Lipka, J. with Mohatt, G. and the Ciulistet Group. (1998). Transforming the Culture of Schools: Yup'ik Eskimo Examples

	Lipka, J. with Mohatt, G. and the Ciulistet Group. (1998). Transforming the Culture of Schools: Yup'ik Eskimo Examples. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pp. xv + 246 $26 (Paper)       ISBN 0-8058-2821-4 $49.95 (Cloth)       ISBN 0-8058-2820-6 Reviewed by Elizabeth Yeoman Memorial University of Newfoundland April 22, 2002 This book really grew on me. I found the early chapters somewhat poorly organised and confusing but the further I read, the more I was engrossed and excited about the potential of the projects described here. I say "projects" in the plural because the book presents a rich diversity of research and curriculum development possibilities, and is valuable both as a guide to developing a culturally appropriate, community-based curriculum, and as an example of a complex and fascinating set of research methodologies. Indeed, despite the editorial weaknesses of the opening chapters, Transforming the Culture of Schools is a "must read" for anyone interested in school renewal, aboriginal education or culturally appropriate curriculum development. I would hate for anyone to be discouraged by its awkward beginning and not read on. The book is built around a set of teachers' stories about their struggles to work from within the system to transform schooling for Yup'ik children in Alaska. The teachers describe painful encounters with insensitive instructors, colleagues and administrators and a rigid system which is utterly foreign to the traditions and knowledge of their own communities, a system where "[i]ndigenous teachers are asked to leave their culture and language at the school house door" (p. 4). What makes the book so important is that it does not stop there. Rather, it outlines in considerable detail how these Yup'ik teachers, working together in the Ciulistet group and in collaboration with outside researchers, found ways to build something new and good in their schools. While the examples are specific to a particular place and time, the process and practices described can be exemplary and inspirational for teachers in similar situations elsewhere. The Ciulistet group is a collaborative community-based action research group including elders as well as teachers. Its goal, according to the book, is "the inclusion of ancient knowledge, Yup'ik ways of knowing, and ways of connecting this knowledge to modern schooling... to create a contemporary and compatible system between the two" (pp. 26-27). The book highlights the need for indigenous teachers to organise in groups, work with the local community, document and analyse their experiences, and share them with others as this book does. All of the teachers' stories are articulate and troubling examples of the colonizing process and its impact on schools. The teachers describe what oppression by often well meaning but shockingly ignorant instructors, colleagues and administrators looks like, and how they (the teachers) have worked around, subverted and overcome enormous obstacles to create classrooms and curricula that work for them, their students and their communities. Their stories, and much of the accompanying analysis, offer a kind of handbook for decolonising schools. That is what I like best about this book. It recognizes the complexities and bitterness of power relations and historical and economic circumstances, and then it gets on with the job of changing things for the better. In the rest of this review, I discuss more specifically, chapter by chapter, what the book offers. The Introduction (Chapter 1) has two sections, with a long list of references in between them, which is awkward. The chapter also tends to be repetitious and didactic. For example, the philosophy of "both/and" rather than "either/or" - not a new idea anyway, even if it is particularly well illustrated in this book - is repeated several times without anything new added to the original idea. Another small annoyance is that the authors (or one of them, it's unclear) write sometimes in the first person, sometimes in the third. The use of the third person, as in "the author..." is odd stylistically in a book based on personal narratives, and it is also confusing since the book has multiple authors. Another problem is that there is too much mediation. For example, in the Introduction, Lipka introduces Mohatt who in Chapter 2 introduces the Yup'ik teachers, although one of them, Esther Ilutsik, has already been introduced since she wrote a section of the Introduction. This awkward incorporation of the different voices contrasts sharply with later chapters where the researchers' analysis is beautifully interwoven with the teachers' stories producing something stronger than either might have been alone. Chapter 2 is mainly about language continuity and the use of the Yup'ik language in the school, as the authors state in the introduction (p. 38). However, Mohatt, in the first pages of the chapter, discusses cultural interactive styles rather than language as such and Yup'ik as