ECONOMIC AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN
RURAL ALASKA: A HUMAN RESOURCES APPROACH
by
Mike Gaffney
Cross-cultural Education Development Program
University of Alaska, Fairbanks
(Ed. note; This selection is a revision of a paper
presented to the Society for Applied Anthropology Conference, St. Louis, March
19, 1976.)
After years of organizing a purposeful social movement, and after
years of highly astute political maneuvering within the foremost corridors
of American
political power, on December 18, 1971, the Aleut, Eskimo, and Indian peoples
of Alaska won what is perhaps the most comprehensive and far-reaching legal
settlement of aboriginal claims to land and its resources yet witnessed in
the comtemporary
world-the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. 1 I suggest
that it is not an unwarranted statement to say that only the national independence
gained by
African and Asian peoples through the demise of colonial regimes goes farther
toward
the potential achievement of political, economic, and cultural self-determination
by victims of imperialistic expansion. 2
In many ways it
would seem reasonable to suppose that Alaska Natives possess a strongly felt
bond with their ethnic cousins in the –Lower 48” and
Canada due to cultural affinity and generations of shared status as disenfrancised
minority groups in North American plural society. However, the issues and conditions
now confronting Alaska Natives as they move systematically to implement
the Settlement Act appear much more akin to the issues and conditions confronting
Third World nations since independence. While the parallel cannot be stretched
too far, in broad terms this comparative perspective can be outlined as follows:
first, it is recognized that certain Western-style development modes such as
formal academic education, impersonalized bureaucratic structuring of administrative
functions, and production/investment decision-making processes must be utilized
if Native communities and their members are to meet confidently and competently
the complex imperatives of larger, indeed world-wide, techno-economic systems.
Second, although the use of culturally alien forms may be necessary to socio-economic
institution building in the modern world, these institutions will prove truly
viable and enduring only if the process of their development does not destroy
essential elements of the Alaska Native cultural fabric. As, for instance,
African nations want their economic development to have a distinctly –African” flavor,
so also do Alaska Natives seek cultural distinctiveness in their development
efforts.3
In short, a crucial problem requiring investigation
at this point is: does there exist such a development strategy which conceptually
integrates in realistic
operational terms the twin objectives of (a) building effective, contemporary
economic institutions, and (b) maintaining, even enhancing, socially and psychologically
significant properties of Native cultural forms? This paper makes a modest
attempt to address this problem by, firstly, exploring important implications
of
the Settlement Act, particularly the imposition of the corporate structure
as the major instrument of resource development and allocation; secondly, by
suggesting how a –human resources approach” may offer a workable,
more humanistic, alternative to the conventional subordination of all extra-economic
concerns to the profit counting objective of corporate functioning; and thirdly,
by examining the implications of education and native manpower as these
relate to the total development process.
The Settlement Act: Imposed Development
Imperatives
As with any historically significant legislation, the Alaska Native
Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) is the product of a complex series of political
negotiations
worked
out among special interest groups, in this case among Native leadership, the
federal government, and the State of Alaska.4 Moreover,
within each of these more discernable interests there existed divergent sub-interests
which were
also constantly maneuvering for political leverage. It is therefore not surprising
that the end result is a lengthy document containing much vague and compromising
language which continues to generate political legal conflict in the post settlement
period. Any attempt to extract –essential characteristics” for
analysis will consequently run the risk of ignoring, or at least oversimplifying,
a number
of important issues.5 Nevertheless, within the limited
context of this paper there are two imperatives imposed by ANCSA which have
direct implications for
self-directed economic development-the corporate structure and the problem
of time.
The key provisions of ANCSA conveyed to Alaska Natives 40 million acres
of land to be selected by them from larger tracts of land withdrawn by the
Secretary
of the Interior from areas not previously owned by the federal government,
the
State, or private interests. In addition, just under 1 billion dollars is to
be paid into the –Alaska Native Fund” according to a specified
timeline. Responsibility for payment into the –Fund” is almost
equally divided between the federal government and the State, with the latter
obtaining
its revenue for payment from a 2% royalty levied on exploitable mineral resources
found on federal and State lands in Alaska. In return, of course, Alaska Natives
give up legal right to any further pursuit of aboriginal land claims.
To implement
the Settlement Act-that is, to receive and distribute both the money and the
land among legally entitled claimants-provision was made for
the establishment
of 12 Native regional profit-making corporations. The geographical boundaries
of these corporations approximate those of preANCSA Native associations
originally organized to serve politically areas populated by peoples sharing
similar cultural styles and language. Within an area served by a regional corporation
there existed a number of Native villages which also have had to incorporate
as profit or non-profit corporations. The village corporations, on the advise
and consent of the parent regions: corporations, select 22 million of the allotted
40 million acres to which they ate granted surface rights while the regional
corporations retain subsurface rights. During the five years following enactment,
regional corporations must distribute no less than 10 percent of all funds
to shareholders as dividends and no less than 45 percent of all funds so village
corporations in the respective regions, with the amount increasing to
50 percent thereafter.
As with any business corporation, both regional and village
corporations are governed by State regulatory laws of incorporation and operation
which
control the issuance of stock, payment of dividends, financial accountability,
the
rights and privileges of stockholders, and procedures for the election of members
to the board of directors. Regional corporations may engage in all production/investment
profit-making activities usually associated with corporate functioning; however,
only upon approval of plans by the parent regional corporation can a village
corporation receive –Fund” monies to engage in such activities.
On
the ether hand, Native corporations are obviously unlike other corporate enterprises
by having received initial capital and land ownership through federal
legislation.
