaeher, as young unmarried woman who
remained in !NAN for the next (ice years. The teaching couple lett at the end of that year so that their
daughters might attend high school. No apparent pressure was exerted on them to leave by either group.
The single teacher remained and a couple in their fifties was sent in to teach. This couple
immediately became close friends with Lilly and her new husband, saying they did not trust anyone else
in the village. which ultimately seemed to include the other teacher. '('hey bought Attuir groceries from
her store and interacted of tii with her, apparently feeling that it the trader was on their side they would
be safe politically. hher villagers, however, noted many idiosyneracies of this couple who never visited
them and only rarely accepted villagers in their home (carefully cleaning utter they had gone) and who
said: "You can't trust these Indians. All of them are out to get you." Whether they brought this view with
them or it was conditioned by Lilly is not known. The single teacher warned them to keep their door
locked when there was drinking in the village as she had heard threats 'against them. Hy this time the
sinttlr teacher had developed close relationships s ith several women in James' group, if for no other
reason than the couple did not interact with her. Hy midyear James' mink irters were outrsigeti with this
couples one-sided behavior and without the teachers' knowledge. the advisory scluail board, which was
then composed of James' faction. wrote a letter asking that the teaching couple be removed and that the
single teacher remain. School board's wishes were I allowed at the end of the year and James' faction saw
that their action% did count. For the first time factional muscles had been flexed on teachers.
Another couple was Wilt in to teach with the single teacher the following year and. again, !Ally
worked ai developing close relationships with the new teachers by hauling their supplies, taking them
hunting and sight Weilli4 and knifing them In dinner often. However, as the year progressed, these
teachers became increasingly disenchanted us they listened to what the other side said about how Lilly
41
ran the' post of lice and served as welfare agent. Further. they helped James' side begin the co-op store.
By the end of the year they were identified with James' faction. but partly because of the political
battling and a variety of other rintsons, not the least of which was culture shock. they left the village
o:mitarilv. Again the single teacher remained.
At this point the single teacher had lived in the village for three years, enjoying a positive relationship
with James' side. but as her stay lengthened she noted Lilly seemed to become more critical of her. She
found herself in disagreement with Lilly over several issues such as postal policies, welfare, store
policies. and use of the Public Health Service radio
all issues that James' faction had apparently
brought to her attention.
A young couple joined the faculty next and. in spite of overtures made to them by Lilly and her
husband. they became increasingly allied with James' group. They were interested in dog team racing
and better dog nutshell belonged to James' group. In addition, they helped the new co-op store order
supplies and figure out prices. Thus, they interacted almost exclusively with members of James' faction.
All three of the teachers were allied with James' side and from time to time had minor conflicts with Lilly
over postal hours and sending mail with friends. They also ordered their groceries from Seattle, buying
occasionally at the co-op store and hardly ever at Lilly's. At the end of two years the couple decided to
move to a different village and the single teacher transferred to a one-teavher school. It was clear that if
any of the teachers had wanted to stay they could have. for they had the support of the major faction.
However. after the single teacher transferred Lilly commented: "That teacher was here too long. She's
too one-sided and I wrote the state about it too. Any teacher that acts like that had better look out. We
wrote about others too," flow important her letters were is not known. but undoubtedly they hadsome
impact for an administrator who visited the village the following year told the new teachers: "You have
to watch it in this place, you can't be too much on one side or the other, Otherwise the other side will get
you. It's happened several times here."
A Clout Vim of T000hopfrootion Intonation
It has been seen that each teacher to come to the village was aligned in the village political scene and
the following year proved to be no exception. Three new teachers were assigned to the school, a middle-
aged single man with several years teaching experience in the vicinity of Dolbi who was designated as
head teacher, and a young couple with one year Alaskan hush teaching experience. In discussions with
the other teachers prior to the beginning of school the head teacher revealed that he was aware of "things
going on in Dolbi." (apparent factional activity) and he stated. "I'm not going to get caughtin it at all. I'm
just not going th participate. That way no one can accuse me of being on the 'other side'." Ile told them
that he had made friends with the school board chairman (an important member of James' group) and
also with Lilly while he lived in a nearby village, thus assuring his neutrality. Largely upon his advice the
couple also decided to remain neutral.
Prior to the opening of school a village meeting was held to elicit bids from villagers fur the hauling
of schottl supplies from the river barge to the school. Sealed bids were submitted from three sources: one
from each side and one from another individual. When the bids were opened by the head teacher at the
meeting. he noted that one bid did not include all of the supplies, lie called the bidder, a representative
from Lilly's side. to the front of the assembly to qualify his hid. James followers promptly challenged
this action with hitter comments directed to each other and to the head teacher. The head teacher
perceived himself as being caught in the middle of the controversy, but some villagers commented later
that he had attempted to help Lilly's side. "We saw him do that. fie tried to help them because he knows
them better."
This inuuspiciots start notwithstanding. and in contrast to normal small village activity, the head
teacher made effort% to demonstrate his intent at non-involvement in village affairs. He pulled the shades
in his quarters and refused to answer the' door to visitors. lie emerged only to teach school. and to get or
send mail, and to put chase food. At first he purchased food from Lilly's store because it was closest to his
quarters. but when th ^ teaching couple informed him they had been asked, "Why does that guy buy only
42
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Every community has its difficult individuals and even the most
svmpathvtic friends sometimes interpret one's actions in ways other than
one can anticipate.
Errors are often componnded, without one's
knowing what is happening. These situations call For calm analysis. One
must think through the rights and wrongs of the various actors involved,
the sanctions available to each, the probability that these might he
applied, and the extent of damage that could ensue. Sensitivity to others'
discomfort is essential, though sometimes difficult to achieve in a cultural
context one understands only partially. (198937).
Pe Ito has rightly pointed out that because there are great differences among communities and the
personalities of intercoltural workers vary greatly, it is impossible to prescribe the social management
side of fieldwork (19711:2251. On the other hand, greater awareness of elements which will he confronted
needs to be developed. These elements generally fall into the areas of role behavior and sensitivity to the
local political scene.
With regard to village factional activity, there appear to heat least five general categories to which
the intercultural worker might address himself: the cultural history of villagers, including village-white
interaction; expectations of villagers for outsiders' behavior; the question of neutrality; the normal
course of factional activity; and involvement of non-resident bureaucrats in factional disputes.
What is the Cultural History of the Region?
Ii the teachers who entered the village of DON had known. for example, information presented at
the beginning of this paper their attention might have been drawn to related elements still existing in the
village, e.g.. the existence of two factions.
Through discussions with villagers and others, one can get an idea of how villagers have related to
their predecessors. In addition to becoming acquainted and providing a topic for conversation with
villagers, the teacher can learn how long teachers stayed, why they left, and what villagers currently
think about them. For other intercultural workers whose roles have no precedent, greater flexibility may
be allowed, but it is still important to learn how other outsiders have been involved in the village. in this
study :1 of I I teachers left as a result of factional pressure. All the others became involved in factional
politics and, argely because they allied with the stronger side. they had the option to stay. The other side,
however. did have recourse and may have been influential in the movement of at least three other
teachers.
What Role Expectations do Villagers told for the Intercultural Worker?
Villagers have different concepts of a good teacher than the image most teachers carry with them.
To villagers a good teacher is one who not only does the right things in the classroom, but more
importantly he does the right things apart from the school. Wintrob states: "The ease with which the
fieldworker develops rapport is largely determined by the role image he creates in the ;nimbi of his
informants and the community as a whole." (1989:891 The teacher shows that he is interested in village
affairs and villagers themselves by participating as they do. If he does not develop positive relationships
with at least some of the people, when he makes mistakes he will have developed no positive credit and
thus he will prohably he viewed negatively. Further cultural errors will prompt action to either socialite
him, or. as in two cases described. through the vehicle of factionalism, get rid of him. As Saherwal states:
Upon entering the field situation as a stranger, one has to develop a
complex and extensive network of social relations rapidly. To maintain
these relations in good repair requires a wide range of interpersonal
sensitivity and response capacity. A fund of human sympathy is useful. It
is also necessary to translate this sympathy into acts which your neighbors
will recognize to be acts of good will. It takes some trial and error, but
given the intent, one van usually find the form (1989:58.
44
people seem to have a sixth sense about judging the intent of an outsider. 'They may not
understand his words, but they observe his actions. and it they judge hint to be acting inappropriately
they will iittempt to socialite him. Considerable role flexibility is given at first. but resistance to
socializing efforts will ultimately bring about reprisals in the font) of rejection.
As the only white man living in a village and one who is responsible her the formal education of the
childr. the teacher is placed in a role of 'nue+ greater importance than he often realizes. Attempting to
deal with people he dues not know presents an entwine'y comities task. especially when he realizes that
what he says may be used as political ammunition against himself or the other side. Reeause of his
importance each faction sees it is to their advantage to have the teacher (or other outsider) On its side and
considerable effort may be made to recruit him. Such efforts may be in the form of favors done for the
teacher. taking him on hunting and fishing trips. visiting over coffee, giving him gifts of meat or local
crafts. and other activities. Their intent is to draw him into the village mutual aids and obligations system
and. tinw specifically. to align him with their group.
Further complicating the issue is the question: what is appropriate role performance.? Amending to
Cetera'. Foster I 111Mit 2,11 this is something that can only he measured in relation to other people. Where
factions exist appropriate performance May depend upon the individual one asks, or as in several
instances described. how each faction or factional leader views the actions. If one side thinks it's good,
the other IlaY reject it simply on those grounds.
Is Neutrality Possible?
Although political non-involvement of a type advocated by one teacher described may he a viable
alternative in an urban school setting, it is not in a hush community. The teacher is simply
too important
an addition to the village political scene to remain uninvolved. Further. mans. of the decisions he makes
are political in nature. For example. when the head teacher asked one person to qualify his bid, his
actions were perceived by the other side as helping the faction that person represented. Ilk argument
with the manager of the co-op store was another act viewed by people on that side as a rejection of them.
Ills neutrality was such that neither group viewed him as neutral.
Normally teachers feel that if they "do their soh in the classroom" other relationships will take care
of themselves. Somehow they will he able to rise above village affairs. In light of the previous example,
this is not possible'. Typically. white people and especially teachers like to make their positions
on issues
known, vet in village affairs it may be' best for them to remain silent on many issues. Ultimately,
however. the teacher will make some' decisions
overt or covert. school-related or not
which will ally
him with one group or the other. The longer he stays the greater is the likelihood of this happening.
What it the Course of Factional Activity?
Returning to Nicholas' description of factions (1945:27-29): Factions are recruited by leaders who
use diverse principle's 1) pursitade their followers. James and hilly recruited their followers on the basis
of kinship. issue, personality. and et'o
Recruiting was informal, as was the group itself. Factions
are politically conflicting groups, not corporate groups. Once the issue of conflict had surfaced both
sides worked to enlarge their following and to win their point. Factional battling occurred
concerning
the movement of at least three teachers. It was at this stage the involved bureaucracy was brought in
to
settle the issue which they did by transf-:Ing the teachers. Thus the winning faction realized
its goal and
both sides revognited that their itch.. is carried weight.
How May
tmrcauerats be Drawn into Factional Disputes?
Discussions with bureaucrats reveal that when they receive communications from villagers they are
placed in a difficult position for many of them recognize that the letters may represent (tidy
one point of
view. Further. if they act immediately as that group desires they niay be seen as an ally of that village
faction. which is the intent of the hatter. The problem becomes compounded when the other side also
45
writes letters criticising aetion taken and asking support for their views. Many bureaucrats wisels do as
little as possible until they can gain more information. Occasionally. thus_ witlahaw entirely. leaving
villagers to work out their own solution.
However, when the success of the bureaucratic mission in the village seems jeopardized, a more
immediate solution is sought. An administrator travels to the village and attempts to gather more
information before making a decision. The factional leaders then attempt to "fill the ear" of the
administrator. substantiating their cases and giving him much information that may not he related to the
issue. At this point teachers often become very defensive concerning their actions and in many cases will
disagree with administrative decisions. However, regardless of the NO that there are two sides to the
issue. because of the agitation, teacher transfer is usually re eommended as the solution (Cline 1972:14In the final analysis it is curious to note that in rural Alaska much talk revolves about g;ving advisory
school hoards power to make important decisions concerning their schools and teachers. If the case
above may serve as an example. the community. through its factions and its advisory Imam already has
the power: they simply do not exercise it with the same process outsiders might expect. As Fn.:ter states:
Client peoples, then, have enormous powers over the professionals who
work with then,, even though usually they don't appreciate this fact.
They have the power to grant or to withhold the evidence of ability
which is so important to the professional. Ile, in most instances. also does
not fully appreciate this psychological element in his relationship to
members of the client group, although subconsciously at least he senses it
(1969:124).
Contrary to the opinion of these who feel their effects, village factions may in fact create a positive
influence, for they serve as a political mechanism to make known the wishes of a group of people.
Further, it may he that factional disputes will diminish as this mechanism gives way to other more formal
means of local decision making.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Heals. Alan R.. and Bernard J. Siegal
1966 Thrash eness and Soria! Conflict. An Anthropological Approach. Stanford: Stanford
'niversity Press.
Briggs. lean I..
1970 Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family. Cambridge: Harvard I iniversity Press.
Buira. Janet M.
1973 The Dynamics of Political Action: A New Look at Factionalism. American Anthropologist
75:132.152.
Chance. Norman A . editor
I Yfiti Contliet in Culture: Problems id Developmental Change Among du, Cree.
Research Centre fur Anthropology. Saint Paul University.
(line. Michael S.
1972a "The Impact of Formal Education Upon the Nunamiut Eskimos of Anaktuvuk Pass. Alaska: A
Case Study." University of Oregon: Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation.
46
(line. Michael S.
1972b "Village Socialization of the Bush Teacher." The Northian. Winter 1972. Saskatoon.
Saskatchewan: IL iniversity of Saskatchewan.
(line. Michael S.. and Douglas S. Moser
1972 Combating the Effects of Factionalism Upon the Intercultural Teacher. Unpublished paper.
Foster. George M.
1969 Applied Anthropology. Boston: Little. Brown and Comps Py.
Gold,. Peggy. editor
1970 Women in the Field. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company.
(:uemplr. Lee. editor
1W1 Alliance in Eskimo Society. Seattle and London: American Ethnological Society. University of
Washington Press.
Nicholas. Ralph W.
Factions: A Comparative Analysis. in A.S.A. Monograph 2: Political Systems and the
1)istribution of Power. Michael Banton. Ed. London: Tavistock. pp. 21.81.
1965
Pelto. Pertti J.
1970 Anthropological Research: The Structure of Inquiry. New York: Harper & Row. Publishers.
Powdermaker. Hortense
1966 Stranger and Friend: The Way of an Anthropologist. New York: W.W. Norton & Comp,iny,
Inc.
Saberwal. Satish
1969 Rapport and Resistance Among the Embu of Central Kenya (1963-1964). In Stress and
Response in Fieldwork. Franc... ilenry and Satish Saberwal, Eds. New York: Holt. Rinehart
and Winston. pp. 47-62.
Williams. Thomas Rhys
1967 Field Methods in the Study of Culture. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Wintrob. Ronald M.
1969 An Inward Focus: A Consideration of Psychological Stress in Fieldwork. In Stress and
Response in Fieldwork. Frances Henry and Satish Saberwal, Eds. New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston. pp. 63.78.
47
A CLASSROOM IS NOT A FISH CAMP
JOHN COLLIER, JR.
California State University
San Francisco
.
The concern of this paper is the training of Native teachers and the adaptation of Native learning
processes to the classroom. This writing comes out of research and speculation as to why education for
Native Americans has largely failed.
The circumstances mentioned are drawn from a small sample of observations in Alaska and on the
Navajo reservation. There are numberless American Indian teachers I have never met. The backgrounds
of Indian personalities are very diverse and modify any observations I have to make. But probably this
diversity does not radically alter the challenge facing Native American education
problems of teaching skills. content. and goals for learning.
the multiple
Let's examine what Native teachers bring to a classroom. Regardless of expertise. their presence in
the classroom quiets the stress and increases the confidence of Indian children. Even when they emulate
White teachers, their roles are acceptable and offer an image of Indian accomplishment that in itself can
make education more realistic for many children. But this human accomplishment may not be enough to
adequately meet the needs of Native students.
The challenge of Indian education is that we generally agree on why it has failed, but remain
confused on its practical solution. Its failure is in the destructive impact of white education on Native
children. This culture shock appears to divide children from self and it degrades children's most
formative years of environment and family. But even more threateningly, it can distract and destroy
cognition. The effect of this "jangling" is sluggish thinking, lowered achievement in school and later in
adult life. This disfigurement has been seen for many years and has obscured further causes of failure
which may impede the educational emergence of many Native peoples. One of the major concerns has
been the reality that problems do not automatically disappear when the schools are run by Indian people
themselves.
