Applying Place Based Education

Applying Place-based Education

As an elementary school counselor, one of the responsibilities I am charged with is the teaching of a wide variety of social skills to young children. It is expected that school counselors follow empirically developed curricula to their students, and I would like to figure out how to mesh the concepts that I currently teach with traditional Alaska native knowledge and understanding of social expectations. Though much of the emphasis in this Place-Based Education course has been on the scientific, environmental aspects of a place, my interest lies in the social aspect and how modern life can be lived according to codes that are centuries old.

Many teachers have access to resources from the Alaska Native Knowledge Network which outline traditional ways of knowing, traditional expectations for social behavior, and other indigenous cultural processes. In my attempt to incorporate place-based education more thoroughly next year, I will look to these resources for parallels between the social skill curricula for which I am responsible and their native counterparts. For example, I am planning to order a CD designed for teachers, entitled Creating a Community Elders' Calendar by Cheryl Pratt. It is described as "A teacher resource for documenting indigenous knowledge and intregrating respect in place-based education." Since "respect" is a critical theme in teaching social skills, I will find parallels in which the information presented in the CD can be integrated with existing lessons.

I will consult with the native Alaskan education coordinator for my school on how best to bring other critical threads of traditional knowledge into the counseling program. Currently, I have several times throughout the school year when I incorporate such things as "life lessons" that can be gleaned from stories and legends. Though I try to use common Tlingit stories and their critical meanings, I will focus this year on tying those meanings to life in a modern world.

I also intend to invite local elders into my school community for sharing oral traditions and stories that provide a native Alaskan interpretation of such counseling topics as conflict resolution, respect, healthy choices for mind and body, setting goals, and personal growth. Perhaps we could come up with a series of documents (ie: posters?, powerpoints?, brochures?) which would be useful to other school counselors in the Juneau School District.

These are thoughts in their infancy about how I, as an elementary school counselor, can incorporate the wealth of tradition and knowledge which underlies Alaska native social structures in the place in which we live - Juneau, AK.