Classroom management in a Navajo Middle school

Theory Into Practice, Autumn, 2003 by Jane McCarthy, Joe Benally

Classroom management presents a serious challenge in most schools, but especially in schools on a Navajo Reservation that have been traditionally academically low-performing schools. There appears to be a mismatch between the attitudes, skills, and behaviors Navajo children bring with them to school and the expectations schools have for their behavior. This becomes especially evident at the middle-school level as peer pressure reaches its zenith, often leading to off-task behavior that can impact instructional effectiveness and have long-term effects on student success in life. This article explores the cultural context of a Navajo middle school and the managerial interventions applied by faculty, staff, and administrators who employed a rigorous inquiry process to identify the specific challenges before jumping to solutions.

CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT remains a consistent concern of parents and teachers across the nation (Rose & Gallup, 2002). The lack of managerial skills has been cited as one of the major reasons teachers leave the profession within the first 3 years. Few teacher training programs or texts address the issue of culturally relevant classroom management. Rather, if they address classroom management at all, they seem to make the assumption that one size fits all. Beginning teachers, in particular, are overwhelmed when they face classrooms of students whose ethnic, racial, cultural, or socioeconomic backgrounds differ from their own and who do not respond to traditional management strategies. Even experienced teachers find themselves faced with these challenges.

This article explores the classroom management challenges experienced by teachers and administrators in a middle school on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. This school is a participant in the Accelerated Schools Project, an internationally recognized school-wide comprehensive school reform. The process of inquiry advocated by Accelerated Schools has helped define and structure the school's response to classroom management.

Overview of the Accelerated Schools Project

The Accelerated Schools Project is a comprehensive approach to school change designed to improve schooling for students in at-risk situations so they may enter the educational mainstream. The project's goal is to structure schools that build on the strengths of all children and to accelerate their learning by making changes in curriculum, instruction, and organization.

A process of collaborative inquiry is utilized to identify challenge areas and move the individual school toward its own unique solutions. Pinon Middle School in Arizona joined the Accelerated Schools Project almost 5 years ago after considerable study and reflection. The faculty and staff then engaged in extensive professional development and coaching provided by the Accelerated Schools Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, assisted by Grand Canyon University. Test scores have been steadily rising since the school joined the project.

Demographics and Cultural Context Who the students are

Pinon Middle School is a public school with approximately 500 students in grades 6 through 8. The demographics indicate a population with characteristics of many at-risk schools: approximately 90% of the students are receiving free or reducedprice breakfast or lunch; the school is 99% Navajo; 25% of the students come to school speaking little or no English; and almost 70% are bilingual students for whom English is the second language. Many students come to school proficient in neither Navajo nor English.

Some students live in homes with two parents and an extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Some live with grandparents while the parents work in an off-reservation town, such as Phoenix or Flagstaff. Still others live in single-parent homes. Some students are the children of teachers or other professionals who work on the reservation. Most, however, come from families where the average annual income is less than $5,000. The economy is still primarily an agrarian one, and a 3-year drought has depressed family income dramatically.

Pinon Middle School has students from a wide geographical area. As Grubbs (1993) found in his research, this is a common factor in most Navajo public school districts. Buses run up to 60 miles each way every day. Some students must be outside waiting for buses as early as 5:30 a.m. Students who live farther away may stay at no charge in the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) dormitories during the week. Students who live in or near the village may have homes with running water and electricity, but students who are bused often have access to neither. Students in the village may live in prefabricated or modular housing. Those in more remote areas may live in hogans, traditional 8-sided Navajo dwellings with a stove in the middle of the room. Most students live down dirt roads that are challenging to travel in good weather. In rain or snow they become impassible.

Many students come to the school from the nearby Navajo public housing project. Most families living here are dysfunctional with high incidences of alcoholism, drug abuse, child and spousal abuse, and gang membership. There are few if any social services available for these families and no recreational opportunities for the children living here. The clan system (discussed later) is violated in public housing. Unrelated families are living together. There is no community spirit, and children and adults often engage in inappropriate activities.