TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
1
Acknowledgements
3
Introduction
5
Chapter 1: A Framework for Native American Education
10
Role of Culture in Education Among Ethnic Groups
13
Interpretations of Success & Failure of Aboriginal Students
15
Chapter 2: Defining Participatory Research as Curriculum Development Methodology
22
Procedures
25
Profile of School District and Research Participants
26
Workshop Based on Discussion Groups
27
Document Analysis
29
Data Analysis
31
Chapter 3: Results
34
Ethnic Content Education
34
A two-way or BI-Cultural Approach to Education
36
Fundamental Strategy Suggested to Deal with the Curriculum
37
The Language and Culture Needs of the Mohawk Student
39
Levels of Performance
39
General Descriptors
39
Dissemination and Pluralization of the Culture Standards Curriculum
57
Mohawk Language and Culture Teachers
58
The Language and Culture Needs of the Classroom Teachers
58
Language and Culture Standards for Parents/Guardians
60
Parent-Teacher Communication
60
Cultural Needs and Responsibilities of Administrators
61
Chapter 4: Culture of the University and the Academic Stigma Imposed on Teacher Education
64
The Culture of the University
66
Professional Development School (PDSs)
73
Chapter 5: Linking Cultures, School Improvement, and Professional Development
76
The Interface Model for School Improvement, Teacher Education, and Professional
Development as a Participatory Research Process
77
The Transformational Learning Model
79
Transformational Mentoring
80
New Frames of Pre-service Transformational Teacher Learning
82
A Typical Classroom Management Assignment
83
Innovation versus Reform in Professional Development
86
Conclusions
92
References
97
Appendix A
104
Appendix B
121
1
PREFACE
The purpose of Participatory Research, Cultural Literacy and Transformational Learning:
Linking Cultures, School Improvement and Professional Development is to provide an overview of
the interface between SUNY Potsdam and the Salmon River School District for the development of
a culturally relevant curriculum for Native American students and how this translates into preservice and in-service teacher professional development. Its origin is the Mohawk Education
Project, a formal interface between SUNY Potsdam and Salmon River School District. The
interface enables the partners to work collectively in a curriculum development project that
addresses the special needs of Native American students at the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation
while providing pre-service teachers with meaningful field experiences with minority populations.
This book is about the curriculum development and teaching project that addresses the intercultural
or interethnic needs of Native American students and lifelong learning needs of pre-service and inservice teachers.
Whereas traditional curriculum processes represent a top-to-bottom approach, the Mohawk
Education Project represents a flattening of the pyramid process of generating, selecting, evaluating,
and sharing vast amounts of information for a culturally relevant curriculum. The college-public
school interface is an essential context in which the professional development of both pre-service
and in-service teachers is occurring. The threads that run through the interface attach to meanings
of participatory research, professional development and higher academic standards of students. This
book examines how these threads are seen as a vehicle for raising standards of students and
developing the professional skills of veteran teachers and teacher education candidates.
The introduction describes the Mohawk Education Project and the Mohawk Culture
Standards Project as the genesis of the cultural literacy and transformational learning model.
2
Chapter 1 begins with an introduction that situates the study in the larger context of Aboriginal K12 education. The chapter also addresses the conceptual framework for the Mohawk Education
Project and provides a brief analysis of the role of culture in education--the theoretical framework
within which we developed the culture standards. The chapter further analyzes issues concerning
the educational attainment of Native American students and why they are perceived to attain lower
academic standards than their mainstream counterparts. The analysis is necessary both to give a
sense of guiding principles for cognitive transmission of knowledge to Aboriginal students, and to
better understand why Native American students are perceived to fail in school. Chapter 2 focuses
on participatory research paradigm methodology and procedures within which we developed the
culture standards. Chapter 3 describes the cultural context of learning as embodied in the Mohawk
culture standards. This chapter provides suggestions to enhance learning outcomes and success
among Native Americans through a system of curriculum dissemination and pluralization, that is,
how teachers, students, parents and in-school administrators will use the standards to improve
student learning. Chapter 4 discusses the need for the college/public school interface for
professional development, analyzes the culture of the university and the academic stigma of teacher
education. Chapter 5 presents an alternative model for teacher education as embodied in the
Mohawk Education Project. It also highlights the field experiences provided at the St. Regis
Mohawk Reservation for teacher education candidates and how they fit into a new model of
Professional Development Schools (PDSs).
3
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
One cannot accomplish a participatory research project without the support and dedicated
patronage of the participants. This monograph is the result of close collaboration among diverse
groups of people from SUNY Potsdam and the Akwesasne schools and community. I have many
people to thank for the assistance they rendered in bringing this monograph to fruition. I was
particularly blessed with a research team that showed committed and steadfast interest in the
project. It is with great pleasure that I note my sincere thanks and debt to the Mohawk Culture
Standards Team of the Mohawk Education Project; to Cecilia King, Mohawk Language/culture
teacher and Terri Terrence, teacher, both at the St. Regis Mohawk School. Their tenacity and
purpose kept the research spirit alive. To Tracie Fuller, a then Master of Science in Teaching
graduate student at SUNY Potsdam, now teacher at Salmon River Central School, who acted as
secretary to the deliberations, I acknowledge my gratitude. I gratefully acknowledge Becky
White, Title IX Program Mohawk Language teacher at Salmon River Central, and Karen White,
Title IX Program Home/School Coordinator at Salmon River Central School whose incredible
knowledge of the Mohawk Culture and language were valuable to the project. I express my
appreciation to Mike MacDonald of the Akwesasne community, Leroy David, Mohawk
Language/Culture teacher at the Akwesasne Freedom School and Teresa Doxtador, community
member of Akwesasne Mohawk Nation. Their knowledge of Mohawk customs and tradition
brought our curriculum closer to the Mohawk student. My acknowledgment also goes to
Annemarie FitzRandolph, Director of Instruction at Salmon River Central School whose sincere
interest in the Mohawk Education Project greatly boosted our morale. Anne Russell deserves
acknowledgment as the Professional Development School Coordinator. She provided me with
excellent insights and ideas, especially with respect to arranging the opportunity for discussions
4
with all mentor teachers. I also want to thank Jim Ransom, Chair of the Mohawk tribal Education
Committee for his unflinching support for the Mohawk Education Project.
I gratefully acknowledge Richard Bates, my partner in pre-service teacher education who
worked closely with me in developing a model for transformational learning. Special thanks are
due Dr. William Doody, Professor of Teacher Education at SUNY Potsdam who gave me the
green light and encouragement to undertake this project and who edited the manuscript and
offered useful suggestions. Dr. Doody’s support certainly taught me that life is with people. To
Dr. Willard Kniep, Dean of School of Education at Pacific University for helping me come up
with a better title for the book and also for his support, I acknowledge my gratitude. I am also
grateful to Ann Thomas at SUNY Potsdam and Madae Fast at Pacific University who led me
through the technological complexity to accomplish a variety of typing and editing tasks.
Finally, I would be remiss to fail to extend due acknowledgement to Carol White,
Director of the Akwesasne Library, and her able team who offered the library for the second
phase of our project and were always there to assist us.
5
INTRODUCTION
Personal and Cultural Introduction
As a child I found my traditional community values and standards entirely different and at odds
with the values school imposed upon me. Given the cross-cultural nature of this research, my
background contributes to better understanding, interpretations and findings of the study.
I was born in a small, rural community where the majority of the inhabitants engaged in
subsistence farming. At an early age I learned the community vocabulary, logic, morals, values
and standards differed from those imposed upon me by school. The young members of the
community regarded adults as fountains of knowledge and looked up to them for cultural
education. A local age-sex hierarchy offered support, structure and opportunities for selffulfillment and established the social identities of adults in the community. Reciprocal
obligations of clan and neighbor provided support for all members of the community. Customary
practices of interpersonal morality clearly specified virtue and vice, formed a basis of trust and
provided structure to all the members of the community. Members basically derived motivation
from expectations of advancement in the age-sex hierarchy, with its concomitant prestige,
wealth, power, and security. Advancement in the hierarchy specified expansion of life
opportunities within the community context. Community members did not, for the most part,
aim at social individuality that would outshine or oppose conventional communal bonds in the
search for individual accomplishment.
Community members viewed child-bearing, religious piety, and a variety of social skills
(such as obedience, cooperation, helping, and respect for life and property) as optimal
development of the individual. Parenthood played the role of centerpiece of community life.
Moral codes for parent-child and matrimonial relations created a cultural model where women
6
and men had specific roles defined by community conventions; from a social viewpoint no
conflict of roles existed between husband and wife. In other words, from childhood, girls learned
to become ideal mothers and effective housekeepers, while boys learned to become ideal fathers
and providers for the household. The individual who wished to achieve optimal development
should maximize his/her attachment to the community that bestowed the welfare of security,
continuity, and trust. Although the community recognized a point for individual ambition or
achievement motivation, it limited its expectations within reach of the average community
member. However, there were also high ideals that might not be achieved by anyone in the
population.
I went to school at the age of 5, and learned English as a third language, my second
language being a common area dialect learned alongside English at the beginning of school. At
school, I did not learn my native tongue, the dialect I spoke at home and in the community. I
became aware, early in my school life that community standards, values, morals, ethics, and
religious practices, which we held in reverence as integral parts of our very existence were, in the
language of the school “evil,” and should not have a place in our lives. I remember very well
doing punishments for speaking my own language at school. The very tasks that I did as
punishments, such as working on the school farm, formed the basis of the livelihood of my
family.
I learned at that early age that the occupation of my parents, grandparents, and
forefathers which sustained our livelihood was regarded by the school as a sort of punishment
and, therefore, degrading.
No one made it clear to me why I had to go to school; I learned later in life, school was
introduced in my community as basic skill training for the sole purpose of reading the Bible.
However, during my time, interpreting the Bible no longer became essential because colonialism
7
succeeded in imbuing the tenets of Christianity into old and young, and Christian life and
routines had already become part of the life of the community. School was a necessary evil; it
became a meaningless routine for me and the other boys and girls of the community. One either
dropped out or continued.
I was one of those who continued schooling, primarily due to my family’s elite standing
within the community. With some restructuring of education to incorporate our traditional values
into schooling, school began to make sense to some of us. Despite all the Western education I
have had, I still feel there is still something missing from within myself. That is, I have to
understand what it means to be me; I need to discover who I am. I have always felt that my
education has not adequately endowed me with the necessary skills I need for survival in my own
community. Rather, it has tampered with some of the values, morals and standards, and above
all, my placement as a member of my community. However, education has taught me to take a
two-way view of the world, that is, to compromise Western and indigenous values. I have come
to believe that I am the truly educated person who sees things clearly with both eyes.
Since I earned my bachelor's degree, I have taught at the primary, secondary, and tertiary
levels of education and at various times taken up administrative positions as principal of Native
schools in Canada. My experience in Band-controlled schools, located in remote Indian reserves,
makes me conceptualize the education of the Native child in my own schooling terms. To the
Native child, the culture of the school may be meaningless, yet essential for survival in the
mainstream Canadian society.
My interest in Native education has been the result of my own personal experience
working in schools in remote Indian reserves. I have always felt the concern to help to improve
schooling conditions of Native children. Yet, I thought that I could not be helping by doing a
8
research for the Native people, but rather with Native people. My knowledge of various research
paradigms teaches me that participatory research would go a long way in helping to understand
and improve the education of Native children. Knowing the principles involved in participatory
research, I "put myself out to be requested" (Maguire, 1987) from Indian school authorities for
the research. My decision for this study (and its methodology) was a result of discussions about
problems of schooling that I had with Native people in the communities in which I did my
research, and those I had with intellectual people among the Native people at the University of
British Columbia.
When I decided that I was going to study Native people's viewpoints on schooling, I was
aware that the only way to be able to do a meaningful research was to integrate myself fully into
a Native community, and to be in a position to influence policy. I could only conduct a
purposeful research in a school system if I were part of that system. By early December of the
year prior to the study, I sent resumes out to Native communities in Ontario to seek a position as
a teacher. In May of the following year, I was invited by the Windigo Education Authority to an
interview for the position of principal in one of their school systems; I came out of the interview
as the successful candidate for the position. With little information about Green Lake, I made a
commitment to undertake a participatory approach for my research.
The decision was,
somewhat, an answer to my desire to work hand in hand with community people to bring some
improvement into their school system. From my literature review about participatory research, I
learned that the process should be a cooperative venture. I faced the initial problem of not yet
knowing a specific group with which to work. However, my position as principal of the reserve
school gave me confidence that my position of influence in the school could let many things
happen. I viewed my study as a way of collaborating with Native people to analyze and act on
9
problems affecting the schooling of their children. Hopefully, this study has gone a long way in
empowering the people in the community of my study to make education meaningful to their
children. One substantial purpose of the study was an attempt, by thinking and rethinking along
with the community people, to find a way of redefining and implementing an education worthy
of their culture and their children.
Taking up the challenge to provide better access, retention and completion rates in public
schools nationwide, New York State is making efforts to improve schooling under the banner of
raising academic standards. As a direct outcome of this emphasis on standards all students must
meet a range of expectations held by the standards designers. But is there a chance that the
rhetoric about standards can improve the education of Native American children? From the point
of view of the realization of the values of standards, the outcome is uncertain at best and gloomy
at worst if the organization of curriculum, instructional methods and materials continue to bear
semblance to the Euro-American group. Given the enormous disparities in the cultural conditions
of Native American students, these developments suggest necessary structural changes in the
curriculum, instructional methods and materials, and the standards used to judge performance.
One of the challenges taken on by this monograph is how to foster a sense of identity and
purpose of the Native child while also recognizing and building on the distinctive features of the
various cultural elements that constitute the school. To the extent that Native American schools
are alert to the cultural details of how learning proceeds, and strong enough to mobilize Native
resources on their behalf, we may entertain a cautious optimism on the raising of academic
standards of Native American students. This monograph suggests that unless there is a genuine
effort to mobilize cultural resources and direct learning as far as possible towards Native
identities and ideologies, the standardized test scores for Native American children will remain
10
mediocre in quality.
If standards are to sustain their momentum and raise the academic
performance of students in coming years, at least they should meet the condition of a new
worldview and cultural paradigm of education that attempts to reconstruct our traditional
concepts of education. Native American school authorities need to employ appropriate change
strategies by utilizing Native resources to provide a framework for a suitable curriculum and
teaching methods, and find the key symbolic and structural characteristics that would raise
academic standards of students. This monograph discusses the preparation of students and
teachers through a learning process that will guarantee intellectual flexibility and adaptability that
will result in creative thinking and action. For the purpose of concreteness, this monograph
focuses on three main parts. The first part discusses interpretations of failures and successes of
Native education and calls for the recognition of the need to prepare Native American children to
become effective, fully functioning citizens within two cultures in a rapidly changing world. The
second part provides the condition of an all-inclusive learning process defined by cultural and
social diversity and embracing all the elements involved on the road to preparing public school
students, pre-service and in-service teachers.
The third part expounds some of the principles I
believe to be pertinent to professional development and school improvement. This monograph
owes a good measure of its contents to the Mohawk Education Project.
The Mohawk Education Project, sponsored by the New York State Department of
Education, is a formal partnership between the State University of New York (SUNY) at
Potsdam and the Salmon River Central School District. The partnership is to provide an anchor
for thinking about improving education for Native American students at the St. Regis Mohawk
Reservation. The main objective of the project is for SUNY Potsdam to collaborate with public
11
school teachers and community members to construct a culturally relevant standards-based
curriculum supported by current research that would address problems of high drop out rates and
underachievement of Mohawk students. While working collectively to enhance success among
Native American students, the evolving partnership also provides pre-service teacher education
candidates with meaningful field experience with minority groups. Some of the threads that run
through this partnership attach to meanings of participatory research and professional
development schools. To date, the partnership has developed curriculum units in Social Studies,
English Language Arts, Interdisciplinary Science and Mohawk Culture. It is the impact of
participatory research in developing the Mohawk Culture curriculum that I wish to discuss and
how the participatory research process is carried further into the concept of a professional
development school.
The Mohawk Culture Standards
The central concern of the Mohawk Culture Standards Team is to consider carefully how
Mohawk students acquire their attitudes, values and behavior patterns and how to translate these
into strategies that would enable the Mohawk student to learn more effectively. The specific
values, attitudes, norms of behavior, ways of thinking, styles of communication, and modes of
interpersonal relationships of Native peoples form the bases of the culture standards. Culture
plays a crucial role in determining what meanings Mohawk students assign to their experiences,
the content of what they learn and how learning occurs. It is important to understand what
meanings Mohawk students give to their perceptual experiences and in turn how these
experiences affect their styles of thinking. To minimize the negative impact of cultural
12
discontinuities (Atleo, 1991; Nieto, 1996) between the school and the Mohawk community, and
to enable students to learn successfully, the culture standards provide the kinds of learning
environments to which Mohawk children have been accustomed. In preparing the standards, we
took into consideration the following: (a) the resources available to meet the needs; (b) how these
resources will be allocated; and, (c) how to evaluate the achievement of the needs. For the
purpose of specificity, this book focuses on the process of the development of the standards and
fundamental strategies to achieve the standards.
This monograph is about an initiative taken by the Mohawk Education Project to afford a
rare opportunity for university personnel, teachers and Aboriginal people to explore how
Mohawk students acquire their attitudes, values and behavior patterns and how to translate these
into strategies for student learning and teacher development. The premise for the project was that
Native American schools should minimize their reliance on mainstream school programs and
develop a new school orientation that emphasizes local programs and user preference. The book
discusses changes taking place in a Native American community as part of an ongoing need for
collaboration between a university and a school district. The collaboration is a beginning of
perceiving the education of Native American children in new terms and exploring ways and means
of making education more meaningful to them while at the same time improving the professional
development of pre-service and in-service teachers. The book arrives at two main conclusions:
First, that perhaps, Native American students would find their place in educational attainment
through simple relationships with everyday and permanent structures that constitute their cultural
milieu. Secondly, pre-service teacher education should be inseparably bound together with
students’ achievement in the public schools and in-service teacher professional development.
13
14
CHAPTER 1
A FRAMEWORK FOR NATIVE AMERICAN EDUCATION
The present trend in Aboriginal education is characterized by the dominance of three
concurrent and paradoxical trends, namely, (a) keeping the Euro-American system of education,
(b) moving away from the Euro-American system to emphasize all that is related to Aboriginal
culture, or (c) emphasizing both the Euro-American and Aboriginal ways of learning. These
trends reflect the contradictions of the Euro-American education that has not always resulted in
the recognition of other cultures (Nieto, 1996). The struggles faced by many Aboriginal
communities to revive their culture (Agbo, 1996) are at the root of the contemporary crises of
Aboriginal education. In his book, Two-way Aboriginal schooling: Education and cultural
survival, Harris (1990) clearly discusses the Aboriginal struggle against cultural assimilation,
their aspiration to live in two worlds, and their felt need of a two-way school that is rooted in
Aboriginal culture. Harris contends “Aboriginal schools, in spite of much genuine effort, are
generally failing to produce students competent in the level of Year 10 high school and beyond”
(p. 1-2). Earlier, Hawthorne (1967), and more recently, Paquette (1991), Kawagley (1993), and
Hampton (1995) posit the failure of Aboriginal children at school in the lack of the school’s
recognition of Aboriginal culture. This chapter presents a conceptual framework for the Mohawk
Culture Standards and reviews various interpretations of success and failure of Native American
students.
Conceptual Framework
Over the past few decades, there seems to develop a consensus in regards to the role that
culture can play in the meaning and practice of education among ethnic groups. It is the impact of
15
the details of this role that constitutes the conceptual framework of the Mohawk Education Project.
This study is theoretically grounded in psychological anthropology and multicultural education.
Psychological anthropology views culture as having a cause-effect relationship with personality
and human learning (Pai & Adler, 1997). Psychological anthropologists believe that human
knowledge and learning is a complex system rooted at two levels, the level of psychology, and
the level of culture. As Spindler & Spindler (1994) write: “Psychological anthropologists are not
left in a chartless swamp of cultural particulars for they have encountered the human psyche, as
well as culture, and the interactions and combinations of both become their subject matter” (p. 4).
In the context of this study, I have formulated a simple definition of psychological anthropology
as concerning how the norms and structure of society may affect student learning. To help
students from ethnic minority backgrounds to learn effectively, teachers must be aware of the
cultural and value differences and linguistic variables that are likely to affect the teachinglearning processes. Education is the process by which individuals learn the culture of a society
and become its members (Pai & Adler, 1997). Culture and the context of the learning process are
crucial to the educational achievement of students from ethnic groups (Agbo, 1996). The premise
of our project was, therefore, to examine how the powerful communal bonds of aboriginal
identities, shaped by communal language, ethnicity, and culture affect knowledge and learning
rather than educational standards imposed by the Euro-American system and status identities
created by class or profession. In contrast to the stupendous and complex educational content that
reduces the Mohawk student to conditions of abstraction and anonymity, we embarked on a cultural
model viewed as the repository of cherished knowledge that places culture as the nexus in the
education of the Mohawk child. To demonstrate the intersection between culture and academic
16
performance, I briefly examine the literature on the role of culture in education and educational
attainment.
Role of Culture in Education Among Ethnic Groups
There have been studies that have supported cultural education that symbolizes interests and
values of dominant and subordinate groups of society (Agbo, 1996; Andereck, 1992; Bouvier,
1990; LeVine & White, 1986; Pai & Adler, 1997). Giroux & Freire (1987), stress the urgency to
reconstruct a cultural literacy for each and every individual as part of the democratic idea of
citizenship. Giroux and Freire’s notion of citizenship attempts to promote and critically engage the
different opinions of students from both predominant and minority groups in ways that support
them to interpret schools as part of their communities and neighborhoods. Speaking to the
promotion of heritage languages in Canadian schools, Cummins & Danesi (1990) contend that a
child's general educational achievement is closely associated with the child's development in his or
her culture. They assert that the intimate conceptual foundations that children develop in their
culture and language make it necessary for them to develop a sense of confidence that enhances
their cognitive growth and leads to their success in acquiring additional languages. It is therefore
important to ground children's development in the knowledge and appreciation of their culture and
traditions.
There are also studies that address the resistance of ethnic groups to a dominant culture. In
a study of Irish immigrants in the United States, Andereck (1992) found ethnic groups do not easily
replace their ethnic cultures with a dominant culture. According to Andereck, "Every ethnic group
has boundary rules to maintain ethnicity" (p. 3). She asserts that ethnic groups may choose to do
one of three things. First, the may choose to totally absorb (or assimilate) the culture of the
17
dominant group. Secondly, they may choose to gradually move toward totally absorbing (or
acculturate) the dominant culture and finally, they may choose to maintain their homogeneity
(accommodate) by modifying any attitudes or values of the dominant group using boundary rules
that may minimize the possibility of assimilation or acculturation.
