inTuition taster: Maslow revisited

At a recent meeting in which some of my teacher trainees presented their research findings to managers and senior leaders, one trainee spoke about a breakfast club he’d tested for his Level 2 sports students, explaining that the college operates in a disadvantaged seaside town. The inevitable comment followed: “Well, it’s Maslow, isn’t it?” with nodding heads and mumbles of agreement.

Are there many teachers in the world who haven’t come across Abraham Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ pyramid and used it to justify their approach in the classroom? The pyramid simply makes sense, doesn’t it?

The current climate of decolonisation in education is ripe for an exploration of the eight-week visit to the Siksika reservation in Canada by the 30-year-old Abraham Maslow in 1938. This was five years before he proposed and published his theory of motivation in the form of a hierarchy of needs, on which psychologists, health professionals and educationalists have developed approaches and strategies to work with clients, subjects and students ever since. Maslow’s visit was commissioned by Ruth Benedict of Columbia University, for the purpose of testing his strong belief in the survival of the fittest as the way society operates.

Teju Ravilochan writes in 2021 of the discovery of some unpublished papers of Maslow, and draws attention to the research commissioned by the Canadian government in 2005 by Siksika Ryan Heavy Head and Narcisse Blood. Fellow Siksika Cindy Blackstock was conducting similar research at this time. It would appear then that it was more than 60 years before an alternative narrative emerged.

Decolonising education: historical context

Maslow was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1908, the first of seven children. His parents were Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution from Kiev, which at the time was in Russia. They lived in poverty, parents both uneducated, father a heavy drinker, mother ruling the house with a rod of iron. Maslow grew to despise his mother intensely, describing his childhood as lonely and deeply unhappy, facing beatings at school and psychological bullying at home.

We will focus on the year 1938. Maslow was 30 years old. It was between world wars and the US had thrown itself into a frenzy of fear that communist Russia was infiltrating and winning American hearts and minds. It was in this year that the House Un-American Activities Committee was created to investigate alleged disloyalty and rebel activities from those suspected of having communist ties.

Another point of contextual interest is Maslow’s fascination with Ruth Benedict, who was chair of the anthropology department at Columbia University. Having a void of female nurturing in his childhood, Maslow writes: “She was like a mother to me … I tagged after her” (cited in Gross, 1964).

Maslow had several influences. He seemed to seek out mentors and absorb their knowledge: Max Wertheimer, founder of Gestalt psychology; Harry Harlow, with whom Maslow researched primate behaviour; Freud and Skinner influenced his thinking; and the theory he wanted to test at this time was based on Darwin’s survival of the fittest.

Maslow was also investigating the concept of self-actualisation at this time. Benedict encouraged Maslow to undertake a field trip to test the Darwinian theory on an alternative cultural group: the Siksika situated in a reservation in Canada. He stayed with them for six weeks. What he discovered contradicted his hypotheses and was never mentioned in his subsequent publications.

The Siksika nation, also known as the Blackfoot, are part of three nations that form the Blackfoot Confederacy. In 1877, the Siksika were forced to live in a reservation in Southern Alberta. In January of this year, a population of 7,767 was registered (Canadian Encyclopedia, 2024).

Decolonising education: unheard voices

In 2018, following research commissioned by the Canadian government, Ryan Heavy Head, a member of the Siksika community, conducted a series of lectures on his findings that have led to reframing our understanding of Maslow and his theories (Heavy Head, 2018). The following outlines both what Maslow tested, and what he actually found.

Maslow’s theory: 

The survival of the fittest

Possibly experienced in his schooldays, that the dominant members of a society will be the leaders.

What he found:  A community based on co-operation with a place for everyone. The community was responsible for meeting the basic needs and ensuring safety.

Maslow’s theory: 

The concept of self-actualisation

Maslow proposed that individuals are motivated to fulfil their potential in life. Maslow regarded self-actualisation as the highest level of psychological development; later depicted as the pinnacle of the pyramid. Being the last rung on the pyramid implied a linear path, with self-actualisation as the final destination.

Maslow’s visit was to test his belief in the survival of the fittest as the way society operates

What he found:  The Siksika understanding was that we arrive on the planet self-actualised. Heavy Head explained this through the analogy of earning a college degree. In Western culture, you earn a degree after paying tuition, attending classes and proving sufficient mastery of your area of study. In Siksika culture, “it’s like you’re credentialed at the start. You’re treated with dignity for that reason, but you spend your life living up to that.”

While Maslow saw self-actualisation as something to work towards and achieve, the Siksika saw it as innate. Raine Dawn (2021) describes the Siksika intention “to create a safe space for the tribe members to be their best selves”. Heavy Head said Maslow estimated that “80 to 90 per cent of the Siksika had a quality of self-esteem that was only found in five to 10 per cent of his own population”.

Maslow’s theory: 

The concept of wealth as a motivator

Growing up in a poor neighbourhood and living on the breadline, Maslow experienced disadvantage in many ways. Downtown Brooklyn was fragmented by hostile factions looking after their own. He visited the Siksika during the decade of attrition in America that began with the Wall Street crash in 1929. Banks failed and thousands of Americans lost their life savings. Unemployment reached a high of 25 per cent in 1933.

What he found:  Maslow witnessed a Siksika ‘giveaway’ ceremony. “If a man was so poor that he had no horse, tipi or blanket, someone gave him these things.

“They don’t have a word for poverty. The closest thing that they had as an explanation for poverty was ‘to be without family’. Wealth was measured by generosity, not money or possessions. At the ceremony, they arranged their tipis in a circle and piled up everything they had collected in the last year. Those with most possessions told stories of how they had acquired them, then gave them to people in greater need” (Blood and Heavy Head, 2007).

