(2003). Sustaining Indigenous Languages in Cyberspace. This paper describes how certain types of electronic technologies, specifically CD-ROMs, computerized databases, and telecommunications networks, are being incorporated into language and culture revitalization projects in Alaska and around the Pacific. The paper presents two examples of CD-ROMs and computerized databases from Alaska, describing how one elementary school produced a bilingual Yup'ik-English CD-ROM for a traditional story. It also examines how in southeast Alaska, Tlingit elders are working as consultants to create a computerized database (a talking map) of sites in the Glacier Bay area of historical and cultural significance to people of the Native village of Hoonah. The paper provides examples of how telecommunications are helping students use computers to write about their Native cultures and to write in their Native languages for distant audiences. It concludes that extending indigenous language use into cyber space will depend on local conditions (e.g., the… [PDF]
(1997). Mobile Pre-School Units and the Provision of Early Childhood Education in Rural New Zealand Communities. Rural Educator, v18 n3 p28-31 Spr. Mobile preschool units provide a viable solution to the problem of delivering preschool education to isolated rural New Zealanders. Advantages include delivery of bicultural education to Maori children, a low teacher-student ratio, provision of qualified teachers, and enthusiastic parent participation. Disadvantages include inadequate buildings, inability to display children's work, and short time available at each site. (TD)…
(1989). Readings in American History (In Their Own Words), Book III. New Directions for the United States and Teacher's Guide. This skills-text is the third of four books in the series \Readings in American History.\ The materials allow opportunities to improve reading and comprehension skills in a subject matter context by using certain primary sources related to the topic. Book 3 covers the period from the Civil War to 1900. Each lesson includes short readings with exercises and questions to allow students to explore the topic. The volume includes: (1) \Slavery Divides the Nation\; (2) \Letters and Diaries from the Civil War\; (3) \Emancipation\; (4) \Black Soldiers in the Civil War\; (5) \The Effort at Reconstruction\; (6) \Westward Ho\; (7) \The Black Exodus of 1879\; (8) \A Century of Dishonor Toward Native Americans\; (9) \The Farmer's Revolt\; (10) \The Rise of Big Business\; (11) \The Rise of Labor Unionism\; (12) \The New Immigrants\; (13) \The Election of 1896\; and (14) \Imperialism and Racism.\ A review section, glossary, and teacher's guide are included. (EH)…
(1999). Curriculum Guidelines: Native Hawaiian Curriculum Development Project. The Na'imiloa (seeker of knowledge) program provides educational enrichment opportunities to gifted underachieving Native Hawaiian high school students. Developed by the University of Hawaii at Hilo and selected high schools, the program was designed to build upon students' talents, develop their self-esteem, and develop an awareness and appreciation of the Hawaiian culture in order to support overall positive achievement at school. Students selected for the program start in their sophomore year. The Na'imiloa classes fall under varying academic disciplines as determined by the individual schools. The foundation of the curriculum is the values embraced by Hawaiians. The curriculum concepts–identity, social interactions, physical environment, and artifacts–provide focus for the development of these values within specific educational activity settings. These concepts may be developed for performance in a spectrum of informal to formal relationships and situations. The culminating… [PDF]
(2001). Minority Languages Learned Informally: The Social Construction of Language Skills through the Discourse of Ontario Employers. NALL Working Paper. Many immigrants, refugees, and aboriginal Canadians learn their own languages in the normal, informal way. These minority languages learned informally are not valued as a skill that yields returns in the labor market in the same way the official languages or formally learned languages do. What counts as a skill in a society, in a given point in time, is the product of complex phenomenological, social, economic, ideological, and political processes. Discourse is key to this process of social and cultural reproduction. The discourse of Ontario employers socially constructs the definition of what counts as a skill in Ontario workplaces and thus what warrants value in the labor market. The notion of skill is a construction that is socially created and hence changeable. If we want to change the unjust situation that affects the speakers of minority languages, we need to change the discourse surrounding minority languages to one that truly values minority languages as skills worth… [PDF]
(1993). Aboriginal Children: Back to Origins. Family Matters, n35 p7-12 Aug. The chairman of the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care (Australia) discusses the struggle to establish adequate child welfare services and education for aboriginal families and their children. Aboriginal people have resisted acculturation and the influence of racism to preserve their culture, identity, and extended families. (LP)…
(1994). Mentoring Women in Higher Education: Lessons from the Elders. College Teaching, v42 n2 p72-77 Spr. A distinguishing feature of teaching and learning in traditional aboriginal cultures such as that of Native Americans is respect for the learner's unique way of knowing. Such practices complement the feminist perspective of education and are appropriate for faculty mentors of women college students. (MSE)…
(2004). Numeracy in the Early Years: Project Good Start. Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, v9 n4 p14-17. "Numeracy in the early years: Project good start" was a national project that commenced in 2001, and will conclude this year. The key objective of the project is to improve children's early numeracy outcomes by investigating the practices and learning experiences that support the numeracy development of a sample of children in the year before school and in their first year of formal schooling. Case studies of some of these children were also prepared and analysed. Children's before-school experiences (including at home, and in preschool and childcare settings) and first year of school experiences were examined, with a particular focus on factors affecting early numeracy development. The project investigated the effects of children's backgrounds (for example, geographically isolated, rural, low socioeconomic urban areas, and areas with high indigenous populations); the different numeracy programs that these children encounter; the beliefs of parents and practitioners… [Direct]