But they are different in one other very important respect--stock cannot be
voluntarilly purchased nor alienated. Upon enrollment in a Native corporation,
the member
stockholder receives 100 shares of common stock, the rights to which cannot
be sold or transferred, except through inheritance to another Native, until
20 years
after the enactment date. During this 20 year period only Natives have voting
rights except in the case of a non-Native custodian of a stockholder who is
a minor.
The two critical development imperatives imposed upon Alaska Natives
by ANCSA may be summarized at this point. First, Native corporations have just
20 years
to pursue –Native” socio-economic development without fear of take-over
attempts by powerful non-Native economic interests. Since Native regional corporations
are already the largest land owners in Alaska outside of the State
and the Federal government and possess the capital to exploit lucrative investment
opportunities throughout the financial world, it would be indeed naive to think
that outside economic interests will not be anxiously sitting on the sidelines
waiting for the 20-year non-alienation provision of the Act to run its full
course.6 This timeline condition cannot help but lend an extraordinary sense
of urgency
to building not only economic structures which prove currently viable, but
which will also, in the longer run, become socially and culturally –institutionalized” to
the extent that these outside economic forces will have considerable difficulty
penetrating the membership for purposes of gaining controlling interest.
Second,
the corporate structure as the major vehicle for implementing Native regional
development is a given; it is, by law, an imposed organizational
imperative that cannot be structurally changed. While it may be a very effective
instrument for accumulating capital and managing income-maximizing production/investment
activities, it is, almost by definition, antithetical to formulating in operational
terms a development strategy capable of giving equal consideration to those
extra-economic •humanê variables
so intimately related to socio-economic change processes. It can oftentimes
be observed that Native decision-makers at both the regional and village level
express
grave concern about involving their communities in economic projects having
obvious profit potential in conventional corporate terms because of the disruptive
social and psychological conditions such projects are likely to generate. This
hesitation strongly suggests that the ultimate question being struggled with
is, what kind of society do we want in 20 years? as opposed to simply, how
large
will be the bottom-line figure of our corporate accounting ledger in 20 years?
Obviously the –bottom-line” is important and will continue to be
important since a solid capital base and management structure are requisite
to successful corporate performance. But what of the other, larger question?
It
is in the addressing of this question that the search begins for an alternative
development strategy which does not allow the all-consuming profit motive of
the corporate system to inhibit broader, more –quality of life” oriented
institution building efforts.
The Human Resources Approach: An Alternative
Development Strategy
Early in this paper I noted that, despite imposed legal
imperatives, the problematic issues challenging Native Alaskan self-directed
economic development parallel
issues challenging Third World decision-makers. The genetic issue from which
most other issues seem to spring is contained in the conceptual debate over
allocating scarce resources for –economic growth” or for –economic
development.” Following
Robinsonês distinction, –economic growth” is defined as –increases
in aggregate product, either total or per capita, without reference to changes
in the structure of the economy or in the social and cultural value systems,” whereas –economic
development” is defined as –including not only growth but also
social and cultural changes which occur in the development process”7 What
brought about this debate was the rapid realization that after more than a
decade of
energetic attempts at –economic growth,” essentially two phenomena
are taking place: (a) Third World nations are falling farther behind the industrialized
nations in such aggregate product categories as GNP and per capita income,
and (b) the placing of top priority labels on those capital formation activities
generally advocated by –growth” oriented theories (i.e.. emphasis
on industrialization and associated urban-based service centers and labor
force) are resulting in even greater structural inequities between the minute
percentage of the population benefiting from this economic orientation and
the massive percentage of the population who are not.8 Succinctly
put, the central query this evidence raises is, what is so especially significant
and absolute
about aggregate statistical measures as yardsticks for planning and evaluating
economic –progress”? The answer being given by a number of contemporary
students of Third World development is: not much, unless one is satisfied with
trading off the possible emergence of an equitable socio-economic opportunity
structure through a balanced, more stable-albeit slower-development process
for industrial growth which is usually accompanied by uncontrolled urbanization,
domination by foreign owned enterprises, and the evolution of a two-dimensional
class system.
In forging the parallel with native regional development, it becomes
readily apparent that as business corporations determine their –economic
growth” by
counting assets, nations determine their –economic growth” by continually
measuring gross production and per capita income. In both cases, the paramount
objective is –income maximization,” but not economic development
as defined above. Going one step further, the concept of –economic development” can
be operationalized by suggesting that at its heart is the working principle
of –human
resources maximization” not income maximization. Even the industrial
nations are beginning to show signs of recognizing that an inherent problem
with these
conventional definitions and measures of so-called economic progress is
that human resources and the socio-physical environment in which they are nourished
become secondary concerns, and perhaps this strategy does not make much sense
since, ultimately, nations, regions, communities, et cetera, are social units
comprised of human beings.
Indeed, through its development of a techno-scientific
ethos and method, Euro-American culture may be characterized as having done
very well in harnessing the physical
environment for purposes of material power and convenience. In the process,
however, the price paid has been high as witnessed by increasing problems of
social alienation
in mass society and abuse of non-renewable resources. When Alaska Native spokesmen
say, –please try to fathom our great desire to survive in a way different
from yours,” the message is clear that, for them, the price tag on –economic
growth” is intolerable.9
The scholar who has done the most work in conceptualizing
the human resource approach to economic development and specifying the policy
considerations embodied
therein is Frederick Harbison. In his Human Resources as the Wealth
of Nations,
he sets forth the following thesis: 10
Human resources, not capital, nor income,
nor material resources constitute the ultimate basis for the wealth of nations.
Capital and natural resources
are passive
factors of production; human beings are the active agents who accumulate
capital, exploit natural resources, build social, political, and economic organizations,
and carry forward . . .development.
