FOR RELEASE: Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Cultural Component Makes Literacy Program Special to Marshallese
Marshallese children, top, play in the beach they created as they read stories from their homeland, the Marshall Islands. Marshallese women, center, perform a traditional dance to show their appreciation at a closing ceremony for the home-based literacy project. Pictures, bottom, from the project are displayed as well as a "visitor's center" board about the Marshall Islands and pages drawn by the children illustrating the story of the whale and the sandpiper, a Marshallese folk tale.
Marta Collier reached down to touch the flowing black hair of the little girl. "You write me a letter, OK? Miss Anita knows how to find me."
The girl was one of 15 children who accompanied their mothers to a literacy project designed, not only to improve the children's reading skills, but also to teach them about their culture. Collier and her colleagues, Yvette Murphy and Deanna Perez Williams, embraced nearly every person in the crowd gathered at a celebration in June to close the literacy project for Marshallese mothers and children. The Marshallese women performed a traditional dance, and the entire group sang traditional songs to show their appreciation.
Collier, an associate professor at the University of Arkansas, teaches early childhood education in the College of Education and Health Professions. To create the program for the Marshallese people, she joined forces last year with Murphy, assistant professor in the School of Social Work of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, and Williams, migrant education coordinator for the Boston Mountain Educational Cooperative.
Inside the Anij Emmon Assembly of God Church in Springdale, displays illustrated for visitors the geography and customs of the people of the Marshall Islands. Children's books lined the raised altar area, and photographs documented the program activities, including decorating cookies cut in the shape of fish and creating a sandy beach with seashells. Outside the church, a banner with printed coconut trees lined a fenced area around picnic tables festooned with balloons. Children played with beach balls in the pleasant evening with a light breeze reminiscent of the islands.
Having one's culture be visible in a learning context was a real eye-opener for the participants, Collier said. Most of the Marshallese children were born in the United States, and their parents want to maintain a cultural connection to the islands.
"It's extremely important that every child know where he came from," she said. "You've got to see who you are and why you're important. Cultural relevance brings excitement. It gets the kids involved in what they're reading."
Project Leaders Build Partnerships
The literacy project used an education model, Community-Based Partnership Methods in Education, developed by Williams and presented at the Third Annual Worldwide Forum on Education and Culture in Rome, 2003. This model provides guiding principles for educators on how to engage and partner with parents in diverse communities to improve their children's academic outcomes. By becoming knowledgeable about a community, establishing trust, and engaging and partnering with community members, parents and students, some of the trust, communication and cultural differences can be ameliorated. Becoming knowledgeable includes learning about a community's strengths and resources.
Communicating and connecting with parents of kindergarten through 12th grade students is essential for students to be successful, Williams pointed out, and that can be especially difficult for parents who may not be familiar with the American school system.
Parents who have limited English skills cannot efficiently assist their children in pursuing their academic goals, often leaving them to navigate complex educational systems on their own. Cultural, linguistic, social and economic differences can inhibit parental and family involvement. Consequently, educators may misinterpret a child's desire to succeed or their academic potential or progress, Williams explained. Research has documented that students with parents who partner in their education are more likely to earn higher grades, graduate and attend college.
"The success of our project was in part based on our ability to partner with the mothers and to acknowledge and employ their strengths," said Williams, who is a medical anthropologist and health scientist. "Their strengths included their willingness to share their church home for the project and their commitment and desire to improve the potential for their children to succeed by enhancing their English skills."
Islander Culture Plays Role
The largest and fastest growing immigrant Marshallese population in the United States lives in northwest Arkansas, with numbers estimated at more than 6,500.
During World War II, American soldiers captured the Marshall Islands from the Japanese, and, between 1946 and 1958, the United States tested 66 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, which consists of 29 atolls and five isolated islands in the western Pacific Ocean. The U.S. government and the government of the Marshall Islands entered into the Compact of Free Association in 1986, giving the islands their independence. The compact provided for aid and U.S. defense of the islands in exchange for continued U.S. military use of the missile testing range at Kwajalein Atoll. Marshallese people are allowed to live and work in the United States indefinitely without visas. The U.S. government has also paid reparations to the Marshallese for the atomic testing and cancer deaths believed to have been caused by the radiation.
The Women's Giving Circle at the university awards grants every year to help fund new programs proposed by university faculty and staff. In spring 2006, Collier, Murphy and Williams received grant funds to buy books and other learning aides for kits they would give to the mothers and their children who took part in the project.
