Volume 22 Number 3
May 1983

Barbara J. Boseker and Sandra L. Gordon

Much has been written about what Native American people need to know and how they must change in order to survive in today’s world. The focus instead should be on what can be learned from Native Americans and how those learnings can change preservice teacher education. Learnings about cooperation, privacy, consensus, and wait-time are discussed and offered as positive alternative behaviors in the teaching profession.

Native Americans have taught both authors the importance of cooperation rather than competition. Cooperation is evident in pow-wow singing. Powwow singing is a group effort, not an individual effort. Individual singers strive to do their very best for the benefit of the group, not to be recognized as the "star" of the group. This is in contrast to the operatic "prima donna" of Western culture.

Research done by David and Roger Johnson at the University of Minnesota indicates that extreme competition in school can be detrimental to children (see Note 8). Such competition can even discourage children to such a great degree that they drop out of school. There are approximately 119 Native American children in the Fargo (North Dakota) Public Schools. According to the Fargo-Moorhead Indian Center many of these children are dropping out of school primarily because of one class: physical education (see Note 9). The intense competition in the gym which is fostered by some of the physical education teachers runs counter to Native American values. Children are forced into games in which there are always individual winners and losers. Being on the losing end can hurt, and being on the winning end can promote feelings of "I’m better than you are."

The authors have attempted to re-teach preservice teachers the merits of alternative games which call for more cooperation. Games such as relays, in which a cooperative effort must be made in order to transfer the baton to another runner, or volleyball, in which a player sets up a ball for another player to hit over the net, or basketball, in which players cooperatively pass or dribble to other players in order to shoot the ball into the basket, are stressed (see Note 10). Games such as musical chairs in which there is a loser every round should be avoided. Preservice teachers are also encouraged to keep score less. One successful physical education teacher in Fargo commented, "It’s amazing how much my teaching improved when I simply stopped keeping score!"

Native American students are dropping out of school not only because of the competition on the gymnasium, but also because of the showers (see Note 11). Privacy in the locker and shower rooms in most of our nation’s schools is lacking; group showers are the norm. In Native American cultures one attends to one’s body cleansing privately. Thus, the group showers are inherently embarrassing to Indian children. Many children from the dominant society are also put ill at ease by the lack of privacy in the locker/shower rooms. One of the authors has incorporated this predicament into her teaching of preservice teachers. Although sometimes nothing can be done with the architecture of the locker/shower area, at least the teachers can be sensitized to the problem. Some preservice teachers have suggested placing portable screens in the locker room to partially alleviate this problem.

Not only were lessons learned about cooperation and privacy, but Native Americans have also taught both authors that there are alternative mechanisms for making decisions other than majority rule. Under majority rule a measure which received a vote of fifty-one "for" to forty-nine "against" would "carry," and the forty-nine people who had voted against the measure would be forced to accept the measure as "passed." Native Americans, however, have taught us that consensus is a viable alternative. In consensus everyone must agree with a particular measure or a plan of action; only then is the proposal "carried." Furthermore, time is taken to reach consensus.

The advantage of agreement by consensus is that there is a unity of purpose when all finally agree; no one is "overruled" and thereby disqualified. To Native Americans everyone has something worth saying and is worth being listened to in the process. For example, in Pueblo communities everyone has the opportunity to speak regardless of the person’s oratory skill. No one attempts to impress others through speech behaviors as might be true of dominant society.

One of the authors, who was assisting a local Indian center in writing a grant proposal, learned the advantages of consensus. Every section and sentence in the grant was scrutinized to see if there was agreement on wording. If and when there was agreement, the next sentence was examined. Sentences were reworded and reworked as much as necessary until all participants were satisfied. Silence connoted consent. There was a mutual respect for all viewpoints. As defined by dominant society, this process was time-consuming. However, when the project was finished, all participants felt a sense of unity and accomplishment in contrast to majority rule in which some participants might have been discontented with the end product.

A related behavior is a tolerance for silence which both authors have internalized to some degree. In the dominant culture, silence tends to make people "nervous." If a pause is perceived as being too lengthy, someone will say something--anything--in an effort to break the silence. In contrast, silence among Native Americans communicates "oneness."

Native Americans recognize that the dominant society expects almost constant conversation. A non-Indian worker on a reservation describes how he and a Native American frequently traveled together to the nearest town to purchase supplies. They routinely engaged in conversation. One day as the two men began their joumey, the Native American asked, "Do you mind if we don’t talk today and just listen to the silence instead?"