Further, he defines –human resources” as
the –energies, skills,
talent, and knowledge of people which are, or which can or should be, applied
to the production of goods or the rendering of useful services.”11 He
strongly suggests that, along with the aggregate economic measures of increasing
wealth, equally important –human” indices of development progress
are those which account for educational, nutritional, and health care development.
In ranking a combination of twenty-five industrial and Third World Nations,
he in fact found that the latter were doing better on the human resources indices
than might be expected from just an examination of the Gross National Product
index. 12 In essence, then, the broad policy goals of
the human resource development strategy are: (a) the attainment of an economic
opportunity structure capable
of providing full, useful employment; (b) achievement of a more equitable resource
allocation among the different social and geographical sectors of society;
and
(c) the development of all forms of productive human potential through full
utilization of non-formal as well as formal educational processes. It is important
to note
that nowhere in these goals does it say that the object is to build a –rich” society
in the materialistic sense or to establish a welfare-based economic system;
the emphasis is on productivity (whether in the subsistence sector or the monetary
sector or in both) and equity.
In analyzing the challenges of Native regional
development in Alaska from the human resources perspective, there emerge a
number of considerations which
do not fit the conventional model of corporate decision-making. To begin with,
it is more fruitful to view Native corporation membership as –constituents” to
be served rather than as simply stockholders whose sole interest is in the
profit and loss column and subsequent size of dividends. If this discussion
has meant
anything so far, it is that regional development is not necessarily synonymous
with corporate growth. With the exception of several corporations serving sizable
Native populations in urban Alaska, the bulk of membership exists in small
village communities, most of which are accessible only by air or, during ice
free seasons,
by boat, and which carry on a mixture of traditional subsistence living and
participation in the larger cash economy. Consequently, their expectations
of what –services” the
corporation should provide fall strongly on the side of the human resources
dimension of development. Along with their elected leaders in the formal political
arena,
they expect their corporationês officials to act in their behalf on a
variety of issues affecting their daily lives such as federal and State wildlife
management,
land use planning, and public easement proposals. In the very first sentence
of his annual message to stockholders, John Schaeffer, President of the Northwest
Alaska Native Regional Corporation (NANA), points out that, –protecting
the natural resources of our region from those who would build roads, or regulate
resource use to our detriment has occupied many hours of our time.” 13
Moreover,
when taking the –constituency” approach, the localization
vs. de-localization of corporate resources becomes a significant issue. Recalling
that a major objective of the human resources strategy is the attainment of
full, productive employment, it follows that corporate decision-makers should
favor
investments which further the development of an economic occupational structure
within the region. Although such investments may prove financially marginal
for a period of time, they can, with thoughtful long-range planning, provide
the
foundation for a more self-sufficient economy having important social and cultural
as well as economic benefits. Working from hardline investment management criteria,
NANA Corporationês reindeer breeding business or the purchase by a coalition
of Southwest Native Corporations of the Peter Pan Fishing Company, an enterprise
dependent upon a high-risk commercial fishing operation, would probably
get low marks. But from the human resource perspective the crucial point is
that while these activities may never prove extraordinarily profitable they
directly
speak to historic economic concerns of the constituency --concerns having both
practical and symbolic cultural content.
Given the investment monies made available
by ANCSA and the large number of –blue
chip” investment opportunities existing throughout the financial world,
there cannot help but be a strong temptation among Naive corporation leadership
to exploit these opportunities beyond the capital formation needed for regional
development. While the collecting of such investment portfolios may be a sound
corporate growth tactic and result in larger dividends for shareholders, it
can, if carried to extremes, divert concentration from developing a self-directed,
constituent-oriented economic structure within the region. This de-localization
of resources can have the further dysfunctional consequences of severely limiting
membership participation in, hence identification with, their corporationês
activities. If it reaches a point where the single link a majority of the membership
has with the corporation is the receipt of dividends, these dividends will
have no more significance then welfare assistance checks. And when the non-alienation
clause elapses in 1991, the membership will be highly susceptible to outside
interests seeking purchase of their stock.
The need to seek a balance between
corporate growth and regional development is well understood by a number of
Native corporation leaders. A Fortune magazine
article observed that even with the business boom accompanying the trans-Alaska
pipeline, Doyon Ltd., the Interior Athabascan regional corporation, has not
been aggressive in exploiting investment opportunities. According to the article,
Doyonês chairman, John Sackett, and his staff explained this lack of
aggressiveness by indicating that –whatever businesses they get into
must, among other things, provide jobs and middle-management training opportunities
for Doyonês
stockholders.” It was also noted that Sackett sees Doyon as not providing –much
of a return to its stockholders through conventional means” for a number
of years, but that the creation of a –$10,000-a-year job for a stockholder
would represent a pretty fair return for him.” 14 On
the other hand, Northwest Arctic Native Association has been more aggressive
in developing
corporate enterprises,
but with deliberate concentration on regional development. They have purchased
a long-standing jade mining operation, built a large modern hotel in Kotzebue,
and started a construction and supply company which is already actively engaged
in village construction projects. 15
When discussing the
localizing of resource allocation, there is another significant level of the
issue to be addressed. This has to do with the concentration
of development programs in those towns which have historically evolved to serve
the various regions as commercial-transportation centers. Because they already
possess to some degree the necessary factors of an economic infrastructure,
a multi-skilled population base, and ready access to outside resources, –urban
villages” such at Bethel, Barrow, Ft. Yukon, Nome, Kotzebue, and Dillingham
are in natural positions to experience the direct as well as indirect social
and economic consequences of accelerated Native development efforts. These
factors make easy the argument for establishing in regional centers the major
administrative
agencies responsible for implementing development throughout the regions (i.e..
the offices of Native corporations, of Native nonprofit associations working
in the areas of health, education, and cultural affairs and of regional school
districts). From the perspective of a –people-oriented” development
strategy, however, it would prove highly counterproductive if the greatest
share of the regionsê economic activity and associated occupational opportunity
structure also became lodged in these towns at the expense of the surrounding
villages.