In their study of agrarian ethnic groups, LeVine and White (1986) found that even though
these groups may acquire Western education, they may often stick to their traditional objectives and
may prefer to mesh the latter with new mixture of inherent and alien interpretations. LeVine and
White (1986) assert that agrarian societies systematize the knowledge considered necessary for their
social, historical, and political circumstances and interpret the reality of foreign cultures within their
own frames of cultural references. They believe that it is, therefore, important for policy-makers to
take into consideration the historical, social and political contexts in designing policy for ethnic
societies. As LeVine and White put it: “Cultural, historical and psychological understanding is a
practical necessity for the policy-maker, but it has not yet found a secure place in the analysis of
educational policy and practice” (p. 13).
Similarly, Thies’ (1987) study on the Aborigines of the East Kimberley region of Australia
found that the Aborigines viewed education as a process whereby the student learned the lifestyles
necessary for survival in the society. However, they believed that a full and competent young
person in their community should acquire both traditional and Western education.
According to Paquette (1991) “public systems seeking to assimilate minorities by replacing
their cultures and languages have a very poor track record internationally of adequately preparing
minorities for full participation in their host societies and economies" (p. 124). However, it is not
to assert that foreign domination has not disrupted indigenous cultures. Aboriginal people
throughout the world have encountered diverse degrees of disruption or loss with regard to their
18
traditional life styles and worldviews. This disruption has contributed to the many psychological
and social dislocations that are prevalent in contemporary Native societies (Kawagley, 1993).
Interpretations of Success and Failure of Aboriginal Students
The transmission of knowledge to ethnic minority students and the structure of their
education systems in the industrialized world have traditionally aimed at adequately systematizing
the knowledge which the dominant group considers necessary for reproducing citizens within the
dominant group’s historical, social and political circumstances (see Nieto, 1996, p. 2-4). According
to Harris (1990), the hidden curriculum, that is, the way teachers present subject matter and the
classroom atmosphere they establish is one way by which Western education promotes implicit
values and behaviors that are harmful to Aboriginal students. The systematic structure of the
education of Aboriginal students has been to gradually socialize them into the Euro-American
frames of cultural reference, and more so, to finally integrate them into the mainstream social
division of labor (Christie, 1984; Hampton, 1995).
Typically, thinking of education in the
intercultural and interethnic context focuses on the relative accessibility of different groups. One of
the engines which has driven educational policy mostly focuses on who gets how much of the
standardized education pie. That is to say, educational analysts have been more concerned with
such things as equality of access, equality of survival, equality of output and equality of outcome
(Farrell, 1992) without much regard to the equally important issue of the role of education in the
formation of ethnic identity. As few researchers give credence to the virtual cultural matrix of
learning, that is, the cultural details of how learning proceeds in different cultures (Pai & Adler,
1997; Nieto, 1996), the quality of education is measured by the gauge of the Euro-American society
19
and is analyzed in the units of its standards, hence the growing disjunction between academic
achievements of Aboriginal students and their Euro-American counterparts (Hampton, 1995).
The most frequent theoretical explanation that past researchers attributed to the low
academic standards of Aboriginal students centered on cultural differences between Aboriginal and
mainstream societies (Atleo, 1990; Ogbu, 1987; Erickson, 1987). Hawthorn (1967) recounted that
during the 1950s, because White researchers perceived a cultural superiority of White cultures over
Aboriginal culture, White people did not anticipate that Aboriginal children in general could
achieve success in school along the same course as White children. There was also the notion that
since minority cultures were impoverished, concomitantly, minority groups were genetically
inferior and they were bound to be maladapted and fail at school (see Nieto 1996). Nieto (1996)
writes to dismiss this notion of genetic inferiority: “School failure is believed to be the fault of
either the students themselves, who are genetically inferior, or of other social characteristics of their
communities…The first of this explanation has been widely discredited as both ethnocentric and
scientifically unfounded” (p. 229). Whereas we would want to know whether personality traits
produce achievement in any learning situation, this extremely complex problem is one that I have
been obliged by limit of space to ignore completely. My opinion is that even if there were a genetic
potential common to nearly all members of the human race, this would be realized in varying
degrees depending on the life experience and learning environments of different individuals or
subcultures and therefore the realization of the high achievement potential in students involves a
learning process.
In the 1960s, researchers dispel this notion of cultural impoverishment and minority group
genetic inferiority that allegedly led to the lack of academic achievement of Aboriginal people at
school. Hawthorn (1967), Gue (1974), Ogbu (1987), Christie (1988), Hampton (1995), and More
20
(1986), for example, believe that low level of academic standards of Aboriginal students at school
is neither due to cultural impoverishment nor genetic inferiority, but rather, it is due to cultural
discontinuity. In fact, the Hawthorn report (1967) asserts that Aboriginal children fail in school
because the rich experiences they acquire in their own culture and language do not prepare them for
the boring routines and activities of the school. According to the Hawthorn report, the school's
concept of time and space, discrepancies in the curriculum, and, the incongruity of Aboriginal
worldview to the discipline system of the school have all contributed to the low educational
attainment of the Aboriginal child. As Hawthorne reports:
It is difficult to imagine how an Indian child attending an ordinary public school could
develop anything but a negative self-image. First, there is nothing from his culture
represented in the school or valued by it. Second, the Indian child often gains the
impression that nothing he or other Indians do is right when compared to what non-Indian
children are doing. Third, in both segregated and integrated schools, one of the main aims
of teachers expressed with reference to Indians is to ‘to help them improve their standards
of living, or their general lot, or themselves’ which is another way of saying that what they
are and have now is not good enough, they must do and be other things (p. 142).
The deification of the Euro-American culture as the ultimate source of all knowledge and
the increasing authority and legitimacy wielded by the Euro-American group have been significant
in accelerating the process of low academic achievement levels of Aboriginal and students of other
minority groups (see Hampton, 1995; Spring, 1998). The ready-made system of education
transplanted from the Euro-American culture further removes Aboriginal children from the
principles that are pertinent to understanding learning as functional concepts and replacing them
with structures that are neither representative nor responsive to Aboriginal culture (Christie, 1988;
Harris, 1990).
The controversy around the low achievement of American Indian students can perhaps be
best understood in terms of various efforts that have been made by the Euro-Americans to totally
21
assimilate American Indians. In the 1970s, the concept of cultural deprivation became common in
the explanation of failure of Aboriginal students to attain higher academic levels at school (Atleo,
1990).
Atleo (1990) modifies the notion of cultural deprivation in terms of what he calls
"significant discontinuities" (p. 7), (see also Nieto, 1996) whereas Hampton (1995) explains it in
terms of disrespect of, and lack of recognition of Aboriginal ways of life by non-Aboriginal
educators. Atleo (1990) asserts that while Aboriginal people's culture may place a significant value
upon group goals, non-Aboriginal people, particularly, the White group may place a higher value
upon individual goals. Such differences, he says, may constitute a significant discontinuity for the
Aboriginal child at school.
Atleo (1990) asserts that historical references to differences in language, beliefs, behavior,
skin color, and so on, which defined Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal culture may not constitute a
significant discontinuity because such differences have become blurred. In other words, as some
Native people today may only speak English and behave in a way similar to Whites, and may even
have a skin color that may not be differentiated from Whites, one may assume that there may be no
cultural discontinuity. However, Hampton (1995), Matthews (1990), Atleo (1990), Harris (1990)
and Spring (1998) make it clear that because of historical roots, Aboriginal culture is different from
non-Aboriginal culture. According to Atleo (1990), historical roots are important because basic
beliefs about life are transferred from one generation to another and these beliefs that are
automatically transferred "become assumptions of culture which are not usually articulated" (p. 7).
Thus, even though some Aboriginal people may not experience significant discontinuities in
culture, the notion that culture is rooted in the past makes Aboriginal people culturally different
from non-Aboriginal people.
22
Gue (1974) also explains cultural discontinuity in terms of value differences. Hampton’s
(1995) provocative pronouncement about Western education can be explained, for the want of a
better term, as cultural holocaust. He argues that since western education seeks to indoctrinate
the Aboriginal child by substituting non-Aboriginal for Aboriginal knowledge, values, and
identity, Western education is in content and structure antagonistic to Aboriginal people. More
(1986) characterizes cultural discontinuity in terms of differences in learning styles of Aboriginal
children. According to More, as learning styles are culturally determined, Aboriginal children
experiencing a strange learning style in school may suffer cultural discontinuity. DeFaveri
(1984) supports More's (1986) argument by contrasting the Aboriginal worldview with the White
worldview.
DeFaveri asserts that while the Aboriginal worldview symbolizes unity with
creation, the White worldview symbolizes individualism and isolationism. Thus, whereas the
Aboriginal worldview espouses that all things are integrated and united in some way, the White
worldview maintains that reality does not necessarily constitute related or connected components.
Accordingly, Hampton believes the low academic achievement of Aboriginal children is a
manifestation of resistance to non-Aboriginal domination and an assertion of Aboriginal
integrity. Given that most of the teachers of Aboriginal children are non-Aboriginal (see Agbo,
1990) and Aboriginal and White conceive their senses of time, space, energy and humanity in
different terms, they fail to understand each other's actions, thoughts or purpose (Hampton, 1995;
Atleo, 1990). In this perspective, one can safely explain the school failure of Aboriginal students
in terms of lack of adequate response to the learning needs of Aboriginal students.
A relevant question may arise here as to why American Indian students attain low standards
in school while students from other minority groups with similar handicaps as American Indian
students succeed in school (Ogbu, 1987). Atleo (1990) views the low standards of American Indian
23
students from what he terms a theory of context. According to Atleo, this theory assumes that there
is a connection between an individual and the society in which that individual lives. This means
that individuals fail when society views them as failures.
Ogbu (1987) distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary minorities and asserts that
voluntary minorities are more successful in school than involuntary minorities. According to Ogbu,
American Indians are involuntary minorities in that unlike immigrants in the North American
society, American Indians were colonized and have not had any other choice but to live with the
colonization. For example, Ogbu (1987) found that while the Buraku, a minority group in Japan,
fail in school in their homeland, they tend to succeed when they emigrate to the United States.
Similarly, Mexicans born in the United States fail in school while other Mexicans who emigrate to
the United States succeed in school. Accordingly, Ogbu's (1987) findings tend to support Atleo's
(1990) theory of context that offers explanation of school failure among American Indian children.
On the other hand, Hampton (1995) strongly believes that one can explain school failure of
American Indian students in terms of the malevolence of Western education in its structure,
curriculum, context and personnel. He asserts that since Western education is a political, social and
cultural institution that represents and conveys Euro-American values, knowledge and behaviors,
the American Indian child is bound to fail in school. Hampton (1995) argues, for example, that the
demand for higher standards is inevitably a demand for Euro-American standards. According to
Hampton, a remarkable feature of White education is that it neither gives American Indian children
any avenue to dignity, honor and pride nor does it ensure their mutual interest. For Hampton,
therefore, the lack of recognition of American Indian culture by others constitutes a major
impediment to the success of American Indian students in school.
24
So, Hampton (1995) believes that rather than simply admit failure, one must recognize the
fact that White educational systems and procedures have not been competent in educating
American Indian children who struggle against an atypical system endemic to the larger society in
which they live. Until American Indian children stop the daily struggles of attacks on their ways of
life, their identity, their intelligence, and their essential worth, they could not attain success in
education.
Paquette (1986b) attributes the inability of Aboriginal students to measure up to their EuroAmerican counterparts in educational achievement to what he terms a hierarchy of domination and
justification. Paquette asserts that dominant cultures expect ethnic minority groups to blend and
assimilate because it is the best thing for them and for society at large. He contends that the
rejection to assimilation labels them as failures and the consequence is to try to immerse them even
more in the values, beliefs, and languages of the majority. Therefore, as minority groups become
powerless to alter either their state of affairs or the form and type of the education provided to them,
the dominant group then views this powerlessness in society as appropriate and fair. Paquette
further asserts that as minority children are unable to adjust well into the majority language and
culture, the majority sees the cause to lie in their inability to learn “even though given the `same
educational opportunities' as their majority-culture counterparts” (p. 56).
The phenomenon I have just described is the relationship between the American Indian
student and educational standards. What then are the prospects for success under these inauspicious
circumstances? Although it may seem that many researchers accept the low academic standards
attained by Aboriginal students as an unfortunate heritage (Barman, et al., 1987), there are current
changes taking place in Native communities that may improve education in the future.
25
26
CHAPTER 2
DEFINING PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH AS CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT
METHODOLOGY
For the past decades, educators have analyzed the successes and failures of Native education
in terms of mainstream standards instead of focusing on how Native American students acquire and
translate their values, attitudes and behavior patterns into ways that would enable them to learn
more effectively. It was and still is the case that curriculum and instructional design for students
from ethnic groups remains the responsibility of experts from the central office or in-school
administration. Unfortunately, many of these experts design curricula from sociological, historical,
and theoretical perspectives that overlook the cultural details of how learning proceeds in non-EuroAmerican cultures. Furthermore, most curricula are limited in addressing issues of relevancy for
Aboriginal students. Whereas traditional curriculum processes represent a top-to-bottom approach,
the Mohawk Culture Standards Project, on the other hand, utilized the quality circles concept
(Barra, 1983; Harris & Sherblom, 1999) and a participatory research approach to generate, select,
evaluate, and share vast amounts of information for a culturally-relevant curriculum. As Barra
(1983) writes, “The quality circles view can be adapted to any culture, since its roots are
fundamentally based on satisfying the psychological needs of human beings” (p. 46). This chapter
addresses itself to examining the participatory research process of mobilizing resources for the
development of a relevant curriculum.
Participatory research might seem an odd, even awkward or pretentious expression—
signifying exactly what? Whatever answers are given to that question, the approach and contexts
of participatory research suggest that it is useful in helping dominated, exploited, and minority
27
groups to redefine old problems, propose fresh alternatives and take action in solving the problems.
Hall (1981) defines participatory research as a social action process that meshes the activities of
research, education and action. Therefore, participatory research provides an arena for collective
empowerment that helps to deepen knowledge about social problems and helps to formulate
possible actions for their solution. Participatory research is increasingly tied to and powerfully
influenced by the concern with power and democracy and provides important social learning
networks that are critical to issues of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical and mental
abilities, and other social factors. Cultural theorists and researchers of ethnic groups have found
participatory research as a backbone of helping ethnic groups to overcome some of their
problems (Maguire, 1987; Kemmis, 1991; Hall, 1975). Kemmis (1991) studied Aboriginal and
teacher education in the Northern Territory of Australia and found that participatory research
with Aboriginal people resulted to some innovations that led them to maintain a central role in
their own development.
Similarly, Maguire (1987) studied battered families in Gallup, New Mexico and found
women's participation in participatory research projects boosted women's self-esteem as well as the
control and organizational power of women's groups.
The participatory research at Akwesasne concerned forms of educational theory and
research aimed at transforming the works of Mohawk schools--"forms of research whose aim is not
to interpret the world but to change it" (Kemmis, 1991, p. 102). The design for this project drew on
an alternative research paradigm approach, the method of critical education research described by
Kemmis (1991) and the method of participatory research described by Hall (1975, 1981). The
methods we chose for this project were a function of the purpose of the project and to a large extent
depended on the assumptions underlying the project. The main assumption underlying the project
28
was that the failure of American Indian children to attain high standards in education was, partly,
due to the failure to structure education content within a framework that fully interprets American
Indian perspectives about schooling (Spring, 1998). Therefore, unlike previous educational ventures
that failed to include Aboriginal people in the process (see Agbo, 1996), this project is designed to
work collaboratively with the Mohawk people. From our perspective then, our analysis and action
must focus on the realities that make up a culturally relevant curriculum and the corresponding
learning needs. Inherent in the Culture Standards project was thus the need to learn how to generate,
evaluate, select and share vast amounts of relevant information at all social levels, from the
Mohawk community member to the university faculty member. Our key word for the project was
“relevant”, as we needed to learn how to disseminate our culturally relevant curriculum in a way
that makes sense to the end-users. Thus we needed to go beyond curriculum development in any
traditional sense to participatory research as an intrinsically multi-layered process of knowledge
creation and sharing. Maguire (1987) asserts that participatory research goes beyond merely
interpreting and describing social phenomenon. Accordingly, the most peculiar aspect of
participatory research is the direct link between research and action (Maguire, 1987; Hall, 1981).
Thus, in this project, we did not merely describe social reality, but radically tried to change it by
combining the creation of knowledge about social reality with actual action in that reality.
Therefore, our objective of this project was to collectively build a group ownership of information
as we moved from being objects of research to subjects of our own research process (Maguire,
1987). By using an alternative social science framework, we employed data collection processes
that combined the activities of research, education, and action (Hall, 1981; Maguire, 1987;
Kemmis, 1991). As an educational process, the project educated us by engaging in the analysis of
structural causes of selected problems through collaborative discussion and interaction. As an
29
action process, the project enabled the participants to take collaborative action for radical social
change in both the short and the long run. The common ethos of the project consists of an emphasis
on cultural education and the desire for an assertion of cultural knowledge in matters of educational
concern.
So, unlike a study using an externalist position, this project did not intend merely to produce
information about Native education and remain on the shelves. Moreover, the project was also
unlike more latent interpretive forms of critical theory. Our method was to apply thinking processes
related mainly to the development of strategies for problem solving and decision-making. These
strategies laid special emphasis on the learning of all the activities, institutions, social groups and
networks that American Indians have progressively developed over the years (Kemmis 1991).
Procedures
The purpose and objectives of the Mohawk Education Project determined the choice of
procedures we employed in data collection and analysis. Participatory research literature has always
not been explicit about the problem of methods (Hall, 1975). There seems to be no
methodologically sanctioned approaches to follow since the most important factors in participatory
research are the origins of the issues and the roles that those concerned with the issues play in the
process (Hall, 1981; Maguire, 1987). Thus, the precept is that participatory research is
context-bound and the procedures employed should emanate from both researcher and participants.
However, the Participatory Research Network (1982) documents various approaches to
participatory research.
These include group discussions, public meetings, research teams,
open-ended surveys, community seminars, fact-finding tours, collective production of audio-visual
30
materials, theatre, education camps, and many more. For the purpose of this project, we drew on
data collected through workshops based on group discussions, meetings, fact-finding tours,
informal interviews and document analysis. The data are the results of two phases of work in the
summers of 1998 and 1999.
Profile of School District and Research Participants
The Salmon River Central School District is situated in Franklin County in Northern New
York State within the Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne. Located at the banks of the Saint Lawrence
Seaway, Akwesasne is literally divided by the Canada-United States border.
The Salmon River Central School District, lies within the United States portion of Akwesasne.
With a population of about 8,000, and an unemployment rate of about 50 percent, Akwesasne, once
a predominantly rural community has grown into a retail and service economy that attracts
businesses and tourism.
The first language spoken in Akwesasne is Mohawk with English being a second language.
While many people between the ages of 5 and 50 speak good English some older people speak very
little and a few others do not speak English. There is a significant level of awareness of past
traditions among elders of the community. Younger people in general are not knowledgeable on
matters concerning past traditional beliefs and cultural patterns. Nevertheless, there seems to be a
comprehensive pool of information on local traditions that the old can pass onto the young.
The Salmon River School District comprises the two state-run public schools of the Saint
Regis Mohawk Reservation—the Salmon River Central School and the Saint Regis Mohawk
School. The total student population is about 1600 with about 120 regular and special education
teachers. All of the 450 students of the Saint Regis Mohawk Pre K-6 School are Mohawk whereas
31
most of the school’s 24 regular teachers and 20 special education teachers are of non-Aboriginal
ancestry. Of the 1100 students of the Salmon River Central K-12 School, about 60 percent are of
Aboriginal ancestry whereas about 90 percent of all the teachers are Euro-Americans.
During the first phase of the Mohawk Education Project in the summer of 1998, a group of
8 people constituted the Mohawk culture team of the Mohawk Education Project. The group met to
assess the language needs of teachers, students, parents, administrators, and support staff of the
Mohawk schools in Akwesasne. The group was to provide Mohawk culture standards that would
constitute the content of other subject areas such as science, social studies, math, and language arts
for students in Pre-K to 12 by sharing experiences, information and support. The team targeted a
diverse group of people made up of Mohawk language (American Indian) teachers, community
members, a SUNY Potsdam faculty member and an American Indian graduate student. The group
constituted a research team that worked together on discussing issues and finding solutions for
them.
Workshops Based on Discussion Groups
In inaugurating our research project, we had to negotiate a starting point and direction for
our work. We arrived at a consensus that the core of Mohawk ideals that the curriculum is
supposed to promote focuses on ancestral continuity, idealized human relationships, and a sense
of personal and collective dignity. In order to accomplish our project objective, we needed to
develop a methodology of participatory research that would work for our purpose. According to
the Participatory Research Network (1982), "Group discussions are probably the most widely used
method in participatory research. They occur throughout the process, and are often used together
32
with other methods" (p. 6).
Prior to the workshops, as a first step toward participation in the solution of the problems,
the participants in the project were engaged in a problem identification exercise in which they were
to submit lists of problems that they felt affected language and culture in the school. The purpose of
the problem identification exercise was to identify problems that existed in both the school and
community and demonstrate that the situation was different from the expectations of the
community members, and that the problem identification process would show the differences. In
other words, participants at the workshops attempted to describe the existing condition in the school
and planned for a more desirable condition in the future.
The workshops concerned an investigation of elements that might contribute to, or hinder
the development and achievement of adequate academic standards. We employed a functional
approach by which we encouraged participants to present and talk about their own ideas especially
about what changes they required to enhance the development of the Mohawk language and culture
needs of the schools systems. The team utilized a process of deliberation, first, drawing on the
existing knowledge about the problems facing student learning in the school and, second, planning
for an appropriate strategy for their solution. This means that we posed problems, identified causes,
discussed possible solutions and evaluated actions. The forums were relaxed and participants felt
free to speak. The team used group discussions to build a sense of trust, support and cooperation
among themselves by sharing same ideas or problems. As one of our strategies was to maximize the
use of the abundant local resources to broaden and enrich our notion of the American Indian
culture, the Mohawk participants maintained periodic consultation with community elders
whenever we were in situations where facts were uncertain, opinions divided or values were in
dispute.