Juxtaposed with a tolerance for silence is wait-time. Wait-time as defined in an educational setting is the length of time a teacher pauses after asking a question and also after a student’s response. Native Americans are able to pause after statements and questions since they do not feel compelled to "fill the air" with a steady flow of words. Rowe’s research shows experienced teachers typically wait only one second before they ask a question again (see Note 12). Characteristically such questions require simple recall of one or few word responses and do not challenge higher levels of thinking. Increased wait-time, on the other hand, facilitates intellectual development. Giving a person "time to think" lets that individual engage in speculative thinking. The teacher who uses extended wait-time tends to ask more questions that call for reflection and clarification of meaning. This teacher also exhibits more flexibility in accepting and using students’ responses, possibly because the teacher has more time to hear what each student says.

According to Winterton, increasing "time to think" for Pueblo children whose first language is not English allows them opportunities to gain greater facility in being able to respond in English (see Note 13). Winterton found that extended wait-time results in 1) significantly longer student responses, 2) significant increase in number of student-student comparisons of data, 3) more active verbal participation of usually low-verbal students, 4) decrease of students failing to respond, and 5) students tending to contribute unsolicited but appropriate responses and to initiate appropriate questions. As wait-time is lengthened, student participation increases and the quality of that participation is enhanced. Thus wait-time as a characteristic behavior of Native Americans is a skill worth modeling. The authors, in addition to lengthening the wait-time in their own interactions in the college classroom, encourage their student teachers to increase wait-time with children.

In this paper some of what has been learned as a result of working with Native American people has been identified. Lessons learned in cooperation, privacy, consensus, and wait-time have been discussed. All four constitute viable alternative behaviors which provide positive contributions to the teaching field. As preservice teacher educators both authors are now transmitting these attributes to future teachers. Truly Native American people have "taught us" and "we have changed" as a result.

1. U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Indian Education: A National Tragedy-A National Challenge; Pursuant to S. Res. 80, 91 Congress, 1st Session, 1969, Report No. 91-501, p. 10, in Indian Country. Washington, D.C.: League of Women Voters Education Fund, 1976, p. 60.

2. NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. and the Center for Law and Education (Harvard University). An Even Chance: A Report on Federal Funds for Indian Children in Public School Districts (Annandale, Virginia: Graphics 4, 1971), p. 27, in Indian Country. Washington, D.C.: League of Women Voters Education Fund, 1976, p. 69.

3. Thompson, Thomas, ed. The Schooling of Native America. Washington, D.C., American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 1978, p. 5.

4. Steiner, Stan. The New Indians. New York, Harper and Row, 1968, p. 3 1.

5. Deloria, Vine, Jr. Custer Died for Your Sins. New York, Avon Books, 1969, p. 96.

6. Conklin, Paul. "Good Day at Rough Rock." Teaching Multicultural Populations. James C. Stone and Donald P. DeNevi, eds. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1971, p. 359ff.

7. Dr. Gordon has worked primarily with the Navajo and the Pueblo peoples, and Dr. Boseker has worked with Menominee and Ojibwa peoples.

8. Johnson, David. "Competitive and Cooperative Learning." Paper presented at the Third Annual Minnesota Indian Education Conference. Alexandria, Minnesota, May 4, 1981.

9. Conversation with Sally Wagner, Home-School Coordinator, Fargo (North Dakota) Public Schools, November 10, 1982.

10. For more ideas on cooperative games see: Fluegelman, Andres, The New Games Book (1976) and More New Games! (1981) both available from New Games Foundation, P.O. Box 7901, San Francisco, California 94120.

11. Wagner, op. cit.

12. Rowe, Mary Budd. Teaching Science as Continuous Inquiry. Second edition. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.

13. Winterton, Wayne, "The Effect of Extended Wait-time on Selected Verbal Response Characteristics of Some Pueblo Indian Children." Ph.D. Dissertation, University of New Mexico, 1976.

Sandra L. Gordon is an Assistant Professor at Moorehead State University. She received the Ph.D. degree from the University of New Mexico. Professor Gordon has taught Navajo children in Arizona and on-site courses to the Ojibwa at White Earth, MN.

Barbara J. Boseker, an Assistant Professor of Education at Moorehead State University, received her doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both Drs. Boseker and Gordon can be contacted through Moorehead State University, Moorehead, MN.