Many observers, both Indian and White. feel that removing the White teacher from the school and
allowing Native culture to dominate the curriculum will solve many of the basic faults of Indian
education. What could defeat such ideal means?
Any development must take place amid the history of Indian personality and acculturation, as well
as his survival needs in .modern life. Today, we should look critically at this part of the process.
Acculturation is largely the history of White education for Indians. We meet the Indian student for the
first time as a prisoner of war in a militar:!v administered school. Next we see him as the object of
of Christian missionaries who further assaulted the Indian self. White idealists
salvation
underestimated the effect of negative acculturation, which is the fundamental core of failure of Indian
development.
It is enlightening that the character of failure was recognized and acted upon as far back as the
1930's. in the Roosevelt years. Rudimentary blocks that are so obvious now were recognized by
reformers in the IllA then. Emphasis was shifted from boarding school education to Day Schools in
Indian communities. Curriculum readers were published in several Indian languages. Schools were
designed as community centers where Elders were invited to be resources in the classroom. But for
various political reasons, these programs were not sustained and the dilemma of Indian education
remained. In the 1950's the situation was so shocking that the Bureau of Indian Affairs hired Robert
Havinghurst to make a sweeping national survey of Indian education. In 1968. the U.S. Office of
Education hired Havinghurst to make a second national survey of even greater depth of the education of
49
Indian ehiklren wherever they were in school. on or off the reservations. Hut the second report was in
many ways the same as the first
fifteen years later. India,' children were still failing to get an adequate
education no matter where they were in schools. The significant difference between these two
evaluations. spanning fifteen years of effort was that the ft. st survey was generally directed toward
White teachers of Indian children whereas the re commendatie ns of the second study were directed also
to Indians *eaching Indians.
Despite political vacillations and educational ineptitudes, there has been au increasing Indian
emergence since the New Deal for the American Indian nearly 40 years ago. There have been
revolutionary developments in Indian sophistication and expertise. The experience of the Second World
War gave toany Indians a world view as well as further training in ikchnologies. The CI Hill of Rights
placed rifi.lans in trade schools and universities in fields of law. administration. and anthropology, Other
minorit), groups. the Mexican-Americans. Afro-Americans. and Oriental. Americans have also
demanded recognition and opportunity and their militancy has given further support to the Indians'
demand for a separate American identity.
Some Indian communities have taken on the education of their own children. The Teacher Corps in
Alaska has the first program of putting credentialed Native teachers in the tundra and forest schools. Will
these joint developments solve the problem? Certainly they will ease the hardship. but with equal
importance they make real for the first tinee the actuality of Indian teachers in the classroom as a practical
undertaking.
After five years of research of Eskimo and now Navajo education, the failure of Native American
schooling seems more serious than it ever was. It seems no longer just an Indian problem. but an
experience affecting all minority people who are dominated by White power. As the cold war turns into
battle. I we this conflict increasing. I see White power, that I call education, interfering in Native welfare
everywhere: bombs destroying villages in Indo-China. White education destroying Eskimo villages in
Alaska by moving these hunter-fishing people into the concentration of city slums in Anchorage and
Seattle. In the same way, education is also destroying Spanish-American villages of New Mexico. Always
the White rationale is the same
economic reality, productivity and progress the philosophy never
changes. I see White education leveling smaller cultures, leaving Native peoples in a retarded vacuum.
and lowering the working intelligence of the colonialized world. Outwardly this is accomplished by
economic and political exploitation. but inwardly it is the colonialization of the Native mind.
As an anthropologist. I am beginning to see American Indian schooling not as education, but as a
process of either negative or positive acculturation, We should ask, "What could be a positive
development of acculturation?" Not assimilation nor an idealistic return to The Old Ways, but certainly a
retaining of a special identity and a vitality of personality in the ever-changing process of world
development. When the question is asked, "Why have Native education or Native American studies'"
we are also asking. "N by he unique? Why he an individual? What is the contribution to self and society in
retaining difference?"
White educators of Indians might not share the same roads or the same goals as Native teachers or
Indian community school hoards. We may both he coming from different directions. Frequently. the
ideal educator and the anthropologist see the need to preserve and strengthen through education what
we' feel we have lost in the cultural privations of modern life. Hut Indians can see education as a means to
gain something they have never had.
Realistically. reservations no longer sustain the Indian. and like other ethnic minorities, they are
coining to the cities for employment. They are not demanding just equal education, but equal roles and
an equal future. For survival. Indian communities. both rural and urban. now require a genuine role in
political life and a sophisticated knowledge about living in the White world. Do we dodge this reality of
50
education hr giving control of the school to the (mmunities and Native teachers? This is a power
transfer of great significance. but it does not in itself insure these insights.
Can Native community teachers accomplish what W hite teachers fail to do in their schools -teaching for emotional and economic survival in the technological society? I iind Indian community
leaders as divided as to what Indian children should learn as many White specialists. We created the
problem and therefore should help master its solution. For this reason. I feel we are committed to sharing
in the solutions of this mutual dilemma. I see Indian education as an Indian/White collaboration to meet
the newels of a multieultural world.
What can Indians do at this late hour to help themselves educationally and how should we help itt
this self-determination? It would not be unreasonable to find that ancient cultures do not have the
traditions necessary for dealing with the complexity of our technological culture and all the problems it
has created. It would clarify to consider what Indian or Eskimo teachers have to offer traditionally in
training for survival in the indigenous world, and today in the modern environment. What is the genius of
Indian awareness and sensibility? How was the genius learned? The question asks, what is a Native
school? But tint, what is eduction for peoples in a whole and functioning environment?
I believe that the growing child learns consistently through the life process. Schools as practical
renters for life education seem very recent. In the near and far past. formal learning institutions save
done for students just about everything, but give them sound survival expertise. Schools have be
esoteric. The formalized Native hush schools of Africa described by Mark Ilium Watkins' were more
eoncerned with mastering roles and mystique than with practical learning. The early European school
fundamentally taught Creek and I.atin. two already dead languages. The early American school. beyond
mastering rudimentary literacy. studied one book, the Bible. and learning to read was therefore also
mastering a moral code.
Possibly among the Native American models of the functional shocl. was the Eskimo kashgee
(Men's House)
like the longhoese of the Indians of the Northwest Coast. Here boys gathered with
men. watched and mastered tdtills, and lister"' to the wisdom of the group. Maybe here we mild find
the Native teacher and the relevant curriculum of education we are seeking. But the ka.shitees were
destroyed hr the missionaries. so where are these teachers today?
In Alaska. we could find them in the slimmer fish camps and on the Navajo in the isolated sheep
camps. provided of course. ecological opportunities still existed. One challenge of promoting Native
teachers is transferring both the learning cirminstances and instructive wisdom into the contrivance of
contemporary schools. Schools now are dominated by the White linear processes which deal with intim.
economic success goals. The tearhe'r from the fish camp might be inadequate in these schools unless the
goals and processes are radically changed to include and give equal value to his unique wisdom and
fulfillments. What is known briefly about Indian education in the undisturbed Native circumstance
suggests where the Native teacher is coming from and what he might need in order to teach in a school. In
the hush. where survival is mastered. "experience is the he teacher" describes the style of learning of
many Indian groups. The classroom was the forest, seacoast or desert. The curriculum was the !Process
that caviled learning to conclusion and corrected the faults of the apprentice. How did the Native teacher
transfer this wisdom? I )id he lecture. draw diagrams. make getting the sheep out to gray
imaginative
game to lure the student into the lesson? The informational procedure was probably terse in verbal
explanation and highly non - verbal in demonstration. With hungry sheep bleating in the corral.
motivation was spontaneous and self-fulfilling in the omission goals for survival. Sheep are the full
relevancy of life. The grating becomes the learning process an-I the sheep become the teachers''
the learner through complex circumstances of decision, concentration and perseverance.
itituration t Culture. (win's,. stismiler
51
Icad
I NI ring dia,' reduction to curb soil erosion on the Navajo, women would rise in the council hall and
bite engineers. "Who will educate our children if you takeaway the sheep?" In of feet they were
saving. if you destroy our cultural process. the children will have no editeation.
TI alas. many Navajos do not have sheep. but they do have pick-up trucks. awl some of this learning
ask the
process has shifted to maintaining trucks. This has retained some of the native style of learning of
Navajos.
A White doctor knew a Navajo woman who could fix cars expertly. The doctor asked his
acquaintance. "Are yon teaching your kids to fix cars?" "Yes, I teach them." "flow are' you doing this?"
"Well. it's like this ... 'Johnny, out see that is a car. Now you climb under and lay there until you see how it
works. When vim figure out how it works, yon can fix it. Now get under that car'. Yes. I'm teaching
them." 'I'he strength and success of this education were the goals of confidence and ingenuity.2 Indian
children, as maybe all children growing up in nature. are trained pragmatically to solve problems
independently. Life survival iquestionably often hangs on this ability.
As an example, there was an Indian youth who was going deer limiting and he laid out his plans to his
father and elders.
agreed it was good he was going deer hunting, but they offered him no particular
advice. "I told my folks I was going to ride to a river, cross .t. and hunt deer in the hills on the other side
where I knew there would be game. My daddy never told me I couldn't get across that river. You know,
I'm really grateful my daddy let me find this out for myself. I am so glad they never told site what to dn."
The river was the lesson, and no doubt a great deal was learned in meeting this challenge that never conk!
3
have been given by direct advice.
Today Navajo and Eskimo processes have deteriorated. The learning environment for the child is
no longer as enriched s it was a generation ago. I lave Navajo adults, therefore changed their style of
educating their children? Or are Navajo children in nerd of a new set of processes for learning, along
with a new style of teacher? And what about a center like the kashgee or hmghouse? This center could he
the conummit school, but would it have the self-fulfilling curriculum of the traditional fish camp? It
may have none of these experiences unless contrived by the Native teacher. This, of course. could
happen. This ability to create a learning atmosphere could be learned as well as re-expressed from the
wealth of Indian /Eskimo culture.
liesourves and styles are not the same group to group. There could be a great difference between
Athahaskan Indians and Alaskan Eskimos. In tradition, Eskimos are masters of contrivance: drama and
mime historically were a major community recreation. On film, a pair of minimally trained Eskimo
women teachers appeared very projective with small children. much more so than teachers of
Athabaskan descent observed on the Navajo.
So tar I have been considering, primarily, process learning for practical survival and have neglected
the teaching of mystique and philosophies. Among the Navajo, this cultural content of creation myth and
life was. are not learned in the practical process. Mythology must he taught in a formal way by a teacher
who is an authority. Amid all Indian groups, these teachers are the story-tellers who instruct in the perfect
knowledge of "The People." John Adair and Sol Worth's experience with Navajo-made narrative film
resealed that story-telling
the recitation of myths significantly affects the ordering and process of
thought. Could this programming be brought into the learning resources of the classroom? Hut again,
culture raises unseen obstacles. Storyteller are the wise, the elders of the gnaw. ( :mild young men and
women borrow the processes of story-telling for their students? Or would there be a cultural taboo or
psychological inhibition for young pimple to assume this role in a classroom setting? Could this he
anus: er area of creativity that needs to tw explored for Native teachers in the classroom?
214.rm.nal
( minilimeatifin
llotscrt Hermon
- 1)1. Hobert ((fretful('
52
In our own schools for teachers. adults are trained to play with children and wake objects of art like a
child. This may sound artificial. but even in our own flexible styles, snoring from real life to the
classroom is a challenge. Contrivances with which to teach snake no imih teacher training experience.
Many of these methodological contrivances appear vacuous simply because then Lick reason. Yet the
need reflects awareness of the disintegration of life-process education for W kite children.
We see both White and Indian children in deprivation as they become farther separated from life
exiwrierwes that fundamentally educate. What can a child learn in suburbia where he is needed in no life
process? So he grows up in (contrivance through Little League to Junior High and continues his life in a
man-manufactured reality of TV and Disneyland. Adults are professionally trained and paid to make
experieTice nal for children so they will "turn on" and learn.
l'he development so needed is the transfer of Native teaching from tile sheep mum to the classroom
by developing the skills to snake learning in the classroom as relevant and supportive of the life processes
as the were in the sheer camp. This contrivance can be difficult for Indian adults. I )r. Robert Bergman.
Psychiatrist fur American Indian mental health, carried through an experintent in snaking a BIA
dormitory like a Navajo home in an effort to raise the scholastic performance of the Navajo students.
Indian parents were hired to come to the dormitories in the evening to "play" or interact with their
children as they would in their homes. This proved nearly impossible. First. the supportive home
processes were absent, and therefore. the circumstances had to be contrived. Further. Navajo parents
complained that a dormitory was not a place to play. like a house. Historically, BIA dormitories have
been run on military'- school order and most of the Navajo parents had experienced BIA boarding
schools. Literally, they had to be educated into playing with their own children in the contrivance of a
"home" in a 141A hygenically-ordered dormitory.
This circumstance relates realistically to the training of Navajo school aides in a teacher credential
program. They insist make the same transfer as the dormitory sides to the creative experience of the
schoolroom. The children may just sit still until these Navajo aides fill the room with an environment for
learning. The terse instructional style of the sheep camp, when transfilred to the classroom, can fail to
achieve a
`ironized process of learning. Coordinated learning is a ti ngible relationship that reads on
film as flowing movement and gesture, as couspared to distracted and static classroom behavior of
physical isolation, yawns, and expressions of stress. Learning in the fish and sheep camps moves with a
self-fulfilling motivation of tasks which must be accomplished for survival of everyone. In the
uncontrived or unmotivated classroom. the only pragmatic survival is learning to please the teacher!'
Ilence, the imaginative process of the teacher is to make learning in the classroom as real as watering
sheep at the windmill. This does not spontanembly happen when the Native teacher enters the
classroom. As an example in one circumstance, when the White teacher left the room for the clay, the
Indian aide restructured the classroom from an open process to one of regemented learning. Navajo
aides often choose a stnictured style. and Novak) parents often find the regemented school inure
desirable than the White concept of a Free school.
This conservatism may seen' bewildering, for the most hitter critics of regemeoted BIA education
are the Indians themselves. Historically. the government kidnapped children into White education. held
them in school by force, and separated them from culture, language and family fo s long as eight years.
With this history of hostility, why should Native teachers follow the most opi lessive style of White
education?
hot Th. %A nn! at Moan 111)1t %melon and %nto,
53
I believe there are at least two reasons for this circumstance. As stated. Indians have no traditions of
formal schools and their only standard of edwational excellence is the traditional classroom where they
learned. Further. Indian systems. like most ancient cultures, were and still are held together with
protocol and formality. Ceneralized permissiveness, therefore. is not an Indian trait except in their
concepts of time and schedule, and even this sense of time is held together by the inflexibility of nature
herself The orderly controls of ecology are often invisible to White eyes, and therefore. Indian style can
appear permissive to technologically oriented modern men. Among the Eskimos. the surronnding life
involvement is so threatening that Eskimo fathers seem not to worry about disciplining their children.
Children are there to love and enjoy. Environment itself will teach them the way and the endnrance to
survive. Hut when Eskimos relocate to Oakland, California, natnre is no longer there and permissiveness
dams bring confusion in child development.
.
In spite of the conservatism of Indian culture, White men do see the Indian
as did D.II. Lawrence
and my father, John Collier as free men. alert to his psyche, uniquely intelligent, and in balance with
self. How can Indians develop this stature with such a conservative world view? The perfection and
formality of Indian cultures actually provided the security that made freedom of self possible. The
harmony of the group allowed men to live fully in often harsh ecologies. Conservatism of the cultures
offered the "right way" to master threatening situations of drought, roving predators, drifting ice cakes
and threatening seas. Survivalist's is a conservative undertaking, with very restrictive protocol and severe
punishment for failure: but this rigidity took place in nature where men could find harmony and
recognition of self. Hunter people had to live in small coups. and often were Forced to meet serious
crises alone. It was in these circumstances that master of Indian self came. But this ecological matrix of
Indian personality has mostly gone or been re-established in a modern framework. As one example.
Hopis still farm. but no longer for essential subsistence. Farming has become a ceremonial function of
renewal in an otherwise wageearning econotny.5 This acculturated adjustment suggests the style and
the message of how Indian educatitm can prepare its children for the contemporary world.
Culture is a lingering value, and even in the face of change, Native teachers who set up a rigid.
apparently White structure. may be trying to preserve a classical Indian form of becoming by adopting
some of the most traditionally conservative elements of White education, we now consider opptessive.
A major realism in developing a Native teacher program is to recognize that removing the White
teacher dOes hot necessarily remove "Whiteness" from the classroom. Cultural conservatism of Indian
personality and distortive White education of the Indian teacher make innovation in the classroom very
difficult lnderneath the teacher's enthusiasm for Indian determination may reasonably lie a foundation
of White morality. methods and learning goals which muddy the sensitivity of Native educators.
Missionary education and HIA hoarding school experience have deeply affected the reasoning of
Indians. and this mise(Iucation can make the Native teacher appear as oppressive as the White.
