National and International Organizations

Since moving back home to Hawaii I have become particularly interested in Hawaiian language schools and bilingual education in general..  A couple weeks ago I watched the Kamehameha Schools Annual Song Contest and was blown away by the level of linguistic and cultural knowledge that these students displayed. Check it out below if you're interested.

I think the teaching of native cultures and languages is something that is very important and I would like to see more of an effort to maintain this heritage.  While the Hawaiian language is an official language of the state of Hawaii, most residents of Hawaii, even Native Hawaiians, do not speak Olelo Hawaii (Hawaiian Language).  The one exception is the island of Ni'ihau where Hawaiian is the primary spoken language and is the formal language of education. To me, the issue of teaching the Hawaiian language in schools is a bit of a different situation from typical bilingual education which usually focuses on using a student's mother tongue to help them learn the common tongue, so it's hard to find a lot of comparison.  However, educational organizations such as the NEA generally seem favor bilingual education because of research that suggest that bilingualism improves an individual's cognitive ability. The NEA featured an article on their website which explains that due to the code switching ability that people who speak more than one language often use, bilingual or multilingual individuals tend to exercise better "executive control" because they have better focus and selective attention which allows them ignore "salient distractors."

I would like to point out that though it is not the common tongue, there are a total of 18 public and charter schools throughout the state of Hawaii that offer a Hawaiian language immersion program where students attend classes taught in strictly in Hawaiian.  The programs do exist but I would like to see them integrated into general public schools by offering Hawaiian as a foreign additional language course option.  I would also like to see a greater integration of the Hawaiian culture in schools throughout the island.  I am grateful that least one semester of Hawaiian history is part of required curriculum of public high schools here, but I would like to see a cultural education of the Native Hawaiians as a part of schooling here as well.

Other things I learned from about these National and International Teaching Organizations:

National Educator's Association (NEA)
The NEA supports its members by offering grants such as Student Achievement Grants to support "initiatives that improve academic achievement" and Learning and Leadership Grants to support "high quality professional development."  I can't think of many teachers who doesn't pay for at least some classroom supplies and equipment out of pocket, so I can really see the value in this type of financial support.  I'd actually be really interested in the Learning and Leadership Grants because I've wanted to attend some conferences such as the NCTM and NCSS conferences because there's a lot of great resources and information but between travel and conference fees I don't think I'd be able to afford such a trip
American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
The AFT is not afraid to take a clear, strong stand on educational issues worldwide.  From presidential candidate endorsements to the the kidnapping of the young female students in Nigeria by the Boko Haram, the AFT takes public stances on such issues and often does so through the use of resolutions such as this one: #bringbackourgirls.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
Although I couldn't find resources that directly fit my topic I was fascinated with this report which includes case studies of language learning programs in four different countries.  The most interesting thing for me was the story of Papua New Guinea which explained that the country, despite limited financial resources transitioned from having strictly English language schools to where the language of formal education during the initial years of schools is the local language, which is incredible considering that the country has more than 430 local languages, and need teachers for each of the different languages.
Global Partnerships for Education (GPE)
The most surprising fact I learned from the GPE website was that, "In 48 countries teachers at the lower secondary level are required to have completed no higher than a secondary level of education. The same is true for upper secondary school teachers in 30 countries. This leaves large numbers of students being taught by instructors who have completed little more education than their students."