Volume 36 Number 2
Winter 1997

The current emphasis on educational reform and restructuring has provided an impetus for schools to search for alternative and more effective governance systems which will promote more effective teaching and learning for all students. In general, the major approaches to school governance reform may be interpreted either as a move toward more centralization and accountability or as a move toward decentralization and local control (Smylie & Denny, 1990). In the former instance, decision-making power is vested in the elected and/or appointed personnel at the system level. In the latter, local communities and school administrators are given the opportunity to make decisions related to operational and planning strategies for their schools.

The discussion concerning appropriate education for American Indian, or First Nations Students spans both approaches as it addresses issues of control and governance, power, or voice. Indeed, questions related to these issues are posed with increased urgency by educators who have come to realize that overlooking the ethnocultural or anti-racist perspectives has compounded many of the political, social, economic, and educational problems existing within Aboriginal communities (e.g., Jordan, 1988; Cummins, 1990).

Increasingly, educators have become aware of the extent to which the educational enterprise is philosophically and pedagogically grounded within the ethnocultural paradigm of the dominant society, a paradigm Which excludes for the most part, the cultural models or belief systems of non-majority group members (Corrigan. 1987, Ogbu, 199 1) and which perpetuates, replicates, and transmits the ideologies of the dominant society. Giroux (1996) has observed that educators who

view the purpose of schools as a culturally neutral enterprise often are silent about the political interests underlying then- discursive practices and reform agendas . . . Pedagogy is a cultural practice understandable only through considerations of history, politics, power, and Culture . . . [Pedagogy is] the terrain through which students critically engage and challenge the diverse cultural discourses, practices, and popular media they experience in their everyday lives. (p. 43)

Too often, education for Aboriginal students has rejected this notion of pedagogy and discouraged any critical discourse related to dominant ideologies and practices.

The Purpose of this paper is to describe, reflect on, and compare the educational efforts and achievements of a state school system in the United States and those of a Canadian Band system with respect to their success in providing appropriate and empowering educational experiences for students. We first present a framework, drawn from Cummins' (1990) empowerment model, for identifying ways in which each system has promoted either an Anglo-conformity orientation or an intercultural orientation with respect to four dimensions: cultural/linguistic incorporation, community participation, pedagogy, and assessment. Second, we describe the broad educational contexts, relevant demographic features, and governance structures of two school districts, one controlled by a Canadian First Nation and one which is part of a state school system in the United States. This broad-based description of the extant forms of governance within the two districts is followed by an examination using the Cummins' model, of the educational practices of representative schools from each context. We conclude with a discussion of the implications related to the role of governance in promoting empowering educational programs.

Freire (1975) suggests that "authentic thought- language is generated in the dialectical relationship between the subject and his [sic] concrete historical and cultural reality" (p. I ). The concept of "authentic thinking" contains within itself a recognition that the process of thinking does not occur in a conceptual vacuum but rather takes place within the sociocultural reality of the thinker.

We do not "think" in isolation, separated from our surroundings, for our thoughts are constantly affected by the "real world" we experience in our daily lives (see Taylor, 1993, pp. 58-61, for an extended discussion on dialogue and transformation; also Denzin, 1992, pp. 82-84, on the role of lived experiences and the "epiphanic moment," p. 83, in the shaping of meaning). This interaction between two forces, the thought processes of the person and the ethnocultural environment within which these processes occur, forms the essence of what Freire ( 1975) and others have termed a dialectical relationship (see McLaren, 1989, pp. 166-169, for further elaboration of dialectical theory). Thus, the ethnocultural perspective chosen for this study begins with this notion of a dialectical relationship.

An Ethnocultural Perspective
The work of Cummins (1984, 1986, 1990, n.d.) provides a framework for intervention which has the intention of moving educational practices for American Indian/First Nations peoples away from an implicit Anglo-conformity orientation to one which attends more closely to the students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The framework emphasizes four dimensions.

First, Cummins ( 1990) identifies the need to analyze and understand the specific stance of policy makers and policy implementers with respect to the role of culture and language (what Phillipson [ 19921 calls -linguistic imperialisim"). He contends that "the extent to which students' language and culture are incorporated into the school program constitutes a significant predictor of academic success" (p. 56). This is consistent with the findings reported in several comprehensive reviews of the literature, ( Building an indivisible..., 1987; Cummins, 1983; Cummins & Swain, 1986); in general, in situations where the first language (L I ) skills of the students are strongly reinforced, school success appears to be increased. Cummins (n.d.) suggests that this success "appears to reflect both the more solid cognitive/academic foundation developed through intensive LI instruction and also the reinforcement of [the students'] cultural identity" (p. 29). As such, the second language (L2) is learned in addition to, rather than instead of, the first language.

This additive approach to bilingualism, however, does not "require the actual teaching of the minority language" (Cummins, 1990, p. 57), but rather is a stance which communicates in a variety of ways that the home language and Culture are valued within the school setting. Such a stance might be manifested through bilingual school notices and letters to the home (Goddard, 1996), the "literature backpack" approach described by Busco (1991), and the inclusion of cultural activities important to the community within the ritual and ceremonial life of the school.

Second, Cummins (1990) considers community participation and teacher roles along a collaborative-exclusionary dimension and posits that "students from dominated communities will be empowered in the school context to the extent that the communities themselves are empowered through their interactions with the school" (p. 57). Parents and educators need to be seen to be working as partners in the education process. This type of collaboration is contrary to the "teacher knows best" axiology embedded in the Anglo-conformity model so prevalent in dominant Culture Schools.

The third component of Cummins' (1990) model relates to the style of pedagogy. Here lie identifies two predominant orientations: a transmission model in which the teacher "initiates or controls the interaction" (p. 60), or a reciprocal-interaction model which fosters a "genuine dialogue between student and teacher in both oral and written modalities" (p. 60) and permits students greater control over their own learning. The former, Cummins asserts, is associated with the domination of minority groups, while the latter may be associated with empowerment. Stryker (1980) observes that symbolic interactionism is defined as people engaging in "different but complementary behaviors creating a circular flow of rights and duties from which each draws benefits" (p. 46). In an educational setting, the teacher and the student enter into discourse which recognizes and validates the lived experiences of both participants in the exchange. As the students are encouraged to surface and voice their own knowledge, so they are empowered to value their personal experiences and ethnocultural realities. Such empowerment, it is posited, leads to higher self-esteem and correspondendly to increased student Success in school.

