An Investigation of How Culture Shapes Curriculum in Early Care and Education Programs on a Native American Indian Reservation
‘‘The drum is considered the heartbeat of the community’’ Jennifer L. Gilliard1,3 and Rita A. Moore2

This article investigates how culture shapes instruction in three early care and education programs on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Interviews with eight early childhood teachers as well as classroom observations were conducted. The investigation is framed by the following research question: How does the culture of the family and community shape curriculum? Data analysis suggested that ongoing communication with parents and community about teaching within a culturally relevant context, building a sense of belongingness and community through ritual, and respecting children, families, and community were essential to defining the Native American Indian culture within these early learning programs.
KEY WORDS: culture; in; tribal; early; education; programs.

INTRODUCTION Instruction informed by children’s home and community culture is critical to supporting a sense of belongingness that ultimately impacts academic achievement (Banks, 2002; Osterman, 2000). American school populations are increasingly diversified with immigrants and English language learners; but American teachers are over 90% European American (Nieto, 2000). Educators who are from different cultural perspectives than those present in the families and communities of the children they teach, ‘‘may

1

Department of Education, Early Childhood Division, The University of Montana – Western, 710 S. Atlantic Street, Dillon, MT 59725, USA. 2 Department of Education, The University of Montana – Western, 710 S. Atlantic Street, Dillon, MT 59725, USA. 3 Correspondence should be directed to Jennifer L. Gilliard, Department of Education, Early Childhood Division, The University of Montana – Western, 710 S. Atlantic Street, Dillon, MT 59725, USA., e-mail: j_gilliard@umwestern.edu

render it difficult to ‘‘see’’ the cultural identities shaping the behaviors and achievement of their students’’ (Moore, 2004a). How then do we prepare the predominantly European American teaching force to strengthen the connection between home and school cultures for children of diverse backgrounds? Many researchers have examined schooling or education in culture, affording opportunities for educators to broaden their knowledge base and learn about delivering curriculum from multiple cultural perspectives (Bullock, 2005; Lee & Walsh, 2005; Luo & Gilliard, 2006; Nagayama & Gilliard, 2005; Walsh, 2002). For example, Nagayama and Gilliard (2005) investigated similarities and differences in curriculum in early childhood programs in Japan and in the United States. The present study extends these efforts to understand education and culture in early learning programs on a Native American Indian Reservation. The purpose of this study was to explore the presence of family and community culture in curriculum at three tribal early care and education 251
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252 programs. Classroom observations and open-ended interview questions with eight early childhood teachers were conducted at three early learning programs, two infant and toddler programs and one toddler and preschool program on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Data were collected by four preservice early childhood teachers as a culminating field experience for a special topic university course called Cultures and Communities, in which the preservice teachers were enrolled. Two university professors served as investigators for this study, one of whom taught the course and accompanied the preservice teachers on the field experience that resulted in data collection. Culture and education in the three tribal early learning programs were explored in this study through teacher responses to interview questions, field notes taken during classroom observations, and journals written by the preservice teachers who collected the data. The research question that guided the study was: How does the culture of the family and community shape curriculum? RATIONALE AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK In an essay exploring the dynamics between the school and home culture in addition to a transformative approach to bringing family and community culture into the schools, Moore (2004a) suggested two issues emerged: the treatment of a child’s personal, social, and cultural literacies within school cultures affects the child’s sense of belonging as well as achievement (Osterman, 2000), and the fact that most educators are unprepared to work with cultural values different from their own (Banks, 2002; Nieto, 2002). Children experience a sense of belongingness when their home culture is not alienated from the school culture (Osterman, 2000). When the school culture that reflects the culture of a teaching force that is 90% European American (Nieto, 2000) is the dominant culture, there is potential for the marginalization of children from cultural and linguistic minorities (Moll, 1992). To provide maximum learning opportunities for all children, ‘‘School and home connections should work toward establishing a network of interactions and authentic learning situations that draw immediately from student background, language, and culture’’ (Moore, 2004a, p. 23). Skilled educators motivate students to learn by inviting participation of multiple cultures and

