Culturally Sustaining and Revitalizing Pedagogies

Language, Culture, and Power

Cathy Coulter, Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Cathy Coulter, Margarita Jimenez-Silva

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781787147553
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

Today's schools compartmentalize children and curriculum. Standardization dictates curricular content and assessment, narrowing the focus of classrooms and schools that serve diverse populations from varied geographical backgrounds. Against the backdrop of the western-derived, institutional framework of schooling are cultural ways of knowing that are place-based, holistic, experiential, and connected to oral storytelling. In the current movement toward acknowledging and understanding cultural knowledge, teacher education programs need to work in collaboration with cultural communities, honoring traditions and epistemologies and seeking to revitalize and sustain (Paris, 2012) language and culture. Such initiatives inform the big picture of educational reform and enrich mainstream university teacher education programs. This book highlights the journeys, challenges and unfolding stories of transformation that reside within university/community/school partnerships focused on cultural and linguistic revitalization through schooling.

PART I: POWER

VOICES FROM THE COMMUNITY: I AM MAANGAQ

Neva Mathias

I would like to give an inside view of being an Alaskan Cup’ik Eskimo student going to a Western-based boarding school outside of our village such as in Bethel, Anchorage, or Kenai in the late 1970s and how I have applied all that to my family life after high school graduation and kept my personal Cup’ik values and customs.

My name is Neva Mathias. Maangaq is my Cup’ik name after my fraternal grandmother. I was born in Chevak in 1957 to my parents, James and Theresa Mathias (Ciimaar and Nauyugaq). I was the fourth of their eight children, but their firstborn son died when he was just an infant, so I have one older sister and brother, one younger brother, and three younger sisters. Both my parents have passed away and so has our youngest sister. I have six children and the two youngest are adopted. My son, Derek was born in 1980, my daughter Erica in 1983, Eddie in 1991, my baby John in 1994, Joseph in 2002, and my precious baby girl, Theresa Rena in 2015. I have two grandsons and three granddaughters, Dirk, Ali, and Reagan (Derek’s children) and Novely and Baby James (Erica’s children).

In the early 1960s, our village school was under the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and it was only up to eighth grade. I really don’t remember when the school started in our village. As long as I can remember, we had “kassaq” (White man) teachers and they taught only in the English language. So each student after 8th grade was sent away to high school in places that have boarding schools such as Chemauwa, Oregon or St. Mary’s, Bethel, Anchorage, or Kenai, Alaska. Our parents were told we needed to go away to high school and they didn’t resist or question because of respect they had for the “kassaqs.” It was also what all Chevak families did. Our parents wanted their children to have and learn about the luxuries and comforts of the western world. Because at those times, we were getting to know the availability of better living conditions compared to what we were used to before the White man came with all the extra western foods and basic household goods, along with the western education. Before all this, as a very young girl in the 1960s, I never thought we were poor, for I was always willing to learn all the ways of acquiring our natural foods we get from our “nunamteni” (our village and tundra land).

When I went to high school in Chugiak, Alaska with a few of my relatives, everything was in English. We had no idea about how to manage city life but were expected to function just as good as any student that was going to school there. So, I put all that I am under my skin (who I was – a Cup’ik Eskimo from a small village in western Alaska, my own language, my own family, my traditions, customs, and culture) to learn everything in English. I just listened, tried to understand what was being taught, and did what I was told to do, at least tried to do it as best I could to pass all my classes. Everything about the western world was different, interesting, hard, and overwhelming. I thought I wasn’t smart enough because I couldn’t speak or write well enough in English. I was always quiet, but I observed and listened and somehow got enough credits to graduate. Ever since I was small, I was taught to listen, observe, and try or carry on and never question what I was told to do out of respect for my parents or Elders.

I went back home and our village was well on the way of becoming westernized in every way. In 1976, I went on to Kuskokwim Community College in Bethel to become a licensed practical nurse. I graduated in 1977 and worked at the Bethel hospital for a while. I went back to Chevak and became a health aide at the local clinic. After my first child Derek was born in 1980, I taught him the English language as his first language because I thought I was doing him a favor so he’d do well in his schooling in the western world. Now I realize I made a mistake by not teaching him our Cup’ik language as his first language because he has said to me, “You should’ve taught me how to speak in Cup’ik when I was small.” He speaks and writes village English and understands most of the Cup’ik language when spoken to, but he does not speak it well. How much more precious our native language is nowadays, since our Cup’ik language seems to be dwindling with each new generation!