The fourth component of the model (Cummins, 1990) deals with assess seen either as a legitimizing or an advocacy process. The latter involves delegitimizing "the traditional function of psychological assessment in the educational disabling of minority students by becoming advocates for the child in scrutinizing critically the social and educational context within which the child has developed" (pp. 61-62). The pathology, Cummins insists, needs to be located within the societal power relations between the dominant and dominated groups, and not in the students themselves.

Critical or resistance multiculturalism, as defined by Estrada and McLaren, 1993), "refuses to see Culture its non-conflictual, harmonious, and consensual. . . . It recognizes the ways in which dominant regimes of discourse and social and cultural practices are implicated in global dominance and inscribed in racist, classist, sexist, and homophobic assumptions" (p. 3 1). By building on the language of the students, teachers can create a climate where the development of linguistic and social knowledge is facilitated and valued.

Corson (1991 ) describes the importance of teachers both recognizing and giving value to the "language and dialect repertoires" (p. 12) of students, thus moving towards what Sikkema and Niyekawa (1987) term as an "active Understanding" of sociolinguistic development. Ogbu (1992) and Cummins (1990) explain the differential achievement and performance of students from different ethnic groups based, at least in part, on the historical, institutional treatment of these minority groups in society. Vogt, Jordan, and Tharp (1993) remind us that ESL strategies are not always transferable and should be grounded in the sociocultural context of the community. To that end, much of the work on bilingual and bicultural education (e.g., Burnaby, 1980; Cummins, 1984, 1986; Phillipson, 1988, 1992; Genesee, 1985, 1987) informs our pedagogical analysis.

The research design for this study was multi-faceted. Each researcher had been involved with one of the school districts for several years. Each had developed good relations with district personnel and governing bodies, and had access to relevant policy and organizational documents and demographic information which provided the "wide-lens" and contextual information.

Data Collection
The researchers collected data from participants involved with the two school systems. In the Red Rock School District, this process included six district office personnel, while in the Running Waters School System it included four district office personnel and two Band Councilors.(see note 2) In each system, district personnel, two school principals and eight teachers from two schools were interviewed. It was decided to focus on an elementary and a secondary school from each district in order to gain a more holistic overview of the K-12 schooling offered to students in each district and of the relationships we sought to identify. In a semistructured interview format, respondents were asked questions relating to policies and practices of the district with respect to the four dimensions of Cummins' framework. For example, we asked what philosophies guided the choice of curriculum and the pedagogical discussions within the districts and schools: How do you view the use of home language- Do you have a formal program of cultural instruction? What are the underlying assumptions of the chosen curricula? How is parent involvement viewed within the school?

Teacher-respondents agreed to allow us to conduct observations in their classrooms, where we attempted to find practices which either corroborated or disconfirmed what we had been told during the interviews. In addition, we collected and analyzed documents such as minutes of school district and educational authority meetings, curriculum guides, and policy documents related to language and culture.

Both the data collection and the analysis were conducted consistent with the assumptions and procedures of qualitative research as outlined by Owens (1982) and Fetterman (1988). Owens (1982) emphasizes the importance of context, a holistic, non-judgmental approach, insider views, and the development of dynamic relationships between researchers and respondents. Fetterman (1988) presents the need to understand the underlying beliefs which determine the action of the participants. In all cases, we attempted to listen and understand rather than to judge; peer debriefing, during which we challenged our own assumptions and interpretations, emphasized the need for caution.

Data Analysis
Analysis focused on the identification of emerging concepts, issues, and patterns, first identified individually by each researcher, and then discussed and analyzed with each other and with the site participants, until agreement was achieved by the authors on the meaning and interpretation of these patterns. The segmenting, decontextualizing, and recontextualizing of the data (Tesch, 1990) formed the basis for the discussion of implications.

Red Rock School District
The Red Rock School District is located in a county which is geographically vast (6400 square miles), in many instances remote and isolated, and sparsely populated (see Shields, 1995, 1996). Of the total 12,600 population, approximately 54% are American Indian (mostly Navajo), many of whom reside on historic tribal lands or the reservation. On the reservation, approximately 70% do not have running water or electricity. Although not all dwell in wood and earth hogans, hogans are still built beside the modem clapboard houses or trailers, and are consistently used for traditional practices and ceremonies. American Indians who live off the reservation dwell either in small villages or in family clusters scattered throughout the county; most earn their living by herding sheep, by selling art and crafts (jewelry, baskets, and rugs), and through government assistance. As families try to combine elements of their traditional life-styles with the pressures and advances of modem society, there are immense contrasts and tensions, perhaps best symbolized by the contrast between home and facilities (gyms, computer labs, high tech equipment) to be found in the schools.

The Education System. The school district operates twelve schools, five of which are located in the southern half of the district and serve student populations which are over 95% American Indian. The district is governed similarly to others in the state with an elected school board and a centralized district office. In this district, the elected school board president is Navajo, as are two other members of the all male, five-person board. At the time of writing, of the 17 educators in the central office, headed by a superintendent and assistant superintendent, seven are female; all but the supervisor of the school lunch program who is Hispanic, are Anglo. There are no local boards; however, the members of the central board, in 1995, adopted the practice of rotating the venue of its meetings among the different schools in the district, and offering the host principal the opportunity to present the unique characteristics and/or needs of the school to them.

Governance. During the past academic year, the person previously responsible for district bilingual programs took the position of acting superintendent of education; a bilingual director was hired as his replacement.(see note 3) The district, in an effort to comply with federal guidelines, requires that teachers working with American Indian students acquire either an English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement or a Bilingual-Native Education endorsement. In response to this policy, the local community college has developed a program to offer a certificate in Native Education. Their coordinator, although not technically a central-office employee, is housed in the school-district central office. He is a Navajo, former principal of one of the district elementary schools, and works with personnel from both central office and individual schools. Hence, he is available for consultation, and for occasional workshops. At the present time, only one of the twelve school principals is female, none is American Indian, although approximately half of the teachers and over 90% of the aides and support staff in the southern schools are Navajo.