Gilliard and Moore perspectives, providing students with opportunities to connect curriculum with their own funds of knowledge (Allen & Labbo, 2001; Moll, 1992; Moore with Seeger, 2005). The notion of children having a sense of belongingness within school cultures is clearly demonstrated in many Native American communities, especially in tribal K-12 schools on reservations, where the majority of teachers are of European American descent. For example, according to the Department Head of Tribal Education on the Flathead Reservation, the vast majority of teachers in the public tribal schools are women, middle class, and Anglo. She suggested that the educators have little or no training in dealing with a culture different from their own which has a negative effect on the social belongingness and academic achievement of Native children (J. Silverstone, personal communication, January 23, 2003). It is interesting to note that this fact did not hold true for the early childhood teacher participants in this study; all but one of the teachers were registered tribal members and all seemed motivated to provide early learning curriculum within the context of family and community culture. It is often difficult for educators who do not share their students’ culture to provide curriculum within the context of their students’ family and community cultures (McIntosh, 1989; Moore with Seeger, 2005). The education literature suggests that a successful strategy for teaching children from diverse cultures and languages is teachers exploring who their students are in order to understand their students’ family and community contexts (Jones & Derman-Sparks, 1992; Luo & Gilliard, 2006; Moore, 2004a; Van Horn & Segal, 2000; Yang & McMullen, 2003) as well as educators examining their cultural identities and how their cultural lens affects their teaching (Allen & Labbo, 2001; Grossman, 1999; McIntosh, 1989; Moore, 2004a; Van Horn & Segal, 2000). The purpose of this study was to explore the presence of family and community culture in curriculum at three tribal early care and education programs on the Flathead Indian Reservation. The present study extends the literature that focuses on examining education in culture providing opportunities for educators to expand their knowledge base through learning about delivering curriculum from multiple cultural perspectives (Bullock, 2005; Lee & Walsh, 2005; Luo & Gilliard, 2006; Nagayama & Gilliard, 2005; Walsh, 2002).

Culture in Tribal Early Education Programs OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY AND METHOD The Participants and Setting The participants of the study were eight female early childhood educators with at least three years of experience. Three of the teachers earned Associate’s degrees in Early Childhood Education, three earned Bachelor’s degrees in Education or a related field, and two earned Child Development Associate Certificates (CDAs). Seven out of eight were registered members of the Salish or Kootenai tribes, or were descendants of another American Indian tribe. Four female preservice teachers enrolled in an early childhood education Assoiciate’s degree program in a small university in Montana collected the data. Data were collected as a culminating research project for a special topic course: Cultures and Communities. Two university professors, both teacher educators, served as investigators for the study. One of the investigators, L. Jennifer, was also the instructor for the course in which the preservice teachers were enrolled and for which the data for the present study were collected. The study took place on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Two infant-toddler centers and one toddler-preschool center located on the Flathead Reservation were sites for the study. One of the programs was located on the campus of a small fouryear degree granting tribal college, and two of the programs were located in nearby tribal early learning facilities. Many of the families enrolled in the programs were members or descendants of the Salish and Kootenai tribes or members or descendants of other American Indian tribes; and they were defined as being of low socioeconomic status. The Flathead Indian Reservation located in Montana is home to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. The tribes are a combination of the Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai and have lived in this region for thousands of years (Travel Montana, 2006). As of July 2003, the 1.2 million acre reservation had 4,457 enrolled tribal members living on the reservation, accounting for 17% of the population on the reservation, and 2,481 enrolled members living off the reservation (First Class News, 2003). Additionally, Montana is ranked 48th in the United States in terms of unemployment: in some Montana counties the unemployment rate is between 5–10% and on the Flathead Reservation the unemployment rate is 41%. Of those who are employed on the Flathead Indian Reservation, 38–48% access