33
On the whole, the arrangement worked effectively as participants indicated that they
found the exercise very interesting and educating. Sometimes, disagreements resulted in
arguments and it made it necessary for participants to take votes on issues. If participants agreed,
the discussions were documented by a secretary and tape recorded to ensure that important
remarks were not overlooked. After the discussions, the team leader produced a summary for
distribution to all participants who were free to draw the leader’s attention to any issues that were
missing in the report. This project offered a way to openly demonstrate solidarity among a diverse
group of people and allowed participants to recognize many forms of knowledge by insisting on an
alternative position regarding the purpose of knowledge creation. The project development strategy
combined a high degree of social problem exploration and a high degree of proposed solutions to
the problems.
Document Analysis
The summer of 1999 saw the second phase of this project when participants moved the
venue of activities to the Mohawk Education Library in Akwesasne to embark on an intensive
document analysis to identify resources relevant to our culture standards curriculum.
It is difficult to implement a curriculum based on culture without giving attention to the
available documentary material on the particular culture. Since libraries acquire all kinds of
documents in their day- to-day operation, it was necessary for participants to review all available
documents on Native culture as a basis of identifying the resources that can be used for the
implementation of the curriculum based on culture. Hammersley and Atkinson (1989) assert that
researchers should treat official documents as social products and should carefully examine them
instead of merely treating them as a resource. Researchers should, therefore, consider documents in
34
the same way as information they gather using other research tools. In other words, documents,
especially primary documents, though may be useful, may also be inaccurate, or biased or may
contain hidden agendas in their preparation. They may also be incomplete.
The participants retrieved all documents produced by Native authors, as well as those produced by
government, non-Native authors, tribal council education authority and those produced by the local
education authorities that were available at the Mohawk Library. We identified topical descriptors
in all the documents and verified if the different documentary sources used common themes. Our
approach was to search for patterns, common themes or ideas. In our view, a careful examination
of documents conveyed information about Native culture in particular and information about
curriculum, policy, and governance of schools for Native children in general. Whereas our general
interest was in material that was related to teaching Native children, our specific interest in cultural
dissemination meant that it was appropriate to concentrate on all documents that conveyed cultural
information. Specific documents that were useful in this study included Native legends and stories,
Native history, poetry, curricular material, government reports, and many other pertinent pieces of
information that the library possessed. After careful examination of the documents, we sorted them
out and listed all the materials that were relevant to our culture standards curriculum. We then
classified and catalogued all the relevant information topically, that is, against each of our
descriptors as resources (see Appendices). We matched the relevant books, videos and films against
each of our descriptors (see Appendix A) and produced a general list of references (see Appendix
B). The next step was for us to identify community people that could act as resource persons for
each of our descriptors and listed the persons against the descriptors (see Appendix C). In what
follows I present the results of our discussions.
35
Data Analysis
As the data for this study came from the notes I took throughout the phases of the
research process, submissions of participants, and the transcribed tape recorded discussions, I felt
I had to analyze the data using qualitative approaches to research. However, Lather (1992)
contends that data analysis of alternative research paradigms transcends the ordinary application
of qualitative approaches. As Lather writes:
Rooted in the research traditions of interpretive sociology and anthropology, alternative
practices of educational research go well beyond the mere use of qualitative methods. Their
focus is the overriding importance of meaning making and context in human experiencing
(p. 91).
Similarly, Miles and Huberman (1994) assert that because participatory research aims at
changing the social environment through a method of critical inquiry by acting on the world, data
analysis should concentrate on descriptions in the initial stages, and go through to the search for
underlying concepts or ideals (see p. 9). Therefore the data analysis of this study essentially
utilized qualitative procedures with a focus on generating meaning within a particular setting
(Lather, 1992). There were two major phases of data analysis in this study: 1) the collection
phase, and 2) the analysis phase.
During the collection phase, I continuously referred to, and reflected on the data being
collected and compiled some systematic field notes that might be useful to the study. As group
discussions constituted a valuable source of data for this study, I prepared guidelines for
discussions and took notes that included observations about individual interactions, and group
dynamics, comments by participants about culture and overall reflections. After each day’s
discussions, I first listened to each audiotape and made detailed notes or transcription of the
36
discussions. I then categorized each of the issues according to common patterns, themes or ideas
that fit into the research agenda. After typing the discussion summaries I took the summaries
back to participants who were free to draw my attention to any issues that were missing in the
report. We reviewed them and made necessary modifications at the beginning of each day’s
session.
The analysis period entailed classifications, the formation and testing of ideas, making
connections among ideas, and relating concepts to the literature review (Miles & Huberman,
1994). At the end of the data collection, I employed a descriptive analysis (see Miles &
Huberman, 1994) that gave a feeling for the views of the participants and included the search for
patterns, repeated themes or views that conform to categories such as the clan system,
ceremonies, school-community relations, medicines, parent-teacher relationships, and systems of
government. As the analysis continued, I recorded theoretical memos about what the patterns
possibly meant, and drew from the analytic insights and interpretations that emerged during the
discussions (see Miles & Huberman, 1994). I then assigned the emerging ideas and patterns to
categories. For example, I assigned pieces of information relating to dances, societies, processes
and duties of becoming clan-mother or chief to the category of ceremonies. To view a perception
as a factor, a majority of participants would have had to refer to it as an issue, and, therefore,
deserving to be considered in the analysis and presentation of the results of this study.
Given the researcher's and participants' commitment to the development of a contextually
relevant curriculum, the researcher did not intend to present the results of the study with the
purpose of making them more reliable and valid than those of dominant research paradigms.
However, to ensure credibility and trustworthiness of the data, the design of this research utilized
Lather's (1986) face validity and catalytic validity approaches. Face validity occurs by "recycling
37
categories, emerging analysis, back through at least a subsample of respondents" (Lather, 1986, p.
78). In this study, after typing the discussion summaries for example, I took the summaries back to
participants in order for participants and researcher to review them and make necessary
modifications. Catalytic validity follows when there is "some documentation that the research
process has led to insight and, ideally, activism on the part of the respondents" (Lather, 1986 p. 78).
Catalytic validity should be crucial to this study, as its main purpose was to promote participants'
understanding of their own capabilities and right to control decisions affecting them.
The
development of the culturally relevant curriculum addresses the concern for catalytic validity in that
it is at present being used by the teachers in the schools.
38
CHAPTER 3
RESULTS
There were two main perspectives that emerged from our project: 1) ethnic content
education and 2) bi-cultural education. The first, ethnic content education is education that allows
children to learn their language and culture as a way of preserving their identity as Mohawks. The
second, bi-cultural education signifies education that allows Mohawk children to acquire the same
skills as those in the mainstream American society by aiming at a two-way approach or bicultural
education (see Harris, 1990). Altogether the general perspective that emerged in the discussions
was that we should develop a curriculum that reflects far beyond the conventional curriculum. This
means a rejection of the learning content imposed by the Euro-American group and standards
molded by Western concepts in favor of the far more potent ethnic concepts that would foster selfidentity, pride and self-confidence in the Mohawk child. Our curriculum calls for a crossfertilization of Native American and the dominant American cultures.
Ethnic Content Education
Participants observed that the disintegration of ethnic values in the Mohawk community
is a major cause for low educational attainment and persistence of students. We believed that the
psychological wounds of assimilation of Native Americans into the dominant culture have
combined with the Western model of education to the disintegration of traditional beliefs and the
lack of identity and self-esteem in young people.
In contrast to a cultural model of education
that stresses communal bonds of primordial identities, shaped by a common language and
ethnicity, contemporary models of education tend to underscore the primacy of community and
fraternity. Since education as well as tradition is the passing of beliefs or customs from one
39
generation to another, effective transmission of knowledge to the Native American child can be
seen in the light of how traditional content can reshape the coding of academic information.
Therefore, in order for children to develop self-esteem, they need to identify themselves with
traditional values of Native people. The view that it is critical for children to identify themselves
with Native traditions, customs and values, and teachers to understand more fully Native people's
lifestyles was evident in the discussions. Particularly, participants felt that there is the need for
non-Native teachers involved in Native children's education to be well informed about the
Mohawk way of life. Participants strongly felt that as teachers are in positions of trust, their
understanding of the Mohawk culture and way of life, is crucial in its impact on students, in
reshaping the perceptions of teachers themselves and the learning context. As one of the
participants from the community stated:
The teachers should know our way of life and should appreciate that we are
different in the way we do things. If they're going to stay in our community and
work with us then they should know something about our tradition, customs and
values. For a long time nobody has respected our own way of life and because of
this our children don't want to identify themselves with our lifestyle. If teachers
respect our way of life, then our children will also begin to identify themselves
with our traditions and customs. It is necessary that all teachers who come here to
work should know our lifestyle and should be prepared to accept, and respect the
way we do things.
Since the Mohawk community at large faces a growing conflict between the traditional
and modern ways of life, involving the whole school system in what, for the lack of better
terminology, we termed a cultural revival, would depend on creating essential linkages between
the school and the community. These linkages can best be understood by what we termed the
"pluralization of the curriculum". We viewed pluralization primarily in terms of increasing the
understanding of our curriculum among numerous groups such as non-Native teachers,
administrators, and parents in a way that we would pool all talents and resources together and
40
allocate these talents and resources efficiently. Therefore, participants suggested that strategies
for developing our culture standards curriculum should reflect the needs of students, teachers, inschool administrators and parents. As a flattening of the pyramid process of mobilization of
Native resources in the production of knowledge, the core ideals of our curriculum should focus
on the achievement of the most deeply cherished Native American values. To foster a common
purpose behind the ideals of the curriculum, we stressed the value of giving virtually everybody
involved in the children’s schooling some avenue to the power of knowledge production and use
that would create a reliable, crucial thought about the realities of a cultural curriculum.
A Two-Way or Bi-Cultural Approach To Education
Another perspective that emerged from our discussions was that the school should aim at
a two-way approach or bicultural education. We should create a frontier of learning where there
is the need to go beyond the Mohawk traditions and culture and to encourage a cross-fertilization
of insights, practices and mental prototypes of different cultures. This viewpoint on schooling
should not be surprising since the erosion of the Native American social and economic tradition
of hunting, trapping and gathering by a modern, industrial society has left most Native American
reserves susceptible both economically and politically. Therefore, Native people have to seek
survival and advancement through the mainstream American economy.
We saw Native
American students’ survival and growth in a modern industrialized world lies in equipping them
with the technological skills required to survive and flourish in the mainstream American society.
So, for us, it seems apparently important for the children to acquire the language and technology
necessary to compete in the industrial economy. Whereas we viewed proficiency in the basics
important, participants indicated that a crucial instrument for acquiring the skills that would be
41
useful in the dominant culture lies in some of the ideals of the Native culture. We clearly saw the
need for the children to obtain the same skills as in mainstream schooling. Participants therefore
suggested that in order for Native American students to advance harmoniously and steadily in the
modern world, they should clearly identify themselves with their cultural heritage while they also
gain proficiency in the basics of reading, writing and math and science. A two-way approach to
schooling that involves the reinforcement of the children's cultural identity is considered as one
of the ways by which the Native Americans students would advance steadily in academic
standards. We felt that confronting two cultures, children need a level of proficiency in each
culture in order to make a living in present-day American society.
A successful implementation of a two-way approach to education would depend on
teachers' understanding of the Mohawk worldview, their recognition of ethnic content education
and their ability to adapt teaching programs to suit the special conditions of the children.
Participants suggested that in order for the school to reinforce traditional values, the Mohawk
culture, rather than the dominant culture should provide the arena for a concurrent process for a
school-wide curriculum development. The curriculum in all subject areas including math,
language arts, social studies and science should be increasingly tied to and essentially influenced
by the Mohawk culture. The Mohawk culture should provide important learning networks that
are critical to comprehending the content of conventional subjects as well as the math, language
arts, social studies and science. This means that the Mohawk culture standards are to provide a
type of anchor that brings subject areas together on the basis of their common material. In what
follows, I delineate the content of curriculum based on the premise that language and culture
influence the educational achievement of the Mohawk student.
42
Fundamental Strategy Suggested To Deal With The Curriculum
Participants at the workshops arrived at a consensus that the curriculum standards should
apply to Mohawk language and culture teachers, regular classroom teachers, students, parents
and school administrators. The standards should provide a consistent means of identifying the
students with their language and culture and act as an important element in raising their selfesteem and self-identity. In order to raise academic standards of students in all areas of
schoolwork, we found it important for teachers, parents and administrators to use the core of
Mohawk ideals that traditional knowledge is supposed to promote to sustain a culturally oriented
education. We believed that education that focuses on ancestral continuity, idealized human
relations and a sense of personal and collective dignity would boost students’ self-esteem and
self-confidence and raise their academic standards.
We arrived at a consensus that to work effectively with Mohawk students and to enable
them to achieve the desirable standards, all the stakeholders in the school system as well as the
students must know about the cultural backgrounds and the historical heritages of the Mohawks.
The next section reflects the culture and language needs of the Akwesasne schools systems.
These are divided into five parts to reflect the roles of students, teachers, parents, and
administrators in supporting the school curriculum. These parts are:
1.
The language and culture needs of the Mohawk student.
2.
The need for Mohawk language and culture teachers to create alternatives where
none existed before.
3.
The language and cultural needs of teachers.
4.
The need for parents to promote the educational achievement of students.
5.
The need for administrators and support staff to promote cultural learning in the
43
schools.
The Language And Culture Needs of the Mohawk Student
In developing the culture standards, we have been sensitive to the degree of conflict the
Mohawk child may be experiencing in relating to the cultures of the mainstream society and the
Akwesasne community. We have been aware that some children within the school systems in
Akwesasne may be living in families that have been almost completely assimilated to the norms of
the dominant culture, while others come from traditional families in which their own ethnic ways
are strictly practiced. Students from the traditional families deal with contradictory worldviews as
they literally have to live in two distinct worlds. As we provide standards for the Mohawk culture,
we also take cognizant of the basic characteristics of the mainstream American culture. The main
theme that runs across these standards is the crucial role of language and culture in boosting the
self-esteem and self-identity of the Mohawk child.
Levels of Performance.
We described twenty topics to represent the range of performance expected of all
Mohawk students by the end of Grade 12. The twenty topics described for language and culture
reflect the range of performance students demonstrate in language/culture learning and are
sufficiently specific for teachers to use to describe students’ achievement in all subject areas
throughout their progression from Pre-K to Grade 12. The culture standards are organized into
four levels namely, (a) Introductory-Pre-K to Grade 1, (b) Level 1-Grade 2 to 4, (c) Level 2Grade 5 to 8; and, (d) Level 3-Grade 9 to 12). This grouping is designed to engender continuity
and progression, and to encourage the integration of instruction, activity, and evaluation in
44
pragmatic situations. In order to maintain the Mohawk language and culture as an integrated unit,
students will learn each aspect of the twenty topics at each level with different degrees of
emphases and depth. The introductory Level and Level 1 represent the stages through which the
Mohawk student may start learning the fundamentals of the Mohawk Language and culture and
Levels 2 and 3 describe performance that is beyond the Mohawk community. In the next section,
I expound the general descriptors of our culture standards and expand some of the elements of
the Mohawk culture that participants believed to be pertinent and should form standards of the
curriculum of the Mohawk student.
General Descriptors.
Table 1 shows the topics we suggested for teaching in most subject areas throughout all
the levels:
Table 1: General Descriptors
1. The Clan System
2. Ceremonies of the year
3. Thanksgiving
4. The Iroquois Confederacy
5.Cycle of Life and the Traditional Circle
6. Roles of the Family
7. Spiritual Cleansing and Healing
8. Medicines
9. The Study of Akwesasne
10. Songs and Dances
11. Food
12. Clothing
13. Traditional Homes
14. Survival Skills
15. Story-Telling and Drama
16. Native Games and Sports
17. Communication and Transportation
18. Art forms and Media
19. Environmental Awareness
20. Systems of Government
Table 2 provides a schematic view of our cultural standards curriculum model in a matrix that
combines themes, performance indicators and suggested student activities. The abbreviation INT
represents those activities that we suggested for the introductory level and L1, L2, and L3 are for
levels 1, 2 and 3 respectively.
Table 2
Culture Standards Curriculum: Themes, Performance Indicators and Suggested Student Activities from Pre-K to Grade 12
Theme
1. The Clan System
Introductory Level (Pre-K to Level 1 (grade 2 to 4)
grade 1)
a.
Introduction to clans-- a.
Clan names in the
where they belong in
proper Mohawk
the community
traditional full terms
b.
Mohawk names of the b.
Use of pronouns “I”
clans--bear, turtle, and
and “you” in the
wolf
Mohawk language
(there are 15 pronouns
in the language)
c.
Origins of the clans in
Mohawk society
d.
Importance of the
clans (marriage, death,
birth, sating
arrangements in the
long-house, identify,
matrilineal lineage,
display)
e.
Writing clan names
using the Mohawk
traditional language
Level 2 (grade 5 to 8)
Level 3 (grade 9 to 12)
a. Origins of the clans –
review of all Mohawk
language pronouns
e.g., “I, you, he, she,
his, hers, its”
b. Marriage, birth, death,
seating arrangement,
identity
c. Courtship – past and
present
d. Characteristics of
clans
a. Becoming a member
of the Akwesasne
Reservation: (i)
Identification card,
(ii) Registration
b. Relationship
between Mohawk
names and clans
c. Importance of the
Mohawk matrilineal
system
d. Relationships
between the
matrilineal system
and clan
membership
e. Differences between
clan membership
and other tribal
affiliations
f. Courtship, marriage,
and family.
g.
46
2.
Ceremonies
a.
b.
c.
d.
3.
Thanksgiving
Address
a. Give thanks to all things
that give us life on a
daily basis;
b. Learn the Thanksgiving
address in its simplest
form;
c. Read the book by Jake
Swamp “Giving
Thanks”
d. Learn Mohawk etiquette
and manners
a.
b.
Meanings of
ceremonies
Midwinter, strawberry,
harvest, maple/syrup,
thunder dance, seed,
planting, string-bean,
and green corn
ceremonies.
Ceremonial dances
Planting, ending, and
harvesting sees in
correlation to
ceremonies
a. The moon stars and
their influence on
ceremonies
b. Meaning of the
ceremonies
c. Different societies
within ceremonies
d. Ceremonies-"kariwiio" (code of
Handsome Lake--4
days), "atowi"
Medicine mask
society)
Recite longer version
of Thanksgiving
address daily;
Make thanksgiving
booklets
a.
b.
c.
a. Process of becoming
clan-mother, faithkeeper or a chief
b. Duties of a clanmother, faith-keeper,
and chief
c. The origins of The
Code Handsome
Lake and The Great
Law
d. The cycle of
ceremonies
Recite the
a.
Thanksgiving
Address in
Mohawk;
Recite the Address
on the P.A.
b.
system,
assemblies,
openings, and
closings
Recite address at
community events,
e.g., conferences,
meetings and
social gatherings
Recite
Thanksgiving
Address in
Mohawk in public
or on P.A. system;
Compose personal
Thanksgiving
Address in
Mohawk
47
4.
The Iroquois
Confederacy
a.
b.
Introduction to the
Mohawk nation
“Kastowa” with three
feathers;
Introduction to
positions of the three
feathers on the
“Kastowa”
a. the five “Kastowas” and
the position of the
feathers;
b. Kastowas of the
Iroquois Confederacy;
c. Positions of the nations
within the Confederacy
– the Flag of the
Covenant Chain;
d. Language differences
between Nations
e. Map the locations of Six
Nations Confederacy;
f. Introduction to the
migration of the
Mohawks.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Democratic system of
the Six Nations;
Compare the Iroquois
Confederacy with
local systems of
government;
The Mohawk Nation-migration,
government, society
(clan systems),
occupations, health,
education, and
welfare
Roles of
governmental
systems.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Life before the
coming of
Europeans
Uniqueness of
the Iroquois;
The Mohawk
Trail (Migration
of the
Mohawks);
Iroquois secret
societies;
Relationships
between
Iroquois
Nations;
Compare
Iroquois Nations
with world
indigenous
people;
Iroquois
traditional
education.
48
5.
The Roles of Family a.
Members
b.
c.
Introduction to the
Mohawk family tree;
Immediate family
members and Mohawk
terms (e.g., me,
mother, father,
grandmother,
grandfather, older
sister, older brother,
younger sister,
younger brother, aunt,
uncle
Possessive forms
(“my” mother, etc.)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Mohawk family terms
– "cousin" and
"friend";
Terms of "my" and
“your” in naming
family members;
Use adjectives to
describe family
members, e.g., short,
tall, big, small, etc.;
Roles of family
members;
The Creation Story’
My Grandmother
(different kinds of
families).
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Responsibility of
caring for children;
Respect for the
elderly for their
wisdom;
Changing roles and
responsibilities of
family members;
Basic Mohawk values
– group harmony,
group membership
sharing, acceptance
of others, respect for
nature;
Gender roles and
shared
responsibilities.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
6.
The Cycle of Life a.
and the Traditional
Circle.
b.
Introduction to the
earth, sun, moon and
stars;
Mother Earth belongs
to all.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Introduction to life and
death of living things;
Personal wellness and
nutrition;
Making right choices
and enhancing selfrespect;
Caring for Mother
Earth and the
community – recycling,
earth day.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Life and death of
living things;
Personal hygiene;
Drug education and
prevention of sexually
transmitted diseases;
Self-esteem and
physical and mental
health;
Making the right
personal choices
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Iroquois traditional
family values –
group harmony,
respect for nature,
respect for the
elderly for their
wisdom, sharing, all
belong to the Great
Spirit , acceptance
of others;
Roles of parents in
the family –
mother/father;
Importance and
roles of elders;
The
matrilineal/longhouse kinship
system
The role of the
family in society.
Drug and alcohol
education;
Prevention of
STDs and HIV;
Self-esteem and
self identity;
Physical, emotional
and spiritual
health;
Traditions
revolving around
childbirth.
49
7.
Spiritual Cleansing
and Healing
a.
b.
c.
8.
Medicines
a.
b.
c.
Daily meditation as a
stress reliever;
Use of sweat-lodge,
smudging, tobacco
burning, sweet-flag,
cedar, and sage in self
protection;
The positive mind and
attitude.
a.
Identify at least 5
herbs and their uses as
traditional medicines;
Food items used for
medicine, e.g., potato,
onion;
Pick, preserve and
label medicines.
a.
b.
c.
Types of meditation
and relaxation
Materials used for
different kinds of
mediation;
The stages of
medication.
a.
b.
c.
d.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Identify at least 10
different medicines;
Gather materials and
prepare and preserve
medicines;
Identify various parts
of plants used for
medicines;
Identify good and bad
medicines;
Know proper ways of
picking medicines;
Geographical habitats
of medicinal plants.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Traditional methods
of healing;
Daily traditional
rituals;
Collect and gather
natural materials to
build a sweat-lodge;
Spiritual awareness
for positive mind
and attitudes.
