Understanding the Climate for Native Americans at Four Year Colleges

1. Understanding the Climate for Native Americans at Four Year Colleges Sylvia Hurtado & Eddy A. Ruiz UCLA, Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences

2. Main Points • Conceptualizing the climate for diversity • Practices that make a difference for Native American student experiences on college campuses • What research reveals • Models for institutional change

3. Campus Climate Framework Milem, Chang, & Antonio, 2005 (adapted from Hurtado, et al., 1999)

4. Sharing Practitioner Knowledge • In your experience, what contributes to Native American student success at your institution? • Please add your name and institution at the bottom and turn in your answer. If you would like a copy of the research references please include your email.

5. Research Overview • Review of articles focused on Native American students:100+ • Review of articles in 2 key journals over a 10 year period (Native American focus): • Journal of Higher Education 1 (Connolly, 2000) • Review of Higher Education 0 • Identified themes, sample size, single and multiple institutions • Gaps in the literature

6. Practices Based on Research • Retention • Academic & Career Counseling • (Gilbert, 2000; Hoover & Jacobs, 1992; Padilla & Pavel, 1994; Huffman, 2001) • Faculty & Staff Interaction • (Falk & Aitken, 1983; Gloria & Robinson-Kurpius, 2001 Pewewardy, 2002; Reyhner & Dodd, 1995) • Diverse Curriculum • (Stebbins, 1998; Turner, 1994; Ancis, Choney, & Sedlacek, 1996; Pewewardy & Frey, 2002)

7. Practices Based on Research (Cont.) • Multicultural Environment • (Huffman, 2003; Huffman, 2001, Taylor, 1999; Lin, 1990; Saggio, 2003 Tierney, 1992) • Family • (Waterman, 2007; Jackson & Smith, 2001; Pavel & Padilla, 1993; Kidwell, 1976) • Financial Support • (Wilson, 1983; Cibik and Chambers, 1991; Institute for Higher Education Policy, 2006; Stebbins, 1998) *Tribal College Literature

8. Critique of Research • Include Native Americans in higher education research • Larger sample sizes • Case study • Multiple sites • Theory • Examine campus climate & micro climates • Move away from deficit models • View students as agents of change

9. Practitioner Knowledge • Based on your experience what works? • How to bridge the gap between research and practice? • Using broader frames to guide research and practice.

10. Cultural Brokering • Educational and administrative practices from a culturally pluralistic framework means decentering the the dominant Eurocentric perspective and recentering the view with multiple cultures as reference points so that the behavioral standards, symbols, and language on campus reflects the many heritages, rather than one dominant perspective (Stage & Manning, 1992)

11. Decolonizing • Research agendas should employ four processes that intertwine throughout methodologies and practices: decolonization, healing, transformation, and mobilization. They link local, regional, and global groups, which can lead to survival, recovery, development, and self-determination. This research agenda can resist the Western denial of indigenous human rights, citizenship, and self-determination (Smith, 2005).

12. Environment of Empowerment • All members of an institution need to respond comprehensively to American Indian participation in the academy. It requires an attitudinal change, learning about Native cultures, organizational coordination, and reorientation of resource allocation to empower American Indian students to celebrate their culture and to be critically engaged in the life of their institution, tribes, family, and self (Tierney, 1992).

13. Institutional Transformation • Defined as change that: • Affects the institutional culture, is deep and pervasive, is intentional, and occurs over time (Eckel & Kezar, 2003) • Deep-reflects a shift in values that affects daily operations • Pervasive-change is not isolated but is reflected across the institution • Transformation is proactive and responsive, instead of reactive and resistant (Peterson et al. 1978)

14. Other Types of Change • Adjustments – we make small adjustments (e.g. a new diversity course, not a requirement) • Isolated change – deep but limited to one unit or program (e.g. student initiated American Indian retention program) • Far reaching change – affects many across the institution but lacks depth (e.g. inclusion of the affirmative action statement on all job announcements)

15. Top of Hierarchy Nature of Identity Strategy Mission Purpose Language Identity Discrepancy Manage “construed external image” Reputation Projected Images Bottom of Hierarchy Cultural Values Beliefs, Assumptions Institutional Action Temporary Identity Discrepancy Future Identity Past Identity How Individuals View the Institution in the Process of Change

16. Models for Change • The Role of Institutional Agents • Possess expertise that enables them to be responsive to marginal and marginalized students • Knowledgeable in subject areas or specialty areas • Capacity to respond to students that make them feel valued and respected (Bensimon, 2007) Implications for training

17. Developing Institutional Awareness: Diversity Scorecard • The development of equity indicators to illuminate and address inequitable educational outcomes and facilitate institutional transformation • Disaggregate campus data • Identify goals based on outcomes • Report on the current state of affairs • Inventory all areas of inequality, develop benchmarks, and select one outcome for deep analysis and intervention (Bensimon, 2004)

18. National Center for Education Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov National Indian Education Association: www.niea.org Bureau of Indian Affairs-Office of Indian Education Programs: www.oiep.bia.edu Resources

19. American Indian Higher Education Consortium: www.aihec.org Journal of American Indian Education American Indian College Fund: www.collegefund.org Tribal College Journal Resources

20. Higher Education Research Institute http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/index.php

21. References • Bensimon, E. M. (2004). The diversity scorecard: A learning approach to institutional change. Change, 36(1), 44-52 • Bensimon, E. M. (2007). The underestimated significance of practitioner knowledge in the scholarship on student success. Review of Higher Education, 30(4), 441-469. • Hurtado, S., Milem, J. F., Clayton-Pedersen, A. R., & Allen, W. R. (1999). Enacting diverse learning environments: Improving the climate for racial/ethnic diversity in higher education institutions (No. 26). Washington, DC: George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development. • Eckel, P. D., & Kezar, A. (2003). Taking the reins: Institutional transformation in higher education. Westport, CT: Praeger. • Milem, J. F., Chang, M. J., & Antonio, A. L. (2005). Making diversity work on campus: A research-based perspective. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities. • Peterson, M., Blackburn, R..T., Gamson, Z.F., Arce, C.H., Davenport, R.W., & Mingle, J.R. (1978). Black Students on White Campuses: The Impacts of Increased Black Enrollments. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research. • Smith, L. T. (2005). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London, UK: Zed Books Limited. • Stage, F. K., & Manning, K. (1992). Enhancing the multicultural campus environment: A cultural brokering approach. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.