What must become a major objective of Native corporate strategy is
an exercising of the production/investment function in a manner that systematically
slows
the urbanization process by promoting regionally balanced, village-focused
development. As alluded to earlier, nothing is more destructive to the socio-cultural
fabric of traditional, small scale societies nor more readily leads to feelings
of powerlessness and normlessness among their members than to be caught in
the
maelstrom of growth-oriented industrial urban processes. The social pathology
of alienation-i.e., powerlessness and normlessness-as manifested by increased
incidences of crime, suicide, alcoholisms, and estranged family relationships
appears to almost universal among large segments of urbanizing populations,
whether in New Delhi, in Chicago, or in Nome, Alaska. Indeed, from the human
resources
perceptive, measuring manifestations of alienation in the planning and evaluating
of economic development is as vital as the measuring of assets and liabilities.
An
excellent example of village focused economic development is the recent grant
received by Mauneluk Associates, a Native non-profit corporation, from
the Economic
Development Administration to build snowmobile repair garages in five Northwest
Alaskan villages. During the winter these garages will be used to shelter and
repair snowmobiles, and during the summer they will function as repair centers
for outboard motors and city-owned equipment. 16 Coupled
with small engine repair courses offered onsite, this kind of development effort
not only expands
village
employment opportunities, but as repair skills and parts inventories increase,
there will also occur a lessening of new snowmobile purchases, thus a lessening
of the costly dependency villagers presently have on external distribution
centers. And it is by no means inconceivable that in the process of developing
this small
scale village industry, some energetic, innovative person will produce a snowmobile
design well adapted to punishing subsistence activity to replace the current
models mass produced for less punishing recreational activity.
After years of
intrusions by Western institutions there is perhaps nothing about contemporary
Native village life which can be considered culturally pristine.
Nevertheless, it is still at the village level where the potential most strongly
exists for building productive socio-economic relationships which are-and,
again,
this is the essence of the human resources approach-equitable, self-sufficient,
and culturally appropriate. What must be recognized is that these relationships
can only develop and endure where there continues to reside a cultural disposition
possessing, firstly, some historical sense for the fragility of manês
relation to the environment and the limits to which this relationship can be
exploited
for material gain. And secondly, a traditional structuring of decision-making
and problem solving processes on such a small scale plane that the dominant
social dynamic is not the alienation of man from his society and his work;
instead,
through the identity and security offered by, day-to-day immersion in kinship
bonds, familiar communication patterns, and in a subsistance lifestyle providing
a worthy alternative to excessive dependence on the cash economy, what comes
to pass is an integration of man with his society and work. Going back to John
Sackettês observation that a $10,000 per year job should represent a
fair return to a Doyon Ltd. stockholder, we might ask: would that stockholder
like
a choice between a $10,000 per year job within a depersonalized technocratic
social order, or perhaps a $5,000 per year job in a familiar, personalized
environment to complement an active subsistence lifestyle?
Finally, to maintain
that regional development strategies should give precedence to the enhancement
of village life is not solely based on the argument for
humanized, culturally appropriate economic activity, but also on the argument
that, in the long run, it is small scale social systems which may have the
best chance to achieve economic survival is this world. Observing what he feels
to
be the fatal contradiction inherent in the relationship of todayês large
scale economic systems and consumption patterns to the environment they relentlessly
exploit, E.F. Shumacher states an obvious but yet unheeded proposition: 17
.
. . that economic growth, which viewed from the point of view of economics,
physics, chemistry and technology, has no discernible limit, must necessarily
run into decisive bottlenecks when viewed from the point of view of the environmental
sciences. An attitude to life which seeks fulfillment in the single-minded
pursuit of wealth ® in short, materialism ® does not fit into this
world, because it contains within itself no limiting principle, while the environment
in which it is placed is strictly limited. Already, the environment is telling
us that certain stresses are excessive. As one problem is being •solved,ê ten
new problems arise as a result of the first •solution.ê
Beyond Technics:
Educational Implications of the Human Resources Approach
Before proceeding,
I would like to capsulize the major threads of the discussion so far by suggesting
that the human resources approach to economic development
in rural Alaska offers, in Ali A. Mazruiês terms, a way to –decolonize
the process of modernization without ending it.”18 It
does this by proposing strategies for structuring the production/investment
function and the accompanying
occupational opportunity system from a perspective which reconciles the twin
development goals of (a) achieving a capability for purposefully dealing with
the larger techno-economic forces of the corporate world on an equitable self-sufficient
basis with (b) the desire to have the emerging human institutions prove compatible
with cultural and environmental conditions of Native life. While the Land
Claims Settlement Act provides the potential for achieving economic self-determination,
it is argued here that actual self-determination (i.e., decolonization) can
more fruitfully be attained through a synthesis of the two sets of needs as
provided
by the human resource approach to the Actês implementation. Fundamental
to this synthesis is the notion that it is human resources rather than the
passive production factors of natural and capital resources which constitutes
the ultimate
wealth of a society. In the final analysis, the –real bottom-line” is
people, for it is people who plan, organize, and carry out economic development;
and it is also people who must bear all the consequences generated by the kinds
of socio-economic relationships their creations inspire. With this framework
in mind, I will now turn to the educational implications of the human resource
approach for the recruitment and training of that manpower most obviously destined
to be –prime movers” (or prime obstructors) of the development
process. 19
ANCSA, with its developmental imperatives of
the corporate structure and the 20 year timeline, imposes the urgent need for
a dramatic increase in the number
of Native Alaskans having those qualifications usually associated with baccalaureate
and graduate degree programs. The wide range of high-level manpower catagories
and occupational roles these economic imperatives call for is well enumerated
by others. 20 Suffice it to say here that the people who
acquire these academic and technical proficiencies will occupy strategic decisions-making
positions
affecting the course of Native social, cultural, and economic development,
whether with Native regional or village profit corporations, regional or tribal
non-profit
associations, statewide Native organizations such as the Alaska Federation
of Natives or the Alaska Native Foundation, or with the recently formed regional
school districts and the Rural Educational Affairs Division of the University
of Alaska.