So at this time and age, with everything and everyone going along with the modern, western civilization, because of the luxuries, comforts and the modern technology that is needed to blend and thrive “better” in these so called “two worlds,” (Cup’ik/Yup’ik Eskimo and White man’s way), we as Alaska Native Eskimos do need to make an effort to balance our lifestyles in both worlds. In other words, embrace changes, accept, and learn both ways to be a stronger Alaska Native.

What I see now is the importance of keeping our culture and language in our daily living in our homes and village, and especially within our school system. Also, I understand the importance of continuing our subsistence hunting, fishing, and gathering of our natural foods in our NUNAMTENI (home and tundra land): From the “kapukaraat” (pond greens) in the spring, to the “nasqupauwaat” later spring and to the “aatunat” sour dock greens in the summer. Then on to picking the sweet, plump, bountiful black-blue-red or orange cloud berries in our “nunapik” (tundra) lands, during summer and fall seasons. The gathering of plants or greens is mostly done by women and the hunting is done by men and boys: hunting for seals, netting for fish, especially salmon or herring in our murky, muddy waters of the bay or winding rivers.

I take my family to our fish camp by boat every spring as soon as the Ningliqvak river breaks up, which would be around mid-May to the second week of June. We travel by boat to our family Kiuqlivik river fish camp, Aguitassiillermiut, which is about 25 river miles from Chevak. We stay for about a month and a half. That is where we take care of our winter fish food supply. Living in a large canvas tent with a wood stove installed, we can stay out there whether it rains, shines, the winds howl, the waves pound on the river’s edge, or even during thunder and lightning storms. During camp, my children and grandchildren get to play outdoors every day, run around bare-foot on the soft, prickly, lowland grass, never saying “My feet are cold!” or “My feet are dirty!” They love to go wading in the shallow, muddy lakes, or even go kayaking on the deeper lakes with anything that can float and hold them up, like homemade wooden rafts, thick Styrofoam pads, plywood, kayaks, or even a small, old Star Craft boat. On hot, sunny or warm, cloudy days, when the river tide is very low, they go to the soft, gooey, slippery, muddy sloughs wearing just a shirt and trunks to try and catch or grab tiny needle fish, baby flatfish, or devil fish in the sloughs and shallow lakes. They even go play, run, slide and have fun in the icky, yucky, dirty, gooey, smooth, slippery river mud, and get all muddy from head to toe, then go wash-up in the nearby lake and go warm up in our tent by the crackling wood stove, which gives off the soft glowing and soothing warmth of the burning wood. Later on in the summer when everything’s turning green out in our “caillkaq” (tundraland), we go and pick edible plants after they’ve grown. We also look and find duck eggs for golden brown, fried bread or cooked eggs. Everything tastes so delicious at camp!

When my boys go fishing for herring and salmon from beginning to mid-June, it’s time to cut, clean, wash, strip, and hang the fish on the rack to dry them. It is so physically demanding that you have to be able to endure long physical labor to do all that in order to get good quality, genuine natural fish for a winter food supply. When they are dry enough, it is time to smoke them for a few days, and after that cut them to pieces, pack, and store them in five gallon buckets. When we bring them home, we pour good seal oil over the top to preserve them for our winter food supply. Everyone in the family puts in their fair share of helping when it comes to hard work. So our fish camping season is family time. We do everything together, eat together, work hard physically, and have good, quality time. My children learn through the best kind of hands-on experience about a subsistence way of living out here in Chevak. To do it every year with them is something they will not forget, but will carry on each season. Just as my parents have taught me by bringing me out with them to do the subsistence activity, I hope to have embedded that desire in my children to keep doing that and carry it over to their children.

The children who get to know and learn more about their language, culture, environment and actually do hands-on experience through programs like the Cultural Heritage Program we have here at Chevak School are more confident, most likely to succeed in their education, and become better learners through the western education.

So you see, to be an Alaska Native, and be successful in “both worlds” so to speak, we need to give an effort every season to continue our way of Cup’ik livelihood as we should do and continue on to pursue western education to be successful in many ways in this day and age.

I am successful because I am able to understand some of the western world and be able to apply it to my daily living out here in Western Alaska just as much as I could continue to do and apply my Cup’ik traditions and customs in my family life. It takes EFFORT, learning, knowing, passion, respecting, believing, trying, doing, and carrying on our own culture to succeed and be fulfilled. Our children become stronger, healthier, and confident. I know, because when my 13-year-old son comes home from school, he mentions something he learned from our Cultural Heritage instructors, and he connects it with our “auwaatemteni” (living environment) and “Piiciryaraput” (our traditions or culture).

