Eskimo Education in the Canadian Arctic

En premier lieu cet article inventorie la litterature traitant des caracteristiques des enseignants, du programme d'etude et des techniques pedagogiques en au-tant que ces elements sont efficaces dans l'education des jeunes indiens et esqui-maux. Par apres, en s'appuyant sur l'ensemble des publications sur le sujet et sur les propres etudes nordiques de l'auteur a printemps 1969 on cherche a savoir jusqu'a quel point ces caracteristiques ideales du professeur, du programme et des techniques pedagogiques se retrouvent dans les salles de cours du nord. II semble que les enseignants autochtones esquimaux, meme avec peu d'entrainement, obtiendraient de meilleurs resultats scolaires que les edu-cateurs blancs durant les premieres annees. Un programme de cette nature de type experimental est maintenant en cours au Nouveau Quebec. Les professeurs esquimaux enseignent en esquimau et utilisent un materiel didactique special. This paper first reviews the literature on teacher characteristics, curriculum, and classroom teaching techniques as these relate to effectiveness in teaching Indian and Eskimo children. There follows a consideration of the extent to which ideal teacher and curriculum characteristics and teaching techniques are found in northern classrooms, based on published literature and the author's research in the north in the spring of 1969. It appears that ill-trained Eskimo teachers might teach the early grades more effectively than white teachers. Such an experimental program is found in Nouveau Quebec where Eskimo teachers using special material use Eskimo as the language of instruction.     

ACCOUNTS AS ASSEMBLED FROM BREACHING EXPERIMENTS*

A good deal of recent sociological literature has been involved with statements and explanations of the so-called “breaching experiments” or “incongruity procedures” originally introduced to sociological literature by Harold Garfinkel in his article “A Conception of, and Experiments with, ‘Trust’ as a Condition of Stable Concerted Actions.” The recent literature has essentially explained the breaching experiments as demonstrations of a means of eliciting social order through the disruption of taken-for-granted realities. An area, however, which has not been explained is the mental state of the persons who voluntarily involve themselves in these breachings. Persons who do these experiments almost unanimously remark that conducting these breachings creates anxiety and dread for them. Although there are numerous occasions in everyday life when persons find themselves in untoward positions, the breaching experiment can be used as a method of creating experimenter anxiety which is localized and pinpointed in such a way that it can be researched. This paper produces a sociological explanation of this breaching experiment anxiety. It offers therefore some insights into the influence of social situations on individuals' mental states, as well as a better understanding of the social dynamics behind the accounts people provide to explain their behavior.     

On the ABLUE of the normal mean from a censored sample

The asymptotically best linear unbiased estimate (ABLUE) of the normal mean is discussed. The estimate is based on k selected order statistics chosen from a singly or doubly censored large sample of size n(>k). The coefficients, the asymptotic relative efficiency of the estimate, and the optimum spacing of k real numbers between 0 and 1 which determines the optimum ranks of order statistics, are provided. A comparison between the ABLUE and the iterated maximum likelihood estimate is made.     

Putting schools as socio/economic institutions back into educational evaluation: A response to Kean and McNamara

A number of individuals have proposed the gradual refinement of existing programs, rather than their continual closing down, as a safeguard against educational fads and political pressures. The gradual refinement thesis is extended, refined, and criticized in this article. A different unit of analysis is proposed, one which takes into account the role of educational institutions in assisting in the reproduction of both cultural and economic inequality. It is argued that decisions about the gradual refinement of programs and institutions are not only technical but ideological and politico/economic in nature. Criteria for deciding on gradual refinement, based on a strategy of nonreformist reforms, are suggested.