AMERICAN INDIAN/ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATION:
ISSUES IN RESEARCH

An Overview

Educational statistics often paint a rather dismal picture of the academic achievement of American Indian/Alaska Native students. An overview of the literature identifies barriers to academic success that begin in pre-school or kindergarten, and may continue throughout a Native student ' s academic experience. Among other things, these barriers include:

• Language and culture differences among students, parents, and school staff.
  
• Ignorance of Native culture among teachers and other school staff.
  
• Curriculum and learning materials that do not relate to cultural experience.
  
• Standardized tests that do not take into account language and culture differences.
  
• Differences in learning styles between Native and non-Native students.
  
• Teaching styles and teacher training.
  
• Lack of educational role models and parents' attitude toward education.
  
• Problems at home, including alcoholism, neglect, and abuse.
  
• Other factors that affect students' performance, such as poverty, indifference, or ambivalence toward education, boredom, and low self-esteem.

  These factors and others may contribute to the gap that sometimes exists between the educational needs of American Indian/Alaska Native students and the educational services they receive.

  Early research on academic achievement often assumed that Native students' failure in school and on standardized tests stemmed from inability, rather than racial discrimination or any cultural or language differences. As the approach to educating Native Americans moved away from the assimilation model, educators began to understand the importance of recognizing language and culture in the classroom. Lomawaima (1995) cites decades of research that has contributed several models to the literature:the "culture of poverty "model that labeled Native American and other minority children as culturally, socially and/or economically disadvantaged; studies of dropout, retention and graduation rates that concentrate on the failure of Native Americans in school;research on learning styles and classroom interaction; studies of the cultural discontinuity between school and home, and other studies. The consequences of too little research or highly focused studies, according to Lomawaima, are "that provocative but slender evidence is generalized to all 'Indian' children."

Research and Data Limitations

Small sample size is one of the most relentless problems of research into American Indians and Alaska Natives. They make up only 0. 8 percent of the U. S. population. In a sample of 1, 000 people, for example, only eight American Indian/Alaska Natives would be represented. Consequently, these students and the schools and staff that serve them are rarely represented in sufficient numbers to permit reliable and valid generalizations about their characteristics. Additionally, researchers have found it too costly to include Indian schools and students in their data collection, due to tribal and linguistic diversity, geographic dispersion, and the preponderance of Natives living in remote rural areas. ⁷

As a result, reliable Native American data is limited on the national level, making it especially difficult to tell a story with statistics, which research often strives to do. Small sample sizes may necessitate merging ethnic categories in reporting to avoid confidentiality requirements. In addition, racial/ethnic identification is often uncertain. This is especially true for individuals who consider themselves of mixed descent. Research indicates that American Indians and Alaska Natives make up the least stable racial/ethnic group in terms of self-identification. ⁸ For example, U. S. Census figures for 2000 show that nearly 17, 000 Alaskans say they are Alaska Native and white. Since Census respondents decide how they want to be counted, the reliability of the numbers are "squishy, "and their "usefulness questionable, " according to an Anchorage Daily News article quoting Alaska ' s demographer Greg Williams (March 21, 2001) .

To avoid erroneous generalities, a wider range of research is needed. Lomawaima and others argue that Native children' s educational achievements or failures cannot be generalized to all Alaska Natives or American Indians (Lomawaima, 1995) . A historical review of Native educational research by Deyhle and Swisher (1997) concludes that research based on cultural strengths and integrity has "yielded sustainable results for some schools and communities, "producing programs that are "grounded in the cultural capital of their respective communities "(p. 182) . However, there does not appear to be recognized definitions of "Native culture "and "Native knowledge, "so research may not be consistent regarding the inclusion of Native knowledge, culture, and language in curriculum.

A plethora of issues impact Native education. The following sections of this report categorize some of these issues:Student Assessment, Dropout Studies, Language and Culture, Learning Styles, Teaching Styles and Training, Distance Learning and Technology-Based Education, Community Involvement, and Higher Education. This report concludes with Recommendations for Further Study.

⁷ Research Triangle Institute, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, "Characteristics of American Indian and Alaska Native Education:Results from the 1990-91 and 1993-94 Schools and Staffing Surveys. "

⁸ U. S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, A Test of Methods for Collecting Racial and Ethnic Information, 1995.

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