WINTER 2000

Woodring Faculty Member Assists in Greenland School Reform

Bill Demmert, director of Woodring's Applied Research & Development Center, writes about the school reform movement underway in Greenland.

In the fall of 1998, Western Washington University hosted a colloquium that formally initiated a school reform project in Greenland. Known as The Project, this effort involves the Minister of Culture, Education, and Church, along with the Greenland Parliament. The colloquium provided a starting point for The Project by looking at educational reform effort in the United States and the educational research influencing that reform. A follow-up conference was held in Greenland this past September, and additional colloquia, conferences, meetings, and discussion groups have also taken place and are planned for the future. The Project is expected to result in new legislation by the year 2001.

The current system of education in Greenland is patterned after the Danish system of education, and the Greenlanders are interested in improving the system as part of a priority to prepare their students to meet the challenges of international competition. They are looking at reform efforts of schools and schooling in the United States, Norway, Canada, and New Zealand in order to develop a broader understanding of programs with evidence of effectiveness and research on school improvement.

The schools in Greenland use Greenlandic (a dialect of Inupiaq) as the language of instruction, with Danish learned as a second language. English and other languages are also learned as part of a student's language requirements. All students are currently required to complete nine years of schooling. Education is viewed as the base for developing the culture, the economy, and their society's existence in the future. Three hundred new teachers will be required in Greenland in the next few years.

The initial 1998 colloquium offered the opportunity to review a myriad of topics, including the following:

• Research information on the educational implications of cross cultural and individual environmental influences on the development of children in a minority status environment.
• Research on language development and bilingual education.
• Technological innovations in teaching and what to expect in future societies.
• The Navajo Nation's initiatives for improving schools and schooling.
• Institutional, student, and faculty assessment and testing.

The follow-up conference last September brought over 160 individuals from all parts of Greenland to Kangerlussuaq to solicit a vision of what Greenlanders want from their schools and what they want their children to become. As a part of creating and challeng-ing that vision, information from other countries on school reform and research to support that reform were reviewed.

A quick report of the Greenland conference, titled Atuarfitsialak, which means "Creating Good Schools" (cool schools according to the young person coining the phrase), tells us that the genesis of any educational system is the birth and parenting of a young child in the context of the language and culture of the home. The basic principle from which indigenous peoples operate is that failure of a student is not allowed. Unless successful transmission of a skill or understanding is accomplished the work of the teacher, the mentor and the community is not finished.

The basic question identified for the Greenlanders to ask themselves was "What must our children learn in order to prepare them for adulthood and the continued development of our society?" The next question for the Greenlanders to ask becomes "How do we structure our system of education to accommodate the expectations parents and society have for its youth?"

Five important strategies for school reform emerged from the conference:

1. School as an extension of the community &endash; presenting a cultural context that supports the language and culture of the students served and the community in which it is located.
2. The development of early childhood and parenting programs &emdash; recognizing that the parent emerges as the child's first and most important teacher, and that the foundation for the development of language and other cognitive skills are laid during the early years of a child's life.
3. The professional development of teachers &emdash; the well-trained teacher will initiate the strategies necessary to motivate the student to do his or her best, reflect the best values and cultural traits of the community served, understand the learning process, and build rapport with both student and community.
4. A challenging curriculum &endash; the process of learning is closely aligned with the nature of instruction; teacher, student, and other experts joining together in developing curriculum with the benefit of technology.
5. Assessment and research, recognizing that it is necessary for us as teachers, parents, and administrators to monitor and understand the progress of students as well as whether the system we are operating under works.

At the September conference, author Bill Demmert (right) poses with Grant Hawley, Canada's past Assistant Minister of Education for Anglophones.

Also at the September conference, author Bill Demmert (right) poses with Karl Kristian Olsen, Greenland's Deputy Minister of Education.

The project to improve schools and schooling in Greenland is exciting. Not since Home Rule Government was established has education received so much attention. It is also timely. Home Rule began in 1979, 21 years ago, and the educational needs of Greenland's students have matured. The traditional social and cultural base of the Greenlander has also been significantly influenced by their international activity over that 20-year period. There is a general recognition that schools must reflect those changes.

The next seminar on educational reform is scheduled for March 30 - April 1, 2000, at Western Washington University.

William Demmert

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