ED459989 2002-01-00 Schooling for

Self-Determination: Research on the

Effects of Including Native Language

and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Development Team

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Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on the Effects of Including

Native Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest........... 2

SOME IMPACTS OF ASSIMILATIONIST SCHOOLING.................2

FINDING A NEW WAY--SCHOOLING FOR

SELF-DETERMINATION................................................ 3

ACADEMIC AND EVERYDAY KNOWLEDGE.............................3

EXEMPLARY PROGRAMS................................................... 3

LOOKING AHEAD.............................................................. 5

REFERENCES.................................................................. 5

ERIC Identifier: ED459989

Publication Date: 2002-01-00

Author: Lipka, Jerry

Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools Charleston WV.

Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on

the Effects of Including Native Language and

ED459989 2002-01-00 Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on the Effects of

Including Native Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.

Page 1 of 8
Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.

THIS DIGEST WAS CREATED BY ERIC, THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT ERIC, CONTACT

ACCESS ERIC 1-800-LET-ERIC

This Digest briefly reviews the educational effects of assimilationist schooling and later

efforts to create schools supportive of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN)

self-determination. It then describes examples of tribal- or community-controlled

programs that use students' Native language as the language of instruction and

incorporate traditional culture into the curriculum. Any such review of the literature must

begin with a reminder: Indigenous communities vary in their cultural, linguistic, and

geographic circumstances as well as in their education goals. Therefore, it is not

possible to prescribe specific programs across such a diverse array of situations.

SOME IMPACTS OF ASSIMILATIONIST

SCHOOLING

Historically, federal education policy beginning in the 1870s and continuing for a century

emphasized assimilation as the goal of AI/AN education. Lewis Meriam's 1928 report to

the Secretary of Interior indicated that AI/AN schools were understaffed, had irrelevant

curricula, and employed under qualified teachers. Many observers since that time have

described effects of assimilationist policies, which separated AI/AN students from their

communities and forced them to attend boarding schools, ultimately weakening AI/AN

languages and cultures (recent accounts include Deyhle & Swisher, 1997; Lipka &

Mohatt, 1998; Lomawaima, 1999; Skinner,1999; and Swisher & Tippeconnic, 1999). In

fact, more than 40 books have been written to document the impacts of the Indian

boarding school era.

The exclusion of AI/AN languages and cultures in Western schooling drove many AI/AN

students toward a marginalized identity (LaFromboise, Coleman, & Gerton, 1993). In

these cases the very act of learning required a student to deny his or her personal,

cultural, and linguistic heritage (Garrett,1996). Some students, faced with pressure to

deny their heritage and embrace the values and goals of Western schooling, chose

instead to resist. Ogbu's (1987) work across cultures reported resistance to schooling

among AI/AN and other marginalized ethnic minorities, which in turn led to poor

educational achievement and low graduation rates.

While the costs of assimilationist schooling were high, resulting in the weakening of

Native cultures and languages, marginalizing Native identities, alienating students from

the goals of schooling, and producing high rates of school leaving, the benefits to

students who persisted were often low. Leaving local knowledge and language at the

schoolhouse door was resulting in "subtractive bilingualism"; that is, many students

were failing to attain academic competence in English while at the same time losing

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Page 2 of 8 ED459989 2002-01-00 Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on the Effects of

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knowledge of their Indigenous languages and cultures (Deyhle & Swisher, 1997).

FINDING A NEW WAY--SCHOOLING FOR

SELF-DETERMINATION

In the decades following World War II, AI/AN leaders fought for legislation to protect

their rights to self-determination (Reyhner, 1989). With the successful passage of the

"Indian Education Act of 1972" (P.L. 92-318 as amended) and the "Indian

Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act" of 1975 (P.L. 93-638), a new era

began in Indian education. The past three decades have seen a variety of efforts to

restore and revitalize Native languages and cultures through the schools (Demmert,

2001). Through such efforts, a growing number of Indigenous students have the

opportunity to use Indigenous knowledge and language to meet "both" local "and"

Western education goals (Deyhle & Swisher, 1997; Swisher & Tippeconnic, 1999;

Yazzie, 1999). This "both/and" paradigm (Lipka & McCarty, 1994) supports an

educational approach that values both Native and Western knowledge, as illustrated in

the following examples.