Quite unconsciously the Native teacher can be the very result
and therefore the perpetuator of
the negative proceAs she or he is hired to correct. How can programs of teacher training alter this default?
How can Native teachers gain !Ise introspection and orientation that could free their sensitivities? Can
White instructors of Native teachers restore the integrity that Whiteness has destroyed? If not, can
Indian teachers bring about this recovery themselves?
In part.
I
see teacher training as "de-schooling" as well as "additive" education in human
development. I also see much orientation going to appreciating both the positive and negative realism of
American society so that teachers can give Indian children a dynamic training in both acculturation and
reasons for retaining Indian self and Indian society. Indian children are in school to learn to make cultural
51'ermlnal utmottliinivittimi from 1(Iht, Cmine11%.
54
choices
what to buy and what to reject of the American pleats. Indian survival in the modern world
will wholly depend on this sophistication.
Culturally different children first and finally deserve an equal opportunity in education
this is
their door to an open society. Educational opportunity should offer all children a chance to use their
particular intelligence for learning and problem-solving. This requires schools to be amenable to
different programs of language and cultural styles. Educational goals must be diverse in order to fit 'the
good life of many peoples. The goals should surely include effectiveness. personality integrity, and
gratification. At this late hour in a universal world, we see culturally different peoples everywhere
solving shared problems with similar tools even when the end goals of life are very contrasting. The goals
of acculturation for Indians and any of us are to find a hospitable place in the modern scheme. We find
this achievement cannot take place without a renewing and productive personality which comes for
most of us within a special identity and system of fulfillment.
There is only loss in educating a child out of its cultural self-intelligence: effectiveness and creativity
are lost to the child and to the world which needs his excellence.
55
The Eskimo Language Workshop
E. IRENE REED
Eskimo Language Workshop
Center for Northern Educational Research
University of Alaska
The Eskimo Language Workshop has been involved in teacher-training and preparation of
educational materials in Yup'ik for schools participating in the Bilingual Education Program of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs and Alaska State Operated Schools System. These schools are all located in
southwestern Alaska in villages where most children enter school with Eskimo as their dominant
language. Currently four schools are in their third year of operation in bilingual education: Akiachak.
Nunspitchuk. Napakiak and Bethel. Schools in their second year of operation are Aleknajdk, Kasigluk,
Kipnuk. Kongiganak, Manokotak. Quinhauk, Togiak. Tuntutuliak, and Twin Hills, and schools in their
first year are Ekwok. Portage Creek. Koliganek. and New Stuyahok. This makes a total of 17 schools
currently involved in Yup'ik bilingual education. The Workshop is trying to develop materials for all
major parts of the elementary curriculum in the language indigenous to this area.
Materials published so far consist of books to be read to children, a set of early readers (vocabulary
controlled pre-primers. primers, first readers, etc.) and other simple stories the children will be able to
read themselves within a short time after elementary training. Included in the collection are original
stories by members of the Workshop or the bilingual teachers. traditional Eskimo stories, and
translations and adaptations of a selection of "Western" stories such as Peter Rabbit or Thumbelina
(traditional) or Are You My Mother? or The Things I Like (contemporary). Our Yup'ik version of Peter
and the Wolf has recently been video taped with the narrator being accompanied by the University
Symphony Orchestra. In addition, the Workshop has produced an elementary science series dealing
with: The Earth, The Universe, Living Things (plants and animals). Matter and Energy, and The Senses
of the Human Body. A variety of worl 'Fleets have been produced for language arts, science,
mathematics and social studies. A good deal of this material produced by the Workshop is generated
from the daily materials developed by teachers in the bilingual classrooms. These are sent periodically to
the Workshop where they are edited, revised, and reproduced for use in an of the schools participating in
the program.
A dictionary project is nearing completion which includes at least 5000 items which we hope to
publish as a two-volume English-Eskimo. Eskimo-English dictionary. A post-base section now is being
developed (approximately 500 items) for that dictionary.
A large body of taped recordings have been transcribed (well over 1000 pages) and are waiting to be
edited for use in the schools. Several experimental television productions are now making their rounds in
the schools, showing examples of traditional story-telling, puppet productions for language arts, and
other creative educational programs for children (all in Yup'ik). The Workshop has also provided the
English Language component of the program a large set of illustrations which have been produced in
color whenever required by the ESL program. Finally, we have compiled much of the testing material in
Yup'ik for the evaluation component of the bilingual program.
The Eskimo Language Workshop has also played an active role in the training of Yup'ik teachers.
The training sessions usually take place during the summer months and are done in cooperation with
representatives from other agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, State-Operated Schools, or the
University of Alaska itself (i.e., the Education Department or the Alaska Rural Schools Project). The
57
-
Ar-*444-4
chief responsibility of the Workshop in these sessions is to provide the ncoled literacy training, and
concern itself with methods and materials in Eskimo language teaching, while the education experts
from various agencies voodoo the teacher-training sessions in English. To date, 4$ teachers have been
trained speciticall for the bilingual program. and of these,40 are currently teaching in the schools, two
are currently employed by the Workshop while they continue their education at the I. 'niversity. twoare
teaching Yup'ik at the college level (one at kuskokwini Community College and the other at Alaska
Methodist iiversity). and three have dropped out of the program (one to get married, and two were
removed because of incompetence). Anti, one of our teachers was lost in a tragic' snow machine accident.
The current stall of the Workshop consists of a director (who also teaches regular academiccourses
on campus). and live full-time writers, artists, and technical and secretarial assistants. Much use is made
of part-time help, particularly students who are planning to involve themselves in bilingual education.
There are 13 part-time employees making a total of
members on the staff.
So far the response to the Workshop's materials
from students and their parents and the teachers
has been quite good. To date, the Workshop has produced over 70 books, and about 50 of these are in
their final form having undergone thorough testing in the schools. There are several items.
approximately
in various stages of development, some waiting for illustrations, or simply waiting to
he printed. A major undertaking of the Workshop now is to produce good teacher's manuals to
accompany the hooks produced so far. And there is always the need for more hooks for the sulnls. In
fact, the major difficulty the Workshop faces is to keep up with the demand for materials of all kinds.
YUPIK BILINGUAL MATERIALS
ESKIMO LANGUAGE WORKSHOP
University of Alaska
Fairbanks
Graded Readers
Nuk'aq (boy's name) by Martha Tecluk and Marie Hlanchett. preprimer 1, ill. by Mean and Chikoyak. 13
PP.
Catiluta Aqtaluta-Ito (We Work and We Play) by Marie N. Hlanchett and Martha Teeluk, ill. by Paschal
Mean. 20 pp.
Nukay
(Nuk'aq and His Family) by Marie Hlanchett and Martha Teeluk, Ill. Paschall A fcan. 21
PP.
Naluityugnounga (I Can Read) by Martha Teeluk. Marie Hlanchett, ill. Geri Kelm. 57 pp.
Nawittimgmlaunga Cali (1 Can Head Some More) by Martha Teeluk. ill. Geri Kelm and t 'eorge Smart, fill
PP.
Supplementary Readers:
&Wilt ( My Family) by Martha Teelnk. ill. by Dorothy Nupolean. 23 pp.
Kuiew/
Little Dog) by Martha Teeluk. ill. Geri Kenn. 13 pp.
Nuk'ankut ( Nuk'aq's Family.) by Martha Teeluk, ill. A. Chikoyak. 22 pp.
58
Upsankut ( Lipsaq anti his Family) by Pachall Alvan. ill. Pachall Mean. 17 pp.
(:arirkat (Things to Do) authored by Workshop staff. ill. Geri Kelm. 22 pp.
%Vanity(' Citut'aq I I lere's Jack) translated into Yupik by Marie Nick, ill. adapted by Cori Kelm. 24 pp.
Acitualrtit (The flerrypickers) by Mary Ann Lomack. ill. Ida Jacomet. IN pp.
Anataluaam Qtmuotat (Pat's Dogs) by Pachall Afcan. ill. Mean. 25 pp.
!Lima. thumb Parnyuy-Uu (Snuffy. Eye-Patch. and Tail) a sequel to Arigalgaarn Qimugtail by Pachal
Mean. ill. by Mean. 44 pp.
Language Arts Material:
Wartime* Tamalkurma (All About Me) translated and adapted by Joseph Coolidge and Marie Nick. ill.
by John Hreiby. 59 pp.
Qatwruarat Ituagnerlta Nepait (The Sounds that Begin Words) by Pacha! Mean and Irene Heed. ill. by
Diane Dart. tali pp.
hammy 1 (A series of about 2011 worksheets for language arts) generated by the Workshop staff from
inaterials developed in the bilingual schools.
Igatuaraq II by Joseph Coolidge. ill. Hick Peck.
Mathematics:
Naagutet (Numbers) picture of numbers from 1-10. ill. Ceri Keini. 31 pp.
Naaqutelluryarat Caliarkatt (Mathematics Worksheets) generated by Workshop staff fiqui materials
developed in bilingual schools. ill. Geri Kehl'. 100 pp..
Science Series:
Cat ArtertryeUrtlt: (InguvaIrttt Naunraat-llu (Living Things: Plants and Animals) by Paschal Mean and
Irene Heed. ill. Geri Kehl'. :39 pp.
Nunarpak (The P:arth by Pachal Mean and Irene Heed. ill. Geri Keim. 4N pp.
Caution Plnlun-llu (Mutter and Energy) by Paschal Mean and Irene Heed. ill. by Ceri Kehl,. 40 pp.
Ella lquilmtuy (The Universe) by Paschal Mean and Irene Heed, ill. Geri keim. 3ti pp.
hum Tertian Elpekmutal (The Senses of the Duman Hody) by Paschal Mean and Irene Heed. ill. Cori
Kelm. 2$ pp.
59
Original Stories or Traditional Tales:
Amirluruar (Little Cloud) by Paschal Mean. ill. Geri Kelm. 24 pp.
Cikemyay (81inky) by Paschal Mean. ill. Andrew Chikoyak, 28 pp.
()affray Arignifingurmek Katitayaarmek (The Sad Little Fox) by Geri Kelm. ill. Geri Krim Translated
by Manutoli, 21 pp.
Napam Cuyaa (Tree-Leaf) by Paschal Mean, ill. Howard Hofseth, 13 pp.
Neva Pittam Nage:agate Ilra (The Fish that Pete Could Not Catch) translated from English version
produced by Mekoryuk students by Marie Blanchett. Mekoruk illustrations retained and copied. 81 pp.
Qunituturay Nartnrayagaq (The Little Pet Seagull) by Mean, Angaiak. Tee kik. and Reed, ill. by John
Angaiak. 29 pp.
Qanemcicuaroak Angalgaam (Two Short Stories by Pat) by.Pasehal Mean, ill. by Geri Krim. 21 pp.
()almanac, Meoartulria (A Squirrell Going for Water) by Moses Neck, ill. Diane Dart. 20 pp.
Qrssanquq Ave Ingot; (The Lazy Mouse) by Elsie Mather, ill. Andrew Chikoyak. 18 pp.
Uyumyay (Pesky Little Mouse) by Paschal Mean. ill. Andrew Chikoyak, 15 pp.
Egacuaytit Kenurraita Tanyiet (TheTwinkle of the Little Spirits Lights) by Paschal A fcan. ill. Geri Keint.
34 pp.
Ugsuciati Aletatiarnek At'lek (A Mallard Named "Splash") by Marie Blanehett. ill. by Moses Chanar,
Crtugpak (Long Nails) traditional tale written by Marie Nick Illanchett. ill. Andrew Chikoyak, 22 pp.
Kaviarem Kaviritka (How the Fox Turned Red) by Martha Teeluk, ill. Edward thAseth. 24 pp.
Qangqiirenkuk /Rocky/40-11u (The Ptarmigan and the Owl) by Mary Toyultak. ill. Diane Dart. 10 pp.
Qangqiiq, Tulukaruk. Anguayagaq-Uu (The Ptarmigan. the Crow, and the Shrew) by Martha Teeluk. ill.
Diane Dart. 14 pp.
Tukutukuaralfer (The Old Common Snipe) by Anna Rose Jose. Transcribed by Paschal Mean. ill.
Andrew Chikoyak. 22 pp.
Uugnar Aualleq (The Anise That Went) by Annie Andrew, ill. Moses Chanar, 20 pp.
QugguiteuUrern Kanatiktngellra Mow Qugyutieull'eq Got Muskrats) by Maxie Andrew, ill. Moses
Chanar. 12 pp.
Chaffm Qavangua (4 iutiq's Dream) by Helen Andrew Nicori. ill. Moses Chanar, 18 pp.
80
Tan'gurray 1 istituli Nayagani-liu ('the Wise Boy and his Younger Sister) by Elsie Carl, ill. Mows
Charm% II pp.
Taqukaq Qangaaq-Uu (The Bear and The Squirrel) by John Breiby, translated by Paschal Akan and
Marie Nick lilanehett. ill. John Breiby, 50 pp.
Arignitrki Asviy Issueigagay ('the Bear and 'the Squirrel) by John Breiby,
and Marie Nick Blanehett. ill. John Breiby. 50 pp.
ao,Sted by Paschal Akan
Angnitria Asriqlssurtuagaq (The Playful Little Seal) by Diane Dart, translated by Paschal Akan, ill. Geri
Krim, 22 pp.
lugnar Angun-Ou ('11w Mouse and the Man) by Lincoln Enoch, ill. Moses Chanar, 10 pp.
Pataaskaarriuunkuk Negair-liu ( Patanskaarriuk and the Spider) by Dora Cauthier, ill. Moses Chanar,20
PP.
Pit'eqarraalia (The One With His First Catch) by Paschal Afcan, ill. Ceti Keim. 46 pp.
Ataqatuaq. Tan'gerhq. llavitute-Itu Iggiapull (The Rabbit, the Black Bear, and the Wise Owl) by Henry
Limit.. ill. Muses Chanar. 24 pp.
Translated Stories:
Aanakamken-qua
Chikoyak. 57 pp.
(Are You My Mother?) translated and adapted by Paschal Akan, ill. Andrew
Angulan Xegluneq-liu (Peter and the Wolf) translated by Paschal Mean and Marie filanehett, ill.
Andrew Chickoyak. 21 pp.
Cat Assikeknaanka (Things I Like) translated by Paschal Mean, ill. Diane Dart. :1() pp.
Clutha? (based on Cinderella) Adapted by Geri Krim. ill. Geri Krim. translated by Marie Blanehett 60
pp.
Kuttilakessaaq Pingauunllu Taqukaat (Coldilocks and the Three Bears) Transla:M by Paschal Mean,
ill. by Kathi Ilankinson. 48 pp.
Kavirhq Naracuar (Little Red Riding flood) translated and adapted by Paschal Afeatt. ill. Andrew
Chikoyak. 20 pp.
Kumhoekaq (Thumbelina) translated by Martha Teeluk, ill. by Diane Dart, :12 pp.
Qimalleq (Peter Rabbit) adapted by Paschal Akan, ill. by Andrew Chikoyak. 20 pp.
Music:
Yuarutet (Songbook I) compiled by Workshop staff. ill. Mean. Dart, and Marcia Thompson, 22 pp.
61
Workbooks. etc.:
Nukaylkii-liu: Casharkaput (Nuk'aq and Ills Family: Workbook) by Agnes White. Elsie (:arl. and Tim
Samson. ill. Kick Peck. 21 pp.
(:at AnerteyeUriit: Caharkaput (Living Things: Worksheets) adapted from worksheets from several
bilingual schools, arranged by Irene Reed, ill. Hick Peck.
Instructional Manuals:
Instructional Manual. Bilingual Education ( Level I & II) Bureau of Indian Affairs. Bethel Agency.
Handbook for Teachers of Primary Reading of the Yupik Language, prepared by Winifred Lande.
Marie Blanchett and Martha Teeluk. 44 pp.
Materials for Upper Grades:
Naaqsugnaryellriit (Volume I. Nos. I. 2. 3. 4) journal, discontinued, prepared by Workshop staff.
Qanengssiit (Small publication oriented to village adults. one edition only so far. prepared by 11 orkshop
staff.
Civil Rights of American Indians Translation and tape in cooperation with U.S. Commission on Civil
Rights.
V-Diiq (Qanrutai Apqauruted-Uu (uidIernsi Ciissingutnek) pamphlet and poster by Public Ilelath
Service. prepared by Workshop staff.
Video Tapes and Film Strips:
Arianin (Dorothy Napolean's production of an educational entertainment video tape for all elementary
grade levels in Yupik schools). aproximately 20 minutes.
Quhrat I (Traditional Tales) by Michael Cloko and Evon Azean. taped by Irene Heed as they tell stories
to each other (two half-hour video tapes).
What 2 (Traditional Tales) told by two young people (Anuska Amatunak and Sam Alexie) for children
in the classrooms. (one half-hour tape.)
Sugaruaq (The Matgic Doll) by Anuska Amatunak. a half-hour video tape of traditional girls' story.
presented with small hand puppet..
