American Indian Culture and Research Journal

The world today is full of new ideas to bring about change in our society. The field of education is no exception, as educators, too, have jumped on the bandwagon of change. For the educational practitioner, though, it may be extremely frustrating to try to determine which innovations are of value. This frustration is especially keen for educators who work with American Indian children. Of the hundreds of new ideas available, few have been evaluated at all, and even fewer have been evaluated and used with Native Americans. An extremely important part of communicating educational innovations to any group is that the educator is able to sift and decide which innovations are appropriate for his use and for the use of the children for which he has responsibility. There is a great value in diffusion theory, which we in education can use to help us introduce new knowledge more quickly into the classroom. In the past, many innovations took at least thirty years to become adopted in the majority of the classrooms. Even adoption of the new-mathematics program took six to eight years in the majority of classrooms across the nation. Most of the early diffusion theory came from people in agriculture and the extension service working to persuade farmers to adopt new practices. Recently, writers in education have looked at the special problems of education in our public schools in relation to the theoretical framework for developing a communications system of delivering information to the schools. If we are to move education ahead for Native Americans at a much faster rate than in the past, it is extremely important that the people responsible for the education of Indian children see that the gap between the development of new knowledge and its use is narrowed. Moreover, they should demand that only those ideas that have been properly tested and developed for Native Americans be used with these children. Research has shown that in education, as well as in agriculture and other fields, different levels of adopters of innovations exist. Most authors generally recognize the first level of adopters as the innovators themselves. Next come the early adopters, many of whom are leaders in education at the local level, people who would rather see new techniques tested and tried before put to use than to jump on every bandwagon. The next level is the early majority, followed by the lake adopters and laggards. The latter two groups frequently let very successful practices pass by before they are willing to accept them. Diffusion research has pointed out the important role of the linker in the diffusion of an innovation. In the regular educational structure these people may be found in state departments of education, regional service centers (in states that have regional service centers), some county offices of education (in states where such offices have been developed to serve this purpose). In many cases, central office personnel act as linkers. Universities could also act as linkers, although they do not often see themselves in this role. In Native American education, many other linkers are utilized. The BIA serves as a vital link between the knowledge developers and users. Tribal education officers are an extremely important linker where they exist. Many state departments of education have directors of Indian education whose primary responsibility is to see that adequate programs are developed for Indian children within that state. Each of these people links the developer to the educational practitioner, to ensure that worthwhile innovations are put to use in educating the Indian child.