Political Context. The educational context of this school district is highly complex. While the state constitution was adopted in 1896, the American Indians within the state have only been legally considered citizens since 1942. Until the late 1960s, most educational services to American Indians were provided by the federal government. Currently, although the Navajo Nation receives extensive grants from the federal government and from its own natural resource income and royalties, little of this revenue is expended for educational services. The district receives approximately five million dollars annually in federal funds.

In 1959, while the total county population distribution was similar to current percentages, the percentage of American Indian students enrolled in school was only 6%. By 1974, Navajo students were proportionally represented in the schools (approximately 47%). In the same year, 1974, a representative group of American Indians filed suit against the district alleging discriminatory educational practices. According to the terms of an out-of-court settlement in 1975, several new schools were to be built in the Southern half of the district. These schools were completed and officially opened in 1983. Other agreements arising out of the 1975 settlement included a school in the Far Comer area, an alternate language program for students with limited English proficiency (LEP students), a cultural awareness program and a bilingual program. Subsequent to the 1975 agreement, the educational practices of the district have been closely monitored by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which in 1993, again mandated the implementation of bilingual and bicultural programs in district schools. In one of the most recent legal challenges, again settled out of court in April 1997, the plaintiffs were joined by the federal justice department. At present, there seems to be growing support from some parts of the native community for withdrawing the predominantly native schools from the rest of the district and establishing a governance system under the control of the Tribal Council.

Much of the recent attention has focused on jurisdictional and financial disputes, with the relatively poor standing of the district's American Indian students on norm-referenced standardized achievement tests, inadequate funding, and unequal access to educational services being cited as the main problems. Indeed, the students in this area are described by the plaintiffs as "having seriously deficient language skills," "deficient learning skills," being "deficient in their academic performance," and as having seriously deficient academic achievement rates, school attendance problems, high drop-out rates, and emotional and behavioral problems which are apparent in school disciplinary matters.

While these issues provide some of the educational context for this paper, it is not our intention to take a position in favor of either the district or the plaintiffs. We want to emphasize, however, that governance of American Indian schools by an existing body (in this case, a state school district) is difficult and may be fraught with dissension. This does not automatically mean, however, that a system of self-governance will be more effective in meeting the needs of American Indian/First Nations students.

Running Waters First Nation
Running Waters First Nation schools have been "Band controlled" since 1973. Since that time, all educational decisions have been made by the Chief and Band Council. Under the terms of the treaties signed in the late 1800s, the Canadian federal government has the legal, moral, and financial responsibility to provide education and other services to First Nations. In the early part of this century, this responsibility was often delegated to various churches. After World War II, however, the federal government resumed control of education delivered on reserves(see note 4) Jordan (1988) asserts that it might be said that from approximately 1950 to 1970 "assimilation" was the official Canadian policy regarding the education of Native Indians. In 1972, the National Indian Brotherhood produced a policy statement calling for "Indian Control of Indian Education." Although never officially accepted, the policy paper has influenced an increasing movement towards Indian control of education. Despite the appearance of native control, Longboat, a Native writer, supports the common perception that "roles, relations, and obligations have never been clearly defined between the Department and the First Nations in any scheme for the implementation of Indian control of education programs" (cited in Jordan, 1988, p. 203).

The Education System. The Running Waters First Nation (RWFN) administers one of the largest Aboriginal education systems in Canada. The total population of approximately 13,220 is distributed among the 20 communities of the region. The RWFN operates eight schools serving 1,167 students and located on five reserves which extend along a 200 mile north-south axis. As a result of parental choice policies, and/or a lack of the required grades at a community school, a farther 800 students attend provincial schools. About half of the teachers (48.5%), most of the paraprofessionals (95.6%), and all of the support staff, are of aboriginal ancestry. Under a new funding agreement, instituted in 1995, the RWFN receives a block transfer fund from the federal government and has the autonomy to determine program allocations according to its own criteria.

The size and range of programs offered by the schools varies considerably. In the largest community, a new elementary school built in 1993 offers a nursery to fifth grade program to 239 students. The high school offers sixth to twelfth grades to a further 208 students. Further north is a small, isolated village of 230 people, accessible only by boat during the summer, and by ice road during the winter. Those students who wish to continue beyond eighth grade board and attend high school in one of two neighboring communities.

Governance The RWFN education system might best be described as a series of connected but autonomous schools operating within the loose embrace of an overall governing body. Over time, a multilevel structure has developed consisting of (1) the Chief and Band Council, (2) the Education Authority, (3) the school committees, and (4) the principals and the teachers. All levels of the structure are supported by central office personnel.

Chief and Council.The Chief and twelve member Band Council are the final arbiters of all matters, including education. They are elected by the membership of the RWFN, and serve two year terms of office (currently ten are male, and two female). As a result of the terms of their Treaty with the Crown, signed in 1889, the Chief and Band Council have sole authority for all expenditures and decisions involving the RWFN. With a rapidly growing population, and the decentralization of federal services to the band level, the Chief and Band Council of the RWFN became increasingly unable to attend to educational matters. As the Council became more and more distant from the policy making process, so power became centralized in the hands of one or two individuals. In January 1992 the establishment of an Education Authority was approved.

Education authority.Membership in the Education Authority is limited to nine members of the RWFN (at present, six are male and three female). The six major communities or groups of reserves, regardless of size, each elect one representative. The Council of Elders nominates one of its members to be on the Educational Authority, and two Band Councilors who hold an education portfolio complete the membership. All members serve for two year terms. The role of the Education Authority includes the development of system-wide policies, the approval of staff recruitment processes, the preparation and monitoring of budget expenditures, and all other issues related to the efficient administration of the system. The chair of the Education Authority reports to the bi-monthly Band Council meetings.

School committees. The third level of governance is that of the school committees. There are six of these groups, elected at the community level and mandated to guide the operations of the school, or schools, within that community. The school committee is heavily involved in matters of local interest including interviewing potential staff, making recommendations with respect to the hiring and firing of teachers, setting policy concerning bussing, school closure, and so forth. The current membership is seventeen male and ten female.