Maslow’s theory:

Child-rearing

Maslow’s childhood had been extremely unhappy. His father continually told him he was ugly, and his mother was strict and harsh. He recalls an occasion when she killed two kittens in front of him.

What he found:  In the Siksika community, he found that children were raised with great permissiveness and treated as equal members of society. Despite having great freedom, Siksika children listened to their elders and served the community from a young age. There was multi-generational community actualisation – elders taught the youngers for sustainability.

Maslow’s theory: 

Crime

In America, Maslow lived with a rising crime rate in the wake of Prohibition and the dominance of gangsters, with corruption and violence rife in an impoverished country. Maslow wrote about his distaste for the white men who lived close to the Siksika: “The more I got to know the whites in the village, who were the worst bunch of creeps and bastards I’d ever run across in my life, the more it got paradoxical” (Hoffman, 1988).

What he found:  “When someone was deviant, they [the Siksika] didn’t peg them as deviant. A person who was deviant could redeem themselves in society’s eyes if they left that behaviour behind” (Blood and Heavy Head, 2007).

Maslow’s theory:  

The grand narrative of America

Human beings were increasingly seen as consumers.

What he found:  First Nations often consider their actions in terms of the impacts of the “seven generations”. This means that one’s actions are informed by the experience of the past seven generations and by considering the consequences for the seven generations to follow (Lame Deer, 1994).

Decolonising education: alternative ways

Why did Maslow keep silent about what he had discovered over the six weeks he spent with the Siksika? Teju Ravilochan (2021) speculates that he may have faced dismissal had he included the alternative way of living and thinking in his publications.

Publicly challenging global views may have led to Maslow being ridiculed or ‘cancelled’ in our current understanding. Ravilochan reminds us that Galileo faced permanent house arrest and was labelled a heretic when he defended the Copernican heliocentric solar system. Maslow visited the Siksika at a time when any association with communist ideas was likely to lead to public shaming. From more recently discovered unpublished journals, we know Maslow was enlightened by what he experienced, yet he did not include them in his publications.

Professor Olivette Otele, professor of slavery and the memory of enslavement at the University of Bristol, states that decolonising education is a mindset. We can change our mindsets by recognising that colonialism is responsible for creating Eurocentric dominance – universities were established around the world from the 16th century by Spain, France, England, Portugal and Belgium.

Education via these universities created the grand narratives establishing binary oppositions – savage and civilised; black and white; knowledge and ignorance.

Table 1 presents terminology that helps to explain concepts when thinking about decolonising education.

Fast forward to 2024

It would seem, then, that Maslow did not feel he could include this way of living that transcended any previous experience. If he had, the likelihood is that we would not have heard of him today. Just as the time is right today to discuss decolonisation, in the 1940s the time may have been right for fighting for survival in a growing capitalist society.

In the context of decolonising education, it seems that we are at a very early stage. The sentiment of inclusive practice has led us to recognise that past injustices cannot be ignored.

We live in the light of colonialism and teachers are becoming aware that it is not OK to overlook its legacy. As most of us inherit our perspectives on life from our parents or caregivers, it is the educator’s responsibility to encourage critical interrogation of the things held as truths; to promote self-awareness; to support students to establish their own values to approach the challenges of the future with confidence in their choices.

Having a ‘decolonisation mindset’ as a teacher will help students become empathic, objective, tolerant, inclusive, compassionate, respectful, collaborative global citizens.

Your role in decolonising education

There are several practical ‘quick wins’ that teachers can do, which will move towards decolonising education:

• In meetings, discuss who is under-represented in both the student and the teacher groups and take action to address this.
• Also in meetings, make sure everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute.
• Dare to speak out against the dominant voice.
• Take bold decisions when planning the curriculum – in class, promote questioning, challenging and understanding in context, and make wise choices for texts/sources.
• Present theories, events and research from multiple perspectives to make it clear that there is not one dominant truth.
• Be mindful of the hidden curriculum – the intention is to create an environment that values and includes everyone.
• Interrogate representation in teachers – who is teaching, what are they teaching and how are they teaching?
• Recognise your own unconscious bias.
• Adopt inclusive strategies – students learning from each other, no dominant voice or culture, and acceptance and respect for all.
• Revisit names of, say, buildings to ensure they do not allude to negative events from the past.
• Fight for a top-down institutional initiative – offer training in anti-racism, decolonising strategies or diversity in curriculum.
• Include local history where possible – exhibitions, conferences or presentations.
• Work in collaboration with the community – establish a forum.
• Request clear governance structures, such as workstreams for recruitment, research, wellbeing and policies.
• Listen to, and value, all voices.
• Encourage students and colleagues to consider what has not been said/documented.

References

Blood N and Heavy Head R. (2007) Blackfoot influence on Abraham Maslow, presented by Narcisse Blood and Ryan Heavy Head at the University of Montana. See: digitallibrary.uleth.ca/digital/collection/bdl/id/1296

Canadian Encyclopedia. (2024) Siksika (Blackfoot). See: thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/blackfoot-siksika

Gross L. (1964) Abraham H Maslow: The Mystery of Health. See: mediastudies.press/pub/chapter-five/release/2

Heavy Head R. (2018) Naamitapiikoan Blackfoot influences on Abraham Maslow. See: youtube.com/watch?v=WTO34FLv5a8

Hoffman E. (1988) The Right to Be Human: A biography of Abraham Maslow. Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc.

Lame Deer. (1994) Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions. Mass Market Paperback.

Raine Dawn. (2021) Hierarchy: Sacred Ruler. See: rainedawn93.com/hierarchy-sacred-ruler

Ravilochan T. (2021) The Blackfoot wisdom that inspired Maslow’s hierarchy. See: resilience.org/stories/2021-06-18/the-blackfoot-wisdom-that-inspired-Maslows-hierarchy

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