The Role of Culture in Culturally Compatible Education

This study captured a moment of conflict between Danish and Greenlandic educational leaders as they engaged in a joint endeavor to implement Greenland's nation-wide reform. After adopting the Standards for Effective Pedagogy developed by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Exce...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Tasha Wyatt
Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
Format: Text
Language:English
Subjects:
Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1044.8850
Description
Summary:This study captured a moment of conflict between Danish and Greenlandic educational leaders as they engaged in a joint endeavor to implement Greenland's nation-wide reform. After adopting the Standards for Effective Pedagogy developed by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE), reform leaders were in disagreement on two strategies that explicitly used Greenland's Native culture to teach. This study analyzes reform leaders' arguments on the disputed Standards, Contextualization and Modeling. Results indicate that while both groups were committed to the task, their goals for implementation differed. Greenlandic reform leaders were concerned with whether the use of the two Standards would increase and strengthen Native representation and identity. Danish reform leaders were interested in understanding the best way to use the pedagogy in Greenland's educational context. This study points to the complexity of joint endeavors in post-colonial societies, particularly where Native cultural revitalization is the goal. Although it is easy to dismiss conflict and resistance as a product of post-colonialism, arguments made by each side should be analyzed for its contribution to the overall goal of educational reform.