Yup'ik Schoolroom

That was the answer for number 1. Hey, you were in The Library last midnight. Education has been getting a lot of flack lately. Choice of textbooks, curriculum, quality of education have all recedes in abundance of critical attention. And Western Alaska, that debate intensifies to something more fundamental than which history book is best, or how many computer courses a school needs. It's an argument over who should teach the children. Could you put your hand in front of me, and this would you say, me went to school? The majority of the students are Eskimos, whose first language in many cases is Yupik, not English.

But they are generally taught by non-Yupik teachers who speak only English. Does that cultural difference put a cramp on successful instruction? Or transplanting a teacher originally from an urban, Western society into a village setting a Yupik community that teaches ability to communicate with the students? The differences between the two cultures say some are too major to overlook, and those in the end they feel interfere with the educational process. Others, primarily the teachers at the rural schools, aren't convinced. They contend that a good teacher adapts that can overcome the obvious strains of walking into a society that is different from most of the United States. They say the students are getting a good education. This is for Chapter 7. And like any debate over education, the arguments can go back and forth for hours. Who should teach these children? Are the cultural differences between them

and their Western teachers significant? You have 522 here, then you have 522 over here, which is right. In a classroom situation, a teacher must be able to hear his or her message across. It's at this point, as some believe, the trouble begins. A number of people have studied the interactional styles of Yupik's and found sometimes clear-cut, sometimes subtle differences between the way natives present a message and how English-speaking people deliver the same message. That they contend can muddy up the communication between teacher and student. It's been shown, for example, that native children learn best by observation and not by lecture. Their learning goes from the specific to the general as opposed to Western education, which tends to teach a general concept first before getting to the specifics. Another factor in communication is pause patterns. Now, natives tend to pause a slightly shorter time between thoughts or sentences than natives, and that says Ron Scotland

at the University of Alaska Fairbanks can start a conversation before it gets started. It's just enough. If a native and a non-native are speaking to each other, there'd be a tendency for the non-native person to keep talking. You wait until it's your turn to speak. You leave a minute at the end, or a second at the end. The other person hasn't spoken. So you speak again, and then you wait another second. You speak again. You end up doing all of the talking and wondering why the other person has nothing to say when you haven't given them a chance. Mary Riedlinger, now, is a high-school teacher in the College of Queethluck. And the children here are, at first, I'm with a very, very shy and do not talk. And then that, I had been told, was because of the fact that it's just a difference in basically in communication. We down in the lower 48, the achesic, the white. When we're asked a question, I response time is very short

and what I understand with the Eskimos. There's a definitely a longer response time, and you have to adjust to it. But how long does it take to adjust? The teachers we talk with thought of years enough time, others, such as Grant Shimannick of the Cuskoquine Community College, Yupik language center, thinks it takes longer. Even though they've been teaching me maybe 18 years or still, years away from really coming to a place where they can identify with the students that they're teaching. So, what I would say is that I believe that a person can't over a period of years, but eventually, as you go on in life, you find more and more how much your culture affects you. You find out how much the things that you were taught and brought up with affect you. And this happens with everybody. It happens with teachers. I don't think that a teacher outside coming

into this situation would realize right away just how different it's going to be. Joan McGrath teaches kindergarten through 12th grade at the two schools a night mute, a tiny village near the Bering Sea. In her first year of teaching you big children, she discovered that even with 14 years of teaching experience in the lower 48, she had to adjust. You decide what? I want to know how I'm going to know if I win or not. What do you find out? I'm going to. I'm winning? That's great. How do I know that? You score points? No. Oh, I think that if you're going to come into a situation as different as this one is from your other experiences, that you have to give yourself some time to learn. I don't think that there's any college coursework or even much in-service coursework that you could do that would totally prepare you to just step in and know exactly what to do in every situation.

You're learning as you go around. But Glen Moore-Dene, principal of the Quithluk schools, is in ready to separate out non-native teachers as the only ones who need this period of adjustment, whatever length it should be. You know, it was also true of the first year of native teachers. And I don't think that kind of problem is you make to those teaching for first year teacher. I think on the outside the lower 48, if you're teaching in a multi-pluralistic society, you're going to come up against other groups and you're going to have to make the necessary adjustments. But how easy is it to make those adjustments? Ron Schallen thinks it's more than just an intellectual process. Your ways of communicating are your personality. They're who you are, your identity. And to ask people to change their ways of communicating, is asking to change who they are. But language isn't the only thing that interferes. There are other more subtle differences that a scholar says are part of a teacher's personality. So ingrained, it may be hard to adjust to the cultural personality of the village.

