Indigenizing the College Choice Discussion

• In Event: Division J Vice Presidential Session: Challenging Colonial College Access for Historically Marginalized Student Populations: Toward Decolonizing College Choice

Abstract

Objectives or purposes
The majority of scholarship suggests that college choice is an individualized, linear process influenced by contextual layers such as school, community, higher education, and the broader social/economic/policy systems. However, this research prompts scholars to consider that college pathways for Indigenous students are non-linear, guided by an interconnected world view where culture and ways of knowing are central components shaping this process.

Theoretical framework
Tribal Critical Race Theory (2005) and Cultural Resiliency (2003) both recognize that stories are an empirical approach to understanding Indigenous experiences. A Tribal Crit framework foregrounds the historical, sociocultural, and structural forces of colonialism, offering a nuanced contextual explanation of forces shaping Native educational attainment. Moreover, rooted in an Indigenous perspective, the cultural resilience framework offers a strength-based approach by focusing on seven protective factors: spirituality, family strength, elders, ceremonial rituals, oral traditions, tribal identity, and support networks. By viewing Native students’ cultural resilience, educational institutions increase, “the collective ability of students, families, communities, and tribes to realize the best in themselves—and to assist others” (Heavyrunner & Marshall, 2003, paragraph 6).

Modes of inquiry
Indigenous methodologies have been employed for generations, but due to colonization efforts to eradicate Native ways of knowing, they lost value in mainstream research. With that perspective, interpretive qualitative strategies from Indigenous Storywork (Archibald, 2008) and Narrative Inquiry (Riessman, 2008) are employed. Both feature stories as an influential mode of inquiry. Indigenous Storywork is based upon seven theoretical principles including adhering to respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, holism, interrelatedness, and synergy. Narrative analysis recognizes that individual experiences can be analyzed to generalize theoretical propositions, proposing that the gathering of individual stories creates a powerful collective voice (Reissmann, 2008).

Data
Ten full-time, first-time Navajo freshman students (six female and four male) participated during the 2013 academic year. They were 18-19 years of age and had just graduated from high school. Students were interviewed four times during their freshman year to understand their college choice pathways.

Results and Scholarly contribution
Currently, we can identify generalized contextual barriers that influence student college choice. However, we do not understand Native specific contextual barriers such as how poverty and marginalization hinder college mobility. Understanding invisible experiences, specifically from Native students, is a necessary step toward creating inclusive college pathways and advancing equity in higher education. Thus, this study has several implications for theory and practice. For theory, it offers new layers to the college choice models by including the influence of culture and ways of knowing among Indigenous students. It further unpacks nuanced contextual layers based upon systemic and oppressive forces that are often neglected in higher educational discourse. From the perspective of practice, this research advances ideas and strategies that are rooted in a strength-based ideology. By focusing on culture and Indigenous ways of knowing, this research provides strategies for how to identify and transform systematic barriers to sense of possibility and hope for the future.

Author

• Amanda R. Tachine, Arizona State University - Tempe