Compare and
contrast traditional
and modern
medicines;
Oral language ritual
procedures that
accompany picking
and preparation of
medicines;
Potency of
traditional
medicines;
Rules of preparing
medicines;
Geographical
habitats of
medicines.
50
9.
The study of
Akwesasne
a.
b.
c.
d.
Who am I? I am a
Mohawk;
Students’ Mohawk
names and their
meanings;
Where do I live?
Self-identity and selfesteem.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Akwesasne road names
in Mohawk;
Locations and
Mohawk names of
public service
facilities, e.g., tribal
buildings, schools,
library, sports arena,
elders’ home health
center, youth group
homes;
Map of Akwesasne;
Photographing local
facilities; contributions
and successes of
Ahkwesahsner- onen,
e.g., Mary Adams –
basket maker.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Design a
topographical model
of Akwesasne;
Political relationships
between Akwesasne
and local
communities (in New
York State);
Relationships
between Akwesasne
and the Six Nations;
Introduction to the
study of membership
and residency;
Law and order in
Akwesasne.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
Origins of
Akwesasne –
history of the
reservation;
Akwesasne
membership
requirements;
Land claims;
Economy –
businesses, gaming,
occupations,
educational
training, and job
opportunities;
Current affairs;
Dialects of
Akwesasne;
Uniqueness of
Akwesasne – e.g.,
policing, national
citizenship,
agencies, etc.;
Impact of religion
on Akwesasne;
Origins of schools
within the
community
Residential schools
– the Indian Carlisle
School in PA
51
10.
Songs and dances
a.
b.
Introduction to the
water-drum and rattle;
Introduction to social
dances, e.g., the round
dance
a.
b.
c.
Social songs and
dances;
Social and ceremonial
dances and the
meanings that
accompany the songs
and dances, e.g., the
rabbit dance, the stomp
dance, the duck dance;
Contemporary Native
American music.
a.
b.
c.
Learn at least 15
dances;
Contemporary Native
American music;
Songs and dances of
different Native
nations in the United
States e.g., western
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
11.
Food
a.
b.
c.
d.
The "Three Sisters";
Food stories – "The
Strawberry";
Story Time and soup
making
Uses of the parts of the
corn, e.g., doll making.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Make corn husk doll;
Importance of the
string bean, green
corn, and maple syrup
in ceremonies;
Different kinds of
corn;
Corn foods;
The "Creation Story"
and “The Three
Sisters”;
Importance of fish and
small game;
Good preservation –
smoking, drying, and
salting.
a.
b.
c.
Nutrition – traditional
food items e.g.,
venison, fish, corn,
beans, and squash;
Healthy and
unhealthy food;
Differences between
work and leisure.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Compose Native
American music;
Introduction to
social and medicine
dances;
Meanings of songs
and dances;
Similarities and
differences in
dances among
nations;
Contemporary
Native American
music and
entertainers and
composers
Cultivating and
processing white
corn;
Food preparation
and preservation –
cooking, canning,
drying, and
freezing;
Native recipes and
cooking;’
Healthy and
unhealthy food
Meal planning and
budgeting;
Food stories and
legends.
52
12.
Clothing
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
13.
Traditional homes
a.
b.
c.
d.
Importance of
traditional clothing;
Clothing for
ceremonies;
Clothing for midwinter, harvest, and
strawberry festivals
Traditional clothing
for the changing
seasons;
Mohawk names for
various items of
traditional clothing.
Mohawk words for
"long-house" and
"house";
Importance of the
structure of the longhouse;
The people who lived
in the long-house;
The uses of the longhouse – past and
present
a.
b.
c.
a.
b.
c.
Processes of tanning
deer hide for
traditional clothing;
Beaded jewelry, e.g.,
earrings, necklaces,
bracelets;
Make leather
moccasins and
pouches.
a.
Build small models of
the traditional longhouse;
Take a field trip to see
the traditional longhouse in St. Ancient;
The use and
importance of the
longhouse – sleeping
quarters, storage,
living arrangements,
ceremonies.
a.
b.
c.
Make ceremonial
traditional clothing;
History of traditional
Iroquois clothing;
The beauty of
beadwork on
clothing.
a.
b.
c.
d.
b.
c.
d.
Types of materials
used in building
traditional homes;
Architectural design
of the long-houses;
Design my own longhouse;
Uses and
classifications of
longhouses.
a.
b.
c.
Make ceremonial
outfits;
Special care for
traditional and other
clothing;
Dressing for
different occasions
and etiquette;
Respect and social
skills in clothing –
e.g., removing shoes
in homes, removing
hats in buildings.
Different types of
Native traditional
homes in North
America;
Materials used to
construct traditional
homes;
Group research on
specific indigenous
dwellings around
the world, e.g.,
Aborigines of
Australia, Maori
53
14.
Survival Skills
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
Different types of local
animals;
Respect for animals –
taking only what you
need;
Animal stories and
legends that teach not
taking more than you
need;
Importance and uses of
animals;
Animals for food,
clothing, and oils;
Edible and non-edible
plants e.g., berries,
mushrooms, nuts,
leeks, dandelions;
The hazards of poison
ivy, poison oak, poison
sumac;
Directions – using
moss, and cardinal
points, stars;
Accidents in the woods
– overexposure to hot
and cold, broken
bones, and cuts
Treatment to
emergencies and
knowing local
emergency phone
numbers and
procedures for
reaching them.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Membership in
cultural groups;
Go through a survival
course with resource
person (Bob
Stevenson);
Recognition and
identification of
various types of
plants and animals;
Classification of
indigenous plants;
edible/non-edible;
Identify medicinal
plants that are used
for healing;
Basic traditional and
contemporary first
aid training.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Basic first aid
training;
Trapping skills p
rabbit snares;
Using landmarks for
directions;
Homesickness;
Self-esteem, selfidentity and living
in the larger world;
Independence and
self-control.
54
15.
Story-telling,
legends and oral
traditions.
a.
b.
Introduction to story
telling;
Where’s My Mother –
a good story that uses
the Mohawk words of
farm/domestic animals.
a.
b.
c.
Visit museums,
libraries, the Native
American Traveling
College;
Act out moral legends
and stories;
Introduction to theatre
and drama.
a.
b.
c.
Group studies of
legends and stories;
Share and present
legends and stories to
the lower grades;
Theatre and drama
group
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Compose stories
and legends;
Compose poetry;
Make public
presentations;
Make a collection
of personal favorite
legends;
Drama and theater
55
16.
Native sports and
games
a.
c.
d.
Mohawk words for the
game of lacrosse;
The Legends between
the Animals & Birds –
a great story about
morals;
Mohawk terms for the
game of hockey.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Famous Native
a.
athletes e.g., Tom
Longboat, Billy
Mills;
b.
Natural materials
used to make Native c.
sports equipment;
Mohawk names for
different types of
sports and
equipment;
Card games;
The game of
lacrosse – the
history and
importance of
lacrosse, and the
different uses for
the game;
Importance of
teamwork Native
games;
Native American
contributions to the
game of hockey;
Introduce
ceremonial
Famous Native
American sportsmen
and women;
Mohawk terminology
for game strategies;
The lacrosse Hall of
Fame
a.
b.
c.
Medicine games for
mental health e.g.,
tug of war, snow
snake game, peach
stone game, fire
ball, and lacrosse
game;
Traditional gender
games (games for
females and males);
Past and present
famous Native
American
sportsmen and
women.
56
17.
Communication and
Transportation
a.
b.
c.
e.
18.
Art Forms and
Media
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Traditional forms of
communication –
running, boating, ice
bridges, snow shoeing;
Runners as traditional
information carriers
between the Nations
Past and present forms
of communication and
transportation
The Ice Storm, 1998
a.
Introduction to basketmaking;
History of the art of
basket-making;
Introduction to pottery;
The processes of
pottery making –
collecting materials,
making simple pots and
firing the clay;
Stories and legends
about pottery;
Native American
artists.
a.
b.
c.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Introduction to the
wampum, treaty, and
story belts and their
importance;
Complete two row
wampum belts;
Communicating in
Mohawk through the
use of the Internet.
f.
Different forms of
Mohawk poetry;
Past and present
Mohawk poets, e.g.,
Pauling Johnson,
Maurice Kinney
Native American Art
– drawing and
painting – charcoal,
oil;
Basket making using
resource people;
Pot-making
Quilting
a.
g.
h.
i.
b.
c.
d.
Using Internet to
communicate in
Mohawk;
The wampum and
story belts;
Communicating
using pictographs
Introduction to
audio productions
and mass media
communication
Famous Native
American artists;
Creative drawing,
painting, pottery;
Making lacrosse
sticks, traditional
vs. modern;
Media stereotypes –
past and present
57
19.
Respect for the
Environment
a. Giving Thanks (resource
book);
b. Respect for living and
non living things;
c. Taking care of Mother
Earth – recycling,
reusing, and reducing;
d. The goodness of water,
and how it sustains
living things--plants
(food, medicine, shelter)
e. Taking only what you
need to sustain life
f. Respect for the
environment;
g. Clean the surroundings
on a weekly basis;
h. Tree planting and ideal
gardening
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Clan animals in the
environment – land
animals, water
animals and birds;
Respect for Mother
Earth – “take only
what you need”;
Importance of the deer
to the Mohawk people
– for clothing and
food;
He Four Winds in
Mohawk and where
they come from;
Traditional and
scientific ways of
predicting the weather
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
Composting;
Recycling and
reusing;
Issues of pollution
of the local
environmental;
Effects of pollution
on the community;
Using
environmentally
safe and natural
personal products;
Local and national
environmental
organizations.
58
20.
Systems of
Government
a.
b.
c.
d.
Everything belongs to
all people;
Introduction to
Iroquois democracy;
Introduction to
government and
democracy –
traditional,
elected/tribal, council;
Introduction to the
roles of members of
traditional
governments.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Functions of
traditional and
elected governments;
Law and order;
Traditional lawbanishment;
Membership and
residency;
Akwesasne
membership
requirements;
The history of the
democracy of the
Iroquois
Confederacy, very
important;
Different forms of
governments, e.g.,
dictatorship and
democracy
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Compare and
contrast the
Iroquois
Confederacy and
the United States
Constitution –
differences and
similarities;
The U.S. Treaties
and Congressional
Acts;
The Canadian
parliamentary
system;
Akwesasne local
government—
traditional,
elected;
Akwesasne
membership
rights and
responsibilities
59
Table 2 indicates that the transformation of learning for Mohawk students can be seen in
the light of how, for example, the clan system reshapes the culturally defined medium of
learning.
At the introductory level (Pre-K to Grade 1), students will be introduced to the
Mohawk clan system, identify their own clans and learn the Mohawk names of the clans - bear,
turtle and wolf. At the first level (Grade 2 to 4), students will learn the traditional full terms of
the Mohawk clan names, the origins and importance of the clans in Mohawk society and their
relationships to marriage, birth, death, seating arrangements in the longhouse, identity and
matrilineal lineage. At the second level (Grade 5 to 8), students will explore the relationships of
the clans to self-identity and build on their significance to marriage, birth, death and seating
arrangements in the longhouse. Students will also be introduced to the characteristics of clans
and their relationships to past and present courtship. At the final level (Grade 9 to 12), students
will become aware of the processes involved in becoming a member of the Akwesasne
Reservation, that is, how to secure identification cards and registration. They will be exposed to
the relationships between Mohawk names and clans, the importance of the Mohawk matrilineal
system and its relationship to clan membership. Students will also investigate the differences
between clan membership and other tribal affiliations. They will then explore courtship, marriage
and family, and their relationships to the clan system.
Before proceeding to show how the school system as a whole can be involved in cultural
learning, at least two more examples (from Table 2) of how cultural features can form an integral
part of the learning process may be relevant. In thinking of ceremonies, for example, a
remarkable feature of Mohawk culture is the importance attached to ceremonies. The value of
unity and harmony and the promotion of a sense of personal and collective dignity in the
Mohawk society are embodied in the concept of ceremonies. Students will be introduced to
60
ceremonies at the first level by learning the meaning and importance of ceremonies, different
kinds of rituals such as midwinter, strawberry, harvest, maple/syrup, thunder dance, seed,
planting, string-bean and green corn. They will also be introduced to ceremonial dances and the
nature of plants and their place in ceremonies. At the second level, students will begin to explore
deeper into the meaning of ceremonies and how the moon and stars influence them. They will
also examine the different social groups within ceremonies and look into ceremonies such as
"Kariwiio" (The Code Handsome Lake), and "Atowi" (Medicine Mask Society). At the third
level students will investigate the process of becoming a tribal chief, clan-mother, or faith-keeper
and explore the duties that go with these leadership roles. They will also examine the origins of
the Code Handsome Lake, the Great Law and the cycle of ceremonies.
As a major landmark in history, and as a repository of cherished historical memories of
Native Americans, the Iroquois Confederacy can be taught in all subject areas in different forms.
At the introductory level students will be introduced to the Mohawk Nation "Kastowa" with three
feathers and the positions of the three feathers on the "Kastowa". At the first level, students will
explore the five "Kastowas" and the positions of the feathers, the "Kastowas" of the Iroquois
Confederacy and the positions of the nations within the Confederacy - the Flag of the Covenant
Chain. They will also explore languages of the different nations, and map the locations of the Six
Nations within the Confederacy. They will then be introduced to the migration of the Mohawks.
The third level will comprise the democracy of the Six Nations and a comparison of the Iroquois
Confederacy with local systems of government. Student will also learn about the Mohawk Nation
- its migration, government, occupations, health, education and welfare. They will be conversant
with the roles of different systems of government at this level. At the third level, students will
become familiar with life before the coming of Europeans and the uniqueness of the Iroquois.
61
They will study the Mohawk Trail (migration of the Mohawks), Iroquois secret societies and the
relationships among the Iroquois nations. They will then examine Iroquois traditional education
and compare the Iroquois nations with other aboriginal people of the world.
It is apparent from these examples that the Mohawk culture standards are embodied in
ethnic content reflecting the inevitable cultural meaning of learning and the importance of
"context" or "setting" in determining both the selection of goals and objectives of education. In
its comprehensive form, the culture standards curriculum covers a range of areas such as the
legends of ancestors, the myths of creation, social mores and norms, family and tribal history,
and the legendary traditions that embody the spiritual relationship of the Native American to
various elements of the cosmos. Students may, therefore, use the culture standards to: (a) identify
clearly what kind of performance they should be striving for in their culture; (b) avail themselves
with the opportunity of knowing more about their past and present; and, (c) view the overall
components of the culture program and how they contribute to their preparation for life in the
Mohawk community and the outside world.
Dissemination and Pluralization of the Culture Standards Curriculum
The dissemination of the curriculum underscores the value of the concept of curriculum
pluralization. While we use both terms interdependently, dissemination primarily means
increasing the understanding of our curriculum among numerous groups and its subsequent
implementation by groups such as non-Native teachers, administrators, and parents. It is a way of
using grass-roots means to revitalize Native traditions and customs by encouraging teachers to
move away from the Euro-American traditional system of teaching and learning while
emphasizing all that is related to the learning experiences of Native students. Pluralization on
62
the other hand strictly means encouraging various ideas and grafting them into our cultural
standards in a way that pools all talents and resources together and allocates these talents and
resources efficiently.
One of the challenges of developing an adaptable curriculum is how to foster a common
purpose among the various policy actors of the school. There is nothing that can substitute for a
renewed sense of commitment on the part of teachers, parents and administrators to a culturally
oriented curriculum. A strategy of implementing a culturally relevant curriculum would have to
begin, therefore, with a realization that all stakeholders of the school system should be involved
in its implementation. The curriculum should be conceived, above all, as embracing rather than
exclusive responsibilities of students or teachers because teachers are professional educators.
Freed from the conjectural justification to endorse exclusive responsibilities for the curriculum,
we then set about the arduous task of developing a strategy that could implement the curriculum
in greater cooperation and harmony among the policy actors and community members of the
school system.
Mohawk Language and Culture Teachers
A culturally relevant curriculum is meaningless without its promotion by language and
culture teachers. Language and culture teachers should represent a portrait of a thorough,
systematic, vigorous and intensely practical attention to cultural teaching and learning by means of
a great variety of formal and non-formal educational vehicles on a scale that runs through the whole
school system. Mohawk language and culture teachers may use the culture standards to: (a) teach
students more effectively at all grade levels by focusing on all aspects of the Mohawk culture that
utilize different styles and genres of language uses; (b) teach students how the general traits of
63
worldviews, values, learning, identity, cognitive and communication styles are manifested in the
Mohawk culture; (c) help students to identify themselves with their culture and discover how the
norms and structure of the society in which they live affect their hopes, fears and attitudes, and (d)
help the children to grow intellectually, socially, and morally by giving meanings to personal
experiences through the use of language and culture that represents their environment.
The Language and Culture Needs of The Classroom Teachers
To whatever conceptual boundary we press for our interest in a cultural curriculum, we
must always think about the classroom teacher and the cultural curriculum interdependently. It is
the classroom teachers that are concerned with the generation, storage, processing and
dissemination of knowledge and information to students. The culture standards provide the
means of raising students’ self-esteem, self-confidence and performance in the achievement of
educational outcomes. We based the standards on the understanding that all students can be
successful at some aspects of learning, and that they can become more successful if teachers are
able to relate to them culturally. The standards can assist teachers to identify the main variables
that influence student understanding of their teaching. There are three main variables that
influence student performance: (a) those related to the student, (b) the support provided by the
teacher, and (c) the content.
The student’s attitudes, experiences, knowledge, skills, and
engagement in learning are dependent on the types of meaning students assign to their perceptual
experiences and how they perceive things around them. Thus, the teacher of the Native American
child must have reliable knowledge on the roles of ethnic, language and value differences on
student achievement. Participants suggested some strategies that may help teachers of Mohawk
children to relate better to their students and raise their self-esteem and self-confidence in
64
learning. To help improve the self-esteem, self-identity and self-confidence in learning, teachers
need to:
(a)
know the Mohawk alphabet and sounds in order to properly pronounce children’s
names and address students by their given Mohawk names;
(b)
respect the quietness and shyness of the Native child—being quiet does not mean
not paying attention or listening;
(c)
allow students to observe before pushing for action;
(d)
use the clan system to promote peace, power, righteousness and incorporate the
clan system into daily activities;
(e)
promote the national development and contributions of the Native peoples;
(f)
understand and respect the needs for ceremonies and encourage student attendance
at Native ceremonies and festivities;
(g)
recognize the Thanksgiving address which espouses the appreciation of the
surroundings and environment;
(h)
respect and honor symbols in the Native culture - Native symbolism;
(i)
refine and focus the content and methods they employ to reflect the Native
American worldview;
(j)
utilize the norms reflected in the folkways and mores of the Mohawk culture in
the concept development of students;
(k)
help themselves to find appropriate expressions that would enable them to reach
out to the students;
(l)
evaluate their own programs and set goals for instruction.
65
Language And Culture Standards For Parents/Guardians
We suggested that to help improve the self-esteem and self-confidence in learning,
parents should participate in their children’s education. This school should help parents to:
(a)
know their rights in the education of their children. The school should increase
parental awareness through the media - newsletters, papers, radio
(b)
know
that they should involve grandparents in children’s schooling -
grandparents should play active roles in the educational lives of their
grandchildren. The school should reinforcement such activities such as
"grandparents visiting day"
(c)
involve themselves in the affairs of the school and not regard the teachers as
professionals with whom they do not want to interfere.
(d)
set goals for the schooling of their children.
(e)
join committees such as the Mohawk Education Committee, the local Parent Teacher Association.
Parent-Teacher Communication:
Parent-Teacher communication is crucial to the educational achievement of students. There is
the need for classroom teachers, support staff and administrators to develop positive
communication with parents. The following are means for maintaining effective communication
with parents.
66
1.
Teachers should send "good-news, bad-news" notes home weekly. This means
that teachers should continually apprise parents with how their children are doing
generally. Teachers should invite parents to the school when students have done
some good things, not for only the bad things. Teachers should let parents know
how their children are doing in class at least once before the regular report card.
2.
Parents and teachers should socialize in activities such as parent/teacher potlucks
that provide opportunities for informal interaction. Teachers of younger children
should begin to invite grandparents for potlucks and cooking activities.
3.
Teachers and parents should engage in workshops that will enable them to learn
how to interact informally and to learn how to increase the children’s selfconfidence. Parents should be aware of the school’s disciplinary programs and
involve in the formulation of discipline policy, and teachers, parents and
grandparents should work together towards athletic and extra-curricular activities.
Teachers should encourage parents and grandparents to come to the school and
help with students' projects.
4.
Parents should help teachers to understand the culture of the community and
should provide opportunity for teachers to become aware of students' living
conditions in order to alleviate stereotyping and misconceptions.
5.
Parents should encourage their children to eat the right foods by introducing early
healthy diet.
67
Cultural Needs And Responsibilities Of Administrators
We suggested that it is the responsibility of the administrator, particularly the principal to
place the educational welfare of his/her students as top priority. The administrator should create
an environment that optimizes learning for students and teachers. To make learning culturally
relevant to the Mohawk child, administrators need to be aware of the following:
1.
Knowledge and appreciation of Mohawk culture. Administrators should know and
understand the culture of the community and be sensitive to the wishes, hopes,
and fears of the Mohawk community members. They should provide continual
cultural orientations in locations that have cultural significance for new and
experienced teachers (cultural orientation to continue throughout the year) and
during these orientations teachers should be exposed to sacred and significant
locations in the community. They should respect Mohawk ceremonies and lead
the school - students and staff to respect the needs for attending the ceremonies students should be encouraged to attend community ceremonies. They should
understand and appreciate the Mohawk worldview of time, space, and patience
and also understand and espouse Mohawk values of group harmony, respect for
nature, respect for the elderly, and sharing. They should be aware that Mohawk
identity is manifested by membership in a group and group derived motivation
and should learn to correctly call students by their Mohawk names (especially if
the names are their given names).
2.
Community-school relations. Administrators should lead teachers and support
staff to create an inviting and warm school environment by being courteous,
friendly, and helpful toward students, parents, and visitors. Through research,
68
administrators should explore and use the most up-to-date pragmatic approach in
communicating effectively with parents. For example, they should know that
meeting with parents and the community members in informal environments
would make parents and community members feel more comfortable than meeting
in formal environments, for example, meeting in the library or in the cafeteria may
be preferred to the administrator’s office. For a cultural program to thrive,
administrators should espouse the ideals of a community school by encouraging
social activities that will bridge the gap between the community and the school.