A study was conducted at three Athabaskan teachers to see what they did if anything that was different. If cultural similarities were a factor, no classes were chosen because they were the most successful in the school. Now the researchers videotaped them whole days at a time and after analyzing the tapes, they found subtle traits. The teachers spent less time talking to the classes as a whole and more time on individual instruction. There was more quiet time for study, and the students were well behaved. But perhaps the most subtle observation of all was, as the researchers put it, their verbal interaction was rhythmically integrated. Carol Barnhart was on the staff of researchers. When they spoke, they were speaking sort of in harmony or in rhythm, and it wasn't a choppy kind of thing where when the students stopped talking, a teacher came in and disrupted it. It was very harmonious. And we also found this in the nonverbal interactions.

For instance, we'd turn off the sound on the videotapes and then we could actually beat out the rhythm of the students. Say they were in a reading group and they were getting ready for the teacher. We would watch the students and you could find a very definite rhythm as they opened their pages, got into their table, took their pencils, and they had a definite rhythm established within the group of four or five students. When the teacher came to join the group, she got it from her desk and walked over in exactly the same rhythm pattern that had already been established by the students sat down and joined them. So it was an example that we found happened many, many times of teachers adapting to sort of the rhythm that the students had already set and they didn't impose something different when they entered the situation. Presumably then, the native teachers have little to change in order to adapt, but there aren't many working in the schools to prove the point. And the lower Cusca-Quim school district in western Alaska, approximately 8% of the certified teaching staff is native. Many of them raised in the village they work in.

We don't have any quota, if you will, in mind, but we will continue to give preference to any kind of an individual who has a teaching certificate in this area. Carl Peterson recently resigned superintendent of LCASD, agrees there should be more native teachers. The school district actively recruits for U-Bix to fill the instructor gaps in their bilingual programs, like many, Peterson doesn't think this means any one group is more qualified to teach than another. The nature of teaching is such that you cannot make a generalization simply saying that because a person is UPIC that they are going to be a better or not as good a teacher as anybody else and the two do not necessarily correlate. So certainly a good teacher with UPIC skills is a far more valuable individual than a good teacher without UPIC skills, but good teachers are good teachers

and we want good teachers. I'm not looking for any affirmative action X number native teachers as compared to a certain number of segussic teachers. I'm more interested in finding the best qualified person than indeed helps instruction. And that brings us back to the original question. Who is the best qualified person to teach native children? And how handicapped or English speaking teachers when confronted by a classroom of students who speak both UPIC and English? It can be the best teacher and have all the cultural savvy and cross-cultural communication techniques, but if you're not bilingual and if you really don't have, you know, in touch with your students being able to manipulate the information between languages. And I don't see how you could be.

Stuart is... Pauline Avon grew up in Queensborough before teaching at the village high school. Second word. When I'm trying to teach a concept when the English was fairly hard to comprehend, then I switch into UPIC so that they can understand the English word or the concept that I'm trying to teach. So they can better understand the concept. No one we talk to denies this is an advantage. The language isn't necessarily an insurmountable problem. Teachers' aides are often available to give that bilingual edge to the non-native teacher. I think the advantage of having UPIC teachers is tremendous because oftentimes they can explain to the children in their native language and the kids will say, oh, that's what she meant. And then we can go on where as I could struggle with the English language and not have something to that I could, you know, figure to relate to the concept that I'm trying to teach. But Cecilia Mart, who tied in the Village of Chief Act,

doesn't think the aides are always used to their fullest potential. If they can help far beyond the interpreter function, acting as a teacher's connection to the village life and culture. The local doubts will be used as resources, information sources for. In cooperating a lot of the stuff that's in the community into their classroom. And, you know, they could also be used as a link between the community people and the school and the classroom. And they could also be used like during parent teacher conferences when they make programs and stuff, they could use that native to present, you know, unique programs. There's some argument over what those unique programs should be. The approach has been to supplement the traditional English methods with the occasional craft display given by a local resident.

