Alaska: abstracts of
research articles
Alaska: abstracts of
research articlesThe remote towns and villages of bush Alaska confront dilemmas in the design of secondary education. Systems based on a single statewide boarding school, or alternatively on small schools in each individual community, have both been tried. Debates about these two approaches reflect a more basic question: What is the purpose of secondary education? Should it (A) prepare students to become functional members of their home communities, or (B) prepare them to compete for education and jobs elsewhere? This question has implications for all aspects of educational design, and indeed for the future of rural villages themselves.
The villages of rural Alaska comprise one of the most exceptional, yet least visible, sociocultural environments in the U.S. They are geographically remote, and set off from the mainstream also by their unique Eskimo, Indian or Aleut cultures. At the same time many economic, legal and cultural connections pull these villages toward the dominant U.S. society, impelling continual and rapid social change. Our research focuses on adolescents growing up in this culturally complex and changing environment. We employ survey data from adolescents in 19 rural schools to explore relationships between ethnic identity and students' expectations about moving away or attending college. Many students describe their ethnic identity as mixed, both Native and non-Native. On some key variables, the responses of mixed-identity students fall between those of Natives and non-Natives, supporting a theoretical conception of ethnicity as a matter of degree rather than category. Migration and college expectations vary with ethnic identity, but the college expectations/identity relationship fades when we adjust for other variables. Ethnicity affects expectations for the most part indirectly, through "cultural tool kit" variables including family role models and support. Gender differences in expectations, on the other hand, remain substantial even after adjusting for other variables.
Many programs have attempted to address alcohol and drug use and family violence as issues of public health. This paper examines the degree to which high school students in Southwest Alaska identify these issues as problems in their communities. Qualitative and quantitative data come from a 1995 survey of children in grades 9 to 12 in four villages, one town, and one boarding school in Alaska. Alcohol policies differ in rural Alaska, with "dry" communities banning alcohol possession, "damp" communities allowing alcohol possession but not sale, and "wet" communities permitting purchase and importation of alcohol. Although the majority of all students believe alcohol and drugs are problems in their communities, only 45% of town students and 22% of village students report too much family violence in their communities. Qualitative data indicate that alcohol and drugs are of concern to young people. One female student, when asked if she would be a successful person, responded "Yes, because I look at my drunk relatives and tell myself, that will never happen to me."
Building on Richard Condon's discussions of education in the Central Canadian Arctic village of Holman, this paper uses 1995 survey data to describe Alaska Native high school students' perceptions of the purpose of school, the quality of their schools, the degree of adult encouragement they receive, their Native language skills, and their residential expectations. While Holman students did not perceive great educational expectations from their parents, students in Alaskan villages are as likely to report lots of parental encouragement as are students who attend larger town or boarding schools. Only 15% of students in Holman indicated they wanted to live someplace other than Holman when they got older, but 85% of Alaska Native students think they will live someplace other than their home communities for most of the rest of their lives. The differences between adolescents in Holman and Alaska may be consequences of time. Oil revenues, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and the Molly Hootch decision in the 1970s predicated many changes in Alaska which in turn affected educational policies and practices. Recent decisions affecting self-governance for Native peoples in the Canadian Arctic are likely to accelerate similar changes.
Human-environment interactions can affect the gender balance of resource-dependent societies in a variety of ways. Historical and contemporary data on Alaska Native populations illustrate such effects. Some 18th and early 19th century observers noted an excess of females, which they attributed to high mortality among hunters. Population counts in the later 19th century and well into the 20th found instead an excess of men in many communities. Female infanticide was credited as the explanation: since family survival depended upon hunting success, males were more valued. Although infanticide explanations for the excess of males have been widely believed, available demographic data point to something else: higher adult female mortality. Finally, in the postwar years, the importance of mortality differentials seems to have faded -- and also changed direction. Female outmigration from villages accounts for much of the gender imbalance among Native populations today. Natural-resource development, particularly North Slope oil, indirectly drives this migration. In Alaska's transcultural communities, the present gender imbalances raise issues of individual and cultural survival.
Previous studies established that Alaskan Native women are more likely than Alaskan Native men to keep full-time jobs, attend college, or move to cities. We heard accounts of this divergence, and its social consequences, during recent research in the Northwest Arctic and Bristol Bay regions. Informants from several villages claimed that female outmigration was affecting local life. Surveys covering 15 communities confirmed a broad pattern of gender differences in adolescent aspirations and in young adult actions. For this paper we expand our scope beyond the two regions initially studied, and explore the magnitude of Native female outmigration from bush Alaska. Statewide data show a systematic relation between Native gender balance and community size, consistent with differential migration. In some other societies "female flight" occurs along rural/urban and associated social class lines, but its magnitude in Alaska's transcultural context raises particularly acute issues of individual and cultural survival.
Recent surveys in Alaska's predominantly Native Bristol Bay and Northwest Arctic regions find that female high school students, more often than males, expect to migrate permanently away from their home community and region. Reports from high school graduates indicate that more young women do move away after graduation; other research establishes that Native women more often attend college or hold full-time jobs. Statewide 1990 Census data confirm a significant relation between percent female and community population, consistent with the hypothesis that "female flight" from Native villages is shifting the young adult gender balance. Bush villages tend to have more young Native men than women, whereas larger cities have more young Native women than men. Such imbalances must directly affect opportunities for marriage, family, and cultural continuity. They could also have wide-ranging indirect consequences, including exacerbation of village social and health problems associated with unmarried young men.
Recent surveys of high school students in Alaska's Northwest Arctic and Bristol Bay regions reflect the social changes taking place in rural Native communities. Significant differences exist between the aspirations of young people in small villages and those in the larger towns that constitute regional hubs (Kotzebue and Dillingham). Town students, who attend more complete and varied high schools express greater confidence in their educations and more interest in attending college. Jobs at Red Dog Mine, recently opened in the Northwest Arctic, appeal particularly to young males with strong ties to village life. This labor pool presents special challenges for the mine's goal of 100% Native employment, however. A majority of town students and about half of the village students expect to migrate permanently away from their home region. The likelihood of expecting migration increases curvilinearly with community size. Young women and college-aspiring students disproportionately expect outmigration. Differential migration affects the acculturation and life prospects of individuals and shapes the demographic profile of Alaskan villages, towns, and cities.
Social and biological scientists widely use logit (logistic) regression to model binary dependent variables such as move/stay or live/die. Techniques for modeling multiple-category dependent variables are a relatively recent development, however. Asking Stata to perform multinomial logistic regression is easy. This paper, written while stormbound at the Nullagvik Hotel, provides a "beginners guide" to interpreting multinomial logit models--using data on the migration expectations of high school students in bush Alaska.
Rapid social change has become a fact of life for much of the Arctic, particularly near areas of mineral and oil development. Such changes can substantially affect adolescents, whose attitudes and aspirations in turn provide clues about the future of many northern communities. Our study surveyed high school students and recent graduates in fifteen rural, predominantly Alaska Native communities: ten in a region affected by mining development, plus five others in a different region without similar resource development. We discuss social impacts of resource development on adolescents, drawing on preliminary results from the high school survey.