They should develop a positive image of the school by marketing the school to the
community and the outside world. They should advertise and promote the good
works of the school to the community and the outside world through the TV,
radio, newspapers, journals, magazines, and so on.
3.
Teaching and learning: To promote a positive teaching and learning environment,
it is the administrators’ responsibility to frequently acknowledge the good work of
the staff - teachers, support staff, janitorial (i.e., through minor gestures such as
notes or verbal compliments). They should understand the Mohawk cognitive
style of global and overall approach to conceptual thinking and that Mohawk
children learn better through story-telling and the use of legends and cooperative
work and should understand and respect the Mohawk communication style of
verbal and non-verbal behavior. Administrators should also serve as a focus of
discussion of the child’s progress in Mohawk language and culture with the child
and with the teacher. The administrator should become familiar with the language
69
and culture needs of the child, observe the child’s development in the Mohawk
language and culture in order to support his/her learning at home.
4.
Program support and evaluation: Administrators should support the school
program by developing plans to implement a program that is culturally relevant to
students and supporting the funding of community resource persons invited to
lead cultural activities in the school.
70
CHAPTER 4
CULTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY AND THE ACADEMIC STIGMA IMPOSED ON
TEACHER EDUCATION
Since the 1980s, thinking about schools has been heavily influenced, if not dominated, by
ideas about the ability of the schools to effectively meet the demands of a changing society. The
passing of the industrial age and the advent of the information era have created new forms and
modes of knowledge and information production, presentation and distribution that directly affect
our traditional system of education (Agbo, 2000).
Issues such as higher standards, capacity
building in technology, current role of technology in schools, safe schools and professionalization
of teaching are prominent in current policy agendas in education today. Although these issues are
varied assumptions about effective teacher education, the concurrent development of teachers and
the improvement of schools remain hidden in the background of the education debate. Fullan
(1991) asserts that despite the attention being received by teacher education in recent years, there
are many things wrong with teacher education. As Fullan writes:
"On the other hand, teacher education policy and practice is still in bad shape,
lacking coherence or simply wrong-headed, and squandering the many pockets of
success that are cropping up more and more frequently. Teacher development is the
nexus for so many of the issues of meaning, change and improvement …, and as
such absolutely fundamental to any long-lasting solution" (p. 290).
As far as teacher education is concerned, schools of teacher education have to do some
unlearning. As educators seek for answers to effective schools, they must remember that
excellence lies in sound college education, indeed, but in education that is practice-oriented
and rooted in the cultural realities of public school systems.
Until recently, teacher education has been constricted to what happens within college
and university campuses and has been the sole domain of various departments of teacher
71
education. Connecting teacher education with public schools and forming professional
development schools is part and parcel of reconceptualizing the role of teachers and schools in
today’s society; assuming it away as a critical issue creates serious difficulties in interpreting
school reform. The specific role of professional development schools (PDSs) in restructuring
teacher development has been significant (see Darling-Hammond & Associates, 1994; Hoffman,
et al., 1997).
In 1999 I attended a conference in the Pacific Northwest where I made a presentation
about how schools of education can establish cluster-driven professional development schools
that would simultaneously improve teacher education and student success. In other words, the
emphasis on university/public school collaboration would improve teaching and open the doors
for higher academic standards of both public school students and pre-service teachers. I argued
that veteran and pre-service teachers could not realize the benefits of professional development if
public schools and teacher education institutions continued to remain odd bedfellows. I
cautioned, however, that given the enormous disparities in the culture of the public schools and
teacher education institutions, the attainment of effective college/public school interface suggests
necessary structural changes in the way teacher education institutions operate. To the extent that
teacher education departments and public schools are alert to the cultural details of how each
other operates and ready enough to mobilize resources on their behalf, we may entertain a
cautious optimism on producing effective teachers and raising academic standards of students.
After my presentation, the first question that one of my colleagues asked was whether working
with public schools would not dilute regular university classes and curricula and eventually lower
academic standards of pre-service teachers. The question was not unexpected.
72
The point of view of my colleague is not different from many of those who are
concerned with teacher education. Proponents of a rigorous education for teachers sometimes
implicitly assume that the relationship between teacher education and public schools is a causal
one—the acquisition of teaching skills is based on rigorous grounding in content area. That is,
teachers will automatically teach well when they are academically sound in content, professional
and pedagogical studies. To preserve the traditional academic myth, universities tend to
culturally alienate anything that imparts a conception of reality that is neither technical nor
abstract. Perhaps this explains why teacher preparation has progressively avoided public schools.
The argument implies a need to reverse the tables on the sort of mindset implicit in teacher
education and on many similar reflections on veteran teacher professional development. In my
view, there is the need for an alternative perspective that offers better understanding of how to
improve teacher education. There is the need for teacher educators to reshape their perceptions
about what constitutes rigorous teacher education and come to the understanding that
collaborating with public schools to educate teachers is a prerequisite for good teacher education.
How one conceives the relationships between teacher education departments and public schools
is critical to the professional development of both pre-service and veteran teachers as well as the
attainment of standards of students. One of the main issues that should face teacher education in
the twenty-first century is the effective collaboration with public schools that helps to meet the
unique educational needs of pre-service and veteran teachers as well as students. In what
follows, I look more closely at the current status of teacher education and address how the
Mohawk Education Project attempts to use participatory research to simultaneously restructure
schools and teacher education programs.
73
The Culture of the University
I entered my first year as a teacher educator with strongly held conceptions of the essence
of working collaboratively with public schools. One of the challenges I faced was the immutable
verity of theory, that is to say, the tradition of opposing practice and defining knowledge acquisition
in terms of theory. My colleagues, public school teachers and many people that are interested in
schools and teaching seem to summarily accept the role of the institutions of teacher education as
that of providing the knowledge necessary for teaching. It is a basic fact that with all stated good
intentions and available resources for producing good teachers, teacher educators have failed to
learn how to deal with problems in public schools. In this perspective, it seems clear that many
teacher educators are unprepared to deal with public schools in a swiftly changing and increasingly
complex society. From my perspective, teacher education must focus on the changing realities that
together that make up better schools and the corresponding learning needs in public schools. The
pre-service teacher may be led into an internal contradiction by the different relationships between
teacher education courses and the real and daily environments of the public schools. On the one
hand, the latter involves contact with structures from which pre-service teachers derive meaning.
Pre-service teachers can establish closer ties with the meanings they derive from public schools
than with traditional university courses since the contact is more direct and insistent. For example,
conversations with veteran teachers indicate that the most important part of their teacher education
was that part that allowed them to be in real schools and to interact with real school children. They
indicated that what they learned in university classrooms was not enough for a full understanding of
teaching. Many of the teachers admitted that they had too little field experience and that they found
the situation unfortunate as they had to learn about real schools on their own. In any case the
conception of practice-oriented learning as un-academic in the conventional and mistaken view of
74
teacher education has long robbed both pre-service teachers and teacher educators of the practical
knowledge they need from the operation of the public schools. Even where field experiences are
concerned, it has usually been the responsibility of one or two members of the teacher education
faculty to demand of mentor teachers what is expected of the pre-service teachers. Practical
learning is clearly not on the agenda of a university system that now seems to be despairingly
obsessed with higher academic standards rather than with practical knowledge.
To understand the differences that exist between teacher education departments and
public schools, it is indispensable to have first a historical view of universities. By tradition,
universities strive to remain protected from external interference and therefore unwilling to break
the cultural mystique and behavioral codes built over time (Altbach, 1992). Like all human
institutions, the university maintains a tenacious endurance over time with a stubborn resistance
to change in spite of external pressures and internal transformations (Perkin, 1984). From its birth
in twelfth century Italy and France to its colonization of the modern developing world, the
university’s meaning and purpose have changed from period to period and from generation to
generation (Perkin, 1984; Altbach, 1992). However, the uniqueness of the university lies in its
polymorphous capacity to change its form and purpose to suit its ephemeral and sociopolitical
environment while preserving its culture.
The university, traditionally an elite institution, has a strong element in the pursuit of
theoretical rationality and that anything practical is ultimately not an embodiment of worthy
knowledge and rationality (Palmer, 2000). The latter is rooted in the empiricist tradition that
emphasizes the detachment of the subject from the object as the key role in the progressive
unfolding of knowledge. As Palmer (2000) writes:
75
Academic culture holds disconnection as a virtue… Intellectually, the academy is
committed to an epistemology, a way of knowing which claims that if you don’t
disconnect yourself from the object of study—whether it’s an episode in history, or a body
of literature or a phenomenon of the natural world—your knowledge of it will not be
valid…For a century and more, we have venerated ‘detached scholarship’ (while
disciplines that require close encounters between the knower and the known—art, music,
dance, and the like—have been pushed to the bottom of the academic totem pole) (p. 3).
Palmer (2000) provides a type of anchor for thinking about the alienation of teacher education
departments from the public schools. Our aggrandizement of theory as the ultimate source of the
best knowledge, authority and legitimacy present some real problems for the future of teacher
education, which we still seem a long way from solving.
Set against the backdrop of academic culture that disregards practice in favor of theory
and its passionate love of detachment from the outside community, teacher preparation consists of
a skeptical attitude towards all practice. The core of teaching ideals which traditional teacher
education promotes focuses on theoretical academic preparation of pre-service teachers.
According to Fullan (1991 “Teacher education is an opportunity and a crisis of enormous
proportion” (p. 200). From one perspective then, our analysis and action must focus on the realities
that together make up good teacher education and corresponding learning needs of pre-service
teachers. In general terms, we propose a renewed confidence between teacher education and
public schools through a paradigmatic shift. Fullan (1991) asserts that teacher improvement and
school development must be a concurrent process, as one cannot thrive without the other.
However, there are obstacles to collaboration between schools of teacher education and
public schools. These obstacles may be explained in terms of ideological struggles between
competing virtues of higher education and public schools and a mystification of what actually
constitutes teacher knowledge. There is an expressed societal idea of a distinct definition of the
good teacher that focuses on the display of an index of narrowly construed teaching skills to which
76
teachers must strive to achieve. The precept is that these teaching skills can only be acquired on
university campuses. That is to say, the best way to provide teacher education should be in the
form of training on university campuses.
So, traditionally, the education of teachers has been on university campuses, separated
from the public schools with organizational structures resembling auxiliary enterprises not being
an integral part of the mission of the schools systems. The academic view that has increasingly
dominated teacher education policy debate has been that teacher education candidates face hurdles
in teaching because of deficiencies in their preparation in the content of the academic area in which
pre-service teachers plan to teach and therefore less persistent in their fields. This line of thinking
derives from the reasoning that teacher education is less rigorous than other fields purported of
being more value theoretically. This further represents one element of the culture of the university
with its passionate love of pursuit of rationality that emphasizes the role of theory in the process of
knowledge acquisition and the university classroom as the ultimate embodiment of that rationality.
From the perspective of the deification of theory in university classrooms as the
ultimate source of rationality, it is not difficult to understand why many people think that the
concentration on professional and pedagogical studies, that is, what teachers should know about
teaching and learning, is a cause of perceived low academic achievement of pre-service teachers.
The general perspective is that teacher education candidates do better with watered down, lower
academic standards. In short, the notion is that teacher education students are not destined to
excel because they lack something in their academic preparation. This quandary is deepened by
the continuous detachment of the relationship between schools and teacher education and the
rejection of practical experience in favor of the more cherished theoretical academic content
knowledge.
77
Bullough et al. (1992) distinguishes teacher education from teacher training. They
describe teacher training as being synonymous with grounding in content knowledge, instruction
in educational theories and process of imparting knowledge, distinct from the myriad of things
that teachers do on day-to-day basis. As Bullough et al. (1992) write: “ … the training orientation
brings with it a tendency to view clear-cut endings and beginnings to education both pre-service
and in-service. For example, once ‘trained’, the ‘trainee’ is a teacher; although often provisionally
certified” (p. 188). This represents one element of the teacher-training model with its passionate
love of both conservatism and dependency. The implementation of the teacher training model is
of course to encourage teachers to be “dependent, conservative, conforming, intellectually
passive and withdrawn, and insecure and distrustful” (Bullough et al. (1992, p. 189). Teacher
education should mean the education that will “challenge the ‘training’ model and facilitate the
building of a professional community and empowering relations” (Bullough et al., 1992 p. 194).
Although the grounding in theoretical academic content should constitute a common objective of
teacher education, a remarkable feature of teacher education is that it should give virtually every
pre-service teacher some avenue to experience what actually goes on in the public schools. But as
we know, the tradition of opposing practice to theory in teacher education and of defining rigor in
terms of these two separate traditions has long raised questions as to whether such assumptions
have any basis in fact. In any case the failure of practical knowledge to be rigorous in the
conventional and mistaken view of teaching as grounded only in content knowledge has long
seduced schools of education away from public schools and therefore from the routine encounters
with practical affairs of the public schools. Teaching, which is concerned with real encounters
with real people—children and adults, would do well to focus on experiences that lead to
understanding of real schools and grasp of the skills as tools of survival and teacher development.
78
The emphasis on training at the expense of education as Bullough et al. (1992) have defined it is
undesirable, for both theoretical and practical knowledge have important parts to play in teacher
education.
The issue involved in teacher education is not one of theoretical knowledge or
methods of teaching only, but of pre-service teachers acquiring the necessary tools for shaping
and implementing a socially- and culturally-oriented concept of teaching that can be sustained
from within the schools, recognizing the resources in context and reinforcing and maximizing
their contribution and their own sense of worth and dignity.
Combining all the assumptions noted above into an argument that teacher education is
not as rigorous as other fields of learning, I contend that this situation has rather become part of
an increasing self-delusion in our understanding of teaching and teacher education. How one
conceives the relationships between teacher education departments and public schools is critical
to the professional development of both pre-service and veteran teachers as well as the attainment
of standards of students. Proponents of a rigorous education for teachers sometimes implicitly
assume that the relationship between teacher education and public schools is a causal one since
the acquisition of teaching skills is based on rigorous grounding in content area. That is, teachers
will automatically teach well when they are academically sound in content, professional and
pedagogical studies.
In our view, as teacher preparation concentrates more and more on
university campuses and pre-service teachers are further removed from practical experience in
public schools, obstacles to their effectiveness would not seem to be so much lack of content
knowledge as practical experience. Practicing educators have long been aware that how much and
how well people learn, how much they change and grow is highly dependent on the possibilities
79
for application of new skills in their environment and the potential of mastering new functions
and resources with the knowledge acquired (Agbo, 2000).
One area relevant to the discussion as a challenge to universities as a whole and
teacher education institutions in particular is the task of rethinking their role in developing new
attitudes, new organizational structures and improved methods of preparation of students in the
professions to match the pace of knowledge increase and exponential growth of information in
recent years (see Agbo, 2000). The university faces the challenge of taking teacher education
away from a university classroom-centered, textbook-based, theoretically oriented context to the
real life situations of public schools. At first sight, the task looks daunting given the entrenched
culture of the university. The question therefore, is how to adapt teacher education missions,
objectives and structures most effectively to provide equal development for teacher education
institutions as well as public schools. In what follows, I provide an overview of teacher
professional development and elucidate how the Professional Development Schools at
Akwesasne and the State University of New York (SUNY) at Potsdam utilize a cluster-driven
model simultaneously for pre-service teacher preparation and in-service teacher professional
development.
Professional Development Schools (PDSs)
The specific role of professional development schools (PDSs) in restructuring teacher
development has been significant (see Darling-Hammond & Associates, 1994; Hoffman, et al.,
1997).
The PDS concept has proven powerful enough to be adopted institutionally as a
concurrent model for teacher education and veteran teacher development. The intellectual and
material support given by the Holmes Group and the National Center for Restructuring
80
Education, Schools, and Teaching (NCREST) provides another testimony to the attractiveness of
the PDS concept as an integrated professional development and school reform process (Hoffman,
et al., 1997). One starting point would be to ask: What does the concept of PDS signify?
PDS has not and probably should not at this stage be given a restrictive definition but be left
open-ended. The concept of PDS represents an emerging confluence of diverse trends of theory and
practice in teaching. PDS is like an evolving seamless web of ideas and activities about teaching.
As inherent in Darling-Hammond’s (1994) book titled, Professional Development Schools: Schools
for Developing a Profession, the term PDS can be seen as referring both to learning about teaching
and teaching about learning. The concept as used in conjunction with reforms cannot be equated
with the traditional concept of educational reform—it has deeper and wider connotations that have
to do with innovations emanating from within a genuine partnership based on collaboration. Our
present era may be characterized by the dominance of several educational reforms that have not
always resulted in school improvement (Farrar, 1990). The complementary relations between the
prescription of reforms by state and federal governments and the implementation of change are not
the same when it comes to the professional development of the individual teacher. Ready-made
reform packages transplanted from Departments of Education without teachers identifying the need
for change transforms teachers into pockets of imitators rather than creative innovators. In their
most consummate forms PDSs can be seen as the activities required at all levels to cope with
learning and teaching, from the public school to the school of education classroom. The differences
between PDSs and traditional reform efforts are succinctly shown as Darling Hammond (1994)
writes: “One of the most striking features of current PDSs is their emphasis on collaboration—via
shared decision making in teams within schools and between schools and universities, and
collaborative research among teachers, student teachers and teacher educators” (p. 9). There lies at
81
this juncture a whole field of critical research and experimentation in what I might term
college/public school interface. What are the implications of the structure of college/public school
interface for the way in which teachers develop and students learn and grow and the way in which
universities/colleges and public schools function to meet their combined needs?
82
CHAPTER 5
LINKING CULTURES, SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AND PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
The need to collaborate with public schools to educate and re-educate teachers, particularly
in understanding and in meeting the fast changing needs of schools in our complex contemporary
society, appears to entirely be neglected or not given emphasis. Teacher education by its nature
must involve all levels of schooling—from pre-school to university. Thanks to the recent emphasis
on professional development schools, the spirit of university/public school partnerships is running
wide and deep and is becoming part of a subculture in some institutions. To the extent that schools
of teacher education and public schools are alert to the emerging needs and problems of each other
and strong enough to mobilize resources on their behalf, we may entertain a cautious optimism on
the resolution of some of the diverse challenges of school improvement and teacher development.
Given the enormous disparities in the cultural, social and ideological conditions of public schools
and universities, collaboration rather than isolation provides an arena for concurrent effective
teacher education and school improvement. As I have earlier stated, the fate of teacher education is
increasingly tied to and powerfully influenced by what happens in public schools. Clearly, teacher
education institutions are confronted with a task of rethinking their role in trying to develop
modifications such as new attitudes, new organizational structures and improved methods of
teacher preparation to match the pace of knowledge increase and exponential growth of information
in recent years. At first sight, the task looks daunting given the entrenched culture of the university.
The question therefore, is how to adapt teacher education missions, objectives and structures most
effectively to provide equal development for teacher education institutions as well as public
83
schools. In what follows, I present the interface model for school improvement, teacher education
and professional development as a participatory research process.
Figure 1: (Somewhere here)
The Interface Model for School Improvement, Teacher Education and Professional Development as
a Participatory Research Process
Figure 1 provides a schematic view of college/public school interface model. The figure
indicates a dynamic symbiotic relationship in which the university and public schools co-exist in a
learning process. Thus the goal of the interface model concept is to provide essential infrastructures
for what will lead to a transformational learning (see figure 2) that will improve student
achievement by improving teaching. University/public school collaboration should contribute to the
improvement of the preparation of pre-service and novice teachers and should enhance on-going
professional growth of veteran teachers to further the professionalization of teaching and the
achievement of student standards. The particular characteristics of the model are to provide a
collaborative working relationship between the school and the college. While pre-service teachers
participate in field-based study at the school site over extended periods of time in ways that are
sequential and purposeful, participants (including mentor teachers and college faculty) engage in
systematic reflective inquiry that informs alternative pedagogy (best practices) based on sound
theoretical frameworks and reliable research. The concept of the interface model used in
conjunction with the participatory research process has deeper and wider connotations than
traditional collaboration efforts. It requires complementary linkage of issues: horizontally, not only
84
across institutional boundaries but also across cultures, and ideologies; vertically, across levels,
relating the State and local perspectives to teaching in the university and public schools, university
and public school administrators and staff, university students and public school students. The
linkage between the Mohawk culture and New York State standards can then be seen as the
learning required at all levels to cope with school improvement issues, from pre-service and inservice teacher development to university faculty professional development to public school student
achievement. This collaboration allows existing resources to be reallocated and new resources
obtained to enable the success that would lead to a professional development school. For teacher
education candidates, the field experience in a different cultural milieu will allow them to become
culturally responsible teachers. The goal is for pre-service teachers to be ready and able to work
with diverse students in diverse communities and apprise them with experience with cultures other
than their own. The interface model employed at Akwesasne is a cluster driven model.
In the cluster driven model, members of college faculty come together to co-ordinate two or
more courses. These courses center on specific themes. The current interface program that began in
spring 2000, allows for about 60 students in the teacher education program each semester to work
in three different clusters in three reservation schools. These clusters center on pedagogical themes.
Pre-service teacher education students enroll in all the courses that comprise the cluster
simultaneously, each course carrying three credit hours. Enrolling in a cluster blocks out the
students' schedule so that they are committed to the cluster each Tuesday and Thursday throughout
the semester. Typically, students participate in campus-based classes for the first half of the
semester and are immersed in field-based study for the remainder of the semester. When studying
in the field, students work alongside the same mentor teacher two complete schooldays each week.
Whereas the target enrollment for undergraduate teacher education classes is 30 students,
85
enrollment for clusters is capped at 20 students owing to the availability of mentor teachers at the
Professional Development School (PDS) site. The PDS site coordinator solicits volunteer teachers
at the beginning of each semester. Most of the classroom teachers volunteer to work with students,
but on occasion, the coordinator places students with mentors from academic special areas (Title I
Reading, Technology, Library, and Special Education).
Currently (at the time of writing), there are three clusters managed by a PDS site
coordinator. The first cluster, Cultural Literacy, comprises Social Studies, and Exceptional Learner
courses. The second, Math and Science Cluster, is literature-based instruction of elementary
science content, comprising Reading and Language Arts II and Math and Science Methods. The
third cluster, Managing Math, comprises Foundations of Classroom Management and Math
Methods. The field experience is a Type II experience, as defined by SUNY Potsdam, Teacher
Education Department criteria, Type 1 being the traditional student teaching. The purpose of the
Type II field experience is to help teacher candidates to come to understand the conceptions they
hold of themselves as future teachers. Students are allocated to mentor teachers who help them to
develop frameworks of thinking contextually and introspectively about their professional
development. It is evident that the college-public school interface has made efforts towards the goal
that the collaboration will contribute to the on-going professional growth of veteran teachers.