a language of instruction is mentioned for the first time seven pages into the chapter. In contrast to Mohatt's introductory pages, Nancy Sharp, one of the Ciulistet teachers, tells a story very much focused on the language of instruction. She writes, "If the community wants it, then they should be taught in Yup'ik. I think they have no identity without their language" (p. 55). She goes on to argue for Yup'ik immersion programs and to outline the need for materials, in-servicing and other kinds of support. She also emphasises the importance of community involvement, and the role of school administrators and policy makers in enabling this through, for example, making it easy and comfortable for elders to visit the school. This all seemed so obvious to me, as it clearly was to Sharp. I grew up in a bilingual community, in a country (Canada) that was, during my childhood, in the process of becoming officially bilingual. It is not easy. But it is possible. The book mentions, in a later chapter, how impressed three of the teachers were on a visit to Ottawa where "[s]eeing bilingualism as a stable and normal part of life was a new experience" (p. 220). A Mi'kmaq researcher, Marie Battiste (1999) has also highlighted the need to 'redress[...] the damage and losses of indigenous peoples of their language, culture and properties, and enabl[e] indigenous communities to sustain their knowledge in their future' (p. 26). Accomplishing this is a daunting mandate, requiring a multi-faceted approach, including government recognition and elaboration of policy, community support, the training of language teachers, curriculum development and funding of various kinds. Sharpe's story and the accompanying data contributed by Mohatt show us what one community can do. The importance of language cannot be overestimated. The well-known linguist, Joshua Fishman (1989) writes that pluralistic language policies, cultural democracy and language maintenance efforts and democratic forms of enrichment bilingual education are all necessary "to attain pan-human sanity and salvation" (p. 54). Chapter 3 sets out to discuss issues of power and control through presenting two lessons, one taught by Fannie Parker, a Yup'ik teacher in an Alaskan state controlled school, the other by Gertrude Trudeau, an Odawa teacher in a locally run school in Canada. The chapter ostensibly contrasts the difficulties of teaching in a state controlled school with the advantages of local control. However, once again there is some confusion (at least, I was confused) about what the chapter is really doing because both of the lessons presented are considered to be "failed lessons". Although the reasons for their failure are different, it seems odd to use a failed lesson as an illustration of a supposedly positive situation. Nevertheless, the description and analysis of the two lessons are interesting and revealing in and of themselves, and I was also impressed by Fannie Parker and Gertrude Trudeau's bravery in allowing what were seen as failed lessons to be the focus of discussion. Fannie Parker's own story and the reconstruction of Gertrude Trudeau's lesson do very effectively illustrate the strong negative impact the expectations of powerful outsiders can have on teaching. In both cases the problem was not that the teachers were incompetent but that they were trying to conform to the expectations of outsiders. But I just couldn't "get" how these examples illustrated a contrast wherein one school, the Alaskan one, lacks "any significant realization of the positive potential of Native teachers to construct teaching and learning situations more effective than those typically expected by the school" (p. 88) while the other, the Odawa controlled school "shows that indigenous communities can achieve levels of power that will allow this creation of indigenous schooling to occur" (p. 88). There are also small distractions in this chapter such as a reference (p. 87) to "[t]his failed lesson" where it is unclear which of the two lessons is being referred to. In Chapter 4, once again there are little annoyances such as referring to the researcher as "Dr. Nelson-Barber" and the teacher simply as "Dull". Surely it should have been simply "Nelson-Barber" for parallel structure, not to mention for a more egalitarian sense of who is who here. The chapter is a fairly short one and most of it is Vicki Dull's story of why she has left teaching. She struggled to find a way of being a teacher that she and her community were comfortable with in a system that had very different expectations of her but ultimately was not able to do so. She clearly felt pressures both from within the community and from outside. Other writers have also discussed how Aboriginal educators are often torn between trying to prepare students to survive and flourish in a global society while at the same time nourishing a strong Aboriginal community and sense of identity (Battiste & Barman, 1995; Kirkness & Bowman, 1992; McLaughlin, 1993). Nelson-Barber, in her discussion of Dull's story, emphasises the importance of kinship networks in Yup'ik communities