Norton, David W.

English

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64 •  REVIEWSterritorial council became an elected assembly, the way theexecutive council evolved from the elected assembly, and theway the Commissioner’s role gradually became similar tothat of a provincial lieutenant governor, are almost uniquestories embellished by the author’s personal anecdotes. It isa very different story, and a very different process, from theway the Alberta and Saskatchewan governments evolved inthe old Northwest Territories, and the way the Yukon govern-ment has evolved today.One cannot help but wonder how John Parker feels aboutthe model of responsible government established in theNorthwest Territories, and its capacity to deal with thesignificant problems facing Northerners. But that wouldprobably be another book in itself. That question, however,does not detract from the fact that this volume is one of thecore books that enable us to better understand a large chunkof our federation.Mark O. DickersonDepartment of Political ScienceUniversity of Calgary2500 University Drive N.W.Calgary, Alberta, CanadaT2N 1N4TAKEN TO EXTREMES: EDUCATION IN THE FARNORTH. By FRANK DARNELL and ANTON HOËM. Oslo:Scandinavian University Press, 1996. 299 p., b&w. illus.,maps. Hardbound. Kr 260.00; US$39.90; £27.50 + s&h.In their analysis of formal education’s thrusts northward intoindigenous communities, the co-authors of Taken to Ex-tremes cover a lot of ground. Their geographic sweep em-braces more than half the circumpolar regions of the world,from the Saami lands of northern Scandinavia, westwardthrough Greenland and northern Canada, to Central andSiberian Yup’ik and Aleut communities in western Alaska(Map 1, p. 9). In these east-west comparisons, culture byculture, the book takes a geographic orientation at right anglesto the alignment of most political boundaries. By cuttingacross the dominant south-to-north information flow that weroutinely take for granted, Darnell and Hoëm align theiranalysis and experiences in an unusual and instructive way.Equally ambitious is their historic sweep: it reaches backfour centuries to when attempts at Western schooling weretimidly introduced into the Saami homelands in 1596, andlocated at Lycksele in 1632 by the Swedish Crown andchurch. The gradual accommodation by both sides in thesecross-cultural encounters has progressed in a similar series ofstages, whether these were paced over four centuries, as in thecase of the Saami, over three centuries for some GreenlandicInuit experiences, or compressed into the last four decades, asin some central and eastern Canadian Inuit societies. Theiranalyses lead Darnell and Hoëm to see grounds for both hopeand concern. This is the kind of good news/bad news dilemmathat holds readers’ attention; it also promotes readers’empathy for similarities in challenges faced by distant schoolsystems, communities, and individual educators.The authors’ account and conclusions are nontechnical, asthey avoid statistics in favour of sharing a reflective over-view. From parallels in their careers and experiences ineducation in North America and Scandinavia, Darnell andHoëm construct a narrative that works well, although theirtext is not always seamlessly or flawlessly edited. Thus,readers should be alert to a few passages in which a wordreplacement would convert the passage from puzzling tomeaningful (e.g., p. 274, “…aspersions of parents….” shouldread, “…aspirations of parents…”; and p. 279, “…sure wayto deprive this approach….” should read, “…sure way toderive this approach…”).Practising educators in the Far North may be relieved tolearn that fellow travelers exist. Throughout history, alongthe book’s east-west axis of coverage, colleagues have en-countered dissonances between immigrant Western educa-tion and local indigenous cultures. While there have beensubstantial gains in local self-determination within commu-nities, boards of education, and individual schools, thesegains sometimes come at high cost to educators willing tostake their careers on cross-cultural initiatives. Aside fromthe universally essential ingredient of mutual respect acrosscultures, no single factor, or magic-bullet explanations (e.g.,bilingualism) for the success or failure of northern learningenterprises are offered. Darnell and Hoëm focus instead onbroad institutional and historical differences between West-ern schooling and the cultural transmission practised by localor regional indigenous traditions.The civility that the authors bring to sometimes hotlycontested topics is exemplified in several ways. First is thebook’s Foreword by Dennis Demmert, a Tlingit educatorraised on Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island. The authors’ useof extensive quotations from other indigenous authors andcommentators stems from genuine respect, notably for Green-land’s Ingmar Egede, the Saami educator Jan Henry Keskitalo,and Alaska’s Oscar Kawagley. Another gesture of civility istheir discussion of Paul Robinson’s career in Canada’s North-west Territories. Robinson’s service as the N.W.T.’s Chief ofCurriculum Services, 1969– 74, was shortened by his chal-lenging the traditional educational establishment of thosedays. Robinson’s curriculum designs are vindicated here, asbeing open-ended and flexible, culturally sensitive, and dec-ades ahead of their time.The authors predict that Canada’s soon-to-be-launchedterritory, Nunavut, will showcase adaptive harmony by adopt-ing modified Western schooling in the Far North. If theiroptimism for Nunavut schooling seems surprising in view ofthe recency of the eastern Arctic’s entry into cross-culturaleducation, readers should judge for themselves the proposedfour developmental stages that the authors distill from expe-riences within their book’s geographic and historic reach: 1)conformity to Western norms (contact to late 1950s); 2)growing dissatisfaction (late 1950s to mid-1960s); sustainedassertiveness (mid-1960s to mid- or late 1970s); and 4)Native self-determination (mid-1970s to present).REVIEWS • 65Universities, for example, have played especially promi-nent roles in the pivotal third stage common to indigenouseducational empowerment. Five universities collectively in-fluenced events throughout the geographic scope of the bookso that all nativistic movements were largely synchronous by1970. Dominant ideologies in the 1960s were assimilationist,manifested as the “global village” or mainstreaming para-digm behind civil rights movements for minorities. Theauthors were directly involved and mutually acquaintedthrough two of those universities after that hectic decade.Their experience provided them with insights into how thisparadigm sharpened the debates between advocates for localcultural continuity and advocates for cultural replacement inthe Far North. In turn, these debates set the stage for northerneducation in today’s slower-paced and more heterogeneousfourth stage.Northern educators currently find themselves workingpolitically to attain “cultural synthesis,” according to Darnelland Hoëm’s overview. Their assessment at first soundsreassuring, as if educators were closing in on harmoniousachievements in the circumpolar North. In reality, however,unique high-latitude difficulties and various external circum-stances are retarding many developments in cultural synthe-sis. In the past three decades, the very synchrony with whichtheir fourth stage began everywhere at once seems to havebeen replaced by regionally different cadences or rates ofachieving degrees of autonomy in education.One section of their book (p. 138– 148) rises to indignationon the matter of difficulties. Darnell and Hoëm elsewheremaintain a descriptive or gently prescriptive tone, but herethey deplore vestiges of colonial organization that remainentrenched in the Far North. The “factory” model of school-ing especially ill-fits indigenous cultures. Its roots persist,from early missionary and colonizing strategies by churchand nation-state right into the fourth stage, or today’s activ-ism. Darnell and Hoëm outline how stifling this model is tolocal levels of educational enterprise:This system, with its pyramidal tiers of authority, oftendescribed as the ‘factory’ or ‘top-down’ model of schoolorganization, is based on the concept that authority anddecisions flow downward from the top. Authority to makepolicy originates with legislative bodies and ministries,passes through middle management and supervisors(superintendents and principals) with the advice ofeducational specialists, and only then finally to classroomteachers. At the lowest level, the base of the pyramid,where teachers and students come in contact with thesystem and each other, little is left to be decided. (p. 139)Entrenched rigidity is first portrayed as baffling:In the light of what we now know about indigenoussocieties, it is remarkable that some school officialscontinue to persist in defending policies that confer somuch authority in bodies located at great distances fromthe operational level. The result of this arrangement is thatthose with the least authority have the greatest day-to-dayexposure to and comprehension of the problems ofschooling, while those with the greatest authority are thefarthest removed from the scene of the problems. (p. 141)The base of this authority structure recalls the paralysis ofteacher-student interactions that Tobias (1992:16) saw inscientific curricular reform, and which she aptly termed“teacher-proofing.” For their part, indigenous educators likeKawagley and Keskitalo are credited with recognizing theneed to reorganize educational delivery in the Far Northaround the sanctity of teacher-student exchanges—as haveeducational theorists and reformers elsewhere, like Sizer,Murphy, and the Quality Education for Minorities Projectbased at MIT. Ultimately the failure of indigenous northerncommunities to accomplish more widespread educationaldevolution is forgiven as “…not surprising, given that thefactory model of schooling is the only one to which they havebeen exposed” (p. 146).Further to characterize Taken to Extremes, educators arecautioned not to expect this overview to prescribe detailedsolutions for particular communities in the circumpolar North.From living in one of the larger indigenous settlements withinthe scope of the book, for example, I see obstacles to devolu-tion missed by the book’s global perspective. One such up-close obstacle is diversity of opinion—to the point offactionalism—within a society. Darnell and Hoëm tacitlyregard indigenous societies as internally homogeneous, thatis, capable of asserting a unity of voice when striving for localeducational goals and local empowerment. Perhaps theirview is generally accurate, but there are exceptions to thisimage of unanimity. The top-down factory model discussedabove may actually owe its persistence in some communitiesto its restraint of factionalism. Authoritarian hierarchies,after all, enjoy a reputation for efficiently controlling internaldissent.Another northern challenge, unforeseen by this largelyretrospective analysis, could be associated with shrinkingpublic funding for education. Educators at lower latitudeshave raised alarm over the fiscal trends that have invitedcorporate (i.e., non-public) entities to invade traditionallypublic spheres of education. As a result of these intrusions,decisions on curriculum content may be shaped by distantlyconceived agendas that are neither publicly discussed nor inthe public interest of a particular community (Barlow andRobertson, 1994). So-called “privatization,” if it connotes autilitarian emphasis on students’ skills for the globalworkplace, could become a potent ally of the factory modelfor school organization. If this alliance sounds fanciful,consider the current balance in any particular northern schoolsystem between distantly packaged resources (from text-books to multimedia and Internet instructional support), onthe one hand, and locally fashioned and adapted learningresources, on the other. A system’s infatuation with import-ing slick and conveniently packaged instructional materialsmay signal the need for northern citizens and educators totake a closer look.66 •  REVIEWSThese cautions notwithstanding, Taken to Extremes pro-vides friends of education in the Far North with singularlyvaluable background and perspectives to inspire thoughtfulaction, including educational research. Northern educationalachievement, still confounded by two universally vexingproblems, low performance and low self-image among stu-dents, needs all the thoughtful and active friends it canmuster.REFERENCESBARLOW, M., and ROBERTSON, H.