Veteran teachers serving as mentors to the teacher education cluster students have frequently
requested copies of course texts used by students and have recommended instructional resources to
the university faculty. At the start of each field experience, each college faculty member in the
cluster distributes copies of course syllabus to mentor teachers and informs them of texts used by
students.
86
A noticeable feature of our college-public school interface has been the belief of
participants that our collaborative work appears to be fast moving away from the traditional system
of reforms towards an innovation. For example, the on-site PDS coordinator recruits mentor
teachers on volunteer basis. It is in the exercise of this voluntarism and the accompanying
dialectical process of restructuring that the escape from perceptions of acting within reform
proposals imposed on us the urgency of discovering appropriate, if not altogether new ways of
viewing student learning, teacher education and professional development of teachers. The
attitudinal stance of teachers towards reform efforts initiated from the State Department may be a
function of perceptions about how teachers see their roles as autonomous creative enterprises rather
than as exercises in the deferential accomplishments external to some particular politicians’
experience and educational reality. The path to the solutions of the problems of student success and
professional development of teachers will have to be found in the willingness and interest of
teachers to innovate, whatever reform proposals may emanate from the top. In what follows I look
at our collaboration as an innovation rather than a reform effort.
The Transformational Learning Model
The transformational learning model of university faculty, veteran and pre-service
teachers is a collective process of learning involving the creative adjustment and innovative
responses of universities and public schools by which university faculty, pre-service teachers, inservice teachers and public school students prepare themselves to learn from one another. And by
transformational learning, I am adapting Bass’ (1997) concept of transformational leaders.
Transformational leaders raise the level of consciousness of organizational members about the
essence and usefulness of desired goals and the means of achieving these goals by espousing
87
communal rather than personal interests (Bass, 1997). Transformational leaders also provide
members with the opportunity to aspire to self-actualization. The phenomenon I refer as
transformational learning is the relationship between the university and the public schools.
Within the center of transformational learning is transformational mentoring. Figure 2 shows the
transformational learning model:
Figure 2: (Somewhere here)
Transformational Mentoring
Transformational mentoring is an alternative vision to traditional mentoring. Although we
have often used the term “mentor teacher”, the classroom teachers in our collaboration do not
consider themselves as adept teachers ready to demonstrate a list of teaching skills to which the
pre-service teachers must aspire. Rather, in contrast to the traditional role of mentor teachers that
stresses the notion of “the good teacher” to which pre-service teachers must strive to become, our
transformational mentor model tries to underscore the primacy of interpersonal reasoning and
teacher reflectivity (Bullough Jr. et al. (1992). Thus the common ethos of our transformational
mentoring at our PDS sites consists of a positive attitude towards the professional development
of both SUNY Potsdam student teachers and the teachers of the school at the sites with an
emphasis on building a professional community, and a desire for reflective thinking.
There are actually qualitative differences between organized traditional mentoring and
those forms of contact pre-service teachers make with the cultural reality of the school. On the
one hand, the latter involves the building of a professional partnership from which both preservice and mentor teachers derive meaning. These meanings affect the partners but they can
88
establish closer ties with it more directly than traditional mentoring. Thus, the learning contained
in transformational mentoring penetrates the mind of the learners in a way that is less discursive
and more direct and purposeful. It is the conception of what constitutes one’s teaching metaphor
or the meanings one ascribes to one’s teaching self (Bullough Jr. et al., 1992). Transformational
mentoring also includes the current investigation of the relations between teachers and their
teaching assignments, participatory research on the elements that influence teaching, transmitting
to teachers the meanings of the elements and thus subjecting teachers to professional
development. In short, the difference between traditional mentoring and transformational
mentoring refers to what has been planned for transmitting teacher knowledge, as opposed to
what has not, although the latter is perhaps structured in a form more directly related to
contextual and situational circumstances.
A striking feature of the field experiences is the building of community of learners in
which the interaction among participants is greatly stressed. In the survey we conducted of
mentor teachers about how mentoring students benefits them as teachers, the teachers indicated a
level of learning that involves a combination of inputs. The following were the most outstanding
responses that we received from teachers:
a)
forces the articulation of district polices, regulations and standards of behavior,
b)
provides the opportunity to self-reflect on instructional and assessment methods,
c)
instigates feelings of pride for helping to mold future teachers
d)
keeps me flexible and open to change
e)
retains my awareness of education issues and methods
f)
spurs new ideas—two heads are better than one
g)
makes classroom more efficient with extra pair of hands
89
h)
promotes seeing our students from diverse viewpoints, and
i)
assists with preparation and organization of materials.
The responses of teachers indicate that qualitative changes are taking place in various
aspects of their pedagogical and professional life, particularly the ability to categorize their own
social and academic behavior. Important changes occur in teachers’ attitudes towards the
teaching-learning process and their awareness of improving their own and their students’
education. Thus, the transformation of teacher knowledge can be seen in the light of how preservice teachers enable veteran teachers to embark on a path of lifelong learning. This
fundamental change in attitude towards teacher learning and development is reflected far beyond
the familiar interpretations of professional development. Traditionally, professional development
in the form of one or two “no-school” days designated for teachers to prepare charts or catch up
with lesson preparation or attend a professional development workshop is now complemented by
the expressed need for continuous lifelong learning.
New Frames of Pre-service Transformational Teacher Learning
Yet in addition to veteran teacher development, the actual learning mechanisms that make
the collaboration with the public school meaningful is its result-oriented new frames of pre-service
transformational teacher learning. And by "new frames", I am describing the condition of an allinclusive learning process embracing all the elements involved on the road to cognition and
preparing the pre-service teacher with teaching skills for coping with a range of situational
circumstances in and around the classroom. I am also describing the condition of pre-service
teacher learning that is simultaneously determining and being determined by a variety of
approaches to or perceptions about teaching. The task for the cluster driven model, therefore, is for
90
the preparation of pre-service teachers through a learning process that will guarantee
impressionable and intellectually flexible and adaptable future teachers. The field experience
provides pre-service teachers with the cause, occasion and results of creative thinking and action.
Inherent in the new frames of learning concept is thus the need for the teacher education student to
learn how to provide a happy marriage between theory (in the college) and practice (in the public
school). This marriage of theory and practice should allow students to learn how to generate,
evaluate, select, and share vast amounts of new, timely, and relevant information at both the college
and the school level. In this perspective, it is relevant here to provide an illustration of a typical
classroom management project that students complete by the end of the field experience.
A Typical Classroom Management Assignment.
The fundamental change in attitudes of our pre-service teachers toward teaching is reflected
far beyond the interpretations of the old teacher-training concept. The transformation of learning is
apparent in projects undertaken by the pre-service teachers in the field. Before the students start
their field experience their preparation in the college should enable them to do the following:
(a)
They should be able to analyze their teaching metaphors, that is, they
should come to a reasonable awareness of the conceptions they hold of
themselves as teachers.
(b)
They should develop confidence in making professional decisions that
encourage student optimal learning;
(c)
They should attain a greater awareness of teaching and classroom
management strategies that will assist them in promoting a productive
91
learning environment, preventing behavior problems and applying a
hierarchy of interventions to change inappropriate behavior;
(d)
They should be able to plan and implement effective instruction which
uses diverse learner characteristics as the basis of choosing appropriate
objectives, materials, and strategies; and,
(e)
They should start thinking about establishing a classroom environment
that fosters personal responsibility, self-regulated and lifelonglearning.
A typical field experience assignment comprises five parts. The first part deals with
metaphor analysis. It begins with an education-related life story asking students to describe some
of their schooling experiences that have led to their beliefs about teaching and learning and how
these experiences are related to their teaching metaphor, that is, their current understanding of
themselves and of teaching. Using their field experience, they explain how they see themselves
carrying through their teaching metaphors. Life stories are histories of how the pre-service
teacher experienced school and learning and of how these experiences are associated with the
way they now understand themselves and the type of teachers they aspire to become (Bullough,
Jr. et al. (1992). Bullough, Jr. et al. (1992) assert that effective teacher education must start with
"who" the teacher is and with "how" (p. 195) he or she thinks of himself or herself as a teacher—
that is, providing the opportunity for pre-service teachers to explore their inner selves and the
situational selves. The writing of life stories allows pre-service teachers to begin to engage in
self-exploration and therefore prodding them towards self-awareness and self-actualization.
Therefore, the metaphor analysis enables pre-service teachers to prepare themselves for the
92
variety of challenges they encounter as a result of the initial conceptions of themselves as
teachers, especially when they begin to experience real classrooms with real students.
The second part of the field experience assignment is composed of writing ethnography
of the field experience classroom. During the first few days in the program, we ask our students
to write ethnography of the field experience classroom which means basically describing their
field experience classroom using the following guidelines suggested by Bullough Jr. et al.
(1992):
(a)
Classroom Organization: how was your classroom organized by your mentor
teacher for learning (number of students, seating arrangements, schedules,
learning centers, bulletin boards, etc.)
(b)
Relationships within the Classroom: Identify the patterns of interaction in your
classroom, that is, what were the routines and the formal and informal rules
underlying them? What parts did the teacher and students play in maintaining
order?
The classroom ethnographies enable our students to identify how teachers organize their
classrooms for learning, and to derive meaning from the assumptions supporting that
organization. The ethnographies also help our students to investigate how the relationships
within the classroom constitute its climate the parts played by the teacher and students play in
providing and maintaining order Bullough, Jr. et al. (1992).
A third part of the field experience project requires our students to explore the conditions
underlying the management of the classroom. We provide the following guidelines for the
students to explore classroom management procedures:
93
(a)
Describe the discipline model/models practiced by your mentor teacher in the
field experience classroom, that is, how did your mentor teacher manage
misbehavior—how often and when did s/he intervene and what was the nature of
the intervention? Give examples.
(b)
Your Classroom Management Model: Describe a particular discipline
model/models that you would adopt in your classroom (assuming your field
experience classroom were your own).
Use the following guideline:
i.
Explain the level of control—whether it is a management, a leadership or
a noninterventionist model.
ii.
Explain how the model works.
iii.
How would you personally apply it?
iv.
Give an example of an incident of misbehavior that occurred in your field
experience classroom and explain how you will apply the discipline
model/models you have chosen in dealing with the incident.
The fourth part of the assignment requires our students to prepare a theme-based unit plan
of instruction in any of the following subject areas: reading, mathematics, and science or an
integration of any of them. The unit should comprise the following:
a)
Appropriate selected content and instructional materials.
b)
A narrative rationale justifying your choice of topic for the particular grade level.
c)
A minimum of three lesson-plans incorporating teaching strategies from methods
course texts and class sessions.
d)
Effective assessment rubrics for student performance activities.
94
The final part of the assignment is self-evaluation. In this part, we ask students to describe
their strengths using the following: (a) interaction with students, (b) working independently, (c)
seeking and accepting advice from mentor teacher, (d) active participation in class, (e) readiness
to develop instruction, and (f) implementing instruction. We then ask students to document their
overall impression of the field experience.
Innovation Versus Reform in Professional Development
Whereas the Holmes Group and the National Center for Restructuring Education,
Schools, and Teaching (NCREST) have been instrumental in selling the concept of PDSs as an
integrated professional development and school reform process (Hoffman, et al., 1997) we
describe our participatory research model of public school-university interface as an innovative
rather than a reform model. We based our professional development schools on a paradigm
alternative to the traditional school reform systems. The present era may be characterized by the
dominance of several educational reforms that have not always resulted in school improvement
(Farrar, 1990). The complementary relations between the prescription of reforms by state and
federal governments and the implementation of change are not the same when it comes to the
professional development of the individual teacher. Ready-made reform packages transplanted
from State Departments of Education without teachers identifying the need for change transforms
teachers into pockets of imitators rather than creative innovators. It is not surprising therefore,
that many school reform initiatives have become vulnerable to teacher apathy. Palestini (1999)
advocates that however change may be introduced into schools there is the need for a careful
assessment of how it is employed. As Palestini writes:
95
A common model for effecting change is to assess the organization to ascertain the
need for change, diagnose the forces that influence change, and to implement the
change by maximizing the forces in favor of the change and minimizing the forces
opposing the change (p. 175).
Farrar (1990) contends that there have been pressures on states to abandon reforms that
were adopted hurriedly and then became complex in their implementation. Lunenburg &
Ornstein (2000) assert that the main problem to reform schools is the resistance to change. The
causes of this resistance include "interference with need fulfillment, fear of the unknown, threats
to power and influence, knowledge and skill obsolescence, organizational structure, limited
resources, and collective bargaining agreements" (p. 211). Our educational system thus faces a
growing conflict between innovations at the school level and reforms initiated at the government
level.
Paulston (1983), Simmons (1983), and Fagerlind & Saha (1989) distinguish between
"innovation" and "reform". These authors contend that whereas innovations do not have political,
economic, social, or ideological implications, major reforms always consist of political processes
dealing with power relations. Accordingly, whereas reform represents a top-to-bottom process of
educational restructuring, innovation, on the other hand, represents a reverse bottom-to-top or a
flattening of the pyramid process of mobilization of school resources that in some way
undermine the educational system created by politics. In its most blatant form, a reform may
destroy the very tenets on which the school culture survives and, ironically, reforms can also turn
into the chief sources of weakness as well as vulnerability of schools. Sarason (1993) criticizes
reform efforts for emphasizing “repair over prevention” (p. xi). According to Sarason, reform
efforts would not be successful unless teacher education programs adequately prepare students to
face the realities of public schools. A cursory examination of the reforms that have been carried
96
out over the past decades will reveal a large proportion of successful school improvement efforts
are those that do not fit the traditional definition of reforms. A common, and not wholly
discredited method in locating reforms is to apply the test of politics and power relations. The
term "reform" is a value-laden concept with political, ideological and social dimensions. Reforms
are usually efforts by politicians to change things for the better in a society (Fagerlind & Saha,
1989; Simmons, 1983). According to Dempsey (1997), "Reform is basically about changing the
organization and governance of schools in order to encourage school improvement. Reforms efforts
are intended to change the 'rules and relationships' that are the structure in and around schools" (p.
10). In a study of school reforms in nine different countries, Simmons (1983) comes up with a
definition of educational reforms as he writes:
Reforms are defined here as changes in educational policy that bring major
shifts in the way the education budget is allocated; the way the pyramid of
enrolment is shaped; what students are taught in school; the extent to which
selection, and promotion procedures succeed in assuring that a substantial
increase in the percentage of students from the poorest 40 percent of the
population are admitted to, and graduate from institutions of secondary and
higher education; and the way the economic incentives such as wages and
employment affect the supply and demand of education (p. 8-9).
Also, Fagerlind & Saha (1989) contend that in contrast to innovations, significant
educational reforms always have social, ideological, or political ramifications that involve the
redistribution of power and material resources. They define educational reform as a basic
adjustment in national educational policies that would lead to a complete change in the
organization of the educational system of a country. Fagerlind & Saha note that a reform must
precipitate changes in some or all of the following: “(a) the national allocation of resources to the
field of education, (b) the allocation of resources within the existing educational system to other
levels of the system, (c) the percentage of students completing different levels of the educational
97
system, (d) the percentage of students from different social strata or the percentage of female
students that complete different levels of the educational system, and (e) the aims of the curricula
and their content” (p. 145).
Thus, the definitions of educational reforms portray that reforms are usually political
actions by governments, rather than piecemeal innovations that institutions and departments of
education introduce here and there in the educational system (Elmore, 1993; Fullan, 1991). As
Elmore (1993) writes:
Periodically, reformers act on the democratic wish to return power to 'the people' through
reforms that push decision making out into smaller, simpler, more directly accountable
institutions. These new reforms almost never displace existing institutions, which are the
products of earlier, similar reforms and of attempts to disperse and fragment power. The
new institutional forms, born of democratic wish, emerge and become routinized (p. 36).
From the various definitions of educational reform, it becomes obvious that goals of
educational reform reflect the general political framework and choices of the society in which the
reforms are carried out (Fullan, 1991). In circumstances where educational reform objectives
emanated directly from the political arena, implementation of the reforms takes another shape,
usually difficult to carry out. Thus, at the frontiers of reform should be the empowerment of
teachers and institutions to introduce several innovative strategies that may lead to school
improvement.
Simmons (1983) identifies two main objectives of educational reform. Simmons contends
that the first objective is to ensure efficient and relevant learning. Explaining "efficient learning",
Simmons asserts that "efficiency refers to an increase in output (for example, the amount learned
by the students) for the same cost, or the same output at a reduced cost" (p. 9). Relevance of
learning pertains to the degree to which the curriculum conforms to the requirements of the
society, the family and the employment opportunities of the student. The second objective is to
98
provide equity in educational results and not merely in opportunity. According to Simmons, "the
equity goal refers to improvements in access to education for the poor that narrow the gap in
educational results. This includes efforts to equalize the quality of education provided for various
population groups" (p. 9).
During the 1980s and up to recent times the absolute numbers of school improvement
efforts under the banner of major reforms have failed as the proportion of problems in schools
has kept increasing (Fullan, 1991). In their most blatant forms, the politicization of educational
reforms erodes the commitment of those involved in the reform process (Lundenberg & Ornstein,
2000; Fullan, 1991). Thus, past educational reforms have been characterized by increasing
conceptual confusion. This conceptual confusion has been clearly represented by Lundenberg &
Ornstein (2000). As they write:
State efforts to reform education may be quite visible and vocal and take on many
political and economic dimensions, but the dynamics of local schools and school
administrators are such that they can torpedo authorized reform policies. State reform,
then, must be sensitive to include the local interpretation and responses to the official
version of reform. Educational change must be played out in the classrooms and schools
of America, and state-initiated reforms should conform—at least be modified—to local
politics, processes, and perceptions (p. 275).
The university views our cluster driven college-public school interface model as being a
reform initiative. It acknowledges that in terms of the big picture, the cluster-driven model of
pre-service teacher education is aimed at simultaneously bringing about increased K-12 student
achievement, pre-service and in-service teacher development. Through initiatives such as the
Mohawk Education Project, K-12 achievement will result with the implementation of the new
culture standards curriculum that will reciprocally affect improvements to teaching K-12 students
and teaching methods courses at the university. As we have shown, our model has been designed
around goals that have been identified as overarching goals common to nearly all teacher
99
education PDS models (see Darling Hammond & Associates, (1994; Hoffman et al., 1997).
However, in their most consummate forms our PDS model does not fit into the parlance of a
conventional education reform in that we aim at developing creative innovators rather than policy
imitators. From this point of view, what we view important is the individual commitments of the
actors in the collaboration rather than a ready-made instruction transplanted from elsewhere and
expected to be accepted as policy without imagination or discrimination. We believe that the topdown process of educational change, indeed, is the danger of educational reforms pursued at the
expense of innovations. Certainly, there is a growing disjunction between traditional school
reforms and the PDSs. As Darling Hammond (1994) writes: "One of the most striking features of
current PDSs is their emphasis on collaboration--via shared decision making in teams within
schools and between schools and universities, and collaborative research among teachers, student
teachers and teacher educators" (p. 9). In Darling-Hammond's (1994) Professional Development
Schools: Schools for Developing a Profession and Hoffman et al.’s (1997) Lessons for
Restructuring Experiences: Stories of Change in Professional Development Schools, one can sigh
great optimism for professional development schools as they do not come under pressure
everywhere in order to meet political needs.
One of the greatest difficulties we have faced in our PDS efforts has been coping with the
diversity and complexity of the university and the public schools. It has been difficult to see the
extent to which teacher education institutions and public schools could belong to a single and
relatively homogeneous group and accept and tolerate multiple and other perspectives. There has
been the need for a fundamental change in attitudes towards recognizing the intricate interlinkages between the public school culture and the culture of the university. We found our PDS
strategy would be meaningless without the understanding of the differences between the culture
100
of the school (Sarason, 1990) and the culture of the college/university. The differences between
teacher education institutions and public schools should contribute incrementally to our
understanding of professional development schools. We need to understand the processes that
should provide grounds for certain theoretical constructs within which to test more subtle
hypothesis that should offer excellent prospects in facilitating change in veteran and pre-service
teachers and students in public schools. According to Fullan (1991), "Teacher education is the
nexus for so many of the issues of meaning, change, and improvement … and as such is
absolutely fundamental to any long-lasting solution" (p. 290). Until recently, teacher education
policy has been constricted to what happens within college and university campuses and has been
the sole domain of various departments of teacher education. Connecting teacher education with
public schools is part and parcel of rethinking the role of teachers and schools in today’s society;
assuming it away as a critical issue creates serious difficulties in interpreting teacher
development.
The goal that our cluster-driven model should contribute to the improvement of the
preparation of both pre-service and novice teachers is what the university views to be the
principal purpose of the Mohawk Education Project. The university certainly values the
significant role that the clusters at Akwesasne play with regard to contributing to the on-going
professional growth of veteran teachers. However, to the university, this goal remains secondary
to the need for the clusters to provide meaningful field experiences for pre-service and novice
teachers enrolled in its teacher education programs. The K-12 classroom teachers at the cluster
sites view their role as assisting the university in preparing new teachers. Teachers do, however,
indicate awareness that mentoring pre-service teachers has contributed to their professional
growth. Mechanisms for engaging mentor teachers in systematic reflection of their teaching are
101
built into the cluster-field experience program. Completing evaluations on students provokes
implicit self-assessment by mentor teachers about how they, themselves measure up to the
criteria that they have determined to be standards of good teaching.
Conclusions
The perceived crisis of low academic standards of Native American students has been
expressed in vastly changed and still changing concepts about education and culture. The critique
of low attainment of students has in an extreme form been formulated in the concept of cultural
impoverishment or cultural deprivation. More acceptable has seemed the idea of significant
discontinuities expressed in different forms by Hawthorn (1967), Atleo (1990), Hampton (1995),
Gue (1974), More (1986) and DeFaveri (1984). The negligence of educational policy analysts to
obtain grassroots understanding of Native American education from local perspectives can be
seen in the light of how the education of the Native American child has been applied to the
medium of the dominant culture alone. Admitting that academic standards for Native American
students are not of the quality desired by both the Native American communities and
Departments of Education, Native American schools should minimize their reliance on
mainstream school programs and develop a new school orientation that emphasizes local
programs and user preference. Educational change for Native American students is one that
should involve not only a segment of academicians or education theorists, but also community
members, teachers, teacher education institutions, in-school administrators, parents and students
working collaboratively.
102
Inherent in our project is the need to go beyond education in the traditional sense to
cultural learning as an intrinsically a bicultural process of knowledge acquisition. This project
clearly showed the importance of collaboration among teacher education faculty members,
parents and teachers for the improvement of schooling. In principle, the thinking that a culturally
oriented curriculum, freed from standards of the dominant group would focus efforts that would
lead to greater achievement of Native American students has some hypothetical justification and
extensive educational appeal. However, it is difficult to reconcile this thinking with the beneficial
effects of what happens in terms of actual teaching and learning. It should be obvious that the
complexity of bicultural learning makes it - as any other complex phenomenon, vulnerable to
ambiguity and confusion. One of the greatest difficulties we envisaged was the ability of teachers
to cope with our cultural curriculum. There is no doubt that the effective utilization of Mohawk
cultural content can be accomplished and may be an important step towards enhancing the
cultural identity of students and effecting continuities and thereby raising standards. However,
the overall impact of a cultural curriculum may be negligible if non-Native teachers do not
possess the necessary tools to utilize cultural content and reinforce traditional values in their
classrooms. It is, therefore, crucial that teachers of Native American children should be carefully
selected and given the proper education and orientation needed for their task in Native American
schools. Participants observed that the changes in the curriculum material are crucial in their
impact on teachers in reshaping the information content of their teaching and reshaping their own
perceptions. Given that teachers teach Native American children the way they were themselves
taught by their teachers in the mainstream schooling system, teachers’ participation in this project
enhances their recognition of differences between Native American and the dominant worldview.
This recognition of differences implies that non-Native teachers are on the path of making
103
education meaningful to the Native American child by viewing the cultural elements as nexus of
the curriculum and integrating them into all subject areas. It is one of the fervent goals of the
Mohawk Education Project to provide teachers with the ammunitions that would help them to
successfully help the Mohawk student in the understanding of knowledge and learning as
functional concepts with an internal logic.
In principle, the policy of raising academic standards seems desirable. However, in
circumstances where academic standards convey only political undertones (Spring, 1998) and do
not carry grassroots implications, it becomes difficult for Native American students to achieve at
the same level as their mainstream counterparts. In this perspective, speaking to national
standards in science, it is interesting to note Spring’s (1998) statement that:
" Of course, Native Americans could object to national standards in science based
on a European approach to the teaching of science. From the perspective of Native
Americans, European science has resulted in death and destruction by the
weapons developed for modern warfare, and the destruction of the environment.
Native Americans might argue that science should be focused on living with
nature and not upon trying to exploit nature" (p. 238).
From our perspective then, academic standards must focus on the diverse realities that
together make up the student population and the corresponding learning needs of the students. In
general terms, we must learn how to implement a cultural curriculum while respecting the need
for higher academic standards of students. While our program may be academically appealing
and standards-based, the actual learning mechanisms that should make the program meaningful
and result-oriented may be lacking if we do not recognize the intricate inter-linkages between our
curriculum and the rapidly changing needs of our complex contemporary society. The cultural
curriculum should be complemented by the expressed need for new, modern forms of literacy computer literacy, media literacy and visual and audio-visual literacy. Teachers need to develop
104
the ability of adjusting to and coping with the changes in the modalities of communication and
information. If standards are to sustain their momentum and raise the academic performance of
Native American students in coming years, we should attempt to reconstruct our traditional
concepts of education within a cultural paradigm that utilizes local resources to provide a
framework for a suitable curriculum and teaching methods. We have to resolve the constraints or
contradictions internal to traditional educational standards by exploring the key symbolic and
structural characteristics that would raise academic standards of Native American students. To
the extent that Native American schools and their teachers are alert to the cultural details of how
learning proceeds, and strong enough to mobilize local resources on their behalf, we may
entertain a cautious optimism on the raising of academic standards of Native American students.
The task of raising academic standards of students cannot be left to a few teachers in a school or
to one schools system alone.
The provision of successful education programs for Native
American students should entail a participatory effort among all those responsible for their
education in redefining objectives concerning the purpose, priorities, and content of education. I
contend that unless there is a genuine effort to mobilize Native resources and direct learning as
far as possible towards Native identities and ideologies, the standardized test scores for Native
American children will remain mediocre in quality.
We have accepted too long and too passively that there is a mismatch between teacher
education institutions and public schools. The problem can be seen as cultural rather than
otherwise. This mismatch exists simply because public schools are culturally suspect to the
established order of universities/colleges. Although both universities/colleges and public schools
are bureaucratic structures, universities/colleges fear that their collaboration with public schools
may not be abiding by the status quo and may be threatening their authority and autonomy. Also,
105
by collaborating with public schools, universities/colleges may have to critically reassess their
policies and teaching styles and may place themselves at further risk for challenging the authority
and ideology surrounding the culture of the university. The demands of fitting into the programs
of public schools may also prove an aversion to the power and prestige of faculty. The logic
behind the separation of university/college and public schools from the center of teacher
education functions seems to be found in the desire to meet unique needs and time requirements
of pre-service teachers. The perpetuation of separation between teacher education institutions
and public schools, where it exists and the attitudes and practices associated with it seem
exceptionally shortsighted and endanger the future of teacher education.
Admittedly, much progress is being made since the 1980s in addressing the issue of
teacher education-public school interface to meet the demands of pre-service teacher education
and teacher professional development. PDSs are being established. Some progress has been made
in collaborating the efforts of university/college and public schools although more needs to be
done to create the 'seamless web' that a true teacher education system would require. Other
factors have increased in importance as compared with the situation ten years ago. For example,
in the past teacher education departments have, on the whole, tended to leave the entire field
experience of pre-service teachers largely unregulated and uncoordinated, relying on the initiative
of a placement officer, voluntary faculty, individual public schools and the pre-service teacher.
This attitude of benign neglect is however gradually changing as teacher education departments
are becoming increasingly aware that field experience is a vital component of teacher education.
Long established patterns of teacher preparation for, and of transition to teaching are being called
in question as there is a growing concern that existing teaching skills of pre-service teachers may
be inadequate both regarding the increased requirements for changing public schools and a
106
changing society in general. There is the need for curricula at all levels of the educational system
to invest in culturally diverse contexts so that teachers and other professionals know why and
how to work with people of different ethnic groups (see Agbo, 2001). And even if teachers
should miss the opportunity of such rounded instruction in college, continuing professional
development in later life should seek to instill this, drawing on collaboration between public
schools and colleges of education to guarantee lifelong learning experiences of teachers.
Our transformational learning model, therefore, portrays the condition of an all-inclusive
learning process embracing all the elements involved on the path to insight and preparing
teachers with life-skills for coping with a myriad of contradictions. In other words,
transformational learning should invoke an integrated collaboration in preparing teachers to
develop a kaleidoscopic view of teaching. It should enable teachers to retain a full grasp of the
content and professional elements, each of which possesses the myriad of things teachers do from
day to day and each of which is endowed with a separate value. Passing teacher knowledge down
to prospective teachers is more than an objective transmission of facts. The questions posed by
the processes of teacher preparation and professional development of teachers will not go away
and may continue to move back toward the top of the educational reform agenda. Since teachers
are the nexus of the educational system, the first decade of the millennium may be a time for
some profound and widespread changes in teacher preparation and professional development of
veteran teachers. In many cases, there are reasons to be optimistic and to continue working on the
nuts and bolts of alternative frameworks of teacher development. Certainly, transformational
learning through collaboration should be on the agenda of teacher education today and colleges
of education should desist from being miserably obsessed with training rather than with
education.
107
108
References
Agbo, S.A. (2001). Enhancing success in American Indian Students: Participatory
research at Akwesasne as part of the development of a culturally relevant curriculum. Journal of
American Indian Education, Volume 40(1), pp. 31-56.
Agbo, S. (2000). Heterogeneity of the student body and the meaning of “non-traditional”
in US higher education. In H.G. Schuetze & M. Slowey (Eds.) Higher education and lifelong
learners: International perspectives on change (pp. 149-169). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Agbo, S. A. (1996). Viewpoints of Native People on education: Problems and priorities
of schooling in Cat Lake, Ontario.
Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of British
Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Altbach, P.G. (1992). Patterns in higher education development: Toward year 2000. In
Arnove, R.F., Altbach, P.G. & Kelly, G.P. (eds.), Emergent issues in education: Comparative
perspectives (39-55). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Andareck, M. E. (1992). Ethnic awareness and the school. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Atleo, E. R. (1990). Grade 12 enrolments of status Indians in British Columbia: 19491985. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British
Columbia, Canada.
109
Barra, R. (1983). Putting quality circles to work: a practical strategy for boosting
productivity and profits. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Barman, J., Hébert, Y., & McCaskill, D. (1987). The challenge of Indian education: An
Overview. In J. Barman, Y. Hébert, & D. McCaskill (Eds.), Indian education in Canada: Vol. 2:
The challenge (pp. 1-21). Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Bass, B.M. (1997). A new paradigm of leadership: An inquiry into transformational
leadership. Mahwah (NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bullough Jr., R.V. et al. (1992). Emerging as a teacher. New York: Routledge.
Bouvier, R. (1991). Education and Change for Aboriginal People in Canada. In Ghosh,
R. & Ray, D. (Eds.), Social change and education in Canada (2nd Edition). Toronto: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich.
Christie, M. (1988). The invasion of Aboriginal education. In Harvey, B. & Mcginty, S.
(Eds.) Learning My Way. Perth: University of Western Australia Press.
Cummins, J. & Danesi, M. (1990). Heritage languages: The development and denial of
Canada’s linguistic resources. Toronto: Garamond Press.
110
Darling-Hammond, L. (1994). Developing professional development schools: Early lessons,
challenge, and promise. In Darling-Hammond, L. (Ed.), Professional development schools: Schools
for developing a profession (pp. 1-27). New York: Teachers College Press.
Darling-Hammond, L. & Associates (1994). Professional development schools: Schools for
developing a profession. New York: Teachers College Press.
DeFaveri, I. (1984). Contemporary Ecology and Traditional Native thought. Canadian
Journal of Native Education, 12, (3),15-21.
Dempsey, V. (1997). The nature of professionalism in the context of school reform. In
Hoffman, N.E., Reed, W.M. & Rosenbluth, G.S. (Eds.), Lessons from restructuring experiences:
Stories of change in professional development schools (pp. 9-31). Albany: State University of New
York Press.
Elmore, R. F. (1993). School decentralization: Who gains? Who loses? In J. Hannaway &
M. Carnoy (Eds.), Decentralization and school improvement—Can we fulfil the promise? (pp.
33-54). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Erickson, F. (1987). Transformation and school success: The politics and culture of
educational achievement. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 8,(4), 335-356.
111
Fagerlind, I. & Saha, L. J. (1989). Education and national development: A Comparative
perspective (2nd Edition). Exeter: BPCC Wheatons.
Farrar, E. (1990). Reflections on the first wave of reform: Reordering America’s
educational priorities. In Jacobson, S.L. & Conway, J.A. (Eds.), Educational leadership in an age of
reform (pp. 3-13). White Plains (NY): Longman.
Farrell, J.P. (1992). Conceptualizing the role of education and the drive for social
equality. In R.F. Arnove, P.G. Altbach, & G.P. Kelly (Eds.), Emergent issues in education:
Comparative perspectives (pp. 107-122). Albany: State university of New York Press.
Fullan, M.G. (1991). The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teachers College
Press.
Giroux, H. & Freire, P. (1987). Series introduction. In Livingstone, D. & Contributors.
Critical pedagogy and cultural power. Toronto: Garamond Press.
Giroux, H. A. et al. (1989). Popular culture: Schooling and everyday life. New York:
Bergin & Garvey.
Gue, L. R. (1974). Indian education in Canada. Edmonton (Alta.): University of Alberta
Press.
112
Hall, B.L. (1981). Participatory research, popular knowledge and power: A personal
reflection. Convergence: An International Journal for Adult Education 14, 6-17
Hall, B.L. (975). Participatory Research: An Approach for Change. Convergence. 24-32.
Hampton, E. (1995). Towards a redefinition of Indian education. In M. Battiste & J.
Barman (Eds.), First Nations education in Canada: The circle unfolds (pp. 5-46). Vancouver:
UBC Press.
Harris, S. (1990). Two-way Aboriginal education: Education and cultural survival.
Canberra: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Hawthorn, H. B. (1967). A survey of contemporary Indians of Canada: Economic,
political, educational needs and policies. Vol. 2. Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch.
Hoffman, N.E. et al. (1997). Lessons from restructuring experiences: Stories of change in
professional development schools. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Kawagley, A.O. (1993). Yupiaq worldview: Implications for cultural, educational, and
technological adaptation in a contemporary world. Unpublished doctoral thesis, The University
of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.
113
Kemmis, S. (1991). Critical Education Research. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult
Education (Winter) Vol. V, Special.
LeVine, R. & White, M. I. (1986). Human conditions: The cultural basis of educational
development. New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Lunenburg, F.C. & Ornstein, A.C. (2000). Educational administration: Concepts and
practices. Belmont (CA): Wadsworth.
Maguire, P. (1987). Doing participatory research: A feminist approach. Amherst: The
Centre for International Education, University of Massachusetts.
Matthew, N. (1990). Jurisdiction and control in First Nations schools evaluation.
Canadian Journal of Native Education, 17(2), 96-115.
More, A. (1986). Quality of education of native students in Canada. Selected papers from
the Mokakit conference. Vancouver, BC: Mokakit Indian Education Research Association, UBC.
Nieto, S. (1996). Affirming diversity: the sociopolitical context of multicultural education
(2nd edition). New York: Longman.
Ogbu, J. U. (1987). Variability in minority school performance: A problem in search of
an explanation. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 18(4),312-334.
114
Pai, Y. & Adler, S. A. (1997). Cultural foundations of education (2nd edition). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Palestini, R.H. (1999). Educational administration: Leading with mind and heart. Lancaster
(PA): Technomic.
Participatory Research Network (1982). An Introduction to participatory research.
Toronto: ICAE.
Paulston, R.G. (1983).Conflicting theories of educational reform. In Simmons, J. (Ed.),
Better schools: International lessons for reform (p. 21-70).
Paquette, J. (1991). Social purpose and schooling alternatives, agendas and issues. New
York: Taylor Francis.
Paquette, J. (1986a). Purpose, parity and conflict: Policy and practice in two
Northwestern Ontario Native school jurisdictions. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of
Toronto.
Paquette, J. (1986b). Aboriginal self-government and education in Canada (Background
paper No 10). Kingston, ON: Institute of Intergovernmental Relations.
115
Perkin, H. (1984). The historical Perspective. In Clark, B. (Ed.) Perspectives on Higher
Education: Eight disciplinary and comparative views (pp. 16-55). Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Sarason S. (1993). You are thinking of teaching? Opportunities, problems and realities.
San Francisco (CA): Jossey-Bass.
Sarason, S. (1990). The predictable failure of school reform. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Simmons, J. (1983). Reforming education and society: The enduring quest. In Simons, J.
(Ed.), Better schools: International lessons for reform (p. 3-19). New York: Praeger.
Spindler, G. & Spindler L. (1994). General introduction. In Suarez-Orozco, M.M.,
Spindler, G. & Spindler, L. (Eds). The making of psychological anthropology II (pp. 1-7).
Orlando: Harcourt Brace.
Spring, J. (1998). American education (8th Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Thies, K. (1987). Aboriginal viewpoints on education: A survey in the East Kimberley
region. Nedlands: National Centre for Research on Rural Education.
116
APPENDIX A
References and Resources according to curriculum descriptors
Theme
Resources/Books
Clan System
Conservatism Among the Iroquois at the Six Nation Reserve by Anne Marie
Shimony. (Pub. 1961)
Clan System of the Iroquois, North Native American Travelling College (1993)
Iroquois Women: an anthology describes the social conditions and legal status
of women. (Iroqrafts Ltd. 1990)
Mohawk Marriage-North Native American Travelling College (Cornwall, Ont)
Ceremonies
Civil, Religious & Morning Councils and Ceremonies of Adoption on the New
York State Indians: Iroquois Religious Ceremonies by William, M. Beauchamp
(NY State Museum 1981)
Midwinter Rite of the Cayuga Longhouse: Cayuga culture, history, approached
through the treatment of religious rite by (Bison Bk. 1995)
Teaching from the Longhouse by Chief Jacob Thomas (stoddart 1994)
Knowledge of the Elders : The Iroquois Condolence cane tradition; describes
the significance elders, woman and wampum belts play for the Iroquois by
Barreiro, Joseph (Cornell Univ. 1991)
Ininatig’s Gift of Sugar; follows the sugar making process waterman from
tapping the trees and collecting sap to make syrup, candy and sugar by
Wittstock, Laura. (Lerner 1993)
The Roll Call of the Iroquois Chiefs; describes the rites and ceremonies of the
117
Iroquois Indians by William N. Fenton 1908 (Iroqrafts 1983)
Forbidden Voice by Green, Alma (Dragon Press 1997)
The Three Sisters: explaining an Iroquois Garden; understanding the values that
surround these crops by Eames-Sheavly Marcia (Cornell Cooperative extension
Pub. 1993)
Iroquois Uses of Maize and Other Food Plants: notes of the preparation and uses
of maize and other vegetables food by the Iroquois Arthur by Parker, C
(Iroqrafts Ltd. 1983)
Seneca Thanksgiving Ritual: two ceremonial texts (song & rituals) is the Seneca
language with translation and grammatical commentary by Chafe, Wallace ( US
Gov. Printing Office 1961)
The Iroquois gives history of the daily life, religion and social activities of the
Iroquois by Doherty, Craig A (Watts 1989)
The Iroquois Book of Rites and Hale on the Iroquois; examines the language,
religion and mythology of the Iroquois by Hales, Horatio (Iroqrafts Ltd. 1989)
Parker on the Iroquois by William N. Fenton (Syra. Univ. Press 1968)
The False Face of the Iroquois: mask, religion & mythology & ceremonies by
Fenton, William Nelson (Univ. Okla. Press. 1987)
Life Spirit – Ceremonial Way of Life (Video [48 minutes])
Thanksgiving
The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet; Iroquois religion by Parker,
Address
Arthur A (Iroqrafts Ltd. 1990)
118
Wisdom Keepers; sharing the lives, minds and natural-world philosophy of
Native American Spiritual Elders by Arden, Harvey (Beyond Words Pub. 1990)
Giving Thanks: A Native American good morning messages; offering
thanksgiving for all the gifts of life by Chief Jake Swamp. (Lee & Low Bks.
1995)
Seneca Thanksgiving Ritual: two ceremonial texts (song & rituals) in the Seneca
language with translations and grammatical commentary by Chafe, Wallace (US
Gov. printing office 1961)
From The Earth to Beyond the Sky:
an Ethnographic Approach To Four
Longhouse Iroquois Speech Events by Foster, Michael K (Nat’l Museum of
Canada, Ottawa. 1974)
The Roles of Iroquois Women: an anthology, describes the social conditions and legal status
the Family
of women by Wm. Guy Spittal (Iroqrafts Ltd., 1990)
Knowledge of the Elders: the Iroquois condolence cane tradition, describes the
significance elders, women and wampum belts play for the Iroquois by Joseph
Barreiro (Cornell Univ. 1991)
The
Iroquois Apologies to the Iroquois Indians; examines Iroquois Indians including but not
Confederacy
limited to the St. Regis Mohawk and the Tuscaroras by Edmund Wilson (Syra.
Univ. Press 1992)
The Longhouse of One Family; presents the kinship of the Iroquois clan system
by Bob Antone (Woodlawn Indian Cultural Educational Ctr. 1987)
A Basic Call to Consciousness; How the Haudensaunee Iroquois Confederacy
119
base their government and economy in spiritual roots and wish to be recognized
as such by Akwesasne Notes (Akwesasne Notes, 1987)
The Livingston Indian Records 1666-1723: examines the relationship between
Iroquois Indians and the Federal Government by Lawrence H. Leder (Penn.
Historical Assoc. 1979)
The Iroquois and the New Deal: Clarifies the Hall relationship the Iroquois had
with the government by Lawrence Hauptman (Syracuse Press 1981)
Iroquois Land Claims by Christopher Vecsey (Syracuse University Press, 1988)
Iroquois Folk Lore: Tales of the legends of the Iroquois by William Beauchamp
(Ames, 1976)
Myths of the Iroquois by Erminnir A. Smith (Iroqrafts, 1989)
The Native Tribes of North America: A concise encyclopedia by Michael
Johnson (Mcmillan Pub. 1993)
The Iroquois by Barbara (McCall Rourke Pub. 1989)
The Constitution of the Five Nations: Iroquois Tribal Government, religion of
mythology by Arthur C. Parker (Univ. of State of NY 1961 Reprint: Iroqrafts,
1984)
The Iroquois by Frank G. Speck (Cranbrook, 1982)
Economics of the Iroquois by Sara Henry Stites (Ames Press, 1978)
An Iroquois Source Book: Volume 1: Political and Social organization by
Elizabeth Tooker (Garland Pub. 1985)
The Iroquois: People of the Northwest by Evelyn Wolfson (Millbrook Press,
120
1992)
The Iroquois Trail by M.R. Harrington (Rutgers, 1965)
Tales of the Iroquois: Volume I & II; Iroquois Indian Legends by Ray Fadden
(Iroqrafts Ltd. 1992)
A History of the Indians of the United States highlights the problems of Natives
that have beset theses people since their first contact with Europeans by Angie
Debo (Univ. Okla. Press, 1989)
The Iroquois: Gives a brief history of daily life, religion, food and social
activities of the Iroquois by Craig A. Doherty (Watts 1989)
The Iroquois by Barbara Graymount (Chelsea House Pub. 1988)
The Iroquois Book of Rites and Hale on the Iroquois: Examines the language,
religion and mythology of the Iroquois by Horatio Hale (Iroqrafts Ltd., 1989)
Rebuilding the Iroquois Confederacy: by Louis Karoniahtajeh Hall (The
Iroquois Confederacy.
The Founders of America: How Indians discovered the land pioneered in it and
created classical civilizations, how they were plunged into a Dark Age by
invasion and conquest and how they are now reviving by Francis Jennings
(Norton, 1993)
Iroquois: Describes the clothing, homes and games of the Iroquois Indians and
discusses the Iroquois League of Five Nations by Irene Estepe (Melmont, 1961)
The Valley of the Six Nations: Iroquois history, Grand River Valley by Charles
M. Johnston (Univ. of Toronto Press., 1964)
121
The Great Tree and the Longhouse: The culture of the Iroquois by Hazel
Hertzberg (MacMillian, 1966)
A Biography of the Iroquois Literature by Paul L. Weinman (bibliography of
Iroquois Indians. State Education Dept.1969)
Parker on the Iroquois by William N. Fenton (Syracuse Univ. 1968)
The Story of the Iroquois by Marion E. Gridley (G.P. Putman, 1969)
League of the Iroquois; a classic ethnographic study which describes the history,
government, social organizations, elation and the artistic works of the Indians
and pleads for their improved treatment and citizenship by Lewis Henry Morgan
(Citadel, 1972)
Law and Government of the Grand River Iroquois by John Noon (Johnson
Report, 1949)
Medicine and Politics Among the Grand River Iroquois; a study of nonconservatives by Sally M. Weaver (Nat’l Museum of Canada, 1972)
The Wars With the Iroquois: a study in intertribal trade relations by George T.