253 poverty-based services on a seasonal basis (First Class News, 2003). In 2001, Montana had the fifth lowest per capita income among all 50 states and the average personal income was $22,532. The Montana reservations’ per capita income in 2000 was estimated at a low of $7,100 and a high of $22,754, with the average per capita income $14,738 (First Class News, 2003). Research Questions and Data Sources The research was guided by the following question: How does the culture of the family and community shape curriculum in the investigated tribal early childhood programs? Prior to the study, the preservice teachers were instructed by their professor on a phenomenological approach to qualitative research (Valle & King, 1978) along with interview and observation procedures and qualitative research design (Creswell, 1998; Moore, 2004b). In addition, the preservice teachers engaged in multiple class activities and read from multiple sources that explored background information and knowledge on how cultures influence communities and schooling.

Table 1. Interview Questions What is your work title and the name of the school/institution for which you work? Please describe any training or education you have had to prepare you for your job as an early childhood educator. Have you taken some college courses or hold a degree or CDA? If so, in what area is your degree? Would you please describe your culture and ethnicity? Please describe the children you teach. How old are they? Do they have special learning needs? Describe their culture and ethnicity. Would you describe your teaching philosophy or beliefs? How are aspects of culture or multiple cultures included in your curriculum? Please describe a typical day in your classroom. How are parents included in your program/classroom? Do you believe that your culture has influenced your teaching or instruction? If so, how? Do you believe that the culture of the children you teach has influenced your teaching? If so, how? How do you individualize instruction around the culture of the children you teach? What are some cultural issues that might impact learning in your classroom? What do you believe is important for teachers to know about instructing children from diverse cultures or backgrounds? Is there anything else you would like to tell me that might be helpful to me as an early childhood teacher who is interested in adapting instruction to cultural differences of learners?

254 Data were collected at the end of two full days of observation and interviews. Data sources for the study included the following: (1) the reflective journals in which the preservice teachers wrote responses to what they were learning about home and school culture in the tribal early childhood programs; (2) interview responses from the early childhood teachers; and (3) field notes of the principal investigator and the preservice teachers. A copy of the interview questions is provided in Table 1. Procedures Classroom observations and open-ended questions with eight early childhood teachers were conducted by preservice teachers at three tribal early learning programs, two infant-toddler centers and one toddler-preschool center on the Flathead Indian Reservation. Interview sessions were tape recorded and transcribed by interviewers. The study occurred near the end of the university’s May interim session, 2006, as a culminating field experience for a course about cultures and communities. Prior to the study, the preservice teachers were asked to respond to a survey prompting them to think about how their culture and their perceptions of diverse cultures might influence their teaching beliefs and actions. During the two-day study, preservice teachers were instructed to write reflective journals in which they wrote responses to what they were learning about home and school culture in the tribal early childhood programs and to keep detailed field notes of their classroom observations. At the end of the observation and interview period, preservice teachers submitted transcribed interviews, field notes of observations, and reflective journals to the course instructor. Jennifer, the investigator who also taught the communities and cultures course, regularly visited the classrooms to which the preservice teachers were assigned, writing field notes during each visit. Data Analysis At the end of the course, the investigators, Jennifer and Rita, sorted the data by color coding pertinent responses to the research question. Separately, we each color coded the responses from the three data sources: preservice teachers and Jennifer’s field notes; preservice teachers’ reflective journals; and transcribed interview responses of the early childhood teachers. Next, we compared our coded data for accuracy, discussing any variations. We then read the data

