It takes a village to raise a teacher: an examination of training and recruitment practices of rural Alaskan school districts

Abstract

"The social and professional lives of rural Alaskan school teachers are unique. They live in an isolated environment and interact with students and community members from the position of a member of a 'sub-cultural', or better, of a "co-cultural" group member. This work examines the recruitment and training practices of rural Alaskan school districts with regard to teachers from the Lower 48, the expectancies constructed by and for teachers in these practices, and how violations of these expectancies affect teacher's social and professional lives in rural Alaskan villages. Qualitative conversational interviews were conducted with 3 administrators currently working in rural Alaskan districts, and 5 teachers who came to teach in rural Alaska from the Lower 48. A thematic analysis produced 13 emergent themes. Several communicative strategies typical of co-cultural group members (Orbe, 1998) were identified, indicating the participants' positions as members of a co-cultural group. A critical comparison of the way in which teachers and administrators affected one another's experiences in rural Alaska revealed that during recruitment sessions both administrators and teachers enacted the position of members of the dominant U.S. culture. However, during the first training sessions for new teachers, administrators shifted their position to co-cultural members. Working within the dominant Alaskan Native culture the administrators worked to prepare teachers for their new societal position as a member of a co-cultural group in rural Alaska"--Leaf iii