I have elsewhere defined –strategic decision-makingê positions
as entailing both policy making –heroic” roles and policy implementing
administrative technocratic roles. While a Native graduate may not become directly
involved in the –processes that legitimate proposals for (regional) action.” He
most assuredly will be involved in the –processes that realize or frustrate
the actualization of policy.” 21 In either case,
he will have thrust upon him decision-making responsibilities that directly
play on the operation
of development
programs. It is one thing to formulate a comprehensive development perceptive
and attendant strategies, but quite another thing to have these programs reach
fruition ® a condition as dependent on the aggregate efforts of teachers,
accountants, biologists and geologists as on the individual efforts of the
corporation president, the politician, or the school superintendent.
It must
be remembered, however, that as these decision-makers go about the day-to-day
business of applying their acquired expertise to the –technics” of
economic development (that is, highly specialized knowledge rationally and
efficiently applied so highly technical problems), by the very nature of this
application
they will at the same time be having a continuous impact on the social and
cultural institutions in their respective regions and villages.22 Moreover,
because of
their proven success with the –system” of Western formal education,
they will no doubt be expected participate actively as members of boards and
committees governing a proliferating number of programs generated by the self-determination
movement (e.g., school boards, village and city councils, profit and non-profit
corporation boards, policy councils for field-based University programs, and
advisory groups to federally funded educational programs such as JOM, Indian
Education Act, et cetera). Observing formal decision-making processes
in rural Alaska, one is constantly aware of the demands placed upon a small
cadre
of talented, energetic Native people who have felt compelled to greatly overextend
their time and efforts by participating, in many cases, on three or four such
policy making bodies simultaneously. Hopefully, the alleviation of Native manpower
underdevelopment will also go far towards alleviating this overextension of
strategic policy making responsibilities by the few.
The point is that the high-level
Native manpower being trained for eventual return to their communities will
not only function as principal movers of economic
development,
but also as principal –culturemakers” - a role synthesis paralleling
the twin development goals of the human resources approach.23 It therefore
becomes essential that the process and content of their education go beyond
technics
to include the kinds of reflective and practical learning requisite to being
successful synethesizers of these goals. The question now is, what might this
requisite educational experience look like?
Drawing on the writings of the Brazilian
educator, Paulo Freire, Norman Chance has outlined, in my estimation, the kind
of educative process most likely to
produce –successful synthesizers” of Native development goals.
Acknowledging the –importance of cultural influences,” Chance nevertheless
holds that –the history of human development suggests that man desires
to be more than what he is now and, furthermore, that he has the capability
of transforming
his existing world in a direction that he deems important.” 24 Using
Freireês
own words, –he can undertake to change what he has already determined” by
means of his –praxis.” This –praxis” may be viewed
as an inherent intellectual capability for combining reflective thought and
action,
for testing theory through practice which, for Chance, is –what true
learning is all about.” However, there is a point at which –knowledge
gained through theory and practice” becomes antithetical to true learning.
This occurs when the educational process becomes so thoroughly institutionalized
that
it –overdetermines” the learner, conditioning and defining –his
cognitive meanings and actions ® what many anthropologists refer to as
culture.”
As we know it, the most prominent form of this –overdetermination” is
the formal educational system. Because this most important aspect of contemporary
human socialization has become institutionalized as a complex bureaucratic
structure which, like all bureaucracies, has a compelling tendency to be –variable
reducing” since its own self perpetuation hinges on strict conformity
to standardized, culture-specific behavioral norms, what Freire views as the –banking
concept” of education has become its basic modus operandi. For him, formal
education is, by and large:25
. . . an act of depositing, in which the students
are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating,
the teacher issues
communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize,
and repeat. This is the •bankingê concept of education, in which
the scope of action allowed to students extends only as far as receiving,
filing, and storing the deposits. They do, it is true, have the opportunity
to become
collectors or cataloguers of the things they store. But in the last analysis,
it is men themselves who are filed away through the lack of creativity,
transformation, and knowledge its this (at best) misguided system . .
. .
Now, if one accepts that the –banking” method of education runs
counter to thoughtful inquiry generally, the prevalence of its use in multi-cultural
Alaska must be considered deadly. Wherever one wishes to look in the world
today,
formal institutions of higher education are direct imitations of the Western
model. It is therefore not surprising that, despite the non-Western cultural
context in which many of these institutions are found, their principal function
continues to be the accumulation and transmission of presumably –superior” technics
of Western civilization and the cultural value assumptions which legitimize
these technics. 26 Given life-long subjection to a formal educational system,
the total
environmental press of which proclaims universality for the rational, scientific
virtues of a growth-oriented technocratic social order, most all of us-Native
and non-native alike-who have been –processed” through universities
and colleges are –overdetermined” to define our reality in terms
of the how to? dimension of our technical training to the virtual exclusion
of the for what? dimension. And it is precisely the latter dimension which
moves
us to ask, to what kind of society do we really aspire? And if the society
we envision is not to be a replicate of the growth-oriented model, in what
ways
can technics be applied so that it is indeed different?