School administration.The principal is responsible for the implementation of system and local policies, as well as the day to day operations of the school, although he/she does receive direction from the school committee with respect to curricular innovations, expenditures over a certain limit (usually $200 per item), student discipline, and so forth. The principal also acts as a professional development facilitator for school-committee members who may not have high levels of formal education themselves but who are cognizant of the political realities within the local community. Of the principals, six are male and two are female; half are Anglo and the other four are Aboriginal.

System administration. Central Office staff, as in Red Rock District, provide co-ordination and support services. The Director of Education works primarily with both tribal and external governing bodies in a highly politicized position. The Superintendent of Education, whose job is a predominantly professional position, works extensively with the Education Authority, the school committees, and principals. There are four superintendents (three male, one female). The Superintendent of Curriculum heads the Curriculum Resource Unit, a group whose mandate is to ensure that the curriculum addresses local needs, including Cree Language and Culture programs and a Cree bilingual immersion program for elementary grades. The Superintendent of Education is the only Anglo, a male with his doctorate in educational administration.

There are demographic similarities between the two districts. Towns and communities are small and scattered, schools are small and sometimes remote. Access to education is still an issue for some students in both school districts. A number of families live in isolated homes or cabins, and have no reliable means of transport to the nearest school. In families which maintain a traditional lifestyle, teenage children are often expected to leave school and accompany a parent in activities such as trapping, hunting, skinning, sheep-herding, weaving, and so forth. In some Band-controlled communities, an elementary school exists but older students are required to attend a distant residential facility in order to complete their high school studies. For all students, quite apart from the traumatic history of residential schools for Aboriginal peoples (e.g., Berger, 1991; Dickason, 1992), there is often an added financial burden of travel, clothing, food, and so forth. These factors may conspire against the success of American Indian or First Nations children.

We have found that governance in both Running Waters First Nation and Red Rock School District is conducted primarily by males. In RWFN, there are more formal levels of governance, and more organizational structures and committees with which to deal, while the organization of the Red Rock School District, although definitely hierarchical, has fewer levels.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, several community "cottage discussion" groups were established to determine community wishes with respect to education. One finding of the cottage groups was that there existed a need for schools not just to include, but actively to promote and develop, the Cree language and culture. Further to this belief, a logo was developed which depicted four eagle feathers hanging from a round skin drum. The drum symbolizes communication, the circle of life, and the cyclical nature of the seasons of the Woods Cree. The eagle feathers represent culture, pride, values, and skills. This logo continues to be a pictorial representation of the central mission statement of the RWFN education branch, and is prominent on all stationary, publications, and displays.

The role of Cree language and culture in the school is under increasing review. The lack of materials, particularly to support the intermediate program (grades 4-9), the absence of a structured curriculum, the difficulty in recruiting teachers who not only speak Cree but are willing to teach it, the problems associated with attempting to teach culture within 45 minute timetable slots, and the perceived "second-class" nature of these courses, have all contributed to the debate. Indeed, there are some who would argue that the bilingual/bicultural program is simply resulting in children who are illiterate in two languages. Nevertheless, according to a handbook prepared by the RWFN:

[The] Cree world view is holistic. This means that understanding of natural processes must not be isolated from the whole relationships that are interdependent.'.. Cree language is designed to be spoken .... If the Cree language/culture is to be transmitted to the younger generations, then it must be integral to their life experiences. Hence, Cree language must be the language of instruction in the children's education. Language transmits culture, but English cannot benignly translate Indigenous cultures. (RWFN, 1994, p. 30)

From the situation of 20 years ago, when the inclusion of language and culture was the main goal, the focus has moved to a more theoretical debate. The issues are complex and need not be elaborated here; nevertheless, it is important to know that an argument continues to rage as to which written form of Cree is most appropriate. As the RWFN grapples with these dilemmas, one positive aspect is that language and culture continue to dominate the educational agenda.

In 1994, the Red Rock School System introduced a plan for a district "Developmental/ ESL Bilingual Program." This was followed in 1995, by a Bilingual Education Management Plan. Primarily designed to bring the district into compliance with federal mandates by providing "equal and equitable access for all children" (Developmental bilingual program, 1994), the major components of these plans include procedures to identify and assess the language proficiency of PHLOTE students (primary home language other than English), a description of the district special education program, a summary description of some instructional strategies to be used in each school, and a staff development component - including courses designed to assist teachers to obtain ESL or bilingual endorsements. The plan is completed by components related to administration and leadership, community involvement, and evaluation procedures. Following assessment of a child as limited English proficient (LEP), parents are asked to sign a letter either approving of their child's participation in a bilingual program or stating "I disapprove of my child's involvement in a bilingual program, and would like him/her to remain in a traditional classroom." Thus, the implicit plan of the district is to offer the bilingual program outside of the regular classroom.

This is not, however, what occurs in the two schools we examined for this study in which the regular program and bilingual program were inextricably integrated. Because the Navajo language, like Cree, has developed through oral traditions, and has only had a written form for about a century, many fluent Navajo speakers, including many of the teachers and aides, have never read or written in their language. In addition, there are few curricular materials written in native languages for any subject or grade level. Rather than attempt to offer a bilingual program separate from the "regular" school program, the staff of Red Rock Elementary School has developed its own comprehensive approach to bilingual instruction and the creation of a language rich environment. Teachers have implemented a "Daily Oral Language" program (1989), the Accelerated Reader Program (1993), and are encouraging the use of both Navajo and English in and out of the classrooms. Specifically, in kindergarten, children are using a computerized introduction to language and at the primary (K - 3) grades, teachers have chosen the "Doing Words" program (Johnson, 1987) for instruction in a whole language mode of both English and Navajo. At the intermediate grades (4 - 6), the focus of the school bilingual program is a series of book-making projects in both languages.

At Canyon Collegiate, the problem of how to implement an appropriate and effective bilingual program is compounded by the fact that many of the subject specialist teachers do not speak Navajo, nor are there always Native-speaking subject specialist teachers available. However, consistent with Cummins's (1990) contention that the home language need not always be taught directly, the high school has also focused on the development of language-rich environments and has conceptualized innovative ways of approaching bilingual education. When funds were available, a half-time peer coach trained teams of Navajo teacher aides to work with a regular classroom teacher to help students to understand and to manipulate concepts. For instance, during a recent visit, we observed aides reviewing concepts related to friction (moving, rolling, and liquid friction, for example) prior to going to a physical science class where they helped the teacher divide students into small groups to understand the vocabulary and new concepts. Although the subject teachers may not be bilingual, with the help of the aides, students are encouraged to use and manipulate concepts in both English and Navajo. At other times, aides are assigned to classes and follow specific groups of students throughout their school day, assisting with the integration of language and subject matter.