ACADEMIC AND EVERYDAY KNOWLEDGE

Concurrent with this movement to connect Native and Western culture has been a

reevaluation of what is considered appropriate academic knowledge. In conducting

research of tacit knowledge of children in rural Western Kenya, for example, Sternberg

and colleagues (2001) concluded that the knowledge learned in everyday life may be

distinct from that which leads to success in school. Similar research conducted in

Alaska with Yup'ik Eskimo students (Grigorenko et al., 2001) found that rural Yup'ik

students outperformed students from an Alaskan regional center on a test of practical

knowledge. Yup'ik elders, researchers, and teachers have demonstrated how to

connect practical and cultural knowledge to a school's math curriculum (Lipka,

Wildfeuer, Wahlberg, George, & Ezran, 2001). For example, the elders used the

everyday practice of building a fish rack, a rectangular structure used to dry salmon,

and connected this to the mathematical topics of perimeter, area, and physical proofs

(Lipka & Mohatt, 1998). The connection of local knowledge to schooling is not an easy

process, however. The challenge is to adapt local culture and knowledge to Western

schooling without trivializing and stereotyping.

EXEMPLARY PROGRAMS

Today, many AI/AN communities are employing a both/and approach in their school

systems. The sample of programs described below have met at least two of three

criteria derived from research syntheses by Deyhle & Swisher (1997), Swisher &

Tippeconnic (1999), and Yazzie (1999): (1) the program must involve community/tribally

controlled schools, (2) the program must use the Indigenous culture and language, (3)

academic achievement must show a significant and measurable gain.

Rock Point, Arizona. Schools in Rock Point teach all classes in the local

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ED459989 2002-01-00 Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on the Effects of

Including Native Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.

Page 3 of 8
language--Navajo. Deyhle and Swisher (1997) report on ethnographic research

conducted by McLaughlin:

School administrators, teachers, and community members designed K-12 instruction in

Navajo to reinforce the cultural and linguistic resources of the students who, at that

point, had the lowest test scores in the Navajo Nation.... These Navajo students now

consistently score higher than other comparable reservation children on tests of

reading, language, and math in English. (p. 171)

Holm and Holm (1995), also studying Rock Point Community School, report "students

have considerably more confidence and pride [than comparable students at nearby

schools]" (pp. 147-148).

Fort Defiance, Arizona. Schools in Fort Defiance also offer the option of being taught

with Navajo as the language of instruction. Before the program was instituted, only one

tenth of Navajo five-year-olds were competent in Navajo; additionally, many

monolingual English students were not academically competent in English. After the

school established a voluntary Navajo Immersion (NI) program, "NI students did

considerably better on tests of Navajo language ability [than those in the English-only

program]" (Holm & Holm, 1995, p. 150). Meanwhile, NI students tested as well in

English proficiency as the English-only students, while the majority of the fourth-grade

English-only students tested lower in Navajo than they had in kindergarten. In sum, the

Navajo immersion students were gaining control of their own language at no loss to

their knowledge of English while the English-only students were barely maintaining

competence in English with great loss to their Native tongue. Further, the NI students

greatly outscored the English-only students in math.

Honolulu, Hawaii. Brenner (1998) reports on an experimentally designed study based in

Hawaii, the Kamehameha Early Education Project. Using ethnographic methodology,

she and other educators studied how Native Hawaiian children developed mathematical

knowledge in everyday life (e.g., shopping and interacting with their families), then used

this information as a foundation for an experimental math curriculum. Brenner also

supported the use of pidgin in the classroom. Brenner found that "the children in the

experimental class scored much higher on the standardized math test. The control class

averaged at the 54th percentile, while the experimental class averaged at the 82nd

percentile" (p. 233). Brenner's research design was able to isolate the change in

instructional strategy as the variable most strongly associated with the increased

scores.