(2000). Issues Affecting Rural Communities (II). Proceedings of the International Conference [on] Rural Communities & Identities in the Global Millennium (Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, May 1-5, 2000). This proceedings of a conference held in May 2000 at Malaspina University-College (British Columbia) contains approximately 63 conference papers, abstracts of papers, and keynote speeches. The conference examined issues affecting rural communities, with major themes being rural education, health, human services, families, and the sustainability of rural communities. The conference aimed to foster an international network of rural scholars, which had its beginnings at a 1994 conference of the same name, held at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia. Topics of speeches and papers include history of U.S. rural women teachers, rural school reform, public policies affecting rural communities, adjustment of professionals relocating to rural areas, community health services and initiatives, rural community information services, rural studies programs, Aboriginal education in Canada and Australia, information technology use on farms and in rural schools and communities, rural… [PDF]
(2003). Building a Native Teaching Force: Important Considerations. ERIC Digest. Since 1975, the political climate has increasingly supported the inclusion of American Indian culture and language in Native education and the training of Native teachers. Native teachers enhance the teacher-student relationship for Native students, are role models for Native youth, and are aware of Native learning styles. The ongoing Native Educators Research Project, examining how language and culture are included in the education of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Hawaiian teachers, surveyed 238 students in 27 Native teacher preparation programs and interviewed program administrators. Although most programs articulated a focus on Native language and culture, course contents and requirements often did not reflect that intent. About half the respondents reported that they spoke and understood their Native language and were knowledgeable about their Native culture. About a third could write in their Native language. Nearly all respondents felt that Native language and culture… [PDF]
(1994). Double Jeopardy: The Children of Ethnic Minorities. Innocenti Occasional Papers. Child Rights Series, Number 10. This paper examines the state of current research on ethnic minorities and their children and discusses areas in which further study is needed so that effective policy guidelines may be developed within the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. A number of examples of ethnic minority situations are presented to illustrate the particular problems faced by families, children, and youth of ethnic minorities and indigenous and tribal peoples. It is commonly held that the solutions to the problems of these groups lie in their ability and willingness to adapt rather than in actions by the dominant societies. After a description of the ways ethnic minorities are usually categorized (territorial minorities, ethnic and cultural minorities, immigrants and refugees, and indigenous and tribal peoples), the paper surveys theoretical approaches to the study of ethnicity and examines the issue of cultural values in relation to the Convention on the Rights of the…
(1993). Outcome Based Teaching Strategies and Evaluation for Computer Instruction in Keyboarding on an Aboriginal Island Reserve. Twenty-eight adult students and four adolescent students were interested in completing computer instruction in keyboarding in their own environment to gain skills and knowledge that would bring them up to date in the information age. The students who enrolled in the keyboarding course were assessed by timed writings, production applications, and personal interviews for grade-level placement. Production assignments were given to students assessed at the advanced level; modeling of function keys and alphanumeric keys and drills were given to students with no previous computer experience. One-on-one instruction was the most common mode of delivery; peer tutoring was next. Students worked at their own pace, since the textbook provided step-by-step instruction. Advanced students were also given the opportunity to complete complex, abstract, and theoretical assignments to achieve advanced level. The students worked in informal groupings that they chose themselves. Community support was… [PDF]
(1991). Concentrated Language Encounters: The International Biography of a Curriculum Concept. This paper is about a teaching program that was developed at a school in Alice Springs, a small town in Australia that has influenced teaching programs for Aboriginal children in that country. At Traeger Park school, the Aboriginal children speak English, although the speech of many children is characterized as Aboriginal English dialect. The school teaches in English and seeks to achieve mainstream curriculum goals, an orientation supported by the parents. The effect of Cazden's concept of concentrated language encounters on the development of the teaching program at Traeger Park is described in detail. By employing a social construction approach to classroom discourse that concentrated on the scaffolding of common knowledge, a learning environment was created in which different discourse agendas on the part of the children and the teacher could come together in a way that still allowed the cultural goals for school learning to be achieved. (Contains 17 references.) (JP)… [PDF]
(1998). Parental Involvement in Education: What Works in the Pacific? Promising Practices in the Pacific Region. Increasing parent involvement in the Pacific region requires an understanding of the traditional system of Pacific education. While historically Pacific education involved parents and community members as children's first teachers, the American model of education virtually ignores this tradition. The school assumes the entire responsibility for education, leading to the belief that school and home are separate domains. Interviews and discussions with Pacific residents focused on involving the traditional extended family in education, and identified barriers to and successful Pacific practices in family and parent involvement. Most barriers to family involvement are social and cultural, including lack of cultural awareness among teachers, importance of community and church events over school activities, low priority given to family involvement by some principals, and parental feelings of being unwelcome or uncomfortable in school surroundings. Three successful family involvement… [PDF]
(1991). Colonialism in the Americas: A Critical Look!. Dialogue and illustrations trace the history of the first peoples of South, Central, and North America and encourage students to look at past and present patterns of colonialism and to view colonialism from the perspective of the colonized. Chapter 1 critiques Columbus 500 years after founding the first colony in the Americas. Chapter 2 presents the indigenous people who lived in South and Central America before Columbus arrived. Following this, chapter 3 explores the structure of the colonial system, and chapter 4 discusses colonialism in North America from 1607 to 1776. Chapters 5 and 6 provide case studies of the native people of Georgia and Alabama and of the Sioux nation. Chapter 7 describes the struggle for aboriginal rights by the first Canadians, and chapter 8 examines the aftermath of colonialism. Chapter 9 discusses second stage colonialism by the United States as internal conquest turns to external expansion. Guatemala is a case study of neocolonialism in chapter 10, and…