In addition to the general emphasis on language, the high school offers classes in Navajo language and culture. The teacher responsible for these classes also works with other teachers as a curriculum developer and consultant, helping them to provide materials and to build units which incorporate elements of Navajo culture and tradition into every subject area. Local plants, astronomy, geography, legends, and understanding of clan structure are examples of elements which are being integrated into the core curriculum.

In both of these schools, the principals and teachers alike state, "What we do is our bilingual program." This statement reflects their firm belief that their approach to bilingual education is fully integrated with the mandated state core curriculum and that it cannot be seen as an "add-on" or optional program component. It is also very much a bicultural program as elements of culture and language are being interwoven into all aspects of the curriculum. Here it is important to note that the recent scrutiny of the OCR and pressure from court cases has had a significant impact at the district level, resulting in the completion of official plans and policies which comply with OCR mandates and in the hiring of a person responsible for district bilingual programs. Nevertheless, at the level of individual schools, most of the initiatives described in this paper had been in place, necessitating only some formalization and paper work to bring the schools' initiatives into alignment with the legal mandates.

One way to develop programs for minority students which may help to overcome the tendency towards Anglo conformity is to move towards inclusion of community members, norms, values, and cultural practices, rather than for the school to maintain an insular and exclusionary stance toward the community. During the summer of 1994, a pilot program was implemented by the two Red Rock schools which brought together computer experts, Navajo translators, and women elders from the community to teach students about traditional Navajo rug weaving, basket making, and bead work. Designs were developed on the computers, and objects of art were actually completed under the direction of the elders who took advantage of the opportunity to share the cultural traditions, symbolism, and meaning associated with their work. Students learned geometry, computer skills, and a great deal about culture and values (Ndahoo'aah.... 1994). This is another example of a type of program which, it is hoped, will expand to become a more integral part of many classes during the regular school year.

Many community members participate in the Red Rock schools in more traditional ways as well. Parents work as volunteers, attend parent-teacher conferences during which they discuss the progress of their child based on individual portfolios, and participate in Parent Advisory Committee meetings. High school parents show support for athletic events and often travel long distances at personal expense to support teams on road trips. The administrators hope to capitalize on the high community attendance at sports events to introduce short "pregame sessions" which will help parents to support the educational efforts of the schools, for example, how they may help with homework, the importance of reading to their children, or how they may know if their students are taking drugs.

Within the Running Waters First Nation, the elected and multi-level governance structure ensures active community participation as members are responsive to their communities. The Council of Elders, which has representation at all three formal levels of governance, serves to keep administrative processes in line with the traditional Cree world view and beliefs. As employees of the RWFN teachers and administrators are highly motivated to ensure that their actions are inclusive of, and representative of, community norms and values. Staff are employed on one year contracts which are normally renewed from year to year, based on professional evaluations and classroom observations by in-school and system administrators. The decision on renewal, however, is made by the Education Authority and ratified by Chief and Council with recommendation from individual school committees.

In addition to their full and active participation in the governance of the schools, community members are also involved in the teaching and learning process. Parents attend conferences to discuss individual student progress, act as chaperones on school trips, are coaches in a variety of sports, and take advantage of open houses, concerts, and other events to visit the school. As in Red Rock District, the small and tightly-knit nature of the RWFN communities means that parents, through chance meetings at the store, the post office, and so forth, are also able to visit with teachers on a continual, informal level.

Each RWFN school has a budget for resource persons included in its funding protocol. This is used to provide community members with a modest honorarium in return for their direct interaction with students. Some schools use this budget to invite elders into the school to recount stories and legends. Another has retained a trapper and his wife, and uses them as guides and "cabin-parents" at an annual cultural camp which is much anticipated by students and staff alle. Here ninth grade students, together with their teachers and some parents, spend a week living in the bush. They hunt, fish, trap, gather berries and fruit, and live a close facsimile of a traditional life. In all schools, major events such as Christmas concerts, graduations, Treaty Day, and so forth, are marked by community feasts. Using their resource budget, some schools will hire cooks and purchase food. Parents will contribute their time and, if the hunting or fishing has been good, a portion of the food. In some communities, the school gyms are used as halls in which to hold wakes and memorial feasts for the dead. They are also places of celebration for dances and wedding receptions. Within the RWFN the school is part and parcel of the community and is a resource for the whole community. This participation has developed largely as a result of local control.

One way to discuss the pedagogy of each site is to identify the dominance of either a transmission model or an interactionist approach. A transmission stance emphasizes traditional approaches to teaching and learning where the teacher believes he/she has facts and knowledge to communicate or "transmit" 'to the students who will either "learn" or not. Such an approach tends to perpetuate teacher talk, the use of classroom sets of textbooks which are unlikely to be in heritage languages, and a traditional Eurocentric approach to curriculum with occasional "add-ons" to recognize the cultural uniqueness of a particular class or student body (Cummins, 1983,1984; Giroux, 1996; Livingstone, 1983).

An interactionist approach, however, recognizes that meaning "grow[s] out of social interaction.... [from which] one learns to classify objects one comes in contact with and in that process also learns how one is expected to behave with reference to those objects" (Stryker, 1980, p. 54). The students are active participants in their own learning and are empowered to voice and value their own lives and experiences. They are not made to feel inadequate or marginalized because of their minority status (Denzin, 1992; Estrada & McLaren, 1993; McLaren, 1989).

In both districts, we noted that when teachers, in interviews, implied that low levels of English language competence seemed to equate to low academic ability, they also tended to use more strategies which we would term transmissive, such as worksheets and answering factual questions from text-book exercises. Nevertheless, there was also some encouraging evidence of more interactive pedagogy in each district.

