Updating the Role of Rural Supervision: Perspectives from Alaska

Abstract

Despite the documented importance of professional experiences in teacher preparation, numerous questions persist as to how university supervisors can effectively contribute to rural preservice teachers' development and to establish lasting collaborations between involved stakeholders (e.g., collaborating teacher, principal, community). This paper provides insight into the challenges and potential for a comprehensive and updated approach to in-person supervision in a rural sociocultural context. Transcriptions of field notes, observation protocols, and conversations from forty supervision travels to remote Alaska villages are examined and interpreted. Results support a fresh, rural-contextual approach to in-person supervision that has the potential to help preservice teachers not only master effective teaching strategies but also support teacher recruitment, retention, and collaboration.

Exploring the Phenomenon of Rural School Counselors’ Professional Identity Construction

“…Barriers to receiving supervision in rural communities include “isolation, lack of money and time, lack of specialists, and decreased personal interaction” (Duncan et al, 2014, p. 445). In recent years, technology has provided an avenue through which teachers and clinical mental health counselors in rural communities are accessing consultation and supervision (Kaden et al, 2014; Paulson et al, 2015); however, current literature does not indicate that school counselors in rural communities utilize technology to access consultation and supervision.…”

The Molly Hootch Schools After 40 Years: Successes, Failures, and Opportunities

“…In 1976 the State of Alaska agreed with the plaintiffs in Tobeluk v. Lind, who argued that schools were needed in rural Alaska to help increase the access and quality of education for Alaska Native students (Schneider, 2018). After much deliberation, 105 schools and additions to 24 elementary schools (i.e., the Molly Hootch schools) were built in response to this call (Kaden et al, 2016). To date, however, no research has been conducted on whether these schools are adequately educating the rural student population.…”

A Reflection on Teaching Transferable Language Arts Editing Knowledge and Skills to Indigenous Alaska Native First-Generation Students

“…In most cases, qualified teachers only stay in a village community for a year or two before accepting a position elsewhere. Never-ending teacher turnover often leads students and village communities to resign themselves to the continuing revolving door of kass'aq-"white person" -teachers (Jacobson, 2012;Kaden et al, 2016). As a Caucasian, I believed that my status as another new kass'aq teacher in the eyes of my students could possibly be contributing to their unwillingness to learn from me.…”