Things Teachers Need to Know about Teaching in the North

The education system in Nunavik has been ineffective for years and years and years. It’s got so many complicated factors, but some of the more significant ones include cross cultural miscommunication between Inuit students and parents and Qallunaaq teachers. This is a problem that can be resolved. Even though it feels like only a few types of people come up north to teach, most often, none of those types can handle the stress of teaching in Nunavik, though there are some great exceptions... and this is from 21 years of going through that school system and interacting with teachers.
One, the freak, generally the outcast type, makes people uncomfortable and keeps himself somewhat distant. I once had a teacher who drew light bulbs during class, he didn’t actually know the level of math he was supposed to be teaching us, so instead we had a lot ‘free drawing time’ where he would draw light bulbs, almost obsessively... with arms, and legs and wheels and just all kinds of weird light bulbs; then he would hang them on the walls. Then there was this one that never looked you in the eye, ever. I know the word freak is a bit harsh, odd, i should say. Then the second type, the runaway. Runaways usually have something they’re hiding from –family reasonability, even crimes. People that needed a change in their life that didn’t include anyone else... and three, the assholes; usually up just to make money, and can sometimes be considered racist. Then there’s newbies, right out of university and into the schools. I like to call them fresh meat. They’re often idealistic and come up north seeking adventure, to spice up their own lives with exotic stories of the far north.
That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with these types of people. They just happen to be the types that come up north most often. Anyway, regardless of motives, new teachers in the north do have something in common. They are equally unequipped to work in an Inuit school board for Inuit people. Sure, they have their Bachelors and Masters and blah blah blah, but they don’t know how to interact with Inuit, in an Inuit social context. I’m sure they get a lecture on culture shock and recovery, but most often, they are not given the tools to decode cultural miscommunication, and misunderstandings.
I recently went on a volunteer exchange in Ghana, and before we even left Canada, we had to take workshops on cross cultural learning, communication and understanding. We had the analogy of the icebergs. My iceberg was my own culture, and the other was the other culture. It was divided into three sections, the first being the tip of the iceberg, ‘behaviour’, the second part, just below the surface ‘norms’ and the third section, at the very bottom ‘values’. Imagine you, a teacher as one iceberg, and your students as another iceberg. You have your own ways of life, you have your own idea of education and your own methods of teaching, all these things you picked up throughout your own life, within your own society and culture. All these things, you can credit to norms and values that you were taught. Your students have their own ways of living, their own idea of education and their own methods of learning. When you can understand how to see deeper into the iceberg of your students, you might understand why your behaviour and their behaviour collide and how their behaviours are affected by the norms and values in their culture. Why you feel like you’re ineffective, or why you think your students will never learn, it’s hard to see where you’re going wrong when your foundation of understanding can never mesh with that of your students. That’s the problem here, teachers are not given the tools they need to decode and understand cultural differences, and neither are students. This often leads to poor delivery of critical education.
Then there’s that long, tragic history of education in the north, and the idea that educating through the present system is a continual colonization. Though we have the legal means to suite education to our own cultural needs, the present system looks oddly familiar to that of the south. The general relationship between Inuit and Qallunaat was one of inequality and intimidation, especially in local day schools or residential boarding schools. There hasn’t been enough movement on either side to really change that relationship, even when Inuit gained control of their education system. We don’t get enough teachers who are genuinely concerned with the wellbeing of Inuit society; this, in part to the fact that not many Inuit have degrees that could allow them to teach grades above third and fourth -which is directly caused by the poor quality of education they received in elementary and secondary.
Teachers who come up north often cannot handle the circumstances, many leave after a year from being too overwhelmed, mentally and emotionally. I won’t lie, a few have problems with anxiety, even depression. Living up north is unique experience, it can get ugly, it can get dark, but it’s also very full of beauty and spirit. The problem is, many newcomers feel too overwhelmed by the heavy, ugly dark side to really see the beauty, then they go back home and tell people how much they hated the north... it’s a sad phenomenon, but it happens every day. Even as we speak, there’s probably a teacher who has stopped caring, who’s counting the days to go home, who would be happy never to see their students again. Imagine how that makes students feel?
To have someone new every year, to have to go through the same culture shocked roller coaster, at critical periods of your education. I have done a lot of work with young people in Nunavik, and I know there’s so much potential there, so much energy and talent, so much intelligence and curiosity. If only educational activities are executed accordingly, these kids do have the potential to learn and grow. But there’s so much in the way of that happening, so much that can be changed or addressed is going untouched, unmentioned and unresolved.
I’m writing this to try to tell people who want to come teach in the north that they do have an amazing opportunity to help. And to remind present teachers that there’s so much that you could understand about the experience. Because it’s inevitable that we will still depend on Qallunaat teachers for a few more years to come, let’s not gloss over that... We need teachers and we need teachers who care and understand. We need teachers who have the tools to teach cross culturally. We need teachers to understand when its their place to teach and their place to learn, because no matter what... life in the north is a learning experience. Let’s keep that beautiful.

being in nothing...

Coming back...

I Dont even know where to start, there's so many beginnings and so many endings, one right after the other, all at the same time, overlapping, and gaps in between where it feels like nothing is happening at all. Like it's all on pause.. as if right now, there's no traffic on Dorval Avanue, theres no running water in Otuam, there's no sea ice on Ungava Bay and there's no way I'm here right now. I dont know where I am.. well, I'm in Montreal at Wini's.. but i'm just staying here, lying here watching sex in the city, having supper with friends, painting my fingernails.. All of this is happening but im not really there to experience it. I'm watching it all happen, i'm there but i'm not. But at 2 in the morning... there really IS no traffic on dorval avanue, 7am, no running water in Otuam --someone's probably walking home from the well right now, big metal bowl of water on their head. I remember my first week in Otuam, I was helping get water, and the would always give me these little buckets, then i was getting impatient with how long it took the tank to fill so i grabbed the HUGE metal bowl and started carrying it to the well, as if i were capable of carrying that on my head full of water. as if.... my host mother and her freinds all yelled at me... no no no nno... you'll die!... but no, I decided i was going to (try). obviously I failed, but i tried.

then when i was in toronto, in my hotel... i went into the bathtub and turned the tap on.. it was hot. I took a hot shower. A Shower, with a shower hose (or whatever that thing that drips water in called).. it rained on me... no flash floods, no hard labour, no cold shock. and then again the next day i took a shower.. so now i take showers. I dont need my dettol or my small purple pail.

but anyway, I've been sick a lot.. I cant eat anything without it coming back up. Has anyone else experienced this after 3 months in a tropical place? but maybe its just needing time for my body to adjust.. I'm supposed to stay in Montreal for the week and go to toronto for the weekend for a couple more CWY debriefings, but i just need to go home. So tomorrow Im going home. When i first went to Ghana I hated it. I was hot, sweaty, smelly, irritable and hungry, all I wanted was a cup of coffee, an air conditioned room (or at least wintertime), and a SHOWER... none of those things materialised in Ghana. But theyre here now. In ghana, my feet were dirty, so dirty they actually looked tan, i was hot and sweating like a motherfucker and it took me forever to get used to having kids follow me around in the streets. Now in Canada, I look at someones kid sideways and they freak out, mama bears all over the place, apparently I'm really menacing looking. Now in Canada, my feet are wet and cold from the slushy sidewalks, my shoes stained with salt, instead of shit. I'm cold, I have been cold since i got off the plane in toronto. What kind of Inuk am i? how do i expect to survive when i go back up north?

Umm.... anyway. I'm ok. I just dont know what i'm doing anymore.