In RWFN schools there is a wide discrepancy between linguistic incorporation and the inclusiveness of the community in governance and, the teaching and learning environment in the classrooms. For many teachers, the school serves as the medium through which students will acquire "western" or "Anglo" knowledge. This, broadly defined, is that which is described in the provincial curriculum. The Cree language and culture courses, although scheduled and funded in the same way as other programs, are still considered secondary to the "real" purpose of schooling. This affects the pedagogical approach which is taken, as no real partnership is either envisaged or encouraged. As one school administrator says:

We cannot teach the culture, we cannot teach the language, but we know that [die] parents can and the grandparents can.... As far as the academics go, the teachers, and I would include myself in that, would see ourselves as the pri mary educators of the formal education.

Yet, despite teacher perceptions of inadequate preparation (Goddard, 1995), RWFN teachers do try to develop thematic lesson plans which recognize and include Cree culture. Junior high science lessons in plant biology, for example, include references to and examples of traditional medicinal plants. Elementary math lessons utilize local game as units for counting and comparison, while the social studies curriculum has been adapted so that students discuss the Treaties and Band Council governance rather than the constitution and the structure of a municipal town council. The high school home economics programs involve students in all aspects of the making of traditional clothes, from the skinning of the moose to the embroidery on the finished mitts or jacket.

In the Red Rock Schools, teachers are making a serious effort to help students to move beyond superficial curriculum adaptations. For example, over the past three years, high school students have developed a performing arts demonstration which they have presented to groups of tourists passing through the area. Navajo teachers have worked increasingly with this performing arts group to help students understand the history, meaning, and significance of the chants, songs, and dances which they have been learning. Sometimes students have been asked to perform pow-wow dances for special school board functions or meetings. Principals and teachers have begun to distinguish between those requests which have educational or pedagogical content and those which appear to be primarily superficial approaches to the incorporation of culture into the school program; the latter are increasingly rejected.

For the last three years at Red Rock Elementary School, an aide has been assigned to a Math lab; teachers have contributed most of their math manipulative materials to the lab, and work with the aide to determine hands-on math activities to support their daily lessons. Regular workshops are held at the elementary school to help teachers understand and implement a variety of models of instruction into their teaching repertoires. Several teachers from both schools attend summer programs related to language instruction and to incorporating problem-based learning into their instructional practices. Thus, teachers are working constantly to acquire new repertoires of teaching strategies, to develop more locally relevant course materials, and to persist with new instructional methods while students are discovering the new parameters for their educational programs. The task is not easy either for teachers or students who have become accustomed to the assumptions and expectations of a transmission model of instruction. Despite the continuation of many of the transmission strategies and much state approved Eurocentric curriculum, progress is evident.

Assessment for advocacy rather than for legitimization, according to Cummins (1990) additive approach, emphasizes knowledge of what students are learning rather than the legitimization of schooling by identifying how students have performed on standardized tests. For example, when we determine that many questions on the state-mandated standardized test are posed in the negative, it becomes important to help teachers and students to understand that Navajo speakers tend to answer a negative question in the affirmative. Hence, a little boy asked by a peer, "Don't you like being picked on-" answered, "Yes." The meaning of this response was, Yes, You are right, I don't like being picked on. Identifying such problems with assessment and ensuring that those who administer and interpret test scores understand the problematic issues is one form of advocacy which is being practiced in Red Rock School.

Implementing new assessment strategies, such as portfolios, which demonstrate what students have actually learned is particularly important for these schools. Developing context-appropriate measures, such as the English writing standards developed by the high school staff, is another useful approach. While standardized test scores of the elementary school students are up overall, from the 7th to the 19th percentile in one year, and high school teachers affirm that students entering their school have better skills and seem more motivated than in the past, much more needs to be done to implement advocacy assessment stratgegies across both schools. State and district officials Still focus on the deficient test scores. and emphasize deficit and remedial models of instruction. An empowerment model would recognize and work from student strengths, would not focus on identification of students whose home language is not English or on students of "limited English proficiency," but would concentrate on providing for all students language rich and instructionally-challenging environment.

Within the Running Waters First Nation there has been a long history of rejection of standardized tests. The inherent cultural and linguistic bias of such instruments was identified as one of the reasons so many Aboriginal students were classified as academically weak. Over the past four years there has been an attempt to re-introduce standardized testing but this process has met with mixed reactions. Proponents argue that the results can, and should, be used to establish a base line and then to plot trends across individual schools as well as across the system. There may be bias, it is argued, but at least it is a consistent bias, from one school to the next and from one year to the next. Detractors argue that the results of the tests will be misconstrued by the non-educators on the various governing bodies, and used to develop a "league-table" ranking of the schools. They believe that this, in turn, will lead to conflict between schools as well as to possible funding differentials.

The RWFN has attempted to overcome some of the problems associated with the commercial, and perceived Eurocentric, standardized tests by developing its own assessment instruments. From 1991 to 1994, teachers elected by their peers at the annual orientation, were given professional development time to sit on one of five subject examination committees. These committees met monthly and developed, monitored, reviewed, and revised common examinations for sixth and ninth grade students, in the core subject areas of English language arts, Cree language arts, math, science, and social studies. At the end of the school year, all RWFN students in these grades wrote the examinations. As a concession to the ongoing debate, the examinations were approved for a five year period only, beginning in 1992, and it was agreed that the results were to be neither publicized nor shared between schools. At the request of the Chief and Band Council, and in an attempt to promote the examination process, the top student in each subject, at each grade level, is awarded a prize at the annual awards day. Early fears that one or both of the two large schools would "sweep" these awards were shown to be unfounded, and the smaller schools became more enthusiastic in their support of the process.

However, we have found that one must be cautious about making direct causal linkages between increased local control and improved educational programs. We have noted that in the Running Waters First Nation schools until 1992, the chief and band council of RWFN had only cursory involvement in educational matters. In fact this led to the formation, after considerable encouragement from the superintendent of education, of the Education Authority.

Although linguistic and cultural policies have been in place in the Running Waters First Nation for some time, and have resulted in such curricular practices as offering Cree language and culture in separate but compulsory courses through ninth grade, the debate over which alphabet or written form of Cree to use seems to have focused attention at a theoretical rather than a pedagogical level. Our sense is that this has resulted in Cree language being offered as an option like any other within the daily curriculum rather than as a means for student empowerment through linguistic incorporation throughout the curriculum.

