Learning for Diverse Students

Culture-Based Education

Social Context and Relationships in Culture-Based Education in Yup'ik Eskimo Teaching Style

Jerry Lipka's article, entitled, "Toward a Culturally-Based Pedagogy: A Case Study of One Yup'ik Eskimo Teacher," discusses the other facet of teaching styles that are dominantly used among collective societies and communities. In Lipka's case study, he focuses on the teaching styles among educators of the Yup'ik Eskimo communities in Alaska. The author's study yielded the result that in the context of the Yup'ik Eskimo culture, social interaction and relationships affect the effectiveness of learning among students and teaching styles and methods of the teacher/educator. This finding illustrates how social relationships provide students and teachers a "cognitive framework" with which they can relate to and use as basis for their (students) learning. The case study brought about the fourth R. Of learning -- which are social relationships, an essential factor to learning in collective societies such as the Yup'ik Eskimos. Culture-based education in Lipka's case study provides educators with an alternative to the dominant form of teaching style -- that is, the Westernized form of education. This is because Western education and teaching tend to focus on individual learning, as reflected in the individualist kind of society that Western nations have. Now, with Lipka's findings, educational institutions can adapt the culture-based education, which takes into consideration that societies and communities have diverse cultures, thus, there are also diverse ways and methods wherein lessons are taught and information are relayed and/or shared between the students and teachers. Moreover, culture-based education is an opportunity for educators to comprehend how certain cultures can be as equally or more effective than Western style of teaching based on the social and cultural context in which education and teaching occurs. Ideally, culture-based pedagogy is ideal for studying teaching methods and styles among collective societies, such as minority groups in the Americas or Eastern nations located in the Pacific and Middle Eastern regions.