Volume 12 Number 1
October 1972

Frank Klitza

NATIVE students in the Rural Boarding Home Program (RBHP) often experience difficulties in adjusting to the demands of the modern comprehensive, urban, integrated secondary school. Their lack of experience with secondary-group associations frequently causes them to feel uncomfortable in the traditional classroom. Where the student-teacher relationship is formal and impersonal, native students often remain silent, and are embarrassed if the teacher forces them to communicate.

Because of cultural differences and language problems the native student is apt to experience learning difficulties which make regular academic progress slow and often painful. Native children often get poor marks and are frequently held back a grade. Documenting the status of education for natives, The Federal Field Committee for Development Planning in Alaska (1968, p. 18) concluded that, "Even with gains registered as the result of expanding educational opportunities, the overall educational level remains low."

Efforts have been made to make education more relevant to native culture. Kleinfeld (1971) reported that village teachers emphasized developing a personal relationship with native students instead of relating to them only ". . . within the narrowly cognitive confines of the teacher role." Earlier, Flanders (1967) had reported higher rates of achievement from students at the secondary level when the teacher used informal communication patterns, and lower rates of achievement when the teacher’s verbal behavior ". . . appeared to be restricted to a limited number of roles producing a rigid sequence of action."

It was hypothesized, therefore, that native students from small villages perform better academically if they were in classes with teachers who used informal teaching techniques. This hypothesis was tested at Ryan junior High with about 40 native students in the Rural Boarding Home Program (RBHP).

A special core program was designed which would provide instruction in English and social studies for incoming ninth grade students in the RBHP. Due to classroom space limitations, core classes were limited to a maximum of two periods each day (out of a total of six). Furthermore, only RBHP students who tested below ninth grade level on the language and reading parts of the California Test Battery (Tiegs and Clark, 1963) were assigned to core classes. Since native males as a group scored about one grade level lower than females, most of the boys were put into core classes. Females were almost equally divided into core and non-core classes.

Two teachers were selected on the basis of their interest in native youth and their willingness to prepare for the new assignment. Both teachers agreed on the necessity and desirability of using informal teaching techniques. Susan Stitham, one of the core teachers, wrote:

"It is most important, we found, to structure the class in such a way that an informal, accepting atmosphere will prove conducive to student participation. We tried to encourage discussion on all relevant topics, and found that as the situation became more familiar, even the shiest students would volunteer a comment. In fact, after the initial week, the discussion was always quite lively."

The core program was in operation for the 1971-72 semester only, and was to be evaluated before being considered for inclusion into the curriculum on a regular basis.

Both students and teachers in the, core program reacted favorably. Native students who were used to a much smaller school found that the core classes provided a stable, familiar point of reference within the complex bureaucracy of a 1,000-pupil school. Native students in the core program made noticeable increases in verbal participation in the core classes.

However, Miss Stitham noted, "The willingness to speak out in a group is one area where the native student has traditionally been at a disadvantage in the competitive structure of American education; although we feel we were successful within the core classes themselves, the carryover to other class situations where the core student was in a definite minority position is not certain."

Grade point averages (GPAS) were computed for each RBHP native student at the end of every quarterly marking period. The averages for both males and females showed a steady decline, as Table 1 indicates.

The GRAs of individual students, however, either increased, showed no change, or decreased as the school year progressed. For the marking period in which the core program was in operation, the GRAs of those students enrolled in core classes decreased significantly less than the GRAs of students not enrolled in core classes. Table 2 shows these changes.

Relative changes in the GPAs of male and female students could not be accurately analyzed due to the unequal numbers of male and female native students not enrolled in core classes.

X² = 6.43, p = .05 (2df)

Native RBHP students enrolled in the core program spent two of their six classes each day in an environment which encouraged informal communication and interaction. Students in these classes made more academic progress than those students who did not have the benefits of such classes. This was particularly noticeable with the native girls, for all but one of those not in the core classes showed a decrease in GPA. Two of the boys were not enrolled in the core program, and both of them suffered a decline in GPAs. This suggests that had their number been equal to the number of girls not enrolled in the core classes, results for the boys would have been similar.

It is not surprising that nine weeks in the core classes had little effect on the basic reticence of native children. Confidence and self-assurance are rare enough among white children. To expect native children to act with boldness is unrealistic. Miss Stitham concluded on this point that:

"We did not have much success in encouraging students to disagree with and challenge authority (i.e., teacher’s opinions). Native students are traditionally unwilling to criticize in public."

These comments apply to students and most adults. It takes real courage to challenge a teacher’s authority, and in the average classroom, such confrontations are not easily forgiven or forgotten--nor are native children even accustomed to using language in a manipulative way. Professor Salisbury (1967) believes that, traditionally, native children learned to respect the thoughts and feelings of others because that was how they were brought up: "His thoughts and opinions are regarded as inviolable and sacred. Indeed, there is more regard for the integrity of the individual in his culture than there is in our own."

Two-thirds of the incoming native ninth graders in the RBHP were scheduled into special core classes for two periods daily. These students received instruction in English and social studies from teachers who used informal techniques in communicating with their students. Although the GPAs of all RBHP native students declined steadily, the GPAs of half of those students enrolled in the core classes increased. These differences were significantly different from native RBHP students not enrolled in core classes.

Federal Field Committee for Development Planning in Alaska. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968.

Kleinfeld, Judith. Some Instructional Strategies for the Cross-Cultural Classroom. Juneau: Alaska State Department of Education, 1971.

Salisbury, Lee H. "Communication for Survival--the Copan Program." Unpublished paper presented for the Intercultural Communication Conference in Los Angeles, California, December 30,1967.

Stitham, Susan. "Native Core Program: First Year 1971-72." Unpublished Report presented to the Superintendent, Fairbanks North Star School District, March 14, 1972.

Tiegs, Ernest W. and Clark, Willis W. California Test Battery, Junior High Level. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc., 1983.