We'll have elders and or talented people, saying skin selling or things of this nature, come in and do work in the schools. And this really occurs throughout the district. You know, for example, in the took survey, last year they had one of the older gentlemen in the community come in and build a kayak right there in the school. And in many cases students will be receiving instruction in the elements of skin selling, some cases trapping, some cases sled building, other aspects of the Eskimo culture. But privately some instructors say this alternative to a strict diet of lower 48 instruction isn't taken seriously by the students. But of course and say skin selling is forgotten in favor of clothes from a store. Others criticize this approach as zeroing in on arts and crafts, while forgetting other less easily defined aspects of you, the culture. Alice Wardlow was a former member of the

Bethel Advisory School Board. I think they should acknowledge the fact that they have a culture and it's a strong culture and it should be part of the teaching. Because my culture is my part of my identity. It's who I am traditionally by cultural programs artists, mostly arts and crafts. And that's just one teenly part of the culture. You know, they have... like making or... like making or skin sewing. You know, just those... that part that is subtle and is not really... and can't be seen right away is just completely ignored. For instance, in the international communications values, history, cult, native literature. The school does not exist in a vacuum.

In other words, instruction in the culture is a responsibility of the entire community and certainly doesn't just confine itself to the school itself. Curriculum development has been a hard note to crack. The question has always been, what programs are most appropriate to the students? What subjects best offer a blend between you, pick and western culture? How can I stay as preferred to lead that task in large part to local advisory school boards? The advisory school boards in each of our communities in a sense act like a local school board. They do through there what we call O5O regulations develop an educational plan for their activities each year. They do an evaluation of their educational program and process and give direction to the administration of that particular school and to some extent the central administration and exactly what type of an educational program they would like offered.

The advisory school board has determined that it's important for our students to as part of their cultural heritage and as part of practical living in the community as part of learning survival skills. You know, that hunting and trapping for the young men and women is important. LKSD conducted a survey of the bilingual and bicultural needs of the district as a whole. The assessment report found a great interest in the teaching of you big cultural subjects. For example, the survey asked, what do you want your bilingual program to do? Most of the students and adults chose a curriculum composed of equal amounts of you pick an English. Interestingly, the certified staff, consisting of mostly non-native teachers, prefer to see more English time than you pick. On the question, are you pick language, culture, traditional skills and values important and overwhelming majority replied yes? Lastly, a large majority felt both English and you pick

were important in assisting children to meet their lives' goals, although a smaller percentage of certified staff agreed with that statement. So it would seem a bilingual, bi-cultural education as important to the people of the lower cusp of Queen School District, but the question remains who is going to teach it. Theresa Allrone is a certified teacher and chief act. Allrone is from the village and taught in the school as an aid before getting her certificate. She says her aim is to blend the two cultures, you pick an English, so that the children learn as much about the Western world as they do about the world they come from. We take our heritage and our culture right into the classroom, and apply it to whatever knowledge or whatever school we're studying.

It makes a skill or knowledge more relevant. Allrone's advantage is her cultural background, which is the same as her students. No one denies that, but many teachers say it makes a English and Yupic instructors is essential because it provides the students with both cultural perspectives. Barbara Segal, a teacher at night mute. You know, so much of what is happening in the village right now is not necessarily following the Eskimo culture. The kids get pieces of mail every single day that they can't understand because it's all in English and it's all in vocabulary that they don't understand. We're teaching our youngsters to learn how not only to operate successfully within their own culture, but also how to operate successfully in the Anglo-dominated world outside the village.

Most of the pressure is on the need to go out and learn all this across the world. But to me, it should be both ways. Native people are learning that Western world and people that are coming into the village's learning that you be world. And most agree, non-Yupic teachers coming into the village need to learn more about the culture, but ideas vary on how to go about that. There have been programs in the past to prepare teachers. You'll ask a rural school project, for example, but teachers through an intensive eight-week course of Alaska anthropology, language, and rural teaching methods. Mike Murray, who started his village teaching in the coastal village of Kwanahawk before later teaching in Baffol, went through the course along with his wife. I think that that preparation was one of the things that really kept us up here. Because I think without it, we would have been floundering a lot more than we were.

The Alaska Rural School project ended over 10 years ago. It's funding source gone. And there's been little to replace its sense. One alternative, the lower Kwanam School District, recently instituted, is a requirement that teachers pass a Yupic culture exam at the end of the first year. While the district does provide study materials, something the best way to pass that exam is learning from experience. I think they should move into the village, stay out of the teacher's quarters and get to know the people there. Good relationships and become accepted in the community for who they are first, not as a teacher or anything else. They should come maybe three to six weeks ahead of time. And not just present themselves to the community, not as a teacher but just themselves. Naturally, being themselves won't get them through a day in class. And stories abound to teachers who approach the village school like an urban school.