Gilliard and Moore another time for the purpose of developing clarifying themes within the research question. Themes were determined by noting whether at least eight responses from the three data sources alluded to the main concept of the theme (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). After that, we re-read the data, marking categorization changes as needed. After discussion of meaning, minimal modifications were made involving interpretation of responses. Trustworthiness was established through careful triangulation of data in which at least three data sources cross checked the findings for the research question. To be considered relevant to the question, a similar response from each data source had to be sorted to a question at least five times (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). RESULTS OF THE STUDY The results of the study are grouped below according to the research question. They are examined through themes that consistently emerged under the question. Question How does the culture of the family and the community shape curriculum in the early learning programs we investigated on the Flathead Indian Reservation? The theme focusing this question was: different ways of understanding and defining culture. Three distinct categories emerged within this theme: respect of children, families, and community, building a sense of belongingness and community through ritual, and the importance of family values and beliefs. Data sources used to support this theme were preservice teachers’ journals, Jennifer and the preservice teachers’ field notes, and the early educators’ responses to interview questions. Different Ways of Understanding and Defining Culture The early educators interviewed in this study did not define their interactions with the children and families with whom they worked as necessarily influenced by culture but rather by respect and understanding. They described their part in honoring and perpetuating the day-to-day rituals, routines, and beliefs of the place in which they lived. Three categories within this theme consistently emerged. Categories were: respect of children, families, and community, building a sense of belongingness

Culture in Tribal Early Education Programs and community through ritual, and the importance of family values and beliefs. Respect of Children, Families, and Community The data suggested that respect was central to the early learning curriculum in these programs. Stated beliefs and observed interactions revealed that the early educators approached their interactions with children, families, and community in a reflective and respectful fashion. For example, one preservice teacher wrote in her journal:
The parents’ personal wishes, beliefs, and ideas about child care are honored and respected in the classroom......The providers are doing an excellent job researching parents’ values and keeping so much of it at the heart of learning for the children in these environments. here they are only told during the winter so it would be totally inappropriate for us to read one during late spring. And, you need to check before you do something like that.

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Last, all of the reflective journals contained descriptions of how soft, quiet and gentle the interactions were between educators and children. One preservice teacher wrote, ‘‘The words spoken were kind and tender, the touches and sounds were reassuring and encouraging.’’ Building a Sense of Belongingness and Community through Ritual The data revealed a number of rituals that served to bring together the children, parents and teachers as well as the community. The ritual that was common to all three data sources was the powwow. Powwows, common to most American Indian tribal customs, bring together the tribal community both in preparation for the event and for the actual powwow; they are festive, cultural celebrations of life. (Schultz, 2001). Interviews and observations for this study were conducted one week after an annual powwow celebration on the Flathead Reservation so teachers were rich with stories about the event. Preparation for the powwow consisted of teachers, children and parents working together to make the children Native outfits including moccasins, ribbon shirts and dresses, as well as shawls. At the center and in their homes, the older children were encouraged to dance, sing and drum together in preparation for the event. Some parents showed the older children dances they knew at the centers; dances vary depending on a person’s tribe so children were exposed to different ways of celebrating through dance. During her interview one teacher described the powwow:
We had a powwow. We do this every year. It is usually the first Friday of May. Each child is given a pair of moccasins for the powwow. This year, our center and parents decided to make their own outfits, so we had someone (from the community) come in and help with ribbon dresses and the parents helped with that, too. And, some of them decided to do their own moccasins. So, the parents are really involved.

Another topic that emerged regarding respect was the early childhood teachers’ acceptance of the tribal tradition of honoring life in death. Death is considered a celebration of life on the reservation and the entire family, including children, and community comes together for a week to support each other and remember and honor the one who died. The educators’ acceptance of family and community practices around death is illustrated in the following statement made by one of the teachers during her interview:
Another thing I’ve noticed in the classroom, and it also involves death, is that if there is a death in the family or community everybody goes and so they will miss about a week of school. I am very accepting of that.

