Braithwaite learns about Navajo communication patterns, helps students adapt to education off the reservation

Chuck Braithwaite's off-campus teaching experience for Arizona State University's West campus has not been your typical one. In fact, Braithwaite's course was developed out of some research he had been conducting, which, in turn, grew from a service project he was doing for the communication department at ASU-West.

Braithwaite's odyssey began when he took on the task of attempting to recruit more students from the Navajo Nation to enroll in his department. As a specialist in communication and culture, Braithwaite realized that he would need to learn more about Navajo communication styles and educational philosophies in order to design effective recruitment strategies. As an ethnographer of communication, Braithwaite realized that there was an opportunity to gather research data while carrying out this service assignment.

Working with communication department chair Lesley Di Mare, Braithwaite arranged to teach a double load during the 1995 fall semester so that he could be released during the 1996 spring semester for the project. A faculty grant-in-aid from ASU-West covered Braithwaite's travel expenses so that he could stay 350 miles away from home at Navajo Community College (NCC).

From his initial meetings with students, faculty, and staff at NCC, Braithwaite learned that Navajo philosophy is consciously integrated into all aspects of life at the college. In fact, faculty are required to explain in their course syllabi how they intend to incorporate the educational philosophy (known as Sa anaaghei Bikeh hozhoon) into the course content.

Braithwaite attempted to observe as much of the educational process at NCC as possible. He sat in on sessions of several different courses, such as Navajo History, Navajo Astronomy, Navajo Oral History, and Fundamentals of Communication. He observed faculty and administrative meetings, and conducted interviews about how Sa anaaghei Bikeh hozhoon is used generally in classes. He lived in the student dormitories, ate in the school cafeteria, attended campus activities, and visited other campuses in the seven-campus NCC system. In return for obtaining significant access to the life of the campus, he worked with administrators to arrange articulation agreements between NCC and ASU-West for specific courses, many not in communication, and advised students about transfer from NCC to four-year campuses.

As he worked particularly in this last capacity, Braithwaite learned that many students desired to transfer and obtain a four-year degree but were unsure about their abilities to cope with cultural and educational differences that four-year campuses would surely bring. After consulting with faculty and administrators Braithwaite proposed to teach a summer course entitled, "Successful Transfer to a 4-year University." A second grant, from ASU-West's Instructional Development and Support fund, paid Braithwaite's travel expenses for this course, which was offered during the summer of 1996. While Braithwaite covered the mechanical aspects of transfer, he also spent considerable class time discussing how students can use effective communication practices, such as public speaking, interviewing, and conflict management, to adapt to their new physical and cultural surroundings and to succeed in a "foreign" institution. It is, of course, too early to assess how effective this approach will be, but Braithwaite was encouraged by the response he received from the NCC community.

Braithwaite sees the experience as not only a means by which he can further his research goals but also as a way of attempting to incorporate Sa anaaghei Bikeh hozhoon (also called Dine) philosophy into his teaching. According to Braithwaite, Navajo teaching always includes a focus on the Dine system of meaning; a focus on Dine identity; contrasting Dine with "the West"; a focus on the process of "enactment," or holding oneself as proof of one's argument; a focus on the concept of Duality in life; a focus in the course on making the student a better person and a better Navajo; and the use of stories from Navajo culture and history. "Obviously, as an Anglo, I cannot hope to teach Navajo students about Navajo practices as a Navajo instructor would do so," Braithwaite said. "However, by knowing some of the classroom communication practices that are successful at NCC, I can attempt to make my teaching more culturally sensitive and therefore more likely to benefit members of this community."