Before they made purchases, however, the three began meeting with leaders in the Marshallese community based in Springdale. Carmen Chong Gum, Marshallese outreach coordinator at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, introduced them to Anita Iban, a prominent civic leader in the local Marshallese community who works as a translator and interpreter for Marshallese students and parents in the Springdale School District. Her husband, the Rev. Rikaki Iban, serves as pastor of Anij Emmon Assembly of God.
Chong Gum also advised the women as they chose books and other material for the program.
"As a research component, we wanted to look at the whole notion of nostalgia so we tried to choose books that were reflective of their culture," Murphy said.
By partnering with Anita Iban, Collier, Murphy and Williams engaged the Marshallese mothers to work with their children and encourage them to learn about their culture while working on their reading, writing, listening and spelling skills.
Mrs. Iban opened the church on Chapman Road in Springdale to the women and their program and introduced them to families, of which 15 participated. The women met at the church six times, twice with the mothers only and the other four times with the mothers and children, who were in kindergarten through fourth grade. Iban acted as class leader and interpreted when a mother had trouble understanding a discussion in English.
Along with books, the kits contained magnetic letters, a game board with reading comprehension questions, a concentration-type game and parent feedback journals. Some stories such as one about a whale and a sandpiper were stories the mothers had heard as children.
Mothers, Children Strengthen Bonds
At the closing celebration, Oprah, 11, talked in both Marshallese and English with a friend who had come to the United States only a few years ago, helping Ruby Ann to answer a visitor's questions in English. Oprah said the program helped her understand more of her parents' native language.
"The moms read a story in Marshallese and we read it in English," she said, her eyes bright and smile wide. "It was fun learning more Marshallese."
Lesson plans were simple and mother-friendly, and necessary items not in the kit were easily found in the home.
"Some of the stories they knew well, they had heard them many times. You know how children want a favorite story read and reread to them," Collier explained. "So now we asked them to rewrite the story. We said put your own spin on it. That helps them be successful at reading comprehension and writing without being overwhelming."
Murphy said some of the children for the first time asked their mothers to come to their schools to volunteer in class.
In addition to putting material in the families' homes, the grant allowed the women to leave a library at the church, donating books and money for furnishings and other decorations.
"We wanted to make the church a place they can continue to learn," Collier said. "We hope this is the first phase of a continuing relationship."
The project included a focus group meeting with the mothers at the end and pre- and post-program quantitative surveys of the mothers and children with questions about demographics as well as questions about the children's enjoyment of reading and time spent interacting.
Opportunity Remains Ultimate Goal
Iban explained at the closing party that literacy and education in general are very important to her people. They came to the United States for opportunities to get a high-quality education and decent paying jobs, she said.
The program helped the mothers to realize the importance of spending time learning with their children. Iban, the mother of seven children, five of whom are still at home, experienced that aspect herself.
"I realized I spend all day with children at school and children at church, and I needed to sit down more with my own children," she said.
Iban's sister, Marina Michael, drove from Neosho, Mo., each week to attend the program with her 6-year-old son.
"We enjoyed talking about the island traditions," Michael said. She was laughing but her eyes were shiny with tears as she thought about her home. "This was the first program we've been in that included the Marshallese culture."
The Marshallese women and their families thanked Collier, Murphy and Williams by showering them with gifts – hand-sewn dresses of a flowered print on lavender fabric similar to the shin-length bright print dresses the Marshallese women wear and necklaces of shells and fabric flowers.
When she addressed the crowd, Collier said the Marshallese mothers' commitment made the program work.
"It has been a joy working with your families," she said. "The mothers were committed to working with the children. They came here on Saturdays when they had other responsibilities and probably needed to rest, but they came here. This is what parent involvement looks like."
Iban returned the compliments.
"The ladies from the university did a tremendous, awesome job," she said. "The mothers enjoyed it very much. It was the talk of the town."
Marta Collier, left, and her colleagues Yvette Murphy, second from right, and Deanna Perez Williams, far right, received funding from the Women's Giving Circle to create a home-based literacy project for Marshallese mothers and their children. They were assisted by the Rev. Rikaki Iban and his wife, Anita Iban, second and third from left.
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Contact:
Heidi Stambuck, director of communications
College of Education and Health Professions
(479) 575-3138, stambuck@uark.edu