Ingqiliq Kapkaaniuuulirpak An Athapaskan Professional Trapper Trapper (Morris Gundrum.
Professional Trapper. a film strip showing an interior Athapaskan Indian checking his trapline.
Translated into Yupik by Paschal Afcan from English version prepared by Curt Madison.
Miscellaneous:
Elitnauram Autiqucia (Students report card) prepared by George Andrew and Sophie Parks.
62
BILINGUAL EDUCATION AND CULTURAL IDENTITY
JAMES M. ORM
Center for Northern Educational Research
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
INTRODUCTION
It is paradoxical to talk about change in cultures or languages without discussing changes and
influences pressing upon the individuals of whom such groups consist. On the other hand it is
shortsighted to develop language programs that focus on changing the individual child without being
simultaneously curious as to what will be the fate of the child's culture because of it. Bringing about a
small cognitive, or attitude shift in a child often seems the very most educational planners can hope for in
a new program. Hut multiply a small shift by the number of children changed in a group, and a significant
momentum can eventuate macroscopically which may or may not be desirable from the viewpoint of
the indigenous education consumer.
Thus, even small changes in language behavior wrought, for example by bilingual education, can
effect significant shift in the rate of language change within a cultural group. Thus, the relationship
between language as the organizer of cognitive stnicture and language as a mediator of culture cannot he
taken lightly when they inert in the classroom.
In 11187 Gaarder defined the bilingual school as one "
uses, concurrently, two languages as
mediums of instruction in any portion of the curriculum ..." Ile also adds. "The teaching of a vernacular
solely as a bridge to another, the of Petal language, is not bilingual education nor is ordinary foreign
language teaching." lie lists the major reasons for adding the mother tongue:
a. to avoid or lessen scholastic retardation in children whose mother tongue is not the principal
school language.
b. to strengthen the bonds between home and school,
e. to avoid the alienation from family and linguistic ennununity that is comnumly the price of
rejection on one's mother tongue and of complete assimilation into the dominant linguistic group,
d. to develop strong literacy in the mother tongue in order to make it a strong asset in the adults' life.
These statements help summarize the ideals established for recent natiouwide experimentation in
bilingual education.
Few would presently deny that one of the most important recent trends in (loss-cultural education is
the increasing recognition of vernacular languages as legitimate mediums of classroom instruction. The
proliferation of bilingual education programs in the United States within the last five years reflects this
trend operationally. The 14017 Tide VII amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(ESEA) marks the salient beginning of the expansion movement under which 78 separate bilingual
education profeets were funded at an initial rust of $7,500,1100. Due present funding level of $:15,000.1100
under Title VII. suggests that interest has not waned, especially considering the times of financial
austerity upon us.
Another index of the increased dimensions of bilingual education is the recent support shown in
state legislature's for hills establishing the propriety of education in the mother tongue. Massachttsetts. in
1971. passed a hill requiring school districts to provide bilingual programs for children whose first
language is other than English. Numerous other states have replaced statutes which formerly allowed
only English in the' schools with laws permitting local bilingual education programs. Members of the
Alaska State Legislature. following the lead of Massachusetts. have pursued strong laws culminating in
1972 with the passage of four landmark hills related (firmly to bilingual education in Alaska. One hill
required the implementation of a bilingual e'duc'ation program in any village' showing the. need and
desire for (me, and another created a center for the study of Alaska's native' languages at the' t 'niversity of
Alaska. The remaining two hills enacted initial appropriations for these two programs. thus supporting
the' momentum of statewide consciousness and commitment to the value of bilingual education.
Since' beginning in 1970 with lour classrooms. bilingual education in Alaska has expanded to include'
classrooms in over twenty-five (25) villages, encompassing four major language groups, and several
additional languages are presently being studied for future' implementation in bilingual classrooms.
Considering all sources of State and Federal funding, the 1972-73 financial commitment to all aspects of
bilingual education approached $1.000.000 in Alaska alone,
While recognizing the essential validity of the bilingual approach for children whose first language
is other than English, such an approach raises important implications for the total functioning of the child
and for the cultural milieu into which he is socialized. As noted by Gaarder (1970):
It is at the bastion of biculturalism rather than at the bastion of language
alone that bilingual education will succeed or fail. and it is here' that the
doubts gnaw most painfully. (p. Ifi9)
The Filingual classmo is not limited to structuring the kinds of bilingual capabilities the child will have.
Rather. the bilingual classroom, through its influence on the language of the child. may also have' serious
significance for the' rate and directions of change of the culture systems into which this child and children
of future generations are' socialized and expected to function.
As with any important e'duc'ational innovation. an emergence of questions has developed around a
wide variety of practical and theoretical issues. The present report addresses some of these key issues,
going beyond that generally encouraged under the typical evaluation models currently favored by
bilingual education project binders.' Educational evaluation models have tended to preclude in-depth
Psychological:sociological, and anthropological analyses of deep, long-range' implications of bilingual
education, for the children and cultures served. The present report speaks to this need and calls for baste
information to inform local education consumers as well as planners about the potential impact of their
educational decisions.
THEORETICAL
Isom
It is f irst ne vessan. to lave some background to two major theoretical issues: types of bilingualism
and. cultural identity formation.
eca
milprehete.ne .tatetnent ot the nature of lich tnuNIMI.. see krimer. 11 S Edw. *tumid Meinlirement etc the Urban
Petr read hehire the Intik:howl Conte...Are ass Mectsurrnsent in Education, l'niergitv of Chicago. Ilhnnei. April.
(4
Types of Naingualism
1Vhile the advent of formal bilingual programs is recent in Alaska. interest shown in bilingualism
as a
phenomenon has grown rapidly since the 1920's. As with any field stirring the interest of scholars and
scientists a great deal of them and research concerning the nature of bilingualism has emerged. One of
the' more important contrilmtions to this store of the
the compound-coordinate distinction first made
by Weinreich )11411. has beets reviewed by Ervin and Osgood (19541. MacNamara (1997). and others.
(kir attention is drawn to two general types of bilingualists: ( I) compound types those for whom the
meaning systems underlying their two languages are' fused so essentially identical meanings are
attributed to corresponding words and expressions, and (2) coordinate types those for whom the' two
languages are supported by dif ferent meaning systems so that different or partially different meanings
are given to corresponding words and expressions. Compound hilingualists are presumed to have
acquired their languages within the same learning context, either directly, as in a bilingual home or
indirectly where one language serves as a medium for learning another. The coordinate bilingualist.
on
the other hand has two distinct !anomie systems because' presumably they were developed in two
distinct learning contexts.
The approach to the distinction taken by Ervin and Osgood (1954) was to posit different internal
mediating processes to the two kinds of bilingualists. The coordinate type is said co have two sets of
mediating responses fur corresponding terms whereas the compound bilingual has only one'.
Later discussions, notably by MacNamara (197(4). attempt to point the issue more into specific
semantic relations between the bilingual's two languages. Nonetheless, the characteristic which best
distinguishes compound from coordinate' systems is the extent to which the speaker maintains two
separate language systems each of which is undergirded by a separated meaning system. Separate
systems characterize the coordinate bilingual whereas the compound bilingual's two languages have a
common. undifferentiated meaning system into which both languages are translated for thinking and
retranslated for communication. The relative efficiency of mental processing is generally held to he'
greater for the coordinate bilingual for most activities. Perhaps more germane to the present report.
however, the coordinate bilingual is more likely to be able to function the way a native speaker would in
either of his languages. What kind of bilingualism (compound or coordinate.) the' bilingual classroom
tends to foster relative to the traditional village classroom is therefore a question of great importance.
Cultund Identity Formation
Of even greater interest to the present researcher is whether the distinction between compound and
coordinate bilingualism also describes ways in which patterns of bicultural identity formation may
develop in a child. For discussion purposes, the child's environment comprises bicultural elements in
physical as well as social domains. The physical domain may be seen as consisting of symbols and
implem ents. and the culturallv prescribed meanings and uses they are understood to imply. Spicer
(1971) points out "The essential feature of any (cultural) identity system is an individual's belief in his
personal of filiation with certain symbols. or, more accurately. with what certain symbols stand for" ( p.
799). A child who understands that different cultures prescribe different meanings and uses for physical
things and can incorporate such understanding into his own view of the world is at some. advantage in
coping and indeed is more likely to participate in the survival of his indigenous culture system.
As with the physical domain. the social domain may include bicultural elements. But instead of
dealing with meanings and uses. the social domain consists of social practices. or more simply. social
behavior and its antecedents. For the native child the critical aspect of biculturalism in the social domain
is that behavior is only intelligible with reference to the cultural system that defines and maintains it. Any
explanation of "why A did x" that does not take into account the social practice's of A's culture would he
no less futile than explaining to Sffillelltle unaware of the rules of football that "A scored a touchdown."
The child who encounters a bicultural environment necessarily deals with two sets of social practices.
each prescribing its own odes of intelligibility much the way tit ferent languages prescribe unique rules
of grammar and syntax for intelligible communication.
For the present discussion. cultural identitY comprises two major components, the first of which is
the level of ilinlerstanding the individual has about the culture's physical and social elements. In a sense.,
understanding a culture represents the qualifications or credentials necessary for participation or
identification with a culture. One cannot hope to relate to a cultural symbol for example, unless he knows
what it currently sumbolizes (Spicer. 19711. Likewise, until one knows the appropriate usage of a
particular implement he will experience some degree of estrantrvoient from those in a culture who have a
"natural" or "inside" knowledge of what it is for and how it is used. More seriously, however, is the level
of understanding one has in the social domain that qualifies a person to participate in a culture. Much in
the way one must know the rules ( formal and informal) of football in order to be allowed to plaY, so must
one understand the social practices of a vulture in order to be qualified to participate; at least without
drawing too much attention to oneself.
The second component of cultural identity comprises patterns of choice between elements of the
two existing cultural environments Again, the physical and social domains each require
conceptualization for the choice patterns predicted to he shown by the person wins identifies (by virtue
of choice) with his indigenous rather than the dominant culture. In the physical th unain. ;he child who
identifies with his indigenous culture would tend to prefer. positively evaluate, or approach. familiar
,ymbols, implements and vistas associated with that culture relative to corresponding physical entities of
the dominant culture. In the social domain, choice patterns are in evidence when certain modes of social
interaction are preferred over others, holding level of understanding theoretically constant.
Neither choke nor understanding supply the sufficient conditions for establishing cultural identity
in an individual, but both are necessary. Absence of either component sentences the individual to
periferal participation in a vulture except perhaps eurinn extended periods of rapid culture shift. Such
periods may he defined as times when exceptions are made for certain new choice patterns and
incomplete understanding regarding some aspects of the traditional cultural system.
It ma; be assumed that a language plays a central and continuing role in the acquisition and
organization of the personal identity of the individual who speaks it. And, as in the view of Spicer ( P971).
a language may he' assumed to play a central role in the continuity and maintenance of the cultural
identity of its speakers throughout their history as a group.
The Language Situation in Alaska
According to Krauss (1971), as many as twenty distinct indigenous languages have been identified
among Alaska's native people. The diversity of (Attires underlain by this polyglot contributes a good
deal of complenit to the accelerating emergence of the native people as a socio-political force in their
own and in Alaska's future.
However. each of Alaska's many diverse languageculture groups has at least one characteristic in
common. Each has laced and will continue to face the social and economic presence of the dominant
American (Antral system. Despite members of each language group being historically monolingual in a
native dialect. English has dominated as the' language of communication during exchanges between
native and non-native cultures.
The history of this language exchange process has culminated in a wide spectrum of language
patterns among Alaska's native peoples. At one ent' of the spectrum are those who sure essentially
monolingual in a native dialect. For example, many native children in Southwestern Alaska enter school
with Yu1u ik. the language spoken in the home, as their only language of communication. Most of the
children of th it area. however, are bilingual in Yup'ik and English, but the relative proficiency in the two
fib
languages varies markedly from Add to child and village to village. Finally. at the other end of the
spectrum of language use are those native monolingual in English. There in whole dialects, e.g.,
Tsimshian and Ilaida, spoken only by the older people of the village.
No molter where on the spectrum one is placed. there are probably few Alaska natives who are far
enough removed from some native dialect to he able to claim complete freedom from its inflnence on
the developnwnt of thought. feeling. and intellect. In fact. virtually all Alaskan natives have either
negotiated or will soon negotiate it developmental phase of bilingualism in which the native language is
joined by the English language as an additional and sometimes sole means of et mmt !lineation. The whole
range of responses to this "developmental phase" exists presently in Alaska. inviting systematic inquiry
into the complex nature of its processes.
I wish now to advance the thesis that the foregoing issues hear a special relationship to one another
when viewed in the light of bilingual education. First. at least as practiced in Alaska, bilingual education
programs are committed to developing the child's two languages in separated contests, thus.
endeavoring with varying degree's of overt intention, to foster coordinate bilingualism. Second. virtually
all bilingual programs, including those in Alaska, are committed to the enhancement of the child's selfconcept. most often by developing major portions of the school curriculum around the child's cultural
background. The question is raised then, whether chiklrett who function simultaneously under both
processes will show the integrated influences of each. That is, are compound and coordinate bilingual
systems functionally related to parallel processes in systems of cultural identity? Is the coordinate
bilingual more likely than the compound bilingual to show greater implicit understanding of physical
and social stimuli appropriate to the meanings and social practices which ouch of his two cultures dAine?
And will his patterns of cultural understanding be enhanced by virtue of being held in separate cognitive
domains lust as are his two languttites? Such questions gene: b the following two sets of hypotheses.
First. to the extent that Bilingual education dal intentit
of the first and second languages. (h) paces and sequences
darates the language leaning contests
infliction of the second language, and
el communicates deep respect for the first language as a medium of instruction, the participating child
is likely to develop coordinate bilingual capabilities. Theretore. children in such programs will evidence
(al superior code'-swi'chig abilities. (Ill even first- andsecond language balance. and (c) patterns of
acquisition of grammatical and syntactical structures appropriate to the indigenous nature of each
language. relative to Native children participating in traditional monolingual (English) education
!migrants.
Second, if patterns of cultural identity formation are related to the nature of the child's bilingual
tendencies. the following predictions should hold:
The more a child is characterized as a coordinate bilingual the greater will he the extent and
depth of his understanding of the meanings and uses of the symbols and implements of his
own and the dominant culture (at least as the latter is manifested in the child's local
environment I.
2.
the more appropriately he will be able to behave regarding the social practices of each culture.
and
3.
the tine' articulated (differentiated) will be Ins understanding and In.havior toward the
various bicultural). defined elements of the environment.
These are the general hypotheses front which a set of operating hypotheses could he derived in
order to research the issue hilly.
Besides the theoretical issues surrounding the potential impact of bilingual education, there are one
or two practical matters which I would like to address. These are curriculum development and staff
development.
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
What are the responsibilities of bilingual education to the future of Native school curriculum
development? A related issue concerns the development of the educational materials which go hancl.!.i.
hand with curriculum development.
Once again, the school's relationship to the local culture is the basis for deciding curriculum policy as
well as content. This relationship is perhaps best illustrated in social studies curriculum and materials. An
early attempt was made In the bilingual program to adapt existing social studies materials such as
Senesh's Our Working World." 2 based on the economies of evegoloy life; at least everyday for most
school children in urban and suburban areas elsewhere in the United States. It was earlier assumed that
the concepts presented by Senesh, though not directly translatable. would be adaptable upon analysis to
the rural Alaskan cross-cultural situation. After some initial attempts, however, it became apparent that
the needs of Native children in their cultural setting could not br met adequately by the adaptation
approach. It could not substitute for what must be built from the ground up, with a minimum of
preconceptions borrowed from the dominant culture.
Unlike the urban white child, the Native child must be prepared to cope directly with his past as well
as his future. He is the product of more social discontinuities wrought in a shorter period of time than is
the urban white child, even though all exist in an era of rapid technological and social ch., lige. The forces
of technological, economic and social change, in quantum leaps, introduce the native r.
to adaptation
demands that the urban white child assimilated into his cultural framework generations ago and very
gradually.
To the white child in a suburb, for example, the snow machine is little more than a new recreation,
bought and maintained under the same social and economic systems that sustain every other sector of his
life. Nothing really new has been added. In direct contrast, the introduction of the snow machine into
village life is rapidly assuming revolutionary proportions. Formerly where time was spent securing food
from the local environment to sustain a dog team. time Heist now he spent securing cash income to
purchase fuel for the new "iron dog." The economic implications are obvious. Patterns of seasonal
mobility are also modified. both by the speed of the machine and by the location of lobs to secure the
wherewithal to feed it. Even the health status of children and adults alike has been seriously influenced
by this machine as witnessed by the growing incidence of hearing loss among th native peoples through
prolonged exposure to the extreme noise produced.