and the way this may conflict with administrative expectations for certain kinds of content teaching. However, she does not really get at Dull's point that the community as well as the administration sometimes placed pressure on Dull to do things that did not seem right to her. Although the story presented in this chapter is important in its own right, and highlights how difficult developing a "third way" really is, the chapter does not offer much insight into other possibilities. Then again, perhaps the fact that the chapter does not provide any kind of closure or solution is a strength, both because it shows how complex the third way, the "both/and" really is, and because it leaves space for the reader to analyse and reflect. The chapter raises questions of power, state vs. local control, administrative and collegial support, teacher education and professional development, and community involvement in schools. Having presented some of the cultural and practical barriers encountered, the book then focuses, in Parts III and IV (Chapters 5-7 and Appendix), on how to overcome these barriers and work towards a culturally based pedagogy and curriculum. The authors show how the inclusion of elders in the curriculum development process can provide a larger Yup'ik knowledge base to draw on, and discuss ways of translating this knowledge into school based mathematics (numeration, calendars, patterns, geometry and measuring) and science (environmental studies, weather, physics, navigation, space and time). While the curriculum presented here was specifically developed by and for Yup'ik schools and communities, it has wonderful possibilities for bringing these subjects to life in other places as well. It was at Chapter 5 that I really began to get excited about this book. In this chapter, Lipka and one of the teachers, Evelyn Yanez present and discuss a first grade lesson she taught on drying smelts for winter. This lesson was part of Yup'ik cultural heritage week and the authors stress the painful fact that, at that time, it could only have been taught during that week because it was "too Yup'ik". However, in reflecting on the lesson, they have found ways in which it could become part of a curriculum that answers the educational expectations of the broader society while keeping its Yup'ik character and content. The authors have already asked the question, "What does it mean to be a Yup'ik teacher?" and it is here that the answer becomes clearer and a possibility for a real third way begins to be developed. The highly detailed analysis of this one lesson includes both "insider interpretation" (Yanez's own analysis) and "outsider interpretation" (Lipka's) of classroom discourse and organisation, teaching/learning styles, social relations, cognitive processes and subject area content. The authors show how Yup'ik language, culture and identity can be central to school culture, no longer relegated to one week a year. Chapter 6 presents further development of the third way curriculum with explanations and examples of ethnomathematics and ethnoscience curriculum. The chapter also discusses literacy but this is not attended to with the same kind of detail and specificity. The examples of culturally based maths and science curriculum are, in contrast, highly detailed and explicit about how to develop such a curriculum, what it might look like and why it matters. As well, the chapter explains exactly how the elders were involved in the process of developing this curriculum through field trips in which they were the instructors, and follow up analysis and meetings. The ethnomathematics and ethnoscience activities presented here are well thought out, obviously reflecting many years of work and inside knowledge—indeed, the authors emphasise that the work progressed very slowly—and could teach educators in other communities a great deal. The possibilities offered here are quite wonderful. The so-called Appendix deserves discussion as well. I say "so-called" because I think it deserves to be a chapter in its own right, not just an appendix. This is where the research methodology is described in more detail, although it is first presented throughout the book. The authors have made creative use of a number of methods over a period of fifteen years. The methods include discourse analysis (and a highly original use of ethnomusicological analysis as part of the discourse analysis), interview, life history, participant observation, action research, case study and cross case analysis, video and audio taping of classes and workshops, the use of proxemics (analysis of spatial organisation, rhythm and voice) in the analysis of the tapes, and a series of field trips instructed by community elders. The authors also develop the theoretical framework here, somewhat, with brief references to Lather, Freire and Aronowitz and Giroux. For a more traditional scholarly book it might have been useful to have developed this a great deal more, but at this point in the book, I found myself so excited by its practical possibilities that I was ready to forgive the superficial treatment