Students, senator discuss ways to boost Alaska Native teachers

ELISE SERENI PATKOTAK

May 09, 2008 at 11:21AM AKST

For The Arctic Sounder

It’s not often one receives 45 minutes of personal time and attention from a U.S. senator.

But that is exactly what a group of North Slope students experienced when Lisa Murkowski spoke via a Poly-Com videoconference and teleconference on April 21.

The meeting was sponsored by Ilisagvik College’s Teachers for the Arctic program, headed by Martha Stackhouse, coordinator of the program.

The group started in August to encourage more North Slope residents to become teachers.

The college believes it needs to commit this level of investment and resources to increase the number of teachers who are Inupiat because current numbers are so dismal.

Less than 3 percent of the borough school district’s 163 certified teachers are Inupiaq, compared with a student body of 1,811 that is 81 percent Alaska Native.

"Native teachers bring with them a knowledge and many attributes essential to teaching Native students that do not result from formal training," said David Beaulieu, editor of the Journal of American Indian Education.

"They have knowledge of the community and of the children and have grown up in the community.

"They know the lives of the children and have language and cultural knowledge that will aid them in their instructional roles.

"It is not necessary to focus on sensitivity training and other forms of orientation typically related to professional development for non-Native teachers ... . A Native teacher, particularly from the students’ own community, shares with those students a culturally competent way of interacting and communicating," he said.

Following a meeting with the senator in February, Ilisagvik College President Beverly Patkotak Grinage shared with Murkowski that the college had started a new program to encourage more Inupiat students to enter teaching.

Murkowski was so impressed with the college’s efforts that she offered to conduct a live videoconference with the Teachers for the Arctic clubs that Stackhouse had established with the school district in each village school.

Students from Ipalook, Barrow Middle School, Barrow High School, the Kiita program, Wainwright and Point Hope participated. Kaktovik students were unable to attend because a blizzard closed school for the day.

Following introductions, the students identified reasons for wanting to be teachers. These reasons ranged from their own enjoyment of learning to wanting to help prepare future generations to succeed.

Murkowski began her remarks by noting the differences between the North Slope, where it takes a blizzard to close the school, and Washington, D.C., where school is cancelled if there is even a chance of snow.

The senator answered students’ questions that covered a broad range of topics from the cost of the war in Iraq and how that is affecting our ability to finance America’s future, to the cost of college, the role of technology for teaching in remote areas and whether the No Child Left Behind Act will continue to require so many tests.

"What you all are doing through your future teachers’ programs is going to help us get to where we want to be, which is more young Alaska Natives in rural communities and rural schools acting as mentors and teachers to those in the villages," the senator told the group.

"I applaud you for your efforts and encourage you to continue," she said.

As the teleconference wound down, one of the last questions asked of Murkowski was whether she felt that Native teachers have special gifts they can bring to the classroom.

"I think that they have a special gift that they can bring because of their culture, their heritage and their perspective," she responded.

"I think we need to remember that each one of us has something unique to offer '85 . I think as an Alaska Native, you offer a perspective on what it means to grow up in Wainwright, what it means to have the ability to share with others your very unique perspective.

"I do believe it is a gift and each one of you can make that very unique contribution."

To listen to the complete videoconference, go to www.ilisagvik.cc and click on the link "April 15, 2008 Future Teachers For the Arctic."

Elise Sereni Patkotak is a writer and former resident of Barrow.