Hutterite education : teacher perceptions of student performance
Date
1994
Authors
Findlay, Robert M
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 1994
Abstract
The unique experience of being a public school teacher
on a Hutterite colony has proven problematic for various
reasons in the area of student eval uation. Hut teri te
student achievement as undertaken by Alberta Education
shows a I ack of understanding of how these chi ldren are
performing academically and pays little heed to the
perceptions, opinions and experiences of the English
teachers in colony schools. There is a fundamental
misunderstanding of the cultural and educational
environment found on a Hutterite colony that makes typical
student achievement practices suspect at best.
The first part of this project took the form of a
survey of English teachers. These teacher perceptions of
Hutterite student achievement were of children who were
leaving school at the age 15. This survey was completed
and anal yzed in January, 1993. The second stage of the
project was a test of graduating Hutterite students using
the Wide Range Achievement Test, (WRAT-R), which helped to
determine basic skills in reading, spelling, and arithmetic
for all student groups. The third phase was to give
evidence of the validity of the chosen research instrument
for children in Alberta by administering the Wide Range
Achievement Test to a similar sized group of regular
classroom students who acted as a control group.
Recognized research methodology was used to compile
and analyze the data. The analysis provided an opportunity
to compare the achievement levels of Hutterite children at
age fifteen with students of the same age in the regular school system. The cuI tural and educational contexts in
which the Hut teri te students and their Engl ish teachers
work were used to arrive at some understanding of why there
was a difference in achievement results. Also, teacher
perceptions of how Hutterite children were performing
academically were compared with actual student performance.
It was found that these teacher perceptions were supported
by the data collected in this study.
other findings support the contention that Hutterite
children in the province of Alberta are technically
English-as-a-Second-Language students. Accordingly, they
should not be required to write Alberta Education
achievement exams because the Hutterite educational context
requires a specialized curriculum. However, they should be
tested for achievement on such a revised curriculum. Also,
this research provides evidence that Hutterite children are
unable to achieve at the grade level in which they are
registered. Finall y, this study shows that there is a
close relationship between Hutterite achievement on the
WRAT-R and Hutterite English teachers' informal assessments
of Hutterite student performance.
The Hutterite people in Alberta and in other parts of
the world have a unique culture. The author believes that
no one person or group has the right to make changes for
another culture unless that culture perceives a need for
change. Hutterite people have survived nearly 500 years as
a communal culture partially because of their abhorrence of
great changes. This paper does provide
ideas for providing a quality education
children that offers due recognition to
sound data and for Hutterite the cultural context and the other conditions that place constraints on
teaching and learning within such a system.
Description
ix, 80 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Keywords
Hutterite brethren -- Education , Academic achievement -- Alberta