by Niiyogaabawiikwe (Brooke Mosay Ammann)
Despite a long history of existence in which people taught and learned how to live within the Ojibwe language and culture, modern endeavors to do so within a mainstream American educational system have presented a challenge for Indigenous educators. English language intrusion, standardized assessment, devaluation of the education profession, and systematic oppression are just some of the external challenges faced in developing teachers for an Indigenous language medium classroom. This article will examine the development currently in progress at the Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Institute (WOLI) to design an Ojibwe language medium teacher training and alternate certification program.
The Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Institute is located on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation near Hayward, Wisconsin, and is at the heart of the Ojibwe language revitalization movement in the United States. The Institute began as a half-day Ojibwe language immersion kindergarten program in 2000. In the next fifteen years, the half-day program evolved into a charter school, then into a track within a Bureau of Indian Education school within a more clearly defined Institute model. The Institute developed as the community of language activists recognized that moving forward required a redefinition of the activities that surround rebuilding indigenous languages. Alongside the K-8 Ojibwe language medium school (in which the language of instruction for the academic subjects is Ojibwe), the Institute develops immersion teachers and curriculum, actively researches and develops resources to expand the scholarly repertoire of the indigenous language revitalization field, and advances community language revitalization including outreach and technical assistance to other tribes and programs. Waadookodaading is also a member of the National Coalition of Native American Language Schools and Programs, an organization that advocates, empowers, and aids schools and programs that use Native American languages as a medium of instruction.
The edTPA Teacher Assessment Challenge
This section will focus on one example of a particular challenge presented by regulations for teacher certification that impede the growth of Indigenous language medium education. Developed at the Stanford University Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE), the edTPA is a performance assessment for teacher candidates, and its successful completion (minimal score requirement) is a required step for certification in the state of Wisconsin. Ironically, there is little equity in this teacher assessment requirement as it does not yet have the capacity for evaluating teacher candidates planning a career in an Ojibwe language medium classroom. In the edTPA process, teacher candidates submit a variety of artifacts from their classroom training, including lesson and unit plans, assignments, student assessments, and videos of them teaching, which are then assessed by a scoring committee. The scorers are educators within their field and subject matter experts, trained to use a scoring rubric developed by SCALE.
The challenge for Ojibwe language medium classroom teachers in meeting this requirement is that to be of any practical use in their professional development, submissions should be able to be assessed in the target language of the classroom. There is no version for Ojibwe language medium classroom teachers. To date, Ojibwe classroom teachers in training who are students in mainstream teacher educator programs have done English language lessons in order to meet the requirement for licensure. However, this goes against claims of equity and that the edTPA is an “educative” process for teacher candidates. If candidates cannot be scored and assessed and given feedback based on their delivery of academic content through the use of language and culture-based standards, this process becomes a depletion of their energy and resources. It also goes against the stated purpose of the edTPA process. The “FAQ” page at the edTPA website explains:
The teaching profession cannot afford to wait a year or more for new teachers to become really effective, nor can it afford to lose new teachers who get frustrated early without enough support and leave the field.
Endangered Indigenous languages also cannot afford to wait for more teachers. And Indigenous language medium schools cannot continue to be forced to comply with requirements that do not provide appropriate and relevant feedback that meets Indigenous standards of teaching and learning. In addition, the imposition of English on teacher trainees upholds an inherent bias reflective of systematic racism designed to devalue Indigenous educational sovereignty.
A policy consideration that could assist with addressing this concern is addressed in the Native American Languages Act of 1990. Section 104(2) states:
It is the policy of the United States to--
Preserve, protect, and promote the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, and develop Native American languages;
Allow exceptions to teacher certification requirements for Federal programs, and programs funded in whole or in part by the Federal Government, for instruction in Native American languages when such teacher certification requirements hinder the employment of qualified teachers who teach in Native American languages, and to encourage State and territorial governments to make similar exceptions.
The Wisconsin State Department of Instruction (WIDPI) could allow exceptions to the requirement for completion of the edTPA. An even better solution would be to assist with the development of a comparable means of measuring Indigenous language medium classroom teacher readiness. It is important to point out that none of the expressions herein of the necessity of including measures that reflect the language and culture of instruction is in any way excluding the necessity of measuring teacher competency in delivery of academic content. Waadookodaading is dedicated to student mastery of academic content in core subject areas. Exceptions without support for development is not equality. This emerging field deserves the attention and support afforded to the development of English language teachers in mainstream classrooms.
Reclaiming the Teacher Development Process
The Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Institute spent the past twenty years of working within a system of teacher training a preparation that is not designed to meet the needs of Indigenous language medium classroom teachers. And during this time the staff and administrators have been adapting, adjusting, and defining the most effective approaches and priorities for developing teachers. A return to the Ojibwe cultural approach to learning, to learn by observing first and then by doing, has been a vital feature of the process. In addition, since most of the people seeking to become teachers are second language Ojibwe learners, Waadookodaading has identified a minimum level of language proficiency that a person should achieve in order to begin practice teaching.
The following is a list of objectives currently drafted for development and implementation in the Waadookodaading teacher training program:
• Pair veteran immersion teachers with trainees to provide them guided target language instruction (and exposure to the academic terms used for specific subjects), and the opportunity to observe classroom management,
• Give veteran immersion teachers the opportunity to develop skills for training and managing trainees in the classroom,
• Involve trainees in the process of developing units and lesson plans,
• Have teachers and trainees conduct observations on each other to develop skills and understanding of standards (as defined by Waadookodaading),
• Provide cultural process mentoring to trainees or give trainees the opportunity to teach their mentor (i.e. if the trainee comes with a cultural skill such as knowledge of gathering and processing wild rice or maple tree sap),
• Develop a culturally and linguistically appropriate lesson plan format that addresses academic, classroom management, cultural, language development, and interpersonal relationship standards,
• Develop the leadership capacities in all teachers so they have the capacity to be productive and active practitioners who can add to the scholarship, research, development, and future training of teachers, and
• Give teacher trainers and trainees the opportunity to improve language, cultural, and academic proficiency with guidance on implementation and connections to classroom activities and academic development.
This list is not exhaustive and continues to develop. However, it provides an example of the values in a teacher that have been identified by Waadookodaading over the first twenty years of culturally based instruction. We also want to evaluate our teacher's effectiveness using the standards described in the edTPA. As educators we are dedicated to mainstream teacher standards such as academic rigor, classroom management, cross content connections, instructional differentiation, and the others identified by the state of Wisconsin. What must be considered is that we are doing so in a language that is not our first, for students who are also language learners. In addition, because of historical events such as boarding schools, forcible removal and adoption, and relocation to urban centers, many people do not have a connection to cultural customs and traditional food gathering, which are important activities that are part of the instruction at Waadookodaading. For example, trainees are expected to develop the skills to function at maple sugar camp. This is a large skill set to develop in a short time, and requires a reflective, prescriptive, and effective feedback tool that enhances connections within the cultural community.
In conclusion, changing the approach to teacher training is important for Indigenous language and culture revitalization. It is not just important to the continuance of our languages and cultural practices, it is also important for engaging the community by creating teachers that are reflecting Indigenous values. Creating a teacher training program that offers the opportunity for growth, reflection, increases earning power, and respects Indigenous language and cultures, has the potential to attract more Indigenous people to the field. Finally, it is vitally important that we find ways to teach our languages, cultures, and academics to our children in order to give them every opportunity to be healthy, intellectual, and spiritual people.