Another example of respect that consistently surfaced in the data was awareness of what curricular activities may offend certain tribes. For example, telling of the ‘‘Coyote Stories’’ (Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes, 1999), children’s tribal stories passed down by elders, came up repeatedly as an activity that some tribes believe should only occur during the winter. Thus the early educators in these tribal programs ask parents before they proceed with many curricular activities such as the telling of the ‘‘Coyote Stories’’ so they do not offend any of the families by going against their beliefs. As one teacher indicated in her interview:
Because we do have so many different tribal cultures represented in the classroom, one of the things you have to be aware of is doing something that one tribe thinks is okay and another does not. The ‘‘Coyote Story’’ is an example of that. Around

The ritual of drumming and music was clearly associated with daily classroom curriculum. Drums were found in all programs and children were encouraged to play the drums, dance and sing to drumming plus come together for group activities when teachers drummed. As a non-native teacher at one program stated:

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One of the things I do notice is that every tribe has the drum as the center of their music and dancing and I didn’t realize when I first started teaching how much it draws people into the circle and it does. The drum is the heartbeat and it does draw the children in.

Gilliard and Moore
I think you just need to be aware...there are many different cultures and many different ways to do different things...and just don’t learn about the culture, a little bit. You could talk with the family and learn about what their beliefs are. You know, the way they do things.

Similarly, one of the preservice teachers wrote in her daily journal, ‘‘The drum is considered the heartbeat of the community.’’ Other rituals described in the data were as follows: community work days; the tribal celebration of life in death; the practice of swaddling infants and teaching swaddling of infants; families bringing or wearing different patterns marked on their clothing or as decoration; and regularly planned feasts such as the Bitterroot Feast. For this feast the community comes together to commemorate the beginning of spring through digging the bitterroot for medicinal purposes and through sharing in a celebratory feast. Importance of Family Values and Beliefs The data in this category showed that the early educators valued parent involvement in their program curricula. All of the educators gave examples of including parents, and even extended family, in program activities and events. For example, all three programs requested that parents participate in social gatherings that provided meals so families could get to know each other and so teachers and families could spend time conversing. Parents were invited to participate in: regularly scheduled center meals including breakfast and lunch; special holiday meals or celebrations; the day-to-day classroom activities; for example, some teen parents spend 40 minutes a day in the classroom, feeding and playing with their infants and toddlers; field trips; special cooking and dancing demonstrations; and preparation for powwows. Data reflecting the day-to-day interactions between parents and teachers revealed that although educators included families in the curriculum through a more traditional additive fashion as defined by the parent involvement activities above, they also worked to connect home and school culture through a more transformative approach (Moore with Seeger, 2005) where understanding of parents’ beliefs and values was sought and this understanding was used to transform curriculum. That is, daily respectful interactions provided families with voice to shape and extend curriculum in their children’s programs. As one educator suggested:

The data provide several examples of parent voice in the early learning programs. For example, an interview with one teacher revealed that parents in her program had day-to-day decision making power through voting on and planning curriculum activities. Parents decided what types of special activities the children would do around holiday and cultural celebrations. For example, in one program, parents decided that the children would make their own moccasins for the annual powwow. Another instance of parent voice was the fact that parents could bring their family’s tribal language into the center through word labels, music, and modeling of their language. Most of the programs taught the Salish language but many of the children were members of or descendants of other tribes and spoke a variety of tribal languages. Educators were very respectful and asked parents clarifying questions about each child’s home language or languages. Although challenging, educators tried to reinforce for children the importance of speaking in their various tribal languages. An additional case of respectfully discussing parent values while taking into account the caretaking needs of the educators was as follows: a mother brought her child to the center secured to a cradle board to help the child grow and maintain strength. This was a family tradition for this mother and the elders in her family believed strongly that this was a necessary custom when raising an infant. The educators were respectful of the mother’s values, allowing the infant to be secured to a cradle board while at the center, but presented her with their concerns of not being able to burp or hold the infant, or help him quickly enough if he choked. After a few days of these respectful discussions, the mother elected to leave the cradle board at home. LIMITATIONS OF THE INVESTIGATION The authors acknowledge that the participants were able to observe and conduct interviews for only two days; however, funding for the field experience was limited. Consequently, the number of participants was limited to eight and the number of programs studied was limited to three.

