Bicultural Education in the North

This book is about the cultural diversity of the peoples of the North, and how this can be maintained and enhanced in the future. Anthropologists and ethnolinguists – as well as educators and those involved in politics from Native communities in the North – inform the reader on the current state of the debate on this issue. This may give us clues and insights into both theory building and the implementation of relevant community-based educational practices. At the outset it is emphasized that indigenous needs and global responsibilities make the maintaining of cultural diversity a matter for all of us. Some authors call attention to the need to work for adequate social, political, and economic environments, so that cultural and linguistic diversities can continue to thrive in the future. But most importantly, our view is directed to the educational process itself. These themes are further elaborated in various case studies, which focus on Siberia and the North Pacific Rim but provide comparative views from other regions as well.

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Contents

Erich Kasten
Introduction

Approaches

Erich Kasten
Handling Entnicities and/or Securing Cultural Diversities
Indeigenous and Global Views on Maintaining Traditional Knowledge

Jonathan David Bobaljik
Visions and Realities
Researcher-Activist-Indigenous Collaborations in Indigenous Language Maintenance

David Koester
Imagination and Play in Children's Reflections on Cultural Life
Implications for Cultural Continuity and Educational Practice

Northern Eurasia

Ulla Aikio-Puoskari
Sámi Language in Finnish Schools

Paul Fryer
Including Indigenous Culture and Language in Higher Education
The Case of the Komi Republic

Western Siberia

Aleksandra Kim
The Problems of Preserving the Language and Culture of Selkups

Aimar Ventsel and Stephan Dudeck
Do the Khanty need a Khanty Curriculum?
Indigenous Concepts of School Education

Paula Jääsalmi-Krüger
Khanty Language and Lower School Education
Native, Second or Foreihn Language?

Central Sibiria

Vasili Robbek
Language Situation in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia)

Zinaida Pikunova
Politics, Education, and Culture
A Case Study of the Preservation and Development of the Native Language of the Evenkis

Alexia Bloch
Ideal Proletarians and Children of Nature
Evenki Reimagining Schooling in a Post-Soviet Era

The Russian Far East

Nikolai Vakhtin
Endangered Languages in Northeast Siberia
Siberian Yupik and other Languages of Chukotka

Alyona Efimenko
The Role of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Exhibitions in Ethnographic Museums of the Koryak Autonomous Okrug

Klavdiya Khaloimova
Itelmen Language Textbooks and Programs

Marina Tarasova
Even Language in the Early Stages of Education

The Pacific Northwest

Roy D. Iutzi-Mitchell
Political Economy of Eskiomo-Aleut Languages in Alaska
Prospects for Conserving Cultures and Reversing Language Shift in Schools

Alex Nelson
Sports as a Wholistic Connector of Aboriginal Family and Community

Nella Nelson
First Nations Education in the Greater Victoria District, B. C.

Comparative Perspectives

Gordon Whittaker
The Sauk Language Project

Bettina Zeisler
Borrowed Language
The Impact of School Education and Mass Media in Ladakh (Jammu and Kashmir, India))

Paulina Jaenecke
School Policy for the Sorbian Minority in Upper Lusatia

New Technologies

Michael Dürr
Multimedia Materials for Native Language Programs

Joachim Otto Habeck
The Existing and Potential Role of the Internet for Indigenous Communities in the Russian Federation

Communication among academics and activists working on practical issues concerning the development of languages and cultures of indigenous peoples is desastrously poor, even within specific countries and regions. For this reason, the publication of this volume in English is especially welcome, […] The wealth of data to be found in the descriptions of the current statuses of indigenous languages and cultures and in the histories of policies concerning them is highly useful in itself. Also, the book includes a broad range of perspectives.
(Aus: ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS, 42, No.2.)

Die einzelnen Aufsätze sind informativ und von ausgezeichneter Qualität, die durch eine sorgfältige Redaktion und einheitliche Darstellung diesen Band zu einem wertvollen Beitrag zur diskussion über den Sinn und das Ziel von Sprachenerhalt und -pflege für die Sprecher "kleiner" Sprachen machen. [….] Kastens Veröffentlichungen sind als wertvoller Beitrag zur modernen, interdisziplinär ausgerichteten Ethnologie zu begrüßen. Sie sind ebenso Ausdruck einer praxisorientierten Ethnologie, die darauf bedacht ist, die eigenständigen Bestrebungen um das Erhalten von Kultur und Sprache bei zahlenmäßig kleinen Völkern mit ihren Sprachen zu unterstützen.
Aus: Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. 8/2001, S. 320.

Es bleibt somit festzuhalten, dass der vorliegende Band einen wichtigen Beitrag zum Thema der bilingualen bzw. bikulturellen Erziehung und der Bewahrung bedrohter Sprachen und Kultruen darstellt. Für alle, die sich für diese Thematik speziell in Hinblick auf Inner-, Nord- und Zentralasien (aber auch hinsichtlich anderer Regionen der Arktis) interessieren, stellt er eine Pflichtlektüre dar.
Carsten Naeher in: Zentralasiatische Studien. 33 (2004). S. 210ff.