Indigenous Data Collection: Addressing Limitations in Native American Samples

Indigenous cultural development and academic achievement of tribal community college students: Mediating roles of sense of belonging and support for student success.

“…While these national surveys are far from establishing a robust implementation of data sovereignty, by consulting with Indigenous stakeholders in the development of survey items and collaborating with tribal colleges to facