The Best Way to Teach a Culture is through Learning a Culture

Alaska has long been the desired destination of many graduate teachers, eager to teach in some of the most remote schools and villages. Such excitement often dwindled quickly for the teachers once they realised just how challenging life in remote Alaska could be. In some Alaskan villages, the ‘teacher turnover rate’ was as high as 30-50 percent between each school year and so the ten-day Cultural Immersion program was introduced by the Alaska Humanities Forum, tribal groups and school districts, in an effort to improve this statistic and provide insight into the culture and ‘home-lives’ of many of their students.

Nina Kemppel, CEO of the Alaska Humanities Forum, noted “the rationale behind this program is that if we can keep teachers in schools longer, especially new teachers, new to Alaska, in schools longer, teaching for 3 to 4 years, we actually increase student achievement through that.” (Eaton) So far, the program has already achieved its goals, with 90% of the teachers who participated in the 2012 program, returning to teach in Alaska a second year.

The graduate teachers have also commented on the benefit of understanding the cultural heritage of their students, “this is what they do for their summer, they go fishing and get fish and they save it up for the year. Like, just talking about this experience, like ‘What’d you do for the summer? Oh yeah, I did that too?’”

With this program attaining such success in Alaska, one has to question why other areas with tribal natives or Indigenous peoples are not following suit. Such a program could be of significant benefit in beginning to close the large achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians through reaching a level of understanding between all Australian teachers and students. Many have noted the difficulties in teaching Indigenous Australians, however, perhaps it is due to white Australia’s ignorance on the cultural heritage of Indigenous students that prohibits successful learning, as well as the cultural irrelevance of the national curriculum to Indigenous students.

Lentin and Titley suggest,

“Racism persists because there has been no serious effort made to challenge the interconnections between the idea of race and the institutions and structures of the modern nation-state. Race has been semantically conquered, but it remains deeply ingrained in the political imaginaries, structures and practices of ‘the West.’

Perhaps Australian teachers have been approaching the issue of the achievement gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students the wrong way. Rather than consistently expecting minority and Indigenous communities to adapt to the ‘regular white’ school system, graduate teachers should instead focus on improving their understanding and involvement in Aboriginal cultural practices and heritage. Perhaps a cultural immersion program, much like the one conducted in Alaska, is exactly what Australian graduate teachers need in order to improve the education of Indigenous students without ignoring their cultural background.”

For more information on the Alaskan Cultural Immersion Program, please click on the link below
http://www.alaskapublic.org/2013/08/12/new-teachers-learn-about-native-culture-before-school-starts/

By: Carly Fisher

References:

Eaton, D. 'New Teachers Learn about Native Culture Before School Starts' - Alaska Public Media - 2013

Lentin, A & Titley, G. 'The Crisis of Multiculturalism - Racism in a Neoliberal Age' - Zed Books - 2011

Consulted:

Harrison, N. 'Teaching and Learning in Aboriginal Education' - Second Edition - Oxford – 2011