Within Red Rock School System, local control, community participation, and involvement in governance processes seem minimal at present. However, parent councils have been established and a renewed interest in cultural and linguistic policy and incorporation has become evident within the schools over the last three years, partly as a result of outside pressure in the form of litigation and legislation.

Theoretical debates, similar to those in RWFN, for example, over the advantages and disadvantages of ESL or bilingual programs, or the best way to offer a bilingual program in a language which has no written history and few educational materials, certainly take place in Red Rock School System. However, at the level of the individual schools in this study, considerable progress has also been made in creating environments in which students and teachers feel comfortable using either or both languages in their formal instruction or informal interactions. In addition, teachers and principals have indicated that the first few courses taken to fulfill the federal requirement that they complete bilingual certification have provided more opportunity for thinking, learning, discussing, and understanding the real issues involved than all of their previous teacher training, preservice and in-service activities. The combination of strong motivation and attempts at meaningful intervention by school-based educators appear to be more effective in creating an additive approach to language instruction than either specific policy or local control.

We have noted that one effect of the difference in organization and governance structure has been an apparent increase in the community involvement in the Running Waters First Nation schools. Whereas the schools in the Red Rock System appear to struggle to develop forms of parent and community participation which extend beyond attendance at school sponsored events, the RWFN schools are central to the life and culture of the whole community.

The formation of the district Education Authority with an elected representative from each RWFN community, the existence of local school committees with meaningful responsibility, and the availability of a budget for resource persons which permits the payment of honoraria for direct interaction with students, all seem to be factors in increasing community participation. Local control also seems to promote the use of school facilities for celebrations and activities, while in the Red Rock system, the use of school facilities is somewhat more closely regulated by district policy.

In Running Waters First Nation, there is an awareness among community members of some deficiencies in the areas of pedagogy and assessment practices. These concerns are generally dismissed by the professional education staff, Anglo and Aboriginal alike, as being of little consequence. The opposite seems to be true of the communities of Red Rock District included in this study. For instance, during a recent accreditation evaluation of Canyon Collegiate, surveys were distributed to parents and other community members. For a school population of approximately 250 students, over 100 parent surveys were returned; of these, the predominant response was that the schools were doing a good job of educating the students. In fact, the principal reported that a number of parents wrote additional comments to that effect, supporting the efforts and programs of the school over its entire eleven-year history in the community. Despite community support, in these schools in Red Rock district, it is the principals and teachers who are aware of the need and who provide the impetus for pedagogical change. Further, despite the additional pressure for change which has been imposed by recent federal mandate, we have found that school-based educators in this District had been making concerned individual efforts, at least since 1992,(see note 5) to address the perceived problems. Hence, while the new mandate has created a more consistent district awareness and response to the problems, it is fair to say that in the two schools we studied, it has not been a major cause of pro-active activity by teachers or administrators. Our data therefore suggest that there is not a direct relationship between local control and the implementation of empowerment pedagogy.

Two factors seem to contribute to differences in assessment practices. The Canadian education system has never adopted or relied upon standardized testing to the extent of the American system. This fact, coupled with local control, seems to enable the Canadian Band-controlled schools to develop more meaningful and culturally fair assessment practices than schools of Red Rock District. It may be true for the schools in both systems that the use, and appropriate analysis, of a standardized test could provide constant (if biased) baseline data to enable more trend analysis of student achievement than has been practiced in the past. However, the RWFN use of locally-developed common examinations for specific grades and subject areas seems particularly promising. In Red Rock School district, and to a lesser extent the Canadian schools, there is evidence that where standardized, norm-referenced tests are administered, the results are used for inappropriate school-level comparisons and not for the establishment of baseline data or for analytical purposes. In fact, one of the Red Rock principals has said, "We do not use testing; we test," implying that although tests are administered, there is no useful analysis or discussion related to the information thus acquired. Although it falls short of advocacy assessment, Band control does seem to facilitate increased latitude in terms of developing more contextually appropriate forms of assessment of student learning.

In this paper we have explored issues of governance, power, and empowerment within two school systems which are distinct in terms of geography, culture, and language. We have identified many issues of common concern which play out quite differently in the two contexts. We have not addressed the role played by the different etlmocultural identities of each community. The Woods Cree were historically a semi-nomadic people organized in small family groups of huntergatherers. These groups came together a few times each year and recognized a tribal identity only on the basis of a common language. In contrast, the Navajo were historically a more settled, farming people organized by clan relationships. The extent to which the community structures and social behaviors emanating from these histories have had, or continue to have, an effect on the organization and governance of the schools is an issue worthy of further study. In addition, we recognize that although we have focused on differences related to governance structure, the issue of the ethnicity of the decision-makers within each context is also beyond the scope of this discussion. Nevertheless, this broad-brush preliminary investigation has permitted us to identify some areas which we believe would be useful for further investigation and to suggest what we believe to be important, if preliminary, implications of what we have learned.

We have found that local or Band control of education, as well as a small funding allocation, seems to be associated with increased community involvement in and responsibility for schools, as well as with the possibility of initiating and implementing more appropriate and advocacy-oriented forms of assessment. However, our investigation suggests that district policies regarding linguistic incorporation are not necessarily associated with increased development of languagerich environments in which both heritage language and second language development may occur simultaneously. Rather, they may actually enhance a more theoretical debate. In fact, in our study, more linguistic incorporation seems to have happened in Red Rock schools as a result of teacher commitment combined with outside pressure than in the RWFN as a result of policy. With respect to curriculum and assessment, the paradox continues. Teachers in the two Red Rock schools are concerned, almost to the point of preoccupation and burnout, with finding ways to revise curricular and instructional content and to incorporate better practices to improve the educational experience for their students. (Requests from lawyers for both sides that teachers and school-based administrators provide retroactive documentation for their ongoing efforts have certainly added an additional layer of pressure.) In RWFN the concerns reside largely with the education committees and the community rather than with the school personnel. While Red Rock schools emphasize an interactive approach to pedagogy, it is in RWFN that steps toward advocacy assessment have been taken.