So to be useful. a Sochi Studies curriculum and the materials that give it substance must rise to meet
a host of unique and complex demands, both now and in the future. Such demands will likely require a
well defined task force of diverse persons each contributing a special source of needed knowledge and
experience for their fulfillment. The general constituency of the task force should comprise (a) members
of the native community, particularly those involved with education, either as teachers or as school
board members, (b) persons knowledgeable of the cultural anthropology of Southwestern Alaska, (c)
teachers who, though not Native, are sensitive to the needs of Native children, (d) educators who have
known expertise in Social Studies curriculum development, and (e) persons presently responsible for
bilingual program materials development.
IL**
temp Sewsh. Uw Waking World: Families et Wm*. Pan Alto: Sconce tteleofth Astotistei. Inc.. 1104.
68
FUTURE PERSONNEL TRENDS
For all practical purposes. the burden of the educational effort in the bilingual program is directly in
the hands of Native persons.This is especially true in the very em ly primary grades where the majority of
direct classroom contact is between the chi:Oren and native teachers. The second language teat her
serves as a resource for ideas and teaching techniques and as a teacher of English as a second language.
Such an infusion of direct native influence in the classroom through this and other programs (e.g. Alaska
plural Teacher Training ( :orp (A111.11 :1 ) constitute a set of sociological implications quite independent
of the educational trends noted before.
What is being seen is a potentially shifting balance toward more native involvement in the delivery
of local education progools. The question is. will the development of the program to he delivered
follow suit, or will the pr' .mu remain the product of an external cultural orientation. Within the setting
of a bilingual program lies the potential. and I stress, the potential, for evolving a truly nativeculture
centered curriculum, in conception as well as delivery.
CONCLUSION
I hope to have created in you I sense of the immensity of the rotential impact of bilingual education
in Alaska. Needless to say, its present and potential impact is as complex as it is immense. making quick,
simple apprakals temporary at best. But at the risk of violating my own caution. I am left with the
conclusion that few efforts have shown more effectiveness in realizing their goals in so little time, despite
the apparent backsliding seen in the level II version of the program. The present status and future
promise in all of the min program components: (1) classroom instruction. (2) materials and curriculum
development. (3) staff development, and (4) local community involvement show a possibility for
widespread educational innovation enjoyed by few other State or Federal programs. But with the
potential for positive change comes the potential for envystment; a wallingoft of the program's
influence lest the educational organism "break-out" with a had case of bilingnalism, revognizahle by
symptoms of increased parental interest in their children's education. sudden flashes of cultural pride.
and the unmistakable rash of enthusiasm for school the children show when for the first time in
generations they can understand what their teacher is trying to say.
The choice between implementation and encystment of the bilingual education approach need not
rest in the hands of any single group. Agency program planners need not, indeed have not proceeded
without involving the local community into the process. But such was the beginning of what should he an
evolution of sorts. Not a passive evolutionary process where nature takes it course, come what may. but
an active process which has as its goal a program to meet the unique but changing needs of Alaska's
Native children: a program built by their forebears not their overseers.
ti9
REFERENCES
Diebold. A.R.. The constituent:es of early bilingualism in cognitive development and personality
formation. Paper presented at the symposium The Study of Personality: An Interdisciplinary Appraisal.
Rice University. Houston, Texas, November. 1966.
Ervin. S. and ( kgottd, C.E., Second language leanting and bilingualism. Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology. (Supplement), 1951. 49, 139-146.
Gaartler, A.B., Organization of the bilingual school, The Journal Of 'octal Issues. 1967. 23. 111-1211.
Gaarder, A.B., 'I'he first seventy-six bilingual education projects - in Alatis, J.E. ( ed. ) 21st Annual Round
Table: Bilingualism and Language Contact, No. 23. Washington. D.C., Georgetown University Press,
1970.
Dungen. E.. Bilingualism in the Americas. Publications of the American Dialect Society. No. 26.
University. Alabama: University of Alabama Press. 1956.
Krauss. Michael. Department of Linguistics. University of Alaska. Personal communication. December.
1971.
MacNamara, J.. The bilingual's linguistic performance
A psychological overview. the Journal of
Social Issues. 1967, 23, 5N-77.
MacNamara. J., Bilingualism and thought, in Alatis. J.E. (ed.) 21st Annual Round Table: Bilingualism
and Language Contact. No. 23. Washington. 1).C., Georgetown University Press. 1970.
Senesh, 14wrence. Our Working
orld: Families at Wm*, Palo Alto; Science Research Associates, Inc,
1964.
Spicer. KR. Persistent cultural systems. Science, 1971. 174, 795401.
Stafford. KM., Problem solving as a function of language. Language and Speech, 11168, 11, 104-112.
N'einreich. U.. Languages in contact. Publications of the Linguistic Circle. 153, 1.
70
NATIVE/NON-NATIVE COMMUNICATION:
CREATING A TWO-WAY FLOW
BILL VAUDRIN
Alaska State-Operated School System
Anchorage, Alaska
The single qualification absolutely essential for a ma:. if he is to be successful at commercie fishing
or education is that he have at least a minimal working knowledge of common sense.
Recent workshops confirm that many of us who know better still violate some of the few basic rules
that make for successful communications experiences.
The task of explaining program strategies or concepts that are often highly sophisticated and
specialized to audiences whose formal education may range from none at all to the doctoral level is
admittedly difficult, and the temptation seems to be overwhelrnir., , to cop out by slipping into
bureaucratic jargonese. But if were serious about getting on with this business of education as a
cooperative venture, best accomplished with the help of parents and other community people and not
only as an exercise indulged in by professionals, then we're going to have to learn how to talk in such a
way as to convey meaning.
I recently participated in a workshop composed of approximately 505 teachers, consultants, and
other professional certificated educators, and 505 Native aides and activity teachers with little or no
formal education. In a single twenty- minute lecture presentation the following words and phrases were
used: individual diagnostic matrix, criterion-referenced testing, student assessment schemes, initial
prescription, performance contract, numerical notation, objective attainment, basal reader,
psychomotor coordination, periodic full assessment, sequential order, nonvalidity, comprehensible,
targeting, diagnostic percentages. individual and class reporting prescriptions, master reference guide.
math inventory, transpose information reported back, identified objective, level groups, static, PMI,
Cl'B, ITBS, Addison-Wesley, McCraw-Hill. Now there were a lot of people drawing per diem who
weren't catching much of that.
Rule number one in any communication model has got to be: CONSIDER THE COMPOSITION
OF YOUR AUDIENCE particularly their various levels of education and understanding, ethnic and
language backgrounds, interests, and expectations. Probably not too many of us would make the mistake
one educator did of going into Tanana thinking it was an Eskimo village, and spending the first few
minutes of his presentation to the high school students gaining rapport by saying how happy he was to be
among Eskimos that he'd just come from a village of those shiftless, alcoholic Athabascans But what
I'm suggesting is that a few of the things we're doing in workshops and meetings of mixed ethnic or
cultural composition are just as lacking in taste, just as uninformed and ill-warranted, and in some cases
operating on several of the same levels of ignorance.
If we are addressing the cabinet officers in the central office, or a conference of regional
superintendents, or writing an academic article directed to educators, we might take the liberty of
drawing upon certain vocabulary resources that have been developed to serve highly specialized inhouse communications functions. But if our intention is to make ourselves understood by village people
who have not been so fortunate as to benefit from the various and sundry educational advantages
enjoyed by certificated and administrative personnel, then we'd better get with the business of
translation
dialect.
first, into communicable English; then, where appropriate, into the regional or local Native
71
Inadequate vocabulary and phraseology control are not the only potential
eonfounders
communication. Following are some suggestions that might prove helpful
in cross- cultural
communications experiences:
)0N"1"I'A '11 X ) UCII. DONT TA Lk '11 X ) FAST. These are the dual faces of what I regard
as the Critical Commandment for non-Native educators desiring to communicate with Native people. It
sN'ens to be virtually impossible for teachers and administrators who are products of an urban,
Caucasian, competitive-acquisitive society to not dominate any conversation or meeting with Native
people. I'm not suggesting there are no exceptions
but the farts are clear: the ride is that any time
non-Natives and Natives it at the same table to talk, the discussion
is dominated and generally
monopolized by the non-Natives. This results from a cultural and not a racial difference
but the
correlation is so high (urban/white as ommsed to rural/Native background and orientation) that
for
practical purpose's the issue may be discussed. and usually is. in racial terms.
I he reasons for Native non-participation or minimal participation in groups of mixed ethnic
composition are various and complex. That non-Natives, and especially white educators, talk too much
and too fast (and often too loud when standing close, or in an intitnate setting, so as to amplify in sonie
Natives the already-critical anxiety factor
though care must always be taken to speak clearly and
loudly enough for older pmple whose hearing might he impaired. to follow) is not alone responsible.
Conditioned expectations are also a c:mtributing factor.
Whites have generally succumbed to the stereotypical view of Natives as passive and min-verbal,
to
the extent that it is a cliche in educational circles how much of a struggle it is
to "get Native input."
Unbelievable as it seems, the question is often raised whether people talk in the villages at PHI
This is complemented on the other hand by the conditioned expectations of Native community
people. who have the accumulated experience of years behind them of being imposed
on by agency
types who fly into town, gather up whatever people are not out hunting, trapping, fishing,
woodgathering. etc.. for a "village meeting." and while the plane engine is still running, lay out
a load of one
kind or another on whomever is there, before they run down (they can
now say they have "met with the
village"). leap into the plane, and wing off into the sunset, to visit four more villages before dark.
Neither
the agency official nor the village people expected
or intended the "comumnication" that occurred to be
two-way. And I'm suggesting that by succumbing to the temptation of the old talk-t. io-much / talk-toohest syndrome non-Native educators are realistically enough simulating that outmoded
agency
official/Native people atmosphere that the traditional non-participation of Natives is implicitly
decreed.
suspect the tolerance level of Native people for periods of silence punctuating dialogue is probably
greater than that of whites, at least certainly in groups of mixed ethnic composithm. Whites seem to get
nervous quicker when no one is talking, and so they rush into the void with words, feeling they are
somehow "saving" the situation, when the Natives weren't aware that it was lost. An individual
with an
appropriate and good sense of humor may help put people at ease, and make it easier for them to relate
and communicate.
The physical setting seems to me to be an important factor. Just as there is a seldom
- alluded -to but
universally-understood distance (culture-variable) people find comfortable to keep between them when
standing talking (violate it by standing six inches or six feet from someone you talk to in a hall, to see how
inflexible it is). there are certain very specific elements that need to go into the composition of the kind of
communications environment conducive to comfortable participation by most village or rural-oriented
people.'
I
I hr term Nebr.' tot liorttow% of ti% paver will arnerallv mean rwm Native. or throe havInK a rural orientation. and will have
only insisted applivabilit I,, urban Native% or
72
SMALL GROt 'PS: Rural Native verbal participation in any gathering of 'insist ethnic composition
will generally take place on a direct inverse ratio to the number of people involved (only exceptions
being items of such critical colleen' as the Sea Mammals Legislation which elicited public declamations
from even oldtimers who had never spoken out about anything before to such large groups but who
spoke the . rn legislative hearings regardless who was there, or how many); the same is trueof ethnic mix
the fewer Natives per white, the less Native input. I don't know of any magical break-off points
common sense should dictate the extent of the combined influence of those' two factors.
'the logical extension of these principles suggests then, and experience confirms, that small groups
composed exclusively of Natives will allow for the most fluid, comfortable, and authentic Native input.
If the question is "But will they understand the issues at hand enough to formulate intelligent
contributions?" the questioner either does not understand his role as edumtor, or is shirking his
responsibilities
(to say nothing of his cross-cultural naivete).
In the classroom, educators are merely facilitators of the learning process. not dispensers of the
Indh. All they should be trying to do is initiate and minimally direct the process, infusing it with
incentives and individualizing by student in order for it to function with some kind of relevant and
ongoing continuity. Outside of the classroom, when dealing with community people, the' same principles
apply. 'teachers and administrators are to go to parents for direction regarding the education of their
children
they are not to provide that direction. All that is required is a full and fair presentation of
alternatives to the parents
they know what they want for their children. And a "full and fair
presentation" doesn't mean "Don't you think an open classroom learning center environment would be a
better wav of educating your kids than the rigidly structured classroom experience?" or "Wouldn't you
like your kids to have the advantages of being exposed to the Phonolinguistic Approach to Diagnostic'
Prescriptive. Learning Program?" with no further explanations.
*there is no reason why it should be any more difficult to educate parents and other community
people to alternatives, then to allow them to discuss the issues fully and in depth amongst themselves
before rendering their verdicts, than it is to lay out the options, then stand there as a group of eight
teachers and four administrators hamstringing the traditional Native open dialogue' process (which
produces decisions by consensus, rather than majority vote) until they come up with something.
SMALL ROOM. 1,0W CE11,ING: Gymnasiums or large high-ceilinged multipurpose rooms are
again I suspect that rural Native verbal output decreases in
definitely not desirable meeting places
direct proportion to the size of the room.
Almost any home would be better than a room at school for most meetings involving Native
community people. Seating arrangen tents should he comfortable and intimate. and particularly where
non-Natives are involved. care' should be taken not to conspicuously seat a "le'ade'r," or place anyone in a
position whene he would be speaking to the' rest of the group. Definitely no one "standing" in front of the
others.
As with Native students in the classroom, what is generally involved is a relationship orientation
rather than a content or subject matter onentation.2 The only time the' real focus is on content is in a oneway communication set-tip. e.g.. the old agency-representative.laying-it-on-the- people situation. where
neither the speaker nor the listeners participate or relate as persons. but rather as role-players serving a
function preordained by Someone Someplace I 1 'ghee. Content orientation. then. would be ap propriate
only whenever it is considered desirable for that type of relationship to be implicit.
2
ladah Kif.affeld. Ellretwr Teacher, of India!, and Eskimo High school Students. animate of Social. Evonfona., and
1.coettaffent Newardi Faufoloki, 14721
7:1
GROSS -(t TT( 'HAI. SENSITIVITY:
Probably the major stimiblingblok to effective
communication in groups of mixed ethnic composition is the general inability of whites simply to talk
with Natives (two-way flow) on a one-to-one basis. Ability to relate at this level tends to spill over into
group settings: deficiencies at this level seem to amplify in a group or perhaps it just seems worse
because more people are suffering the consequences.
One of the initial blunders often made by urban topes is to stride directly up to someone in a village
and launch right into whatever issue is of immediate and n tonal concern, without observing the local or
cultural amenities. I believe this type of faux pas is rooted in the fact that "visiting" is pretty much of a lost
art in urban areas anymore. Operating within the constraints of time and business (busy-ness) city
dwellers tend to visit each other only when there is a reason for doing so
when there is some purpose to
the visit and they generally waste little time getting to the crux of it. Native people, on the other hand,
generally spend considerable time stroking each other and reaffirming kinship ties when visiting in the
village, before incidentally and perhaps circuitously approaching any subject that might he remotely
interpreted as a "reason" for their visit again. a relationship orientation, rather than a subject-matter
orientation. Rural Natives tend to regard and interact with each other more as persons rather than as
objects than do their urban non-Native counterparts. Purposiveness in visiting may be construed by the
former as insulting.
One other point that might be brought out is that levels of trust have a way of diminishing with the
intervening of time- You may have had what you saw as a very close and meaningful relationship with
some person in a village at one time, only to return to find that person somewhat distant and
undemonstrativ toward you. Regardless of the depth or extent of your former relationship, you may
need to walk back over some old ground in order to re-establish ties. It doesn't take a great deal of time to
do this. but it can't he rushed. That person needs to he reassured that he or ill? is important to you and
that what you share is meaningful.. bet ore the two of you can go on.
I doubt that sensitivity to the sub e and sophisticated dynamics
Native non-verbal
communication (the most obvious example of which would be Eskimo eyebrow raising. e.g., for
affirmative responses) can he taught. It can be learned. however but experience will be the only safe
guide. This is an area in which people who are good at sending and receiving signals are made, not born
(though the sensitivity and intuitive endowment prerequisite to prof icienev themselves ma! not be
acquirable, and are probably inborn
or at least the predisposition for perceptual skills), and one in
which there never has been and never will he an "instant expert."
Two further points need to be made: first, that "in any type of cross-cultural relationship and,
indeed, in any interpersonal relationship....people are often unaware of the cover: messages concerning
affect, status and power that they send and receive in interactions overtly concerned with other issues.
Increased awareness of these covert messages and how they are communicated is esp ?chilly important in
cross-cultural relationships because of the heightened sensitivity., of both partie. in an unfamiliar
interaction and because social symbols differ across cultures.... "
second, that "coming as they do
from small villages where interpersonal relationships provide the entertainment and drama of life, and
from cultural groups where social cohesion is of great importance to survival (Spindler a.-KI Spindler,
1957). Indian and Eskimo students Iniral Native people in generaled.] tend to he extremely sensitive to
the nuances of interactions. White adults....are generally less attuned to the interpersonal dimension .... "4
Kleinteld. Make's lit en ammline Home ?memos (University of Ainslie: Collette. 1973) p. 3.
4
lbkl.
74
There ,ire. however. a !amities of specific suggestions that can he made to non-Native educators that
might prove useful. For instance. talking down to Natives is as offensive to them as anyone else..
Ilemingwar Owe spoke of the broken. condescending. one-svIlable. pseudo-English white people use
when talking to drunks or Indians: that's the kind not to use. Speaking slowly and clearly for village
peele is critical. lint that doein't mean grunting or stringing out a lumbering barrage' of three-letter
words.
Being too intent may puzzle or contuse village people. and particularly on a one-to-one basis. is
likely to be intimidating. Super- sincerity will have the tendency to make rural Natives shy away. rather
than the probable desired effect of coiling closer. Being overly zealous or boisterous will prodiwe the
same alienating results. Everything should he kept low-key emotion. voice. physical gesturing (such as
waving of arms). Perpetual wearing of what is known in the villages as a "missionary smile" is not a pointgetter either.
The item of boisterousness deserves further comment. Based as it is on certain f.hallow, racist
presuppositions ("Eskimos are such a fun-loving people, with a great sense of humor!" and "How they
all love to laugh! "), it is a difficult problem to approach. I low many times I have winced as I watched
some jovial. hack-slapping teacher or agency type overwhelm a duster of village people with a hull-in-
thehinshop combination of guffaws and jibes,
then swagger off down the way secure in the
knowledge that he had "really had a good laugh with the Natives" (the with is the dubious item here)
whereas all he has likely accomplished is to underline the conviction in their minds that guttuks are sure
queer ducks who aren't very sensitive about how people are reacting to them. and who behave in ways
no one from the village would ever dream of behaving ... in short. who are certainly different.
The upshot of the whole matter. then. is that instead of bridging the cross-cultural / trans-racial gap
as he imagined. the aforementioned individual has to the contrary broadened it.
The worst form of this type of behavior is that involving ironic teasing ("They sure love to be
teased!") where the Native person doesn't have full grasp of the ironies involved. andean never he quite
sure whether he is being made tun of or not. There is sometimes an element of cruelty involved.
unconscious though it may he, as well as ignorance.
Recently I was asked to address the subject of Native humor
specifically. "What kinds of things
do Eskimos laugh at?", so perhaps that issue itself warrants attention. The answer is quite simple':
Eskimos laugh at things that are funny. Now if that answer doesn't seeto sufficient or accurate, it could he
rephrased to the el fed that Eskimos laugh at things that are tunny to them. That does not imply that what
is funny to them is different in any way than what is funny to anyone else
it just means they react to
catalysts within their gr .sp of language and context that set off their humor mechanism. The med...mism
is essentially the same
in my view less unlike gussuk than British humor is rumored tube from French.
Extensive Ilse of regional or cultural idiom (such as "hull in a china slaw." "out in left field."
"robbing Peter to pay Paul." "thrown for a loss." "taking the hull by the horns." "home safe," "when a
push conies to a shove." etc.) should he "avoided like the Plague." Native people who have no
background in urban living or baseball or football. etc.. out of which these idioms have developed. often
hang on them when they occur in oral presentations. grouping around in their experience and
associational complexes for ways of relating the component parts of the idiom in some way that is
meaningful. Meanwhile the speaker is rattling on, so that some key transitional dement has been lost to
that Native listener by the time he refocuses his attention on what is being said. with the result that the
total picture becomes more and more obscureuntil often. in frustration or ennui'. he simply tunes the
whole production out. assumes a blank stare. and begins weighing the relative merits of a Yamaha
against a Polaris snowmobile for the coming winter.
tieing too open, or excitable. or brash can be depended on to turn village people oft. especially in a
one-to-one situation. To a certain extent they have come to eyed from non-Natives manifestations of
what to them is bi/arre behavior ( tor some reason this seems to he even more true in regard to workshops
75
or group sessions than on a one-to-one
twat least it seems to be regarded as more av('eptable somehow
in meetings. perhaps because. it is less personally threatening or intimidating). but I believe that is all the
more reason to refrain from such exhibitions.
If nor vdiyes ever hope to he &tpted and to have an identity in the villages that is not def ined in
negative terms
such as gussuk (which has been restruetured through phonetic evolution from the
Russian vossuck in such a was as to carry onomatopoetic implications that are uncomplimentary
which type of phonetic connotations in language, incidentally tend to he pointedly consistent and not
accidental: consider snot. sneak snivel, snob. snoop. snake. snip. snitch, snarl. etc.): or non-Native (being
defined only in terns of not being something else: non-entitical); or frequently in the Northwest as kiinuk
Cone who always does everything wrong: dumb. stupid"). or uumiteak ("one who is not good, or who
von don't like, or who is annoying or makes you angry or turns yon off and not just temporarily. but
permanently: "this is an ongoing definition, not just a description of a present condition or specific
instance), or pigiitchuk ("he is had, evil"); or simply as always hying "other" than everyday people
lived with in the village then it's incumbent upon those non-Natives to start being more sensitive about
the ways they behave.
'the phenomenon of whites wanting to assert their own indivickal ethnic identity is like snaking love
to a mermaid
it's all right as far as it goes: but there's also the "when in Nome" dynamic: and if nonNatives ever want to he "accepted" in the villages they're going to have to learn, at least to a certain
extent. how to "do as the village people do."
One of the most certain turn-offs in the business is to keep bringing up "how they do it in California."
or "my experiences with Chicanos or inner-city Blacks" ( for one thing, the overwhelming majority of
Alaska Natives do not identify with Chicanos or Blacks or other ethnic minorities, it has been
surprising to 1111' how many Eskimos and Aleuts. particularly. still do not even identify as Native
Americans with Canadian and other American Indians). or "how much better things are handled
somewhere Outside." If white educators want to emphasize and retain their status as Ontsiders. let them
keep stressing it-hut let it he at their own risk and in full knowledge of the damage they are doing to
identification and trust levels between them and the village people. What is involved are not only racial
overtones that may he penrived by Native people as depreciative of them (that Outside. where
everything is progressive, and when. whites in the Big( :hies have all situations firmly in hand. endeavors
are not characterised by such primitive strategies, or naive attitudes, or lack of familiarity with the latest
technological advances). but also a very dynamic and intense State chauvinism
as witnessed by the
bumper stickers decorating many cars owned by white Alaskans: We don't gives damn HOW they do
()inside!
Better to go to the other extreme: ferret out local experiences and customs to draw parallels toemphasize common referents. Use of colorful and accurate simile and metaphor to illustrate specific
points is extremely advisable, since evidence seems to indicate you would he tapping perceptual
pipelines particulary conducive to learning in Native people, as well as enhancing trust levels and
feeding mutual identification appetites. In short, if you must he experientially idiomatic, be sure it is on
the basis of the village experience. so the listeners will derive full benefit from the Idiom.
Maybe it doesn't need to be said. but being extremely sophisticated for the benefit of village people
is a futile exercise. wasted in that the nuances involved are generalw lost on that audience. Also. what
aspects of the performance they do perceive will probably he regarded as humorous or distasteful.
Again, sophistication is more likely to serve as a wedge between non-Native and village people than as a
social cement.
Irony. idiom. and sophistication are intntsions based on experience irrelevant to village life, and
tend to impede rather than enhance the cross-cultural communication process. Diminish, or better still,
delete.
76
Nitty- gritty suggestions. no Monday morning workshops in Anchorage, Fairbanks. Bethel. Nome,
etc. it any participants are to flv ill from villages. Most of thermal areas don't have flights on Sundays. so
many of your people will be coming in on Shindies morning flights that may not arrive until noon. One or
two o'clok would be better than WOO in the mooting. Tuesday at 9:011 might be better yet.
Au agenda outline should be distributed to all participants at the beginning of any workshops or
meetings with plenty of white spare under each item for appertaining notes. observations. questions.
comments, or criticism. Too much of value is lost in the absence of a viable recording device.
Studies5 indicate that information will he transmitted to Native people more et fed ively (and will
he retained longer) if it is transmitted via image-based instruction and communiation. such as charts.
diagrams. slides. and films. This is particularly tow of rural Natives and others with a high perceptual /low verbal-ability pattern. So whenever the need is simply to transmit a specific body of
information (essentially a one-way communication flow), or if the kind of extenuating circumstances
arise whereby it is impossible. to avoid holding a mass meeting of mixed ethnic composition in a large
room, then the old non-communicative lecture-type presentation still remains as inestimable as ever, in
favor of some kind of image-based instructional module. preferably of the mixed-media variety, which
would more effectively capitaline on such areas of cognitive excellent... among Natives as perceptual
analysis and image memory. The story knife, the totem pole, the stick dance and other traditional forms
of dramatic dancing are preeedents in Native culture that tend to reinforce the view that image-based
communication stands the highest chance of achieving desired ends among Native people.
Translation. where appropriate, is absolutely critical first into communicable English. then into
the local (it in a village) or regional (if in a larger population center, such as Bethel, Nome, or KoWelme)
Native dialed. The decision as to whether or not translation into the Native language is necessary or
desirable must he left exclusively up to the Natives present. with absolutely no outside suggestions or
Which brings me to a critical point. In ans. workshop or series of meetings of mixed ethnic
composition. I believe it is mandatory that two slots of time he set aside one near the beginning of the
when the Native people present can get together by themselves, with no
non-Natives present.
sessions. one near the end
In the initial session, such questions as whether or not translation into the local dialect would he
desirable can be resolved. and who the translator(%) it required should be. Also such things as what the
Native people would like to get out of the workshop or meetings. and what ways they see themselves as
participating or interacting, and perhaps 1peitic issues they would like to :ee addressed, with
suggestions as to how those issues should he approached. It is assumed at this point that the Native
people present have been an integral part of a thorough pre - planning and Manning process that dearly
set out goals and objectives for the meetings. and that laid out specific strategies for achieving those ends.
The purpose for throwing it open again would he to see if contingencies have developed %Mee the
planning sessions that would dictate modifications in the workshop design
issues may have arisen in
the interim that require attention. or dynamics may have evolved in such a way as to invite exploration
or
consideration. Also, the sheer strength of strong personalities present Islay influence
for the better or
worse the direction of the meetings: in any ease. as much allowanue as possible must he made for these
contingencies to be antieipated rather than confronted spontaneously (premeditated extemporaneity
would be. preferable here to "flving by the seat of your pants").
5
rr
Inddh Aleintehrt Coigne*, Strewth+ of Eskffnov wed Implirationt for t:thwation (Untveral I )1 Almkg
77
1141).
In the Native calicos near the end of the meetings the participants should react to the workshop or
sessions taken as a whole, with praise and criticism as appropriate, but most importantly with
suggestions as to how future meetings could be structured so as to doa better job of achieving the explicit
and implicit objectives. 'I'he non-Natives shost!.1 be addressing the same issues in their group from their
own !Mild of view.
There is mime feeling that this type of segregation is antiprogressive and perhaps racist. Sly
response to that would he that it is the worst form of hypocrisy for educators to profess their
commitment to "getting Native input," while at the same time refusing to create the kinds of channels
through which that input might reasonably be expected to flow.
I am not suggesting that entire workshops be segregated, just that segregated components be built
into the overall design to provide one more form of dialogue and one more vehicle of expression for
Native people in an attempt to maximize the opportunity for authentir and comprehensive village
community input. And experience dictates that is most likely to happen in a situation where Native
people feel perfectly free to express themselves.
On a recent visit to One of the larger regional high schools where the student body is 90I Native, I
was somewhat startled by the composition of the student government. The student body is divided up
into 25 groups of students somewhat at random. Each elects a representative to sit on a 25-member
student government. That body. in turn, elects five of its members to sit with five faculty representatives
on a student-faculty senate. All five teachers are white. Four of the five students are white. So whereas
90$ of the student population is Native. the highest governing body in the school is 90/ (nine out of ten)
white. Even more to the point is that not only the five students on the student-faculty senate hut all 25
members of the student governmentare from the urban center where the regional high school is
loeated. Not a single rural Native sits on the student government. although studentscome from villages
throughout that entire region.
Once again. the point is underlined that what we're dealing with is primarily a cultural and not a
racial difference
but the difference is dvasting. The issue raised by the ethnic and cAtural
composition of that regional high school student government is whether or not it is indeed representative
of the constituency for which it is espoused to advocate
whether it is viable as a channel of
communication through which rural Native students find it comfortable or possible to express
themselves. Quite dramatically it is not representative, not viable. not acceptable.
What we need to do. then, is start over again from scratchthink through the whole business of
representative government. what it is supposed to he and do. what forms it might take. Above all, we
can't allow ourselves to be influenced or biased by ways we have seen governments representative of
other ethnic or cultural constituencies created or stnwtured, because that information will tend to be
irrelevant and counterproductive. Our operational premises must he limited to the few "givens" we have
with regard to rural Native people (e.g. their reluctance to speak out in large groups of mixed ethnic
composition, and other characristics discussed in this paper)
then we must attempt to create new
form, consistent with what few things we do know for sure. Attempting to adapt governmental
structures or parliamentary procedures specifically conceived and developed to perform advocacy and
representative functions for urban, non-Native peoples, attempting to modify them in such a way as to
make them viable and functional for rural Alaskan Natives is like trying to play golf with barbells you
might be able to get the ball rolling after a fashion, but you certainly won't be playing the same game.
Lumping regional high school students together in small groups by village, or by clusters of villages
might be a place to startsay 50 groups of 10 to 12 students each. Each group might designate a
representative to meet with representatives of several other groups. At that point you might have five
groups of ten students each. or ten groups of five students each. or seven of seven (one group with an
78
extra nenclwrl. Each of those groups then. might designate a delegate to the student goveniment. five,
seven, or ten members). Each Rump might have both a leader and a weaker. Supposing in the intimate
context of a small number of students, the one who emerges as the real leader, in terms of eliciting the
rived and loyalty of others on the strength of his imagination, ideas. his personality and character
supposing that student is a Native from a very remote village where only or predominantly his Native
language is quilt.% Chances are he would be reluctant and embarrassed to speak out in even small
groups of mixed ethnic rout positions (since there likely has been nothing in his past to prepare him for it).
and most certainly he would rather lose his fingers and toes of frostbite than stand and address, say, the
entire faculty and student body at a general assembly. In that case, perhaps a mechanism needs to be set
tip whereby a speaker is designated (by the group? by the leader?) who would literally he the
mouthpiece to express the wishes of the leader and/or the consensus of the group.
Pursuing that line of thought to its logical extension, then. perhaps even the concept of a student
body president needs to have a hard look. Providing (when appropriate) an administrative assistant for
the president who would, again, be his mouthpiece or spokesman at gatherings before which the leader
himself would be tineasy to speak
would free the groups designating the leaders to do their selecting
on the basis of qualities and criteria that actually are the attributes of leadership, and not merely on the
basis of who is willing and able (primarily urban, primarily nonNative) to stand up in the front of an
audit; trim or gymnasium and deliver a public declamation. Because one student has had more extensive
exposure and, therefore, is more fluent in the English language than another, does not mean he has more
to say! there is no correlation. And the issue needs to be dealt with as to which language will INe use
the composition of the smaller dusters of students by home locales will dictate that some of
the groups will he communicating primarily in their Native tongue. Naturally in general assemblies a
mutually intelligible language will need to be used, almost certainly English. Hut that does not preclude
translating into the regional dialect-in which case the real leaders may opt to speak for themselves.
Obviously, this process or method will have greater applicability in some places than others -it is for the
"some places" I take the time to put these thoughts together; the "others" are probably already
functional.
Village people have indicated their disdain for Anglo forms and structures in any number of ways,
not the least of which is reflected by the Yupik word for village council member, angaayugaruaq
(pretend boss). In sonic villages, people on the council are legitimately high status individuals in that
local emitext( although almost weer are TIIE leaders on the council. and even less of ten are they council
presidents). Hut in many situations they are middle status or lower, designated more than anything else
because of their willingness to play the role of "pretend boss" - to go through the motions of setting up
meetings. answering correspondence. filling out papers, and entertaining visiting agency of finials. When
non-Natives come to villages representing programs and with specific purposes they tend to be pretty
insecure and it is important to them to have "of ficial"anaaayugaruaas to meet with. Native people have
learned, then. how to cope with the old take rue to your leader syndrome - and instead of directing them
to the real leader or leathers (with whom the visitors would most likely not even he able to talk and who
they certainly would not understand). they escort them instead to the "pretend bosses" - and everybody
is happy. Then if the visitor raises legitimate issues or asks real questions (it sometimes happens)
requiring response f rum son ItNale in authority in that village. then the subject is lidded until the council
president can get together with the real leader or leaders and get the atewas for his people.
