Blue Lagoons, White Sands, and Red Tape: Imported Teachers' Perceptions of Guam's Department of Education

This study focuses on the perceptions of Guam's mainland-imported faculty about the island and its schools. Survey data were collected from 51 "imported" teachers who represented all areas of the United States; ethnographic interviews were conducted with an additional 15 import faculty from the Guam Department of Education (DOE). Positive perceptions of Guam focused on island characteristics and on the children. Negative perceptions centered around the high cost of living, the Department of Education's cumbersome bureaucracy, and the inadequacies of school resources. Specifically, new teachers reacted negatively to inadequate DOE pay and high prices, lack of resources, DOE hiring deceptions, lack of professional respect, and perceived administrative incompetence. These accounts may not reflect DOE actualities; they do suggest that DOE practices need to be reviewed to enhance the professional experiences of off-island faculty. A copy of the questionnaire with results is attached. (Author/ND)