So, when it comes to learning and applying the western education basics with our environment and culture, it has more meaning than earning an A, B, C, D, or F like they get in western math, English, or writing. In saying this, the Cup’ik words in our CUP’IK THEME of “CUUYARAQ” has so much depth in meaning for a successful life. To me, it aligns with the Bible’s rightful, fulfilling, and productive way of life on Earth (according to my own understanding).

“CUUYARAQ”

WANGKUTA CUP’IGNI QANERYARAT

ATURLUKI ANGLITUUKUT.

ILAKULLUTA, UKVERTARLUTA, PINGNATUULUTA.

NALLUNRILAMTA CUUYARAMTENI

PICIRYARANGQERRAMTA NUTEMLLARMENG.

QIGCIKIIYARAM ATURTAI TARINGUMAUT

CILLAM ILUANELNGUUT ELPENGQELLRIT

NUNULIUTENGQELLRIT-LLU.

QANERYARAM ATURTAI UMYUGARTULUTENG,

ELLUATUULUTENG, NUUQITEVKENATENG

CUULUAQERCIQUT.

Simple English word Translation:

The way of life

We as Cup’ik people, grow up according to our Ancestral words of wisdom.

Together, believing, always giving effort.

For we know in our way of life, we always have our way to live according to our very own way of life that’s always been.

For those who live respectfully in every way are seen and observed by the Nature’s Creator.

For every nature created has their living spirit and those that always respectfully acquire and use them are given back with needed and good living rewards.

Those that use and genuinely follow the words of wisdom will live with good, positive, productive thoughts, very well acquired knowledge, and will never be in need or have shortage of common natural wealth. They will live very well off with an abundance of blessings.

Note: The Cup'ik language words in our “Cuuyaraq” theme have greater depth in meaning with variety of understanding in our own language.

CRITICAL ANCESTRAL COMPUTING FOR THE PROTECTION OF MOTHER EARTH

Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval

ABSTRACT

In an age when computer science largely shapes the engagement of widely diverse populations with the world, the majority of computing professions are dominated by males, primarily of European descent. This monolithic group exhibits hubris that needs to be mitigated by drawing upon diverse points of view. This chapter examines computer science production and its contribution to global climate change through e-waste, water usage, and technophilia. Examining Indigenous epistemologies and intersectional theory to address race, class, and gender issues in relation to global climate change, the chapter advocates for broadening computer science education as a culturally sustaining (Paris, D. (2012). Culturally sustaining pedagogy: A needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. Educational Researcher, 41(3), 93–97; Paris, D., & Alim, H. S. (2014). What are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining pedagogy? A loving critique forward. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 85–100) and revitalizing (McCarty & Lee, 2014) approach to nurturing a social and environmentally responsible movement in computer science education.

Keywords: Ancestral knowledge systems; culturally sustaining pedagogies; cultural revitalization; computer science education; decolonial feminism; Indigenous

In 2010, Bolivia’s Plurinational Legislative Assembly passed the Law of the Rights of Mother Earth. The law contains 10 articles that position the physical, social, and cultural worlds on equal footing by highlighting the inter-connectedness of these worlds. For example, the law affirms that Mother Earth has a right to clean water and uncontaminated air, elements that are not only necessary for her survival, but for the survival of plant and animal nations; for the survival of human beings. This positioning of all life as being related to each another is a fundamental worldview held by Indigenous peoples worldwide. It is our responsibility as human beings to adhere to the original instructions that each of our ancestors left us; to care for Mother Earth as if our collective lives depended on it, because they do. But not all human beings exist on the same playing field. Structural systems of power largely influence how human beings exist – for example, our society is structurally racialized. In fact, race, class, gender, sexual orientation, size, age, ability, and hegemony in general determine human beings’ opportunities for living, learning, and dying with dignity.

This chapter advocates the implementation and maintenance of an environmentally responsible approach in a field that has been reserved for an elite band of the world’s population: computer science. Drawing from a theoretical framework that is informed by Indigenous epistemologies, intersectionality, and eco-feminism, the cha...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Introduction
• Part I: Power
• Part II: Culture
• Part III: Language
• About the Authors
• Index