Male Students of Color in Higher Education: Native American Men and COVID-19

• In Event: The COVID-19 Pandemic: Implications for Male Students of Color in Higher Education

Abstract

Although the study of men of color has increased (Felix & Gonzalez, 2020), the primary focus has been on Black and Latino men continuously rendering Native American men invisible (Bitsóí & Lee, 2014; McKinley et al., n.d.; Rodriguez & Mallinckrodt, 2021). This population of students must not be neglected given COVID-19 has exacerbated the effects of generations of historical trauma for Native communities (Tsethlikai et al., 2020).

The body of research pertaining to Native American students is quite small (McKinley et al., n.d.) and features little gender disaggregation (Lee & Ranson, 2011), further perpetuating colleges and universities’ failure to properly serve Native American students (Guillory & Wolverton, 2008) and contributing to their neglect (McKinley et al., n.d.). Lee and Ranson (2011) indicate the low college enrollment rates of Native American students receive little attention from researchers and policy stakeholders despite the urgent need to fully understand the factors that contribute to their decline in postsecondary enrollment and graduation rates (Villegas, n.d.).

No specific studies were found pertaining to the impact of COVID-19 on Native American college men. Instead, studies address the challenges encountered by rural Native American students with disabilities during COVID-19 (Running Bear et al., 2021) and news media coverage regarding the Coronavirus and gaming (Azocar et al., 2021). The Community College Research Center (CCRC) (as cited in Brock et al., 2021) reports that Native Americans, in general, experienced higher levels of unemployment than Whites and Blacks even before the pandemic, due to major discrepancies in educational attainment. In fact, 50% of Native Americans over 25 have not “advanced beyond high school” (Brock et al., 2021, p. 2). Moreover, researchers have found several factors that impact the educational success of Native American college men. They include “low academic achievement, high-grade level repetition and overpopulation in special education programs” (Lee & Ranson, 2011, p. 26; Turner & Zepeda, 2020). Studies also revealed Native American students encounter additional challenges to that of other minority students, based on “familial and spiritual beliefs” (Marshall et al., 2020), which includes students needing to take extended leaves of absence for ceremonial purposes and are often penalized for doing so.

In order to continue cultivating a much-needed body of knowledge, this paper will provide a landscape of the literature on Native men, even if sparse, in efforts to provide recommendations for future research to better serve this population of students, particularly in response to COVID-19.

Authors

• Lemanuel Lee Bitsoi, Harvard University

• Diana Cervantes, University of Texas at Austin