“Confident Cultural Identities”: How TCUs incorporate tribal cultures, languages, and relationality to (re)define Institutional Culture

• In Event: Imagining Excellence: Examining, Predicting, and Projecting the Future of Prestige in Higher Education

Abstract

What do confident cultural identities have to do with reimagining institutional prestige? In this session, I respond to this question through the distinct frameworks, perspectives, and contributions of TCUs and their communities. When TCU leaders, faculty, and staff members were asked how they define student success, their responses aligned more with a holistic approach of developing students for careers and, more importantly, to be grounded in their cultural identities and knowledge along with an understanding of how their degrees can benefit their families and communities. One staff member succinctly described the goal of student success as developing “confident cultural identities”. This description aligns with Boyer’s (2015) description of several founding TCU presidents’ insights on the purpose of TCUs, which was to provide instruction on “useful” skill development and the restoration of Tribal societies and knowledges. Therefore, TCUs have a dual mission, which is (1) to provide higher education programs and opportunities that are (2) community, culturally, and holistically-based (AIHEC, 2022). As mission-driven institutions, TCUs actively engage in addressing community needs, uplifting communities, actively participating in culture and language revitalization efforts, and communal healing from historical traumas (Guillory & Ward. 2008; Pavel, Inglebret, & Banks, 2001; Stein, 1999). Thus, Tribal colleges “reflect and sustain a unique tribal identity” through their dual mission (Boyer, 2002, p. 18). As such, TCUs know their students because they are invested in helping them develop “confident cultural identities”.

Tribal colleges are the only institutions of higher education chartered by Tribal nations that are actively working to restore cultural knowledge(s) and communities. Through the concept of Relationality (Wilson, 2008), TCUs are reimagining, reinvigorating, and restoring Tribal societies. Wilson’s (2008) conceptual framing of Relationality provides a perspective of how TCUs ground themselves in all aspects of their work, successes, and impact. Relationality addresses the centrality of relationships and relationship building within Indigenous knowledge(s) (Wilson, 2008). Wilson (2008) emphasized the importance of acknowledging how we are the relationships we cultivate, rather than being in relationship with others. This principle is instilled across TCUs, beginning with the president and ripples out to all individuals involved with the TCU inclusive of faculty and staff, contractors, partners, and community members. This concept of relationality is largely missing from Non-Native colleges and universities (NNCUs) due to their market-driven approaches rather than mission-driven like TCUs. These market-driven approaches directly influence NNCUs pursuit of prestige by seeking recognition, revenues, and rankings. Yet, what are NNCUs actively investing in by their pursuit of prestige? What relationships are they cultivating? And for who’se benefit? Gaining a better understanding of how TCUs center relationality and relationship building can help NNCUs to genuinely engage in answering these questions.

Author

• Natalie Rose Youngbull, University of Oklahoma