The reason why the actual leaders are seldom village council Presidents is the same as why rural
Native student leaders are seldom on student governments the unique combination of attributes
responsible for their attaining such a high status among their peers just happens nut to Melnik proclivity
for going through the motions of phasing "pretend boss" (in fact, by definition in that cultural mutest.
precludes their comisenting to spend their time in that wav
79
Another rule of thumb to re
her Raise in the best pi mita m to iwtually "speak for" Nativepeople
in the village are least likely to profess to be able to doso. 'flume who nits around flamitina their ability to
speak for the People are "apples" (red on the outside. w bite on the inside). it they were culturally -,is well
as racially Natives 11;:'v would know better. than to talk that way. Nobody speaks for The People but the
!Mh' themselves. The only appropriate response to' (liwsthm of what (h) Natives feel about some
particular issue is: they feel the saine way about it as non-Natives feel about religion.
W hat I'm suggesting is that most of the channels of communications we have set up for crosscultural/ trans- racial exchange
most of the forms and structures we have constructed within the
jwrameters of which we attempt to create (and erringly profess to enjoy) dialogue'
are culturally
biased (pragitsaticilly, it you will. racially diF,..ritninatory) in such a way as to assure the apples and
assimilates (who are the least authentic spolo Amen for their people) positions of preeminence in ongoing
corporate endeavors: while in the absee,:e of traditional Native channels of communication and timetested village systems of the ks and balances, the voices of the real leaders are not being heard and their
influence is not twins, 1, L. We are twins( deprived of the vision and views of the actuninlated wisdom,
distilled and crystallized in the minds' of the old-timers, or ( I believe the argument can he made) the most
pragmatic people' who ever have lived
because 01 our inability and/or unwillingness to create
channel.: through which those people might express themselves.
Returning to the subject of workshops. I have personally observed sessions that for this very reason I
would have written off as unsalvageable in regard to Native participants hut that were virtually saved
by recourse to the type of .wgregated caucuses referred to earlier. In at least one instance the Native
representatives hum both the S.( ).S. Central (Mice and the Regional Native Corporation had left the
meetings in disgust and radioed for a charter out of the village. The Native participants from the village
itself and from other surrounding villages. whose travel and per diem were' being paid by the
program
sponsoring the workshop. and who were therefore a "captive audience." had resigned themselves to
sitting through another fruitless exercise, and were merely putting in their time listening to non-Native
teachers and administrators share their views with each other on Native characteristics and needs. and
develop program objectives based on these observations. The workshop was being held in
a
gymnasium. with typically 70 or*) persons of mixed ethnic composition present. and whenever the main
group WM broken down into smaller bodies by village. the non-Native teachers and consultants tended
to continue to dominate and/or give direction to each session. Native input was negligible or worse (the
latter having reference to the fail that when verbal contribution is ultimately pried out of rural Native
people under such artificial and intimidating circumstances. the product is not likely to be genuinely
representative or authen,:c. and is further to he condemned because' its credibility will have been
enhanced by its haviny! been "expressed" by a Native).
At that critical juncture a sugy..!;tion was made to let the Native people meet by themselves to
discuss the workshop, and to see if tbey had any input on the program objectives. or with regard
sessions.
to future
The meeting that made the difference was held almost exclusively in Inupiat and lasted several
hours. Oral contributions were made voluntarily by everyone present but two students and one old
woman (out of approximately 41) Native participants). whereas not more than three or four had ventured
to speak out in the mass meeting and certainly not more than a dozen, all told, spoke out in the smaller
mixed groups. An invaluable and comprehensive list of performance objectives. a series of positive
suggestions for the improvement of future workshops (set in a framework of Menet icient criticism with
regard to the current effort), and a great deal of other input (related ideas. the articulation of certain
reality factors that had been overlooked, the sharing of program strategies that seemed to have been
successful in one or another of the villages. etc.) were all distilled out of the six to eight pages of notes
taken. and it is fair to say, took the non-Native teachers. administrators. and consultants completely by
surprise. Their caucus appeared to have hogged down somewhat in abstract and esoteric educational
theorizing. and hadn't produced anything like a comparable product.
80
hie point was made absolutely clear: influsing Alaskan education
with a little good old- fashioned
village pragmatism is like shooting a quarter-horse up with adrenalina whole
lot mote rapid forward
motion results.
Far more surprising than the
extent and via: glity of the end product, however (which a number of
persons in both groups could have predicted),
was the transformation of attitudes and change of
atmosphere following the workshop division. The Native participants
appeared to have dissipated sonic
of their frustrations and inhibitions. and spoke out more freely
in subsequent sessions; also, everyone
seemed to be more relaxed and to feel more positive about what
was going on. At the risk of
oversimplifying, let me suggest that "negative sibrations" and several
levels of rather intense hostility
(for whatever reasons) that characterized the earlier stages of the workshop,
were replaced by very
positive vibrations and a prevailing spirit of c:mperation and good will.
1 believe that what was clear to
everyone was that half of the participants of the workshop. who had rather
systematically and
devastatingly been denied a voice (however unintentionally) had suddenly
found a means to be heardand that seemed cool. Not only was that in itself perceived as being
a little saner, and somehow more
satisfying morally, but it was also discovered that those participants had.
indeed, a desperately- needed
contribution to make. 1 can't conceive any of its who were at that
workshop ever forgetting the lesson.
Other components that might be profitable to build into future workshops
would be small Recaps
by Mates (teachers and administrators, Native aides. activity
teachers and community people), groups
divided according to function and/or grade levels (e.g., all
primary teachers together, all E.(:.1).
personnel, bilingual teachers, school board chairmen, 9th grade teachers,
etc., in separate groups), as
well as the whole group together for image-based presentations.
Whenever it is demonstrated, 1 would
say that any of these other means of communication,
or that the combination of them all, is capable of
producing results equivalent to the Native/non-Native
caucuses, then let's do away with them. Until that
time. I would ask non-Natives to swallow their oblections and
not regard themselves as being
discriminated against or "squeezed out," but to be big enough
to sacrifice whatever personal comfort or
perceived compromise of convictions it requires of them in order
that another.. and vitally important.
segment of the populace (students and parents: community people;
Native educators) be provided the
opportunity to have an equal voice in the content and delivery system of local educationa
voice which
might otherwise not be heard.
To my mind. one of the great challenges facing Alaska Natives
in the immediate future is how to
restrict the cultural bias factor to a minimum in all the dealings with non-Natives
that are going to have to
take placenot only in education. but in all the areas thrown
open wide by the recent passage of the
Land Claims Settlement: in business, industry, and politics, and
in the inner sanctums of regional and
local offices with non-Native advisers, consultants, and attorneys
on Native payrolls. More outcomes
and end-products than ever will he gassed will he influenced and in
many cases determined by the
cultural bias introduced by structures of organizations, committees,
planning groups, workshops,
advisory boards. individual meetings, even corporate structures (that
make it difficult or impossible for
Natives to have an effective and/or equal voice). proctor (caret oily designed
to impose time constraints
and other impinging factors that preclude or restrict, for example. authentic canvassing
via traditional
modes of Native communication for grassroots input on
a certain issue), content (laid out and weighted
in such a way as to direct outcomes), and personalities (conscious
or unconscious people - manipulators).
The problem facing us is one other Native Americans faced much
earlier (1 think of the French and
Indian wars) -of how to get the confrontations into territory and under
the kinds of conditions that will
give as an even chance (or an edge) in the outcomes, instead of fighting the
kind of battle the other side
has received generations of training to win, and in which those
without equivalent background are
simply "mowed down" by highly sophisticated and devastatingly efficient machinery.
81
It was not a ramjet of the moment when lesns admonished his own followers to "pray in this way:
lead us not into temptation." rather than "help us to overcome temptation when we encounter it."
Very simply-. preventive tactics constitute a pragmatically super.or strategy to formulating responses in
the lave of crisis. So thos, of us who are seriously concerned with the problem of constraining cultural
...
bias in cross-cultural e.wounters will want to focus our efforts more on UMW% than et teas. and attack the
problem in this formative stageswe will want to develop preventive measures that will preclude the
problem's ever taking shape.
%irtnally everything that matters happens (as was suggested earlier) in three phases: preplannirtp.
plemning. and impkmentatkm. In the past. whenever Native people have been involved in programs.
proWets, conferences, workshops or meetings. it has almost invariably been at the implementation stage
and generally in such a way as to be incontrovertibly token. On the rare occasions they were invited to
participate in a planning process, that process had already been so easel ully designed in the pre-planning
phase that the end results were for all practical purposes already ordained. The composition of the
planning team had been decidedhow many Natives versus how many nonNatives: how vocal. how
informed on specific. issues to be considered, how comfortable each was likely to be. 'lime constraints
were set in concrete ("We've got to have this proposal written and submitted to Region Ten h the first of
next week."). so that opportunities for soliciting acktitional input or becoming more informed in order to
lw able to intelligently participate. were aborted. Probably the critical questions. the hy's and
wherefore's. such issues as real needs. principal goals. long-term objectives. had already been
dispatched. and there v. as no tomr any question as to whether or not seirm earmuffs on all Eskimo
babies north of the tiOth parallel was advisable, in order to prevent eventual loss of hearing due to owns
media. No finest ion as to the implications of such a stepthe only issue's hef t to be decided were perhaps
the color and style of the muffs, and whether or not nylon strings or sinew should be used for the stitching
(the latter being considered more culturally relevaat I. As wa pointed out earlier, even the
predetermination of the meeting placer for a planning session could seriously influence the eventual
outcomes.
Where we are losing out all across the hoardwhere it is enteral we take dramatic steps to kuure
consistent. comprehensive, and g mine Native participation.-11 in the preplanning of everything that
affects Native people.
I recently sat in on a meetinit at which the issue was being discussed of the future of local control of
education in t oral Alaska. Representatives were present from the State I )epartment of I.:titivationand the
usual agencies. but no single Native representative of any of the regions was invited. Whenthe question
vas raised of where were the people who counted. it was expressed that we were only going to do this-
awlthis. and that later would tw the appropriate time to invite the participation of Native aders.
I um not satisfied. and deeply resent that anyone or any group should decide for Native leaders at
what juncture it is appropriate for them to become involved. The time is past wht n that was either
acceptable ex s iahle behavior. There is only one point in time at which it is appr priate within the current
ontrxt of reality factors for interested partirs to come together on any issue, and that's at the very
bestkating.when the issue is first raised. At the point it becomes obvious that something is to be done. or
needs to be done. recipients of the end-products need to become immediately involved.
Simply put. preplanning is where the potter is If that phase of any program is carefully controlled.
the endprodets are mere details that fall in place. If. say. the enumeration of the wimp that will
subsequently do the planning is purposefully designed: if the circumstances under %ae they will meet
are conducive to the type of communication desired: if the time I same within which the planning will
have to be accomplished is liberal enough to provide I I I ample opportunity for grassroots input and
t42
testing of intermediary ideas on legitimate community sounding hoards. and (2) modificatmA of notions
in the light of input and information reported back, as well as (3) allowances for "Wiwi time" and
whatever pragmatic extensions of that principal need to be taken into accounte.g, the rites at which
some things are likely to take place within the contexts of Native colture and traditional village
communications modes that might not he the same as non-Native planners ar0 used to; if the whys and
wherefores, the long-range goals. and program objectives are carefully laid out (or if the paths to desired
options are meticulously pruned); if the "hidden agenda" for the subsequent planning sessions, and all
the unexpressed but implicit objectives are sensitively integrated into the overall planning scheme; if a
system of loopholes and Catch-22's is create.: to deal with any unanticipated contingencies that might
develop of a nature counter- productive to desired outcomes then the end product (not just in the
planning, but in the implementation phase as well) have little chance of emerging in any form other than
that expressly desired by the pre-planners. It virtnally ceases to become important who is given the
responsibility for implementation of the program; it has already been given its essential shape. The
ultimate program design may he - and often is - actually set in concrete before the "planners" es er
convene!
The rules for playing the planning game are the same for everyone (and facility at determining the
direction of long-range planning simply involves extensions of all the same principlesmaster of the art
of anticipatory one-upmanship) only all of us haven't had equal opportunity for exposure to them. What
I'm suggesting by dissecting the rules in this rough form is that in the future any non-Native educators
truly committed to "getting Native intuit" ',lid establishing authentic two-way cross-cultural
communications. might keep these principle,
ind, and go out of their way to involve Native people
in programs not after the design h, been set, the grouch! rules established, the damage done - but
before the critical decisions have been made (preferably even before the critical questions have been
asked.)
For Native leaders and educators, my view is that attention to these kinds of distinctions is a matter
of survival - at least certainly on whose terms.
Ole foregoing remarks are not intended to he regarded as 1101y ScripturPthey are little more than
an exploratory sally into a subject-matter area that has not received much intelligent treatment. If they
succeed in bringing into lotus some disjointed elements in a rural teacher's experience; if they provide
any kind of handle with whit h to get hold of some of the critical problems we face in cross-cultural
communication; if they spur further thinking on the subject or in any way contribute to initiating a
deeper and more comprehensive study; most of all if they prove to he practical and useful in creating the
kind of communications environments and planning practices for all our dealings and meetings that will
maximize parental and community input at the villa ,e level into an educational system that for too long
has failed to make itself relevant or successful at meeting the needs of the students it plays a critical role in
preparing for life. them, !iese observations will have served their intended purpose.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL RESEARCH AS AN APPROACH
TO A SCIENCE OF CROSS-CULTURAL EDUCATION:
THE COMPARATIVE METHOD AND THEORY BUILDING
CHARLES D. RIDER
Alaska Methodist University
Anchorage, Alaska
INTRODUCTION
The purymse of this paper is twofold. I wish to discuss the significance of cross-cultural education as
a focus of an nropological theory building, and to offer some preliminary observations on the process Of
increasing the explanatory ability of current theories pertaining to orosscultural education. Many of the
statements in this paper are tentative and lack the authority of being subjected to rigorous intellectual
challenge. however. I hope that this will not serve to draw attention away from what must be regarded as
an important area of research and development.
It is the position of this paper that the science of cross-cultural education involves the systematic
accumulation of reliable data about those aspects of human behavior involved in the formal transmission
of culture. The interrelationship of these empirically gathered data could then be illustrated by use of the
comparative method. In this way our generalizations and propositions could be empirically teFted by the
application of statistical methods.
For purposes of this paper I take science to be the structure and processes of accumulation of
systematic and reliable knowledge about any relatively enduring aspect of the universe, carried out by
means of empirical observations, and the development of concepts and propositions for interrelating
and explaining such observations. ( Mtn l97019).
In order to further define the assumptions implicit in this presentation I perceive theories to he
systcnis of interrelated statements with deduced linkages that presume to explain some aspect of Cie
universe of human behavior (or for that matter. the physical universe). And, finally having made mxplicit
our conceptions of science' and theory, perhaps a sketch of what I take to he true of methodolor
Methodology is the procedure whereby the researcher manipulates his data from theory to observation
or. better from observation to theory in order to produce and organize the information gained through
certain organized research procedures.
PART I
"Whatever It Is, It IS cromeultural edueetIon1"1
The need to impart formal educational wartien to Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut students training to
be teachers has made it pain:ully appare. that educators do not provide for the adaptation of the
majority societies educational system into small, homogenous, culturally unique units (cf. Alaska StateOperated Schools ;973). Questions as to the integrity of these culture bearing units is the subject of
discussion in a subsequent section of this paper. It is apparent that the literature on cross-cultural
iiiwneit hit I'M It.% nt anthrtil Murk al re,eart.h with a vollritain.'t gnntt.. "55 hate%er it 1,4 it', nut anthritnithisiv "
1411141 tilt. IIIIPth nt retritt tunny the (tatettlent to etnphatiat. nn VIV,A uI the literature in urmvt.ttlhiral rthwattion
%t I d«,rt
.
Cf.144Lk
education might help us in our dilemma by separating into cativiries various attempts to ro .aler the
system more adaptive to other culture bearing units. However, a careful perusal of the relevant literature
causes me to assert that "cross-cultural" education has no conceptual authority nor has it utility as a
hueristic. The term has been used with such abandon nearly anything is culled cross-cultural education.
Burger (1971) equates cross-cultural to intercultural, iuterethnic, and transcultural. There is little
doubt that Burger is not speaking to the issue of cross-cultural research in Anthropology. He is
attempting to designate a particular educational activity involving culturally different teacher and
student as "Kthno-l'edogogy." Greenberg offers Cross-Cultural Implications for Teachers (1968: 146).
Henry (1960, 1972:72) has developed A Cross-Cultural Outline for Education. Suffice it to say the
literature is replete with various uses of "cross-cultural" education.
We can identify three major categories of use of the term. lanni and Storey (1973:418) identify the
term cross-cultural education as meaning three, quite different phenomena. It characterizes, First, formal
or informal educational encounters that involve cultural differences. Second, the term describes
formalized teaching and learning experiences in which cultural difference is presumed to he
problemati6. And. third, cross-cultural education circumscribes the field of study that compares
educational processes and structures across cultures. Though my knowledge of the literature is not
exhintsCve I believe the lanni and Storey taxonomy to he the first of its kind with respect to the term
cross-cultural education 11973418).