Nunavik (Northern Quebec), Canada. Some results of a long-term research and

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Including Native Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.
development project of the Kativik School Board, an Inuit-controlled school district in the

Canadian Arctic, found that Inuit students involved in an Inuktitut language program did

better on tests of Inuktitut than those enrolled in the English classes or French classes

(Wright, Taylor, Ruggeiro, MacArthur, & Elijassiapik, 1996). They also showed steady

improvement in English. While students in all three language programs tested at the

same level for conversational Inuktitut, the students in the Inuktitut program did

considerably better than the others on the more difficult academic language proficiency

tests.

What this indicates is that Inuit children in the Inuktitut program are developing a level of

language skill that will allow them to use the Inuktitut language to solve complex mental

problems. . . . [Further,] Inuit children in all three programs began kindergarten with

positive self-esteem (most children see themselves as smart, nice, happy, etc.)....

However, ...students in the Inuktitut program showed an increase in self-esteem. (pp.

12, 15)

The research efforts of the Kativik School Board show how long-term systematic

research can help locally controlled schools make decisions and develop programs that

result in positive, community-defined student outcomes.

LOOKING AHEAD

The last few decades have shown a steady increase in the number of efforts by tribalor community-controlled schools to use their language and culture as an integral part of

the fabric of schooling. These efforts need to be systematically studied. As Tippeconnic

stressed, "research must not only determine how well students are doing academically

but also explore how Native languages, cultures, and ways of knowing influence the

teaching-learning process in local and tribally controlled educational settings" (1999, pp.

46-47). And as Yazzie explained, "We can assume there is a direct relationship among

culture, curriculum, and learning in American Indian schooling experience. But to what

degree? We do not know" (1999, p. 97).

At this juncture, evidence exists to support pursuing the inclusion of Native language

and culture in educational programs serving AI/AN students as a strategy for improving

academic and other educational outcomes. However, much more needs to be known.

Further, research must be context specific, taking into consideration the circumstances

of the local community and--as illustrated in the Kativik School Board example--it must

focus on the education goals set by particular AI/AN communities.

REFERENCES

ERIC Resource Center www.eric.ed.gov

ED459989 2002-01-00 Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on the Effects of

Including Native Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.

Page 5 of 8
Brenner, M. (1998). Adding cognition to the formula for culturally relevant instruction in

mathematics. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 29(2), 214-244.

Demmert, W. G., Jr. (2001). Improving academic performance among Native American

students: A review of the research literature [Electronic version]. Charleston, WV: ERIC

Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools.

Deyhle, D., & Swisher, K. (1997). Research in American Indian and Alaska Native

education: From assimilation to self-determination. In M. W. Apple (Ed.), Review of

Research in Education (Vol. 22, pp. 113-194). Washington, DC: American Educational

Research Association.

Garrett, M. (1996). Two people: An American Indian narrative of bicultural identity.

Journal of American Indian Education, 36(1), 1-21.

Grigorenko, E. L., Meier, E., Lipka, J., Mohatt, G., Yanez, E., & Sternberg, R. J. (2001).

The relationship between academic and practical intelligence: A case study of the tacit

knowledge of Native American Yup'ik people in Alaska. Unpublished manuscript.

Holm, A., & Holm, W. (1995). Navajo language education: Retrospect and prospects.

Bilingual Research Journal, 19(1), 141-167.

LaFromboise, T., Coleman, H. L. K.., & Gerton, J. (1997). Psychological impact of

biculturalism: Evidence and theory. In L. A. Peplau & S. E. Taylor (Eds.) Sociocultural

perspectives in social psychology: Current readings (pp. 241-276). Upper Saddle River,

NJ: Prentice Hall.

Lipka, J., Wildfeuer, S., Wahlberg, N., George, M., & Ezran, D. (2001). Elastic Geometry

and Storyknifing: A Yup'ik Eskimo Example. Teaching Children Mathematics, 7(6),

337-343.

Lipka, J., & Mohatt, G. V. (1998). Transforming the culture of schools: Yup'ik Eskimo

examples. Sociocultural, political, and historical studies in education. Mahwah, NJ:

Lawrence Erlbaum & Associates.