-J. 1994. Class warfare: Theassault on Canada’s schools. Toronto, Ontario: Key PorterBooks Ltd. xii + 276 p.TOBIAS, S. 1992. Revitalizing undergraduate science: Why somethings work and most don’t. Tucson, Arizona: The ResearchCorporation. 192 p.David W. NortonBarrow Arctic Science ConsortiumP.O. Box 577Barrow, Alaska, U.S.A.99723NORTHERN PEOPLE, SOUTHERN STATES: MAIN-TAINING ETHNICITIES IN THE CIRCUMPOLARWORLD. Edited by ROBERT P. WHEELERSBURG. Umeå,Sweden: CERUM, 1996. viii + 211 p., maps. Softbound.No price indicated.The title Northern People, Southern States: MaintainingEthnicities in the Circumpolar World generates several ex-pectations. It conjures up conflicting images of the hinterlandand the homeland: what may be a hinterland for resourceexploitation to southern states is a homeland to people wholive there. It implies that the ideals and concerns of northernpeoples will come through the varied essays included in thiscollection. It suggests that a multidisciplinary approach willbe inherent in the analysis. Finally, the title indicates that thebook is about circumpolar communities, and implies that thecases studied will reflect the rich cultural diversity ofcircumpolar peoples.The collection of essays in Northern People, SouthernStates was edited by Robert Wheelersburg, who also contrib-uted to one of the essays. His well-written and thought-provoking introduction provides context to the diverse topicspresented in the essays. Its first sentence states the intentionof the collection: “The theme of this book is the culturallegacy of the circumpolar region.” The reader, who is as-sumed to be a social scientist or humanist, is urged to“understand socio-economic change in the North by examin-ing the history, local knowledge and values of people livingthere” (p. 1). These laudable aims also raise the expectationswith which one approaches the text.The reader gets a strong sense that the authors recognizeand are sensitive to the fact that each geographic region dealtwith is a homeland to a people. For instance, this ideal ispassionately conveyed in Sarah Carter’s reprinted essay onthe Plains Cree in the Canadian West (Carter, 1995). As agroup, the essays reflect multidisciplinarity. They presentresearch on the survival of language use, religious exchange,historical taxation and census records, epidemics, theories onthe origins of pastoralism, the search for cultural identity, andcontemporary issues related to reindeer herding and naturalresource competition. Individually, however, these essaysdemonstrate varying degrees of familiarity with interdiscipli-nary analysis on the respective issues being investigated. Forinstance, the paper on “The Future of Saami Minority Lan-guage Survival in Circumpolar Scandinavia,” by MikaelSvonni, was enhanced through an interdisciplinary approachbecause the discussion went beyond linguistic usage to in-clude the impact of communications technology such as thetelevision and print media. As a result, wider issues associ-ated with the cultural fabric of the community could beconsidered. However, the essay entitled “Northern People,Southern Records: The Yamal Nenets in Russian PopulationCounts, 1695–1989,” by Igor Krupnik—although interest-ing—fails to address in a meaningful manner the issue ofnorthern people and southern states. It does not consider thedata critically in terms of the social, political, and economicmotivations of the state.One cannot help but conclude from the varying degrees ofinterdisciplinarity applied in these essays that an independentpeer review of each essay might have qualitatively strength-ened the collection. For example, the essay “Natural Re-source Competition in the Swedish Reindeer Herding Re-gion,” by Lennart Bäck, combines discussion on variousdisciplines and talks of the merit of technologies such asGeographic Information Systems (GIS). It also draws onideas from the dependency theory of development and en-gages in a discussion on the relationship between the centreand periphery. Yet the discussion is superficial and seemshurried, possibly because the author seems unaware of sourcesthat would have greatly improved the analysis. Here anindependent peer review would have helped improve theideas presented because this shortcoming would have  beenrevealed prior to publication. However, the essay remains com-mitted to history as it stands—with some weaknesses.The title Northern People, Southern States suggests thatthe essays will deal with a wide variety of circumpolarpeoples. However, the majority of the essays limit them-selves to the Saami. In particular, the majority of the essaysdeal with the Saami living within Fenno-Scandinavia, par-ticularly Sweden, and therefore do not include a detaileddiscussion of the Saami living on the Kola Peninsula inRussia. Thus the essays do not deal directly with the experi-ence of maintaining ethnicities “in the circumpolar world,” asthe subtitle suggests, but rather in only a small portion of thatworld. Nonetheless, what is presented is informative anduseful to a social scientist or humanist because it representsthe current state of research and scholarship being undertaken

Taken to Extremes: Education in the Far North, by Frank Darnell and Anton Hoëm

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Taken to Extremes: Education in the Far North, by Frank Darnell and Anton Hoëm

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