The differences in assessment practices we identified may have been more closely related to national differences than to local or district governance structures. We found some indication that local control was positively associated with more appropriate assessment strategies. We also found evidence that all schools serving American Indian or First Nations students might profitably work actively for culturally appropriate forms of assessment and, at the same time, for more useful analysis of existing information. Changes in the practice and forms of assessment which relate to new forms of instruction, recognize the involvement of community members, and incorporate community languages and cultural practices appear to be possible in both systems.

In our study, Band or local control did seem to enhance community involvement in and awareness of governance issues. Yet, we found in each case, that interactive pedagogical practices that engage students more completely in the processes of learning were associated more with the priorities of site-based educators than with local control of governance structures. It would, therefore, appear that the governance level most directly concerned with the improvement of pedagogical practices is the level of site-based administrators and educators.

Thus, we believe it is incumbent on site-based administrators and educators to examine the pedagogical practices and assumptions at each school. For instance, in schools in both districts, cultural events are sometimes introduced in the form of special days or weeks, or heritage song or dance presentations. Yet, as educators become more proficient at implementing Cummins' (1990) empowerment model, they might choose to reexamine these and other practices to determine whether there is a need to have such a "cultural awareness week" (except to teach non-Native cultural traditions), in a culturally responsive curriculum.

While a culturally responsive curriculum may be implemented within an individual school by concerned and sensitive educators, changes in instructional practice which are not founded on both community involvement and linguistic incorporation appear to be incomplete. Quite apart from issues of governance, and consistent with Ogbu's (1992) premises then, we signal the need for groups in each educational context to meet together to begin to establish meaningful levels of critical dialogue and mechanisms for increased levels of community involvement.

Thus, our study has raised questions concerning how and to what extent governance and pedagogy might be more tightly inter-related. We have become aware that long-standing policy and bilingual programs do not automatically ensure that language and culture are central to curriculum or instructional practices within a school. Nor do they necessarily help students to become fluent in their heritage language or to acquire the conceptual skills necessary for academic achievement. We have found that although Band control does seem to facilitate more appropriate forms of student assessment, important prior pedagogical questions seem not to have been addressed; for example, who should teach what, and in what way- Increased community involvement in education in RWFN seems to have been accompanied by increased teacher defensiveness and resistance to change. This leads us to ask what mechanisms might be developed to promote meaningful dialogue between educators and parents as the latter's involvement in schools increases?

Regardless of district governance or policy, and outside of federal mandate, we have found that change can and does happen in schools where the principals and teachers demonstrate a willingness to learn about anti-racist education and to implement programs consistent with its premises. Teachers and administrators at each school do have the opportunity to implement a more critical approach to multiculturalisin and bilingualism. This, in turn, raises the additional question of how to find appropriate site-specific ways to implement an additive approach to language and culture (Cummins, 1984, 1990; Ogbu, 1992; Vogt, Jordan, & Tharp; 1993).

Education and educational leadership in American Indian or First Nation environments are fraught with conflicting ideologies. History and tradition, administrative training and teacher education programs, and conflicting community interpretations of how students prepare to lead successful lives, have all contributed to the tendency for education in these contexts to be disempowering. We have posited that in order to overcome these difficulties, it is incumbent upon educators to attend both to issues of governance and to issues of pedagogy, for one does not automatically take care of the other. Indeed, our study has raised questions concerning how to connect governance and pedagogy.

Proponents of traditional approaches to educating Native and First Nations students hope that their efforts will lead to economic success even if they require subjugation of language and culture. Nevertheless, the reality is actually opposite. The more students are steeped in their own language and culture, the better they achieve academically and economically (Deyhle, 1994). If some of the difficulties inherent in an Anglo-conformity approach to education are to be overcome, then it appears that changes will have to be made in the ways in which policy is conceptualized, developed, and implemented both by traditional school districts and by First Nations Band councils. What we have found is a need, in both systems, for what Freire (1975) called authentic thought-language, "generated in the dialectical relationship between the subject and his [sic] concrete historical and cultural reality" (p. 1). Neither local control, federal legislation, nor pressures of litigation can substitute for this critical dialogue and the development of shared understandings about the elements of Cummins' (1990) model.

Giroux (1992) has emphasized the need for educators to "deconstruct the assumptions and interests that limit and legitimate the very questions we ask" (p. 18). Some frequent assumptions include claims regarding the inherent superiority of one governance system over another; beliefs that policy implies practice; and faith that local control automatically overcomes an Anglo-conformity model of education. However, we believe that, based on our findings and discussion, these are clearly assumptions which need to be challenged if educators and community members seriously wish to develop an approach to education which empowers First Nations or American Indian students.

Giroux further advocates that educational leaders (regardless of organizational structure) develop a "language of critical imagination, one that ... does not begin with the question of raising test scores, but with a moral and political vision of what it means to educate students to govern, lead a humane life, and address the social welfare of those less fortunate than themselves" (p. 19). This language of critical imagination is not inherent in any particular form of educational governance.

In fact, our data have demonstrated that neither model of governance alone has provided, and likely cannot provide, the impetus for the development of a vision of education which will empower American Indian or First Nations students. We believe that within any model of governance, the ability to facilitate and encourage a discourse of critical multiculturalism (Estrada & McLaren, 1993) is necessary to facilitate such empowerment. Thus, governing bodies, community members, teachers and administrators at each school together share the responsibility for the implementation of a more critical approach to multiculturalism and bilingualism - one which is more collaborative, inclusive, and empowering for all students.

1. We are conscious that different groups of aboriginal people use different terms to speak of themselves. In this paper, we have tried to be sensitive to this issue and, at the same time, to avoid redundancy. Hence, we use the terms American Indian and First Nations People as synonyms and equally appropriate in different cultural settings.
2. Pseudonyms have been employed for all names of persons, places, schools, and systems used in this paper.
3. A new superintendent was subsequently hired and the acting incumbent retired.
4. Throughout this paper, the term "reserve" is used in the Canadian context and the term "reservation" in the U. S. context.
5. In 1992, the school District had received a large grant designed to address the needs of at-risk students and to reduce high drop-out rates. Under this grant, a peer coach was placed at each school and numerous school-based and District-wide inservice activities were held. It was at this time that one of the authors began work in the District, first as an inservice provider, and subsequently as a researcher.