This dimension can only
be included when the banking concept is displaced by a –problem posing” pedagogy.
Through a weaving of theory and practice, Chance sees this approach as challenging
students to inquire critically into
the very reality they are studying, to engage in a –deconditioning
process of first asking questions about (oneês) conditioning and secondly
questioning the conditions themselves.” This approach develops as one
stands back and looks at oneês self in relation to the external world
and asks –am
I an object of someone elseês history or life pattern?
Or am I a subject of my own history, a self-determining person?” By –reflecting
upon this dichotomy of self as object and self as subject and the external
realities
with which they intertwine,” a deepening of –oneês self-perception
and social awareness can be undertaken.” But as Chance also suggests, –reflection,
by itself, is not enough (for) effective learning only comes about through
the combined process of reflection and action-action which brings about a reaction
from others, which in turn stimulates further reflection.”27 However,
the education of development synthesizers requires that at some point in the
learning
process Freireês and Chanceês emphasis on the singular (–I,” –my,” –oneês,” –self”)
must be complemented by an equal emphasis on the plural (–we,” –our,” –us”),
for the conditions these synthesizers must critically address throughout their
occupational careers are not just their own realities but the realities with
which members of their respective communities live generally.
The concept of –reality” and
its relation to a personês life-situation
and life-chances should also be clarified as this point. There are two levels
of reality to be critically dealt with by students and instructors together.
The first is the social, cultural and environmental conditions comprising the
immediate milieu of the student and against which the testing of theory and
reflection is most easily accomplished. The second and much more elusive level
is that of
the larger, unseen realities of political and economic forces which shape this
immediate milieu. The cruel fact is that many of the realities which, in the
final analysis, truly determine our lives may not be located within our life
space, but rather in Anchorage, Juneau, Seattle, Dallas, or Washington, D.
C. and with the imposition of the corporate structure, the determining forces
for
rural Alaskans may soon be even further [afield] in Zurich, Tokyo, and Bonn.
Any problem-posing educational process must deal with both levels; yet only
when a person has grasped the realities within which he or she is immersed
can that
person begin to make sense of the larger realities and their implications for
the immediate milieu.
What must be fully understood is that by the very nature
of the specific technical competencies this high-level manpower acquires and,
more importantly, the process
through which this acquisition is made, it becomes exceedingly difficult for
them (or anybody) to maintain reasonable identification with the way rural
Native –constituencies” define
and deal with their realities in everyday life. However, this identity link
is most likely to be maintained when the learning experience continually challenges
students on the what for? as well as the how to? dimensions of their eventual
roles as strategic decision-makers in the rural development process.
Within
the framework of degree-oriented formal education in rural Alaska, the basic
thrust of the –problem-posing” approach critical inquiry into
the very reality of our life situation by testing theory through practice and
combining reflection with action--can most readily be accomplished through
a field-based educational delivery system of the type described by Barnhardt
in
this volume. To be sure, such a system cannot ignore the formalized functions
of specific degree requirements, grade point averages, and faculty qualifications;
it would be foolhardy to do so since the larger development imperatives dictate
that many of the technics these functions legitimize must be mastered.28 Nevertheless,
the very fact that the educational process is field-based makes it much
more amenable to the problem approach than does the traditional campus-based
situation. Most significantly, it does not physically disengage the learner
from his own and his communityês reality, that is, the reality to be
examined critically. But along with continuous immersion in reality, there
is the issue
of how this reality is to be –critically examined.” Given that,
at least for the foreseeable future, program instructors are likely to be non-native,
it is essential that every effort be made to structure the formal curriculum
and tuition process in a manner that takes full advantage of the –expertise” students
possess of the unique cultural and environmental conditions within which the
mastered technics must be applied. While it may be presumed that instructors
are well versed in specific disciplines, it cannot be presumed that they are
fully aware of the conditions under which their academic and technical dispensations
will be learned and applied. Whenever possible, therefore, the banking concept
of education (of which the current competency-based teacher education programs
are a prime example) should be studiously avoided.
There are of course certain
bodies of specific technical knowledge that can only be transmitted by direct
communiques from instructor to student. But if –critical
inquiry” is to be sustained throughout the educational experience, the
fundamental principal of curriculum development must be the
search for learning frameworks which avail students every opportunity to test
learned theories
and individual reflections against the different levels of reality with which
they
must continuously deal. The banking concept of education must be considered
arrogant and presumptuous in a cross-cultural context. The very minimum such
a context
suggests is a reasonable –two-way communication flow,” a condition
upon which the problem posing approach is premised.29
Ultimately, the entire ethos of any field-based degree program in rural Alaska
should be premised
on the two-way communication flow, from recruitment of both instructors and
students
to the actual delivery of the program itself (see Barnhardt, this volume).
Moreover,
in keeping with the village focused strategy of the human resources approach
to economic development, field-based university degree programs must
also be village focused. To establish university community colleges, learning
centers, et cetera, in regional urban villages is not enough, for there is
an extraordinary number of talented, motivated people living in smaller villages
who, for reasons of family and community obligations, cannot take extended
periods
of time for study away from home. And if we accept the notion that the enhancement
of village life holds the key to eventual achievement of the twin development
goals, and if we accept the notion that the high-level manpower best able to
accomplish a synthesis of these goals will have maintained a personal link
with –reality” throughout
their educational experience, then we must accept the possibility that overall
development –progress” may well hinge on how many of these people
are provided the opportunity for a problem-posing, reality testing higher educational
experience.