Hunt (Univ. of Wisconsin., 1978)
The Iroquois in the Civil War from battlefield to reservation by Lawrence M.
Hauptman (Syracuse University Press, 1993)
The Iroquois Indians: History and Culture of the Iroquois by Victoria Sharrow
(Chelsea House, 1992)
The Iroquois by Virginia Sneve & Diving Hawk (Holiday House, 1995)
The Iroquois Restoration by Richard Aquila (Univ. of Neb., 1997)
122
The Iroquois by Dean R. Snow (Blackwell Pub. 1994)
Against the Iroquois: The Sullivan campaign of 1779 in New York State.
Major General John Sullivan’s attempt in 1779 to break the power of the
Iroquois in New York’s Mohawk Valley by Ron Wyman Boardman (Walck,
1978)
The Iroquois in the American Revolution: examines the military and political
aspects of the Iroquois role in the American Revolution and describes the impact
of the Americans and British on the Indian Culture by Barbara Graymount
(Syracuse Univ. Press., 1972)
The History of Culture of Iroquois Diplomacy by Francis Jennings (Syra. Press.
1985)
This Land Was Theirs: History and Modern Life, Iroquois History 2nd edition
by Wendell H. Oswalt (Mayfield Pub,. 1988)
Realm of the Iroquois by Time Life Books (Time Life Bks.)
The Iroquois Struggle for Survival: World War II to Red Power discusses the
efforts of the Iroquois Indian Tribes to Preserves their Independence and
Describes the History of Government Relations with the Iroquois by Lawrence
Hauptman (Syra. Univ. Press. 1986)
Oenetia Kenra: Narrative; creation, life, 3 sisters, white seed & corn. ( Video
[20 min])
Conservatism Among the Iroquois at the Six Nation Reserve by Anne Marie
Shimony. (Pub. 1961)
123
Cycle of Life Onkwehonwehneha: Mohawk Nation of Kahawake by Cliff Diabo (1988)
& Traditional Seneca Phonetics; diagrams, illustrations of the Seneca Jimerson Language
Circle
when spoken by Hazel V. Dean-John (1983)
A Grammar of Akwesasne Mohawk; location of Akwesasne; four parts,
discussions of the Mohawk Language by Nancy Bonvillain (Nat’l Museum of
Canada 1973)
Mohawk Language Dict: Mohawk to English and English to Mohawk by David
R. Maracle (Mika Pub. 1990)
Seneca Dictionary; Seneca to English by Smithsonian Institute, Smithsonian
Anthropology Dept.
Tucarosa Roots, Stem and Particles:
towards a dictionary to English
Algonguian and Iroquois Linguistics (1987)
The Iroquois Book of Rites and Hale on the Iroquois examines the language,
religion and mythology of the Iroquois (Iroquois LTD 1989)
Spiritual
Cleansing
Healing
Native American Medicine by Virgil J. Vogel (1970)
& North American-Indian Medicine People by Karen Liptak (1990)
The Medicine Men by Thomas H. Lewis (1990)
Crystal Medicine by Marquerite Elsbeth (1997)
Earthway-A Native American Visionary’s Path to Total Mind, Body and Spirit
124
by Mary Summer Rain (1990)
The Theft of the Spirit-A Journey to Spiritual Healing with Native Americans
by Carl A. Hammerschlag, MD (1993)
Secret Native American Pathways-A Guide to Inner Peace by Thomas E. Mails
Encyclopedia of Native American Healing by William S. Lyon (1996)
Earth Medicine by Kenneth Meadows (1989)
The Gift of the Sacred Pipe by Vera Louise Drysdale (1953)
Medicine Among the Native Americans by Eric Stone (1932)
Medicines
Earth Medicine by Michael A. Weiner
Spirit Healing Native American Magic & Medicine by Mary Dean Atwood
Healing Plants-A Medicinal Guide to Native American Plants & Herbs by Ana
Nez Heatherly
A Handbook of Native American Herbs by Alma R. Hutchens
Iroquois Medical Botany by James W. Herrick
Natural Remedies for Better Health by Ingrid Sherman
The Roots of Healing-A Women’s Book of Herbs by Deb Soule
A Good Medicine Collection-Life in Harmony with Nature by Adolf Hungry
Wolf
How Indians Use Wild Plants for Food, Medicine & Crafts by Frances
Densmore
1998 Medicine Calendar by Akwesasne Task Force
Study
of Apologies to the Iroquois including but not limited to St. Regis Mohawk and the
125
Akwesasne
Tuscaroas. (Syracuse Univ. Press. 1992)
The Iroquois & the New Deal: clarifies the Hau relationship the Iroquois had
with the government by Lawrence Hauptman. (Syra. Press. 1991)
One Nation Under Gun: inside the Mohawk Civil War; gives a riveting account
of the deep-seated divisions the people of Akwesasne, those for gambling and
those against it which lead to violence among the Mohawks by Rick Hornung
(Stoddart. 1991)
Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois and the rationale for the
American Revolution calling on Benjamin Franklin as a chief witness by Bruce
E. Johansen. This book shows how the democratic Indian clarified the thinking
of immigrant colonists Gambit (1982)
The Constitution of the Five Nations: Iroquois tribal government, religion and
mythology by Arthur C. Parker. (United of the State of NY 1916 reprint
Iroqrafts 1984)
A Journal of Native and Natural Peoples: Volume I- #1 Mohawk History,
Environment by Akwesasne Notes. (Akwesasne Notes Summer 1995)
The History of the Five Indian Nations of Canada: depending on the province
of New York in America by Cad Wallander Colden (Ames Press 1973)
The Great Tree and the Longhouse; the culture of the Iroquois by Hazel W.
Hertzberg (Macmillian 1966)
The Iroquois Blackwell by Dean R. Snow (Pub. 1994)
The Great Law and the Longhouse by William Fenton (Univ. of Okla. 1998)
126
Songs
Dances
& Pow Wow; describes festivals, holidays, rites, ceremonies of Native Americans
By June Behren’s (Children’s Press 1983)
The Northern Traditional Dancer by Scott C. Evans (Crazy Cow Trading Post
1990)
Celebrating the Pow Wow by Bobbie Kalmon (Crabtree Pub. 1997)
Americans Indian Dances. Steps, Rythums, costumes and interpretations of
dance steps by John L. Squires (Ronald Press 1963)
Shannon an Ojibway girl growing up by Sandra King (Lerner 1993)
The Iroquois Eagle Dance: An Off Shoot of the Calument Dance by William
Nelson Fenton (Syra. Univ. Press 1991)
Songs from this Earth on Turtle’s Back by Joseph Bruchac
Akwesasne Mohawk Social Dances by Native American Travelling College
Food
Seeking the Corn-Mother’s Wisdom; a weaving of poems, essays and stories
about the corn-mother of the Cherokee by Marilou Aniakta (Falcrum Pub. 1993)
The Indian Way: Learning to Communicate with Mother Earth, Stories about
Food, Elder, the Home, Animal Art and more by Gary McLain
(John Muir
Pub. 1990)
Ininatig’s Gift if Sugar:
Follow the sugar-making process waterman from
tapping the trees and collecting sap to making syrup, candy and sugar by Laura
Klittstock (Lerner, 1993)
Exposure to PCBs from Hazardous Waste among Mohawk Women and Infants
at Akwesasne:
the risk of exposure to PCB’s and other chemicals, the
127
concentrate in milk fat. (U.S. Dept. of Health Services, 1995)
First Woman and the Strawberry; a Cherokee legend by Gloria Dominic
(Rourke Corp. 1996)
People of Corn: A Matan Story by Mary Joan Gerson (Little Brown, 1995)
Iktomi and the Berries: A Plains Indian Story; a Great Plains Legend told by
Iktomi, a trickster by Paul Goble (Orchard Bks. 1989)
When the Corn is Red: The Tuscorosa legend that the red corn was given by the
Great Spirit and he only asked that everyone live peaceably together but
unfortunately those words were not needed by Pekay Shor (Abingdon Press,
1973)
How Two-Feather Was Saved from Loneliness; Abenaki legend of how fire and
corn came into the world through the love of Two-Feathers and the Corn
Goddess by C.J. Taylor (Tundra Bks. 1990)
Enduring Seeds by Gary Paul Nabhan (North Point Press, 1989)
Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians: Explains How Indian Farmers of Years
Ago Found and Nourished a Wild Grass Plant and Made it an Important Part of
their Lives by Aliki. (Crowell, 1976).
Native American Garden Stories, Projects and Recipes for Families by Michael
J. Caduto (Fulcrum Pub. 1993)
The Three Sisters: Exploring an Iroquois Garden; Understanding of the Value
that Surround these Crops by Sheavly Eames (Cornell Ext. Pub. 1993)
Traditional Plant Foods of Canadian Indigenous Peoples:
Literature on
128
Nutrition Botany and Use of Traditional Plant Foods by Harriet V. Kuhnlein
(Breach Sceince Pub. 1991)
Northwest Native Harvest: Gives an Understanding of Indian Cookery with
Practical Recipes and Explained the Close Relationship Between Indian Food
and Northwest Coast Indian Culture by Carol Batdorf (Hancock House, 1990)
Iroquois Uses of Maize and Other Vegetable Foods by the Iroquois by Arthur C.
Parker (Iroqrafts Ltd, 1983)
Native Harvests: Includes Hundreds of Authentic Recipes for the Modern Cook
with Illustrations of Wild Plants Used and to Use Charts Specifying their Many
Uses by Barrie Kavasch (Vintape Bks. 1979)
Spirit of the Harvest: North Native American Cooking; Cookery, Social Life
and Customs by Beverly Cox (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1991)
Food and Recipes of Native Americans by George Erdosh (Powerkids Press,
1997)
Enduring Harvest: Native American Foods and Festivals for Every Season by
Barrie Kavasch (Globe/Pequot, 1995)
It Will Live Forever: Traditional Yosemite Indian Acorn Preparation; a Tribute
to Julia Parker who with Delicacy, Reverence and Consummate Skill, carries on
the Ancient Acorn-Making Traditions of the Miwak Paiute People of the Sierra
by Bev Ortiz (Heyday Bks. 1991)
The Rural and Native Hentape Cook Bk: Unique Collection of Recipes Chosen
from Over 2000 Gathered by the Lovesick Lake Native Women’s Association
129
by Totem Bks. (Totem Bks. 1985)
New Native American Cooking by Dale Carson (Randon House 1996)
The North Native Americans: Homes, Food and Clothing by Ruth Oakley
(Marshall Cavendish Ltd. 1991)
Indian Harvest:
Pictures of Edible Wild Plants from 40 North American
Botanical Families and Describes the Ways in Which Indians Gathered and
Prepared them for Food by William Carey Grimm (McGraw-Hill, 1973)
Iroquois Foods and Food Preparation by F.W. Waugh (Iroqrafts, 1991)
Clothing
Traditional Dress Issues: an Introduction to Traditional Dress, it explains
different types of clothing by Adolph Hungry Wolf (Good Medicine Bk. 1971)
Wet-Scrape Braintanned Buck Skin by Steven Edholm (Paleotechnics 1997)
The Indian How Book:
How Indians made things, how Indians live, how
Indians dress, how Indians fought and more (Dover Pub. 1975)
The North Native American;
homes, food, & clothing by Ruth Oakley
(Marshall Cavendish Ltd 1991)
Iroquois Art: A directory of people and their work by Christian Johannsen
(Sim’s Press, Peterborough, NH 03458)
Iroquois; describes the clothing, food, homes and games of Iroquois and
discusses the League of 5 Nations by Irene Estep (Melmont 1961)
Costume of the Iroquois by R. Gabor
Traditional Mohawk Clothing by Native American Travelling College
Traditional
The Indian Way, Learning to Communicate with Mother Earth, stories about
130
Homes
food, elders. The home animals art and more by Gary McLain (John Muir Pub.
1990)
Houses of Hide & Earth by Bonnie Shemie (1991)
Houses of Snow, Skin & Bones by Bonnie Shemie (1989)
Houses of Wood by Bonnie Shemie (1992)
North Native American; test and photos introduce Native Americans; where
they lived, what they work and ate by David Murdoch (knopf 1995)
The North Native Americans;
homes, food and clothing by Rita Oakley
(Marshall Cavendish Ltd. 1991)
Survival Skills
Teaching of Nature by Adolf Hungry Wolf (1989)
North Native American Survival Skills by Karen Liptak (1990)
Northwest Native Harvest by Carol Batdorf (1990)
Keepers of Life by Michael J. Caduto & Joseph Bruchac (1994)
Wild Wood Wisdom Reprint by Ellsworth Jaeger (Pub. New York: Macmillian,
1945)
Story-Telling,
Legends,
Earth Maker’s Lodge-Native Folklore, Activities, & Foods by Barry Kavash
& (1994)
Oral Traditions The Elders Are Watching by Dave Bouchard & Roy Henry Vickers (1993)
Thirteen Moons on Turtles Back by Joseph Bruchac & Jonathan London (1992)
Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joose (1991)
Seneca Myths & Folk Lore by Arthur C. Parker (1989 Univ. of Nebraska Press)
Legends of the Longhouse by J.J. Cornplanter (Reprint: 4/92 Iroquois LTD)
131
Skunny Wundy Seneca Indian Tales by Arthur C. Parker (1994 Syra. Press)
The Ghost the Indian Feared: religion, mythology and folklore especially evil
spirits by Sigmund A. Lavine 1975 (Dodd Mead. 1975)
The Aquarian Guide to native American Mythology Easy Reference Guide to all
Aspects of Native American Lore by Page Bryant (Aquarian Press 1991)
And It Is Still That Way: Legends told by Native Children of Arizona by Byrd
Baylor (Scriber 1976)
Iroquois Folk Lore:
Tales of the Legends of the Iroquois by William M.
Beauchamp (Ames 1976)
Tsikotsiakwin Okahra (Serpent Story) Iroquois Legend of the Serpent in
Mohawk (MRS Printing) 1980 by Salli Benedict
The Women Who Fell from the Sky: The Iroquois Story of Creation by John
Bierhorst (Morrow 1993)
Iroquois Stories by Joseph Bruchac (Crossing Press 1985)
Owl Eyes Traditional Kanienkehaka Mohawk Legend by Frieda Gates (Lothrop
1994)
Tales of the Iroquois Vol. I & II by Ray Fadden (Iroq. Limited 1992)
Native Sports Native American Games by Jay Miller (Children Press, 1996)
& Games
Ten Little Rabbits; Teaches counting through Native Social Life and Customs
by Virginia Grossman (Chronicle Bks. 1991)
Handbook of Native American Games by Allan & Paulette Macfarlan (Dover
Pub. 1985)
132
Cherokee Dance and Drama: describes the dances of the Cherokee Indians by
Frank G. Speck (University of Okla. Press 1983)
The Games the Indians Played by Sigmund A. Lavine (Dodd & Mead, 1974)
Native American Sports Hentape by Joseph B. Oxendine (Human Kinetics Bks.
1988)
Lacrosse Fundamentals by Jim Hinkson (Warrick Pub. 1993)
Akwesasne Lacrosse by Derrick LaFrance (Onyx Printing, 1997)
Lacrosse: Gives a detailed description of lacrosse how it is played and what the
Individual players are expected to do by Kelso W. Morill (Ronald, 1996)
Lacrosse: Technique & Tradition by Bob Scott (John Hopkins Univ. Press,
1978)
Native American Lacrosse:
Little brother of war by Thomas Vennum
(Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994)
Games of the Native American: describes different games of Native Americans
by Gordon Baldwin (Norton, 1969)
Communicatio
n
&
Transportation
Respect for the Earthways-Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children by Carol
Environment
Petrash
Teaching of Nature by Adolf Hungry Wolf
Teachings of Nature by Adolf Hungry Wolf-Good Medicine Bk. 14
133
Eco Art! Earth Friendly Arts & Crafts Experiences for 3-9 Year Olds by Laurie
Carlson
How Indians Use Wold Plants for Foods, Medicine & Crafts by Frances
Densmore
Wisdom Keepers-Sharing the Lives, Minds & Natural World
Philosophy of Native American Spiritual Elders by Harvey Arden (1990)
Indigenous Economics; towards a Natural World Order by Jose Barreiro (1992)
Indian Corn of the America’s by Jose Barreiro (1989)
When the Earth Was Young: Songs of the Native American by David Yeadon
(1978)
Environment at Akwesasne (video) Akwesasne Library
Project Future (video) Akwesasne Library
Mohawk Legacy (video) Akwesasne Library
Pollution: The Nature of Things (video) Akwesasne Library
Drawings of the Song Animals (poems) by Duane Niatum (1991)
Translator’s Son by Joseph Bruchac (Poems) (1980)
White Corn Sister by Peter Blue Cloud (1972)
Onkwa-Nihstenha (Our Mother) The Journeys Inwards by Kakwahotakenra
(1955)
On the Road of Stars: Native American Night Poems & Sleep Charms by John
Bierhorst (1994)
Four Corners of the Sky by Theodore Clymer (1975)
134
Running Owl the Hunter by Nathaniel Benchley (1979)
Earth Namer by Margery Bernstein & Janet Kobrin (1974)
The Boy Who Dreamed of an Acorn by Leigh Casler-Shonto Begay (1994)
Little White Cabin by Ferguson Pain (1992)
Berry Woman’s Children by Dale DeArmond (1985)
Everybody Needs A Rock by Byrd Baylor (1974)
Ladder to the Sky by Barbara Juster Esbensen (1989)
The Star Maiden by Barbara Justen Esbensen (1988)
Mystery of Navajo Moon by Timothy Green (1991)
Please Don’t Step On Me by Kree George (1981)
Frog Girl by Paul Owen Lewis (1997)
Onkwehonwe-neha “Our Ways” by Sylvia Maracle (1994)
Bring Back the Deer by Jeffery Robbins (1980)
Coyote Steals the Blanket by Janet Stevens (1993)
Coyote Makes Man by James Sage (1994)
Sunpainters: Eclipse of the Navajo Sun by Baje Whiteborne (1994)
Little Water and the Gift of the Animals by C.J Taylor (1992)
Brother Eagle, Sister Sky by Susan Jeffers (1991)
The Great Change by White Deer of Autumn (1992)
Sky Dogs by Jane Yolen & Barry Moser (1990)
Systems
Government
of Apologies to the Iroquois including but not limited to St. Regis Mohawk and the
Tuscaroras. (Syracuse Univ. Press. 1992)
135
The Iroquois & the New Deal: clarifies the Hau relationship the Iroquois had
with the government by Lawrence Hauptman. (Syra. Press. 1991)
One Nation Under Gun: inside the Mohawk Civil War; gives a riveting account
of the deep-seated divisions the people of Akwesasne, those for gambling and
those against it which lead to violence among the Mohawks by Rick Hornung
(Stoddart. 1991)
Forgotten Founders: Benjamin Franklin, the Iroquois and the rationale for the
American Revolution calling on Benjamin Franklin as a chief witness by Bruce
E. Johansen. This book shows how the democratic Indian clarified the thinking
of immigrant colonists Gambit (1982)
The Constitution of the Five Nations: Iroquois tribal government, religion and
mythology by Arthur C. Parker. (United of the State of NY 1916 reprint
Iroqrafts 1984)
A Journal of Native and Natural Peoples:
vol I #1
Mohawk history,
environment by Akwesasne Notes. (Akwesasne Notes Summer 1995)
The history of the Five Indian Nations of Canada: depending on the province of
New York in America by Cad Wallander Colden (Ames Press 1973)
The Great Tree and the Longhouse; the culture of the Iroquois by Hazel W.
Hertzberg (Macmillian 1966)
The Iroquois Blackwell by Dean R. Snow (Pub. 1994)
The Great Law and the Longhouse by William Fenton (Univ. of Okla. 1998)
136
APPENDIX B
General References
Author
Reference
Klien, Barry T.
Reference encyclopedia of the Native American. Todd Pub.
1995 edition
Raphael, Ralph B.
The Book of Native Americans: Museum books, professional
journals, official reports, and photographs provide source
material for a concise study of the Native American Culture.
Arco. 1954
Reader’s Digest
America’s fascinating Indian Heritage.
Indians of North
America. Reader’s Digest Assoc. 1990
Stoutenburgh, John L.
Dictionary of the Native American: An alphabetical listing of
basic information on the people places and ideas relevant to an
understanding of the Indian heritage. Philosophical Lib. 1990
Gridley, Marion E.
Indians of Today: A Small biography with pictures of Indian.
ICRP inc. 1971.
Terrell, John Upton
Native American Almanac: Probes the origins, customs, diverse
cultures, weapons, religious beliefs and daily life of the early
North Native Americans. (Crowell. 1971)
Washbourne, Wilcomb E.
The Indian and the White Man: Illustrates the most important
aspect of Indian white relations developing the larger theme of
the Indian as part of the American experience. Anchor Bks.
137
1964
Stoutenburgh, John L.
Dictionary of the Native American: An alphabetical listing of
basic information on the people, places and ideas relevant to an
understanding of the Indian heritage. Philosophical Lib. 1960
Hubbard-Brown, Janet
The Mohawk Indians: History and Culture of the Mohawks.
Chelsea House, 1993
Bonvillian, Nancy
The Mohawk: History and Culture of the Mohawks. Chelsea
House, 1990
Catlin, George
North Native Americans. Penguin Bks. 1989
Shimony, Annemarie Anrod
Conservatism among the Iroquois at the Six Nations Reserve.
(Syra. Univ. Press 1994)
Miskokomon, Roberta
First Nations Annotated Bibliography: a listing of books for ad
approved by First Nations. (Southern Ontario Lib. Service 199394)
Stevens, Tina
Native People Annotated Bibliography: listings of books, films,
videos, newspaper journals for and approved by Native People.
(Thames: Ont. Lib. Service 1988)
Verrall, Catherine
Resource/Reading List: bibliography listing useful Native
Material for the general public. (Quaker Committee for Native
Concerns. 1987)
138