In fact, the 1981 report on small high schools put out by the Center for Cross Cultural Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks stated the problem like this. Their natural tendency went thrown into an unfamiliar setting as to recreate that with which they are familiar. Presto, a standard comprehensive high school. Consequently, after a year or two of agonizing over why it's not working the way it did back home, they move on to a more comfortable setting. New recruits are brought in to start the process over again. I can remember a teacher that I had in a village. I did was talk. I don't remember what he talked about. I talked to the other people that were in same school as I did. They don't remember what he was saying. The same report on small high schools concluded that teachers should adapt their methods to the culture at hand. And it recommended small high school teacher training and certification program should be oriented to the preparation of teachers who are knowledgeable

about the people and environments in Alaska and who can effectively utilize the resources that exist in rural Alaskan communities and their teaching. In my first year here, I think it's probably going to take me a couple of years to develop all the types of techniques that other people have learned to use within their classroom. And I'm feeling more and more comfortable as I go along every week, but I'm still learning. I feel this is a real learning experience for me as a teacher as well as hopefully for the children. Usually if they're really good teachers in a cross-cultural situation, I think they can teach anywhere. But if they're successfully in our Western classroom with same-culture students as themselves and they're really good teachers, they don't necessarily are good teachers in a cross-cultural situation. The need for native teachers then is great. The high school report recommended whenever possible

to encourage and support village residents to pursue teaching certificates and then work in the local schools. There is a program that takes that suggestion and produces such a teacher. It's called Exceed, which is an acronym for cross-cultural education development program. Generally students request you into the Exceed program because they're very involved and committed to the community where they live and to uproot their families and move to Fairbanks just isn't realistic for them. When a move is the director of Exceed for the Yukon Delta region, Exceed takes the college campus to the village in the form of correspondence, teleconferences, instructors visiting the students at their villages, plus an occasional trip to the community college for courses that can't be tied anywhere but a true classroom setting. A move feels that developing a staff of homegrown teachers is beneficial to the students because they have someone instructing them who knows their culture. I think because they're of the culture

then they're more aware of and more sensitive of what's going on with kids and communication styles, there's obviously is going to be more similar to the students than someone that's coming in from outside and is not familiar with the patterns of interaction. It's not the easiest way to get a college degree. Students need to fly into Bethel the intensive weekend courses at Cusco Quinn Community College and when the instructor can't make it, the classes conducted over telephone but these feature teachers will have an advantage. The courses are designed specifically for the village situation. And that means that everything is definitely relevant. There are a lot of practicums. We expect them to do a lot of work in the school prior to student teaching and actually getting a certificate. The police are all grown as a graduate of the Exceed program. Those courses also tell me the idea to take our culture and our heritage and take it into the classroom

as part of our learning resource. And it works because it's relevant, very relevant to our students. Well, events to the students that might be the crux of this issue. Can a teacher coming from an urban, English-speaking background, drive home the subjects and make it relevant? Or is a teacher from the village better equipped culturally to handle the task? Even if it were proven conclusively that you pick teachers were more successful than non-yupics, the non-native instructors would not be sent packing in the Yukon Delta area. There are only 14 students enrolled in the Exceed program. So there's hardly a large number of natives waiting in the wings to take their Western counterparts place. And even to achieve the half-and-half mix, which many feel is the best ratio, we'll take years. The advantages of bilingual teachers have been documented, but because so few are available, the non-bilingual teachers coming from outside the village

will need to be aware of the cultural differences that'll encounter. Although some teachers admit knowing those differences and actually teaching within the culture are two different things. Perhaps the best warning non-native teachers could get comes from the report on small high schools, which recommends, teachers should not accept a position in a small high school unless they are self-reliant, are willing and able to improvise, and are able to tolerate a high degree of ambiguity. I'm Bill Sharfstein reporting. Let's put your name at the bottom of the paper that you're correcting. But is the answer for this one. What are the differences between the half-and-half? There's differences in the half-and-half. What are the differences in the half-and-half? What are the differences in the half-and-half? What are the differences in the half-and-half? I will tell you what we find with a decimal point, coz. I think I think each and every hour, so you work with me? Mary Alice, are you working with her? Are you working with her? I think that's good.

She's still doing all this. Huh? Yes. Are you working with her? I think she's working with her. I think she's working with her. Yes. I think she's working with her. I think she's working with her. Thank you. Thank you.