Lipka, J., & McCarty, T. (1994). Changing the culture of schooling: Navajo and Yup'ik

cases. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 25(3), 266-284.

Lomawaima, K. T. (1999). The unnatural history of American Indian education. In K. G.

Swisher & J. W. Tippeconnic III (Eds.), Next steps: Research and practice to advance

Indian education (pp. 3-31). Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education

and Small Schools (ERIC/CRESS). (ED 427 903)

Meriam, L., Brown, R. A., Cloud, H. R., Dale, E. E., Duke, E., Edwards, H. R., et al.

(1928). The problem of Indian administration. Report of a survey made at the request of

the Honorable Hubert Work, Secretary of the Interior, and submitted to him, February

www.eric.ed.gov ERIC Custom Transformations Team

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Including Native Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.
21st. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. (ED 087 573)

Ogbu, J. (1987). Variability in minority school performance: A problem in search of an

explanation. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 18(4), 312-334.

Reyhner, J. (1989). Changes in American Indian education: A historical retrospective for

educators in the United States (ERIC Digest). Charleston, WV: ERIC/CRESS. (ED 314

228)

Skinner, L. (1999). Teaching through traditions: Incorporating languages and culture

into curricula. In K. G. Swisher & J. W. Tippeconnic III (Eds.), Next steps: Research and

practice to advance Indian education (pp. 107-134). Charleston, WV: ERIC/CRESS.

(ED 427 907)

Sternberg, R., Nokes, P., Geissler, W., Prince, R. Okatcha, D., Bundy, D., et al. (2001).

The relationship between academic and practical intelligence: A case study in Kenya.

Intelligence, 29(5), 401-418.

Swisher, K. G., & Tippeconnic III, J. W. (1999). Next steps: Research and practice to

advance Indian education. Charleston, WV: ERIC/CRESS. (ED 427 902)

Tippeconnic III, J. W. (1999). Tribal control of American Indian education: Observations

since the 1960s with implications for the future. In K. G. Swisher & J. W. Tippeconnic III

(Eds.), Next steps: Research and practice to advance Indian education (pp. 33-52).

Charleston, WV: ERIC/CRESS. (ED 427 904)

Wright, S. C., Taylor, D. M., Ruggeiro, K. M., MacArthur, J., & Elijassiapik, M. (1996).

The Jaanimmarik School Language Testing Project. Montreal, Quebec: Kativik School

Board. Retrieved January 24, 2002, from

http://www.kativik.qc.ca/downloads/KSBIR_e.pdf

Yazzie, T. (1999). Culturally appropriate curriculum: A research-based rationale. In K.

Swisher & J. Tippeconnic (Eds.), Next steps: Research and practice to advance Indian

education (pp. 83-106). Charleston, WV: ERIC/CRESS. (ED 427 906)

-----

Jerry Lipka, a professor of education at the School of Education, University of Alaska

Fairbanks, has worked with Yup'ik teachers since 1981 and with Yup'ik elders since

1987 in teacher education and in developing culturally relevant curriculum.

This publication was prepared with funding from the Office of Educational Research and

Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, under contract no. ED-99-CO-0027. The

opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of OERI,

the Department, or AEL.

ERIC Resource Center www.eric.ed.gov

ED459989 2002-01-00 Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on the Effects of

Including Native Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.

Page 7 of 8
Title: Schooling for Self-Determination: Research on the Effects of Including Native

Language and Culture in the Schools. ERIC Digest.

Note: Online version contains an annotated reference list with links to full-text

documents.

Document Type: Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs)

(071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073);

Available From: ERIC/CRESS, P.O. Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25325-1348. Tel:

800-624-9120 (Toll Free). For full text:

http://www.indianeduresearch.net/edorc01-12.htm.

Descriptors: Academic Achievement, Achievement Gains, American Indian Education,

Biculturalism, Bilingual Education, Cultural Education, Culturally Relevant Education,

Elementary Secondary Education, Language of Instruction, Native Language

Instruction, School Effectiveness, Tribally Controlled Education

Identifiers: ERIC Digests

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