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30 The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin: International Journal for Professional Educators

results of the camp included expanded definitions of inclusiveness, enhanced classroom
content, and improved instructional practices (Burroughs, Hopper, Brocato, & Webeck,
2009). The teachers looked at diverse ways to practice democratic education in the schools.

Program Details
...one in-service program During the school year, secondary teachers
engaged in 4 days of teacher in-service sessions
did not require travel but did with three learned speakers discussing Native
American culture, the geography of the West
require 126 teachers from and Southwest, and the history of the regions.

30 countries to engage in The Gallia-Vinton Educational Service Center
coordinated, funded, and collected the data for
international conversation this component of the teacher in-service program.
During the summer, teachers traveled for a week
through online discussion across Texas and New Mexico learning about
the land and its people. They floated down the
forums. Rio Grande with native guides, passing two
reservations. The guides shared their perspectives
about what had occurred between their people
and the United States. After the float, participants visited a pueblo and shared an authentic
home-cooked meal—stew with meat, potatoes, and spices—with the residents.
Teachers determined that certain elements of Native American reservation life
resembled their Appalachian home experiences. Both places experienced similar economic
conditions, benefited from a tourist economy, and endured the failed policies of government
intervention or lack of government intervention. As an example of the latter, both places
lacked connectivity of Internet and cell phone service. Government rules that required
companies to provide service to communities would change the lives of the people in rural
areas. For example, one participant noticed,
I asked Rochelle, our Zuni guide up the Rio, if she thought that the Internet has
been a help or hindrance to the preservation of traditional Pueblo culture. Her
response was curious… she noted that being connected has helped in some ways.
Apps are being developed to help develop and teach the language in written form,
natives are able to connect and share ideas about preserving their culture, and
younger people are able to utilize it as an informational window into the past.
However, she noted some hesitation amongst some of the Pueblo people. First,
the most traditional way of learning the Zuni language is that it is passed on from
elders within the tribe. Rochelle wonders if young people using apps will break the
tradition and learn the language in other ways. The Internet also brings economic
realities into clear view: it is difficult to obtain Internet and cellular service on the
pueblos (another connection that I made to the very rural portions of Appalachia),
and it makes economic class status obvious. And so for my students in Appalachia.
We are always standing at the precipice of a changing and developing nation. How
will the Zuni tribe adapt in a world where their once only-spoken language is
being taught through an app while the language transforms to include words that
weren’t even included in its original form? (Words like “Internet,” “cell phone,” etc.).
(Adam, personal communication, June 20, 2017)
Thus, while both places passed information from generation to generation, both places also
worried about the disruptive power of progress.