Culture in Tribal Early Education Programs DISCUSSION The literature suggests that the largely European American teaching force is unprepared to work with an increasing population of ethnically diverse children (Banks, 2002; Nieto, 2002). Thus educators fail to link home and community culture to school culture, failing to foster a sense of belongingness in children that promotes academic achievement (Moore, 2004a; Osterman, 2000). However, the early educators in this study seemed sensitive to the need to link home and community culture to school curriculum and worked on a daily basis through respectful and thoughtful planning and interactions to learn about as well as to honor parent beliefs and values. Interestingly, seven of the eight early childhood teacher participants were members of the Salish or Kootenai tribes or descendants of the tribes. The majority of K-12 teachers on the Flathead Indian Reservation are Anglo according to the Department Head of Tribal Education (J. Silverstone, personal communication, January 23, 2003). It is also noteworthy that these Native early educators did not define their teaching or actions within the context of culture but rather as acts of respect and knowing. One teacher stated in response to a question regarding whether or not the culture of the children and families affected her teaching, ‘‘No, because I’m pretty much the same...I don’t think what I do is cultural.’’ Another educator described herself as being more sensitive to cultural issues because she, too, is Native. The early childhood teachers were able to clearly describe how they thought children learned as well as what defined their teaching practices such as valuing children’s knowledge, learning by listening or by watching someone who wants to pass down knowledge, and learning through hands-on experience; however, they did not associate their beliefs as cultural or unique to a Native American classroom. Lee and Walsh (2005) defined folk pedagogy as ‘‘the taken-for-granted practices that emerge from deeply embedded cultural beliefs about how children learn and how teachers should teach’’ (p. 60). Perhaps the Native teachers were steered by a folk pedagogy that was in synch with the home and community culture of the children they taught. However, the educators did make several references to diverse tribal beliefs and practices as ‘‘something to watch out for,’’ or ‘‘something to be aware of’’ indicating their awareness of variations between their culture and the home and community culture of the children they taught.

257 The data clearly revealed the relevance of ritual in building a sense of belongingness and community within the early childhood programs we studied. Ritual and customs are integral to the perpetuation of culture (Banks, 2002) and we saw, in this study, the richness of educators, children, families and community participating in unison in various tribal traditions such as preparation for and partaking in a powwow. The powwow brought family and community members into the children’s school environment to craft outfits along with practice singing and dancing. Mutual involvement in cultural rituals provided for a seamless connection between school culture and the community and home cultures of the children in these early learning programs. Perhaps the most consistent finding in the data was the strong evidence of the teachers’ commitment to honoring family beliefs and practices. All of the teachers emphasized the importance of involving parents and even extended family in curriculum development and instruction. The teachers not only suggested that they believed that the children’s parents are their most important teachers, their practice of consistently seeking information and understanding about home cultures through day-to-day interactions with parents demonstrated congruence between their beliefs and their actions. The teachers did not describe parents’ wishes as frustrating or inconvenient as is often the case with educators who offer a fixed or static curriculum (Goldstein, 2003; Moore with Seeger, 2005); but rather, they welcomed family input and saw the care and education of the children in their programs as a partnership between themselves and the parents. Fostering a child’s sense of belonging and ultimately his or her academic achievement requires congruence between the school culture with the home and community culture of the children we teach (Nieto, 2002; Osterman, 2000). Given the lack of preparedness of a largely European American teaching force to educate children from diverse cultural backgrounds (Nieto, 2002), English language learners and ethnically diverse children are at risk of being marginalized in our American classrooms (Moll, 1992). Studying ethnically diverse classrooms and educators such as the classrooms and educators in this research may offer early educators lessons that will enable them to bridge the gap between the culture of their classrooms and the home and community culture of the ethnically diverse children they teach.

258 The findings from this study suggest the following implications for early educators for connecting the culture of their school or classroom with the home and community culture of the children they teach: the value of respecting and honoring parents’ beliefs and wishes in a way that transforms curriculum, and the significance of building belongingness through authentic school participation in family and community cultural rituals.

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