Culture, language and colonial discourse: a study of educational professional preparation in American Samoa

Abstract

This research documented inservice teachers and college instructors perspectives on a long standing professional development education program in American Samoa. This research study gathered and analyzed a wide array of interview responses that a defined group of educators' shared-responses that relate to cultural, professional, and educational issues about students, instructors and professional development curriculum in American Samoa. Initially this study sought to assess the effectiveness of a mentorship program, analyzing how it supported professional development and incorporated interagency communication. A closer look and further interpretation of several themes (i.e., discourses of culture, language, and curriculum within the professional development model) as they came to be present in the interview sessions, established how colonial characteristics of the past have impacted and created an educational system in American Samoa that historically and currently moved away from the traditional Pacific ways and toward closer alignment with the educational system of the West. This dissertation study sought to understand and address how these stated discourses impacted: (1) Indigenous cultural and language education; (2) culturally appropriate professional development for indigenous and non-indigenous educators; (3) culturally relevant curriculum for the Pacific people; and (4) colonizing educational practices in the Pacific and the West.