of theory-as-we-know-it. In a review of The Curriculum: Problems, Politics and Possibilities (Beyer and Apple, 1998), Elizabeth St. Pierre refers to "the language of efficiency, standards, competency, assessment, cost effectiveness [that] impoverishes our imagination and limits our educational and political vision" (Beyer & Apple, 1998, p. 7). St. Pierre points out that Beyer and Apple "get at some of the 'problems and politics'" but do not offer as much in the way of "possibilities" as she had hoped. While Lipka, Mohatt and the Ciulistet Group's book does not develop the kind of theoretical stance St. Pierre might have been hoping for, it does offer a creative and passionate model of how committed academics, teachers and community members can work together to combat that dreadful impoverishment of the imagination. The Epilogue, like the beginning, left something to be desired. Although it did not have the stylistic and structural weaknesses of the earlier chapters, I found myself wishing the Yup'ik teachers and community elders could speak for themselves here. In a book about transforming the culture of Yup'ik schools, I felt that the last words should have been theirs. One more thing that irritated me—and here I'm a little afraid of sounding like a feminist broken record, in an age when both feminism and records sometimes seem to be anachronisms, but I think this must be said—was that Jerry Lipka and Gerald Mohatt's names figure prominently on the cover of the book whereas the female teachers, Esther Ilutsik, Vicki Dull, Fannie Parker, Evelyn Yanez, and Nancy Sharp, who have contributed extensive sections, and a female researcher, Sharon Nelson-Barber, who did the analysis of one chapter, go unnamed. The Table of Contents does list the teachers and Nelson-Barber as co-authors of individual chapters except that Esther Ilutsik, for some reason, is not named here either, even though she wrote a large chunk of the first chapter. Although the book is far from perfect, I find myself recommending it highly. There are so few of the kinds of narratives it provides, based on the actual experience of indigenous teachers and researchers working together over a decade and a half, and the model of the Ciulistet group is a useful and inspiring one. As the authors write, "the contributions of indigenous teacher groups can be important tools for determining the what, how and why of schooling" (p. 5). To this I would add that the work of such groups of teachers in collaboration with community members and professional researchers who are committed to the community has enormous potential for school and curriculum development in other contexts, and that the work of this particular group exemplifies this kind of work at its richest and most exciting. The collaboration between community members, teachers and researchers has produced what they hoped it would: an example of, in their own words, "a 'third way' for insiders and outsiders to work together... sometimes one, sometimes the other, and sometimes a coevolving of the two into something new [thus creating] the possibility of transforming historical colonial relations into productive, more egalitarian relations" (p. 212). This is a deeply optimistic book, yet also entirely realistic and practical. What a wonderful combination! Now if they could just fix the organisational problems and the little annoyances and put out a second edition... References Battiste, M. (1999). Enabling the autumn seed: Toward a decolonized approach to Aboriginal knowledge, language, and education. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 22(1), 16-27. Battiste, M. & Barman, J. (Eds.) (1995). First Nations Education in Canada: The Circle Unfolds. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press. Fishman, J. (1989). Language and ethnicity in minority sociolinguistic perspective. Clevedon, UK and Philadelphia, UK: Multilingual Matters. Kirkness, V. & Bowman, S. (1992). First Nations and Schools: Triumphs and Struggles. Toronto, ON: Canadian Educational Association. McLaughlin, D. (1993). Personal narratives for school change in Navajo settings. In McLaughlin, D. & Tierney, W. (Eds.), Naming Silenced Lives (pp. 201-235). New York, NY: Routledge. St. Pierre, E. (1999). Review of Beyer, L. & Apple, M. (Eds.) (1998). The Curriculum: Problems, Politics, and Possibilities. (2nd ed.). Education Review. Available online: http//coe.asu.edu/edrev/reviews/rev49.htm. About the Reviewer Elizabeth Yeoman Associate Professor Faculty of Education Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's NF A1B 3X8 Elizabeth Yeoman (Ph.D. Toronto) is Associate Professor of Language Education and Graduate Coordinator of the interdisciplinary Women's Studies program at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She teaches and publishes in the areas of second/additional language education, language, gender and culture, and critical pedagogy. She has also taught in Memorial's Native and Northern Teacher Education program and was involved in the development of language teaching methodology courses for teachers of Labrador Inuktitut.