At the present stage of economic and educational development in
rural Alaska, there are two spheres of technics which desperately require immediate
infusion
of Native professional manpower, and which readily lend themselves to the field-based
problem approach. The first of these is teacher education. With the dismantling
of the Alaska Unorganized Borough and BIA school systems in favor of local
control through regionally elected school boards, there is greater opportunity
than ever
before for Native Alaskans to decolonize the schooling of their children. But
as many Third World countries have experienced, cultural independence does
not automatically follow from political independence. For Native education,
Mr. Eben
Hopson addresses the issue directly when he questions whether Native people
can exercise true –political control” over the educational process
without also attaining –professional control” (see Hopson, this
volume). He states:
Today, we have control over our educational system. We must
now begin to assess whether or not our school system is truly becoming an
Inupiat school system,
reflecting Inupiat educational philosophies, or, are we in fact only theoretically
exercising –political control” over an educational system that
continues to transmit white urban culture? Political control over our schools
must include –professional control” as well, if our academic
institutions are to become an Inupiat school system able to transmit our
Inupiat tradition,
values, and ideals.
It is not enough, however, that more Native teachers are
produced through the same educational process that produces teachers in the
United States generally.
I think Mr. Hopson would agree that, while it is certainly a large step in
the right directions, to be Inupiat does not necessarily guarnatee that a teacher
is going to seek energetically to frame learning experiences in accordance
with
Inupiat values and traditions, especially if he or she is a product of the
urban-based banking approach prevalent among institutions of higher education
today. The
power of Western higher education to co-opt the values and aspirations of non-Western
peoples is succinctly stated by Masrui: 30
University graduates in Africa, precisely
because they were the most deeply Westernized Africans, were the most culturally
dependent. They have neither
been among the
major cultural revivalists nor have they shown respect for indigenous belief
systems, linguistic heritage, modes of entertainment of aesthetic experience.
The same educational institutions which have produced nationalists eager to
end colonial rule and to establish African self-government have also perpetuated
cultural colonialism.
I donêt think it is overstating the case to say
that the education of Native teachers is a critical ingredient to the total
process of Native humans resource
development, for it is they who will –constitute the largest group of
prime movers of innovation (and who) are the •seed cornê from which
new generations of manpower will grow.”31 There
is no question but that with all the new elements entering the Native Alaskan
educational scene, from
the manpower requirements called for by ANCSA to the struggle for real local
control and the development of small highs school programs for rural villages,
new ways of looking at the whys and hows of education ® i.e., innovativeness-
are essential.
The second sphere of technics demanding a dramatic increase in
Native professional manpower and which lend itself both to a field-based educational
delivery
system and a problem-posing approach is business administration. Paralleling
the student of education who constantly tests learned theory and method in
the real world of his community and its school, so also can the student of
business
administration. As many of the realities of being an educator in rural Alaska
are not located on urban campuses, neither are the realities of managing regional
and village enterprises during a period of intense socio-economic change. Reviewing
the present requirements for a bachelors degree in business administration
from the University of Alaska, with its optional areas of concentration in
management,
finance, marketing and tourism, there appear to be few, if any, specific technics
that cannot be attained in a field setting.32 Of course
students may reasonably be required to enroll several semesters or summers
on campus during their four
year program to take advantage of library and other faculty resources. But
the bulk of their study should consist of courses designed to allow maximum
field-based
application of principles and concepts through internships, practicums,
research projects, et cetera. I would suggest, however, that if such a business
administration degree is to address adequately the conditions of development
and change in rural Alaska, two elements must be incorporated into the curriculum
directly.
The first concerns the aforementioned notion of the –culture
making” role
inherent in the application of the learned technics to the planning and managing
of development efforts. This notion strongly implies that students pay attention
to systematic ways of assessing the cultural, social, even psychological, impact
new and expanded economic activities are likely to have on rural Alaskan communities.
33 This specifically means attention both to these extraeconomic
outcomes, usually unplanned, of production/investment decisions and, equally
as important,
to the
social conflicts generated by corporate organizational forms confounding traditional
authority structures, status attributes, and role perceptions on an increasing
scale. If integration rather than alienation is to predominate in a social
system, then the process by which conflicts are resolved and status and roles
are allocated
must be acknowledged as legitimate by members of that social system. It is
precisely this process by which the social order is legitimated that gets confounded
as
corporate decision-making functions intrude on rural Alaskan communities, and
it is precisely this confounding effect which the rural administrator, along
with fulfilling his job specifications, must be ready to mediate at every opportunity.
The
second element which should be an integral part of the business administration
curriculum is the conservation and management of land resources. This may be
incorporated as an area of concentration similar to the present areas of management,
marketing, finance, and tourism, or as a highly recommended minor field. Either
way, the business administration/land resource management baccalaureate program
speaks to the fact that Native corporations are essentially landholding enterprises.
And as such, the data-base for a disproportionate share of production/investment
decisions will derive from land use planning-a technical process which presumably
takes into account the ecological interaction between the surface and subsurface
resources of the land and the people whose livelihood depends on these resources.
However,
while the need for field-based teacher and business education may make eminent
sense in terms of the argument presented here, there will continue
to
be a growing number of Native Alaskans who take their baccalaureate and graduate
degrees in a variety of fields on campus. How, then, might their learning experiences
be designed to minimize the co-optive power of Western higher education without
detracting from the opportunities they have for mastering technics so
obviously needed by rural Alaska development programs? Again, what is being
asked for is
an adequate melding of the what for? and how to? dimensions of technical and
academic skill acquisition.
The most apparent structure for providing the what
for? dimension to meld at the University of Alaska is the Native Studies
program. While Native students
pursue degrees with majors in such areas as biology, engineering, sociology,
physics, and so forth, they might also minor in Native studies. But for Native
Studies to provide the appropriate what for? dimension, it
is first of all necessary that the University make a serious commitment to
the concept of Native
Studies
by elevating the present program to degree-awarding departmental status and
underscoring this commitment with adequate funding. Once achieving departmental
stature, a
Native Studies program can begin to develop a curriculum built around the dynamic
perspective of the Native movement toward true self-determination and new forms
of cultural identity. Like the human resources approach presented here, what
this perspective acknowledges is that while rural life may never be the same
again, it does not necessarily follow that there has been set in motion an
irrevocable linear progression toward ultimate acculturation. Indeed, finding
ways of conceptualizing
and doing socio-economic development differently would be
a local curricular concern.
Put another way, a fully enfranchised Native Studies
program might take on
a consciousness-raising function, not only its terms of doing development differently
along lines suggested throughout this paper but also in terms of the so-called –softer” areas
of language, art, and literature. Economics and educational development in
rural Alaska will not reflect a distinctly –Native” flavor unless
equivalent emphasis is placed on the development of Native humanities. What
I have in mind
here are the themes emerging out of two recent conferences entitled, –Alaska
Native Arts and Literature in the Future: Dynamic Continuity or Suppressive
Fundamentalism?” and –The
Native Arts of Alaska: An Exploration of Indigenous Life Value Sources.”34 In both cases the conferees moved beyond the point of the obvious need for
a renaissance of traditional Native cultural expression before these traditions
and their human bearers become extinct. For them, it was equally important
to recognize that cultural traditions are dynamic, ever changing, and what
is now needed is a new generation of bearers of expressionistic culture among
all
Native groups. What culture this generation will make and bear is that which
they themselves create out of their own consciousness. Of Tlingit traditions,
one principal organizer of these conferences, Andy Hope III of Sitka has said:
35
Change in and of itself is not valuable, but the ability to change and adapt
can result in stronger people of vision. Where is the traditional Tlingit?
Are we to mourn the fact that the Tlingit and their culture are not exactly
as they
were in 1520 A.D.? I think not. The only way the Tlingit could stay in
the 1520 vacuum would be for them to exist only in a lifeless, freeze-frame
museum
exhibit.
Holding to tradition, when tradition can not be defined, cans easily be
an excuse for suppressing artistic and creative development and innovation
in
any peopleês
culture. The only hold on tradition is the human mind.
Summarizing the Human
Resources Approach
What this paper has attempted to convey is that, along with
providing politico-legal elements for self-determination, the Alaska Native
Claims Settlement Act has
also imposed upon Native communities in rural Alaska two development imperatives-the
corporate structure and the problem of timeãwhich, together, make it
extraordinarily difficult to deviate from conventional, Western-style modes
for planning, managing,
and evaluating –economic progress.” At the same time, however,
there is a growing, more strongly articulated expression of concerns among
Native leadership
that for rural Alaska the kinds of socio-economic relationships such –progressê inexorably
generates may be neither socially desirable, culturally appropriate, nor environmentally
sound. The question was then raised: Does there exist an alternative strategy
to corporate growth-oriented economies which adequately accounts for the
imposed imperatives yet also accounts for the extra-economic –human” variables
involved in institutional change processes?
Drawing from observations made of
Third World nation-building efforts, it was suggested that, conceptually, the
alternative may be found in the more holistic –economic
development” model with its emphasis on investment decisions which result
in human resource maximization as well as material resource maximization. This
model is grounded in the premises that: (a) it is the energies, skills, and
talents of people combined with a culturally buttressed sense of self and purpose
which
is the ultimate source of creative institution-building; and (b) the eventual
social order envisioned is characterized by equitable and self-sufficient use
of the means of production as opposed to the myopic vision of capital accumulation.
Working from these premises, it was further suggested that the economic development
model can be operationalized through a human resource perceptive which views
Native corporation enrollees as constituents to be served rather than as dividend-minded
shareholders; argues for localizing resource allocation within corporate regions
even though quicker, more profitable returns to investments may be located
elsewhere; and cautions against concentrating economic activity in regional
centers at the
expense of surrounding villages where the chance for cultural continuity and
economic permanence arc greatest.
In keeping with the two development goals
of the human resources approach, it is maintained that the education of high-level
Native manpower must go beyond
acquisition of technics to include the kinds of reflective and practical training
requisite to becoming successful synthesizers of these goals. The key assumption
here is that this educated manpower will not only function as principal planners
and managers of development activities, but also as principal culture makers.
By the very nature of the day-to-day application of their acquired expertise
to the technics of their decision-making roles, they will simultaneously have
continuous impact on the social and cultural institutions of their respective
regions and villages.
In light of this dual role, it is highly questionable
whether a conventional campus-based university program is the most appropriate
form of higher learning
for prospective prime movers of rural Alaskan development. It is suggested
that by the very fact of disengaging students from the realities they must
critically
examine in favor of an institutionalized –banking” approach to
education, they will be socialized into the how to? dimension of technics at
the expense
of the what for? dimension. And it is precisely exploration of the latter dimension
which raises serious questions about the fit between the application of learned
technics and the cultural and environmental conditions within which this application
will eventually take place. What is therefore needed in a cross-cultural context
is a degree awarding educational process which does not separate learner from
reality and which has the capability of sustaining true reality-testing dialogue
between instructor and student. It is argued that a field-based problem approach
most readily accommodates this process, particularly in teacher education and
business administration-two areas currently needing an immediate infusion of
confident and innovative professional Native Manpower.
FOOTNOTES
[Available upon request]