With respect to the categories proposed I suggest that we need to further elaborate the framework
hut, for now, I am only interested in their third category: cross-cultural education circumscribes the field
of study that compares The ability to produce generalizations about the formal transmission of culture
using the comparative method in Anthropology is the primary goal of this paper.
The State of the "DiecriptIve" Art In Anthropology and Education
Through this paper I wish to speak out for a thorough rethinking of the tenuous but burgeoning
relationship between Anthropology and Education. It is not my purpose to cover more than a few of the
problems surrounding cross-cultural education and anthropological research outside of the "Statistical
Survey and the Nomothetic Revival" (Harris 1968) but there is a problem with data collection and
analysis in most field reports. A brief elaboration :night he profitable at this point.
The need exists to develop an appropriate conceptual framework for those categories of cultural
transmission that deal with one's own culture (enculturation). or involving two or more cultures
(acculturation). or the generalized phenomenon of learning to live in any sociocultural milieu
(socialization). (after Mead 1963:1.84-188) Williams (1969:2) asserts that there is a profound conceptual
difference between statements concerning learning human culture and statements about the learning of
culture within the context of one society, such as Navajo, Dugan. Javanese. or Eskimo.
The description of generalized learning of any sociocultural milieu (socialization) is not well
represented in our literature. In fact, Williams (1969) feels we know little that is scientifically meaningful
concerning the socialization process because there are so few basic descriptive accounts of enculturation
in tother I non-Western societies. Without the basic descriptive studies we do not have the necessary
data to develop a comparative basis for making theoretical formulations with any explanatory power.
Then, it is obvious, we must gather more data for comparison if we wish to build social scientific theory.
There is also going to he a greater need for descripove accounts of entulturation and acculturation.
llower er, all three of these learning processes (socialization. enculturation. and acculturation) need hot
take place (indeed. most often have not) in a formalized erucational setting. Therefore, they nuty or may
not be included in our hmtmlation of cross-cultural education.
86
We must identify whether we are describing socialization, enculturation, acculturation. or an
appropriate combination of these processes in the formal educational setting. We will then acquire the
data inventory for comparison and this will tend to enhance our ability to produce valid generalizations.
An illustration of the comparativists dilemma shows that Wolcott (1967) is describing formal education
in an acculturative milieu, King (1987) is also describing acculturation. However, Hostetler and
Huntington (1971) are describing enculturation as is Williams (1969), Warren (1967), Singlei.on (1967),
and Read (19118). You probably recognize these monographs as representing some of the Case Studies in
F.ducation and Culture series edited by George and Louise Spindler. In the forward to each book in the
series the Spindlers comment:
"We hope these studies will be useful as resources for comparative
analyses, and for stimulating thinking and discussion shout education
that is not confined by one's own cultural experience." (1967-1972)
It is axiomatic that almost all studies in cultural anthropology are cross-cultural in orientation. Thisis
true because most cultural and ethnographic studies employ our own uroAmerican patterns as implicit
Ito often invariant) points of reference for illuminating cultural differences, This approach to crosscultural education would be "a way of thinking" rather than a precise methodology.
The sew.% is welcome, however, I find very little that is suited to comparative analyses.
The authors of the monographs are de' rifting different processes, i.e. education has a different
function in each society. In some societies the students are learning their own culture (enculturation) and,
in others the students are being forced to unlearn their own and learn an alien culture (acculturation), The
processes can not be the same though similar skills may or may not be used. The patterning of these
cultural piiicesses may exert a significant influence on the nature of the adult personality of the children
subject to such learning experiences. It has been suggested that the cultural milieu is mediated to the
haste (modal) personality in the socialization process. In our society "schooling" has taken on the job of
mediating for the individual thus expediting the amalgamation process. This could he true in other
cultures.
I am sure the case studies I mention are not envisioned as data for nomothetic analyses but we do
need to begin directing our attention to comparative data gathering techniques. It must he obvious that I
feel strongly that quality idiographic studies must continue, however, due to the "law of the conservation
of basic data" it would he useful if the desriptivists would gather data categorically designed to assist
the cross-cultural (hologeistic) researcher's effort at the comparative study of soviet-cultural phenomena.
My own interests are in comparison and I am aware that without the appropriate descriptive data my
endeavors will surely prove fruitless.
In closing this section of my paper, I would like to rer eat that this paper focuses on formal
education. Formal education for our purpc se is one aspect of sticializatioi. Formal education can he
either enculturation or acculturation, but usually not both simultaneously.
The refinement of categories is essential to the development of a scientific vmsscultural education.
The fact that cross-cultural education, ern tt It oration, acculturation, and socializetion are confused in the
literature draws our attention to the need to improve the explanatory level of all concepts and constructs
in the three categories of cross-cultural education.
PART
The Need for the Comporoff Apfrf000n to Moor/ Building
There is no question of the need for comparisons in cross-cultural education (sec page $5). Some
question does. however, exist as to the method of comparison that might prove most fruitful in terms of
general statements and ultimately the testing of theories germane to sociocultural phenomena in a formal
educational milieu. The descriptive generalizations resultant from the various case studies in Culture and
$7
1
Education have le,s capacity for explanation and prediction than the laws resulting from the testing of
hypotheses deduced from theory. Our purpose with the hologeistic or nomothetic approach is to
augment the explanatory capacity of theory.
Gearing (1972:8) asserts that his notions of transaction and equivalence (cultural transmission
transaction of equivalences) make untenable some familiar phrases: "a culture," "a subculture," "crossculture" ( in the usual sense that some situations are and some are not one of these). In general, I agree, but
I believe that ethnographic fieldwork can function in any situation as the basic tool of anthropological
research and the induced categories submitted to comparative analyses. In fact, Gearing alludes to this
possibility in his discussion of "mapping equivalences." Chaney (1971) calls this sociocultural data
patterning. Further, Gearing closes his excellent paper with the remark that there will remain the task,
clear in principal but doubtlessly very difficult in doing, inductively to derive from emit systems of
categories and from emit systems of logic, adequate etic systems, following Goodenough's standard.
(Gearing 1972:16)
The mandate for the application of the comparative research methods developed primarily by
anthropologists is clear. Herskovits (1948:625) early stated that culture exhibits regularities that permit
its analyses by the methods of science. There must exist an emphasis on classification and analysis of the
similarities and differences between cultural forms, to the end that valid generalizations about cultures
as a whole. that permit prediction, can he achieved. It has been the use of cross-cultural materials, more
than anything else, that has sounded the death knell of theories about human nature (1948:617). We
mentioned earlier that formal education is considered to involve the function of transmir4ng culture as
well as having structural relationships to other cultural forms and thereby falls well within the purview of
flerskoyits' optimistic statement concerning analyses by scientific procedures. The whole idea of the
structural interrelationship of formal education, with other inFtitutions in nonwestern societies should
intrigue any researcher interested in cultural forms.
Finally, Richards (1973:287) asserts that without some theoretical understanding anyone trying to
work in a cross-cultural situation is in the position of a man looking for a gas leak with a lighted candle.
PART Ill
The Comparative Approach to Theory Building
Nadel (1951) offers us by far the most systematic and comprehensive treatment of the comparative
method lie defines it in terms of the systematic study of similarities and differ-sec.:. through the use of
correlation and covariation, in the formal educational milieu.
Lewis (1956) offers a us4u1 continuum of "types of comparison."
I. Global or Random Comparison (1Iologeistic)
2. Broad Typological Comparisons
3. Comparisons between continents or nations
4. Comparisons within one continent
5. Comparisons within one nation
6. Comparisons within one culture area or region
I might add that school systems and schools might also fit into Lewis' types as we move more to least
abstract with respect to the observation of human behavior, It is only fair to point out that the hologeistic
cross-cultural studies (category
are only one variety of comparative studies. lisp t 1969:52) states
whether we
ourselves with many or a few societies. a comparative framework is indispensable
to the deveh., nent of anthropology. Would I he presumptions to maintain the same is true for the
development of cross - cultural education? We must make our heretofore implicit comperisons become
explicit and further enhance the building of theory in croccultural education.
hh
The basic assumptions in my argument are that the elements of any culture tend over time to
become functionally integrated or reciprocally adjusted to one another. Murdock and White (14ifk:I2N)
state that if such adaptations were instantaneous cultures would at all times exhibit perfect integration,
and functional relationships among the elements of a culture or social system would readily become
manifest through observation and analysis. Further, if this was the case, valid scientific generalizations
could he reached by the intensive study of individual cultures, and cross-cultural research would be
unneeessary. Since perfect integration is seldom the case (apparently) in formal education in nonWestern sociocultural milieu there is a "telt" need for cross-cultural research in education.
CONCLUSION
The Cross-Cultural Method of Comparison
There are professional anthmpologists that consider cross-cultural research to he a futile endeavor.
The hulk of this group resides in Europe. some call themselves British Social Anthropologists. The
spokesmen for this group are varied in ability and articulateness. I have checen to cite the views of
Edmund Leach. an outstanding scholar. Leach argues that the present system of cross-cultural
comparison makes the Tikopia and Chinese cultural units of comparable type and this is a reduetio ad
alnurdum. His argument is that the Chinese are millions and the Tikopians few. Further. any work that
rests on the assumption that the units of discourse, whatever they are labeled, can he described
taxonomically by a "list" of characteristics is by its very nature a travesty of good, sound anthropological
thinking. Cultures can not be described a:: can a species of bettle.
Leach asserts that the coders in various cross-cultural research centers "misread" his monograph on
the Kachin. He asserts that it is not that Murdock's tabulators intentionally change his data, it's simply the
ohm arraphic facts will not fit tidily into tabulated categories. Leach believes that this is true of all human
social institutions (Leach 1964:299). Leach tells us that he is confident he ipeaks for all British social
anthropologists (19f14:299). Also. Leach questions the unit of analysis in cross-cultural study. and
secondly he eels the conceptualization. classification and coding problems in cross-cultural research are
an insurmountable harrier. And. finally, he questions data accuracy. These are three significant issues
that anyone hoping to gain explanations from cross-cultural research must he ready to deal with. A final
comment front the British school is necessary to show the depth of the schism between British Social
Anthropology and the cross-cultural researcher.
I am not concerned to denigrate the Atlas ( World Ethnographic Atlas) ..,
But if other people's material is subject to the same treatment as my own.
then there is clearly a potential source of great error. and much
contemporary research stands in the balance. (Goody 19137:306)
Another fornmidahle detractor is the French structural school, embodied in one great tttind. Claude
Levi-Straus. The French school's paradigms are, broadly speaking, selective and social-scientific
versions of the rationalist philosophy, while the paradigms of the Anglo-Americans are largely
statements of empiricist philosophical premises. II mean paradigms as Thomas Kuhn uses them.) The
French tradition. very similar to the "eine position, assumes the printacy of the wind. and their
investigations are steeped in logically deductive terms. The Anglo-American immaterialist assume primacy
of the behavioral act, their methods are essentially quantitative and descriptive, and their problems are
phrased in diachronic-causal and empirically inductive terms. Levi-Strauss attacks the cross-cultural
researcher primarily on philosophical grounds. His argument is much the same as that expressed by the
$9
American Ethnoscientists (the emicists). They agree that cross-cultural research is irrelevant. For them
the counting of OM'S is absurd: the existence of "concrete universals" allows for the careful analysis of
only a few typical cases and does not demand the establishment of a broad inductive basis for
generalization (Schulte 1970:115). In conclusion. 1 see the basic difference in views as centering around
the issue of inductive empiricism versus deductive rationalism.
The criticism of cross-cultural methods now gets closer to home and. unexpectedly. our detractor is
one of us. Driver is much more specific in his criticism, he is not against cross-cultural research on
philosophical groands. rather, he questions whether the hologeistic type researcher can eliminate
diffusion (Calton's problem) and genetic heritage factors by choosing their samples so that the ethnic
units will he from different culture areas as well as a different language family (hop-skip and lump
method). Driver. then. has pointed out several more of the significant problems facing the.cross- cultural
research. Initially, we must face the Tyler-Calton problem: is the relationship functional and fortuitous
or is it merely an historical-dif fissional artifact? Secondly, there are problems of sampling, how do we get
randomness and as Pelto (1970) rhetorically inquires. aren't all cross-cultural statistics invalid because the
samples are not strictly random (Pelto 1970:293). And. finally. Driver has pleaded for more regional
comparative studies in which all, or almost all, available ethnic units are utilized (Driver 1964:296).
In review. we have discussed the views of the British school, for which the study of human behavior
is overwhelmingly humanistic. descriptive. analytical. and intuitive (idiographic). Naroll (1884)
questions whether or not they realize that the cross-colturalists are behavioral scientists that want. not
only description. but to study the inter-relationships between variables (nomothetic) (1964:310).
Secondly, Levi-Strauss. after considering "the Anglo-American trait counter." presented us with some
basic philosophical arguments concerning empiricism vs rationalism. And. finally. Harold Driver
brought forth some excellent queries that must be dealt with by the cross-cultural researcher.
1 have presented one side of the argument and would now like to balance my effort. I must try to
explain why the' cross-cultural method is an important research tool. I would also like to include some
views of scholars that have been influential in forming my opinions. But. before I balance the ledger I
should like to list the basic problems a cross-cultural resear.uer encounters. There are from six to eleven
"problems" depending on who you read. For th; paper I shall address myself to those problems that
have arisen in my discussion of the detractors. They are, (1) sampling: (2) societal unit: (3) data
accuracy: (4) conceptualization, classification and coding: (5) Calton's problem: (6) general problem of
statistical signfficance and causal analysis of correlations. Other problems that are not subsumed under
one of my six categori
are deviant case analysis (cf. Kobben 1967); the combing, dredging or
mudsticking problem (cf. Winch and Campbell 1909:140-143): and regional variation (cf. Sawyer and
Levine 1906: Driver and Scheussler 1967: and Chaney and Ruiz Revilla 1969),
The cross-cultural study (hologeistic method) is a method for generalizing about certain variables in
human society and culture. It is not a regional study (cf. Driver's work) where one would get not a cross-
cultural study but a culture element distribution study. The method seeks to identify (as I understand
and .vish to use it) traits that are universal among human beings. We can not get cultures into the
laboratory as yet and must work from data gathered in situ. The task as I see it is to sort out the' general
from tht. particular in human cultures. We are seeking to identify functional relations between varying
traits. Natoli ( 1970) asserts that nearly all social, political, or economic theories about hunlan affairs assert
such relationships (1970:122)0. Nanill, perhaps the outstanding hologeisti researcher of today, feels that
our best answers will come in the form. of truly rigorous cross-cultural surveys which demonstrate the
existence of correlations and show that these can not he plausibly explained away as artifacts of unit
definition inconsistency, of sampling bias. of data reporting or coding error. or mere diffusion (Naroll
1904:310).
90
Another supporter who voiced an opinion, at a time when the culture idealist's vis-avis the Boasian
historical-particularists were still in control of American anthropology, was Ackerknecht. In 1954 he
expressed the growing desire and need in Cultural Anthropology to find regularities and common
denominators behind the apparent diversity and uniqueness of cultural phenomena (1954:125). He
further stated that the comparative method was not a panacea hut, he questioned. why the collection of
such a myriad ..f data unless it was comparable? Marin Harris, in his marvelously biased work The Rise
of Anthropological Theory, questions whether the dissenters object to the cross-cultural method or to its
mistakes. And, even though Murdockian type cross-culturalists irritate Harris (he despises physicalist
models), he feels that statistical cross-cultural surveys can. indeed, must he used to supplement other
nudes of generating and testing hypotheses, but they cannot be used alone or even as primary sources of
nounothetie statements (1988818).
Another advocate of the cross-cultural method is not an anthropologist but a psychologist. John W.
M. Whiting (1988) is credited by any number of scholars with giving the classical defense of crosscultural research. I disagree with his statement that most anthropologists using the method are
psychological anthropologists hut, then I'm not sure what a psychological anthropologist is or might he
(Whiting 198/1:090. His 1988 article is a revision of his pioneering defense of 1954, and, I feel he might not
he cognizant of the many different disciplines using cross-cultural research. I do not wish to trace the
history of the cross-cultural method but in 1954 and for many subsequent years the Human Relations
Area File was mostly used by psychologists (d. Whiting and Child 1953: Whiting and Kluckholn 1958;
Child and Veroff 19514; and KB. Whiting 1983; as excellent examples of the Yale and Harvard Schools of
cross-cultural research), as well as a few anthropologists (cf. Murdock 11049. 1957, 1959, 1984). This set of
references is far from exhaustive. but it is representative. I must return to Whiting for the dosing
statement. I would like to quote his response to E. Evans-Pritchard (1983) who said there was little value
to be gained from cross-cultural research.
It is the purport of this chapter that the pursuit of comparative methods
such as this one discussed here (cross-cultural) will yield something more
than "convenient regularities" and a deeper understanding of human
society and that it is one of the methods by which the scientific laws
governing humans and their behavior can he established (italics added
for emphasis). It provides one more way in which our presumptions and
prejudices may be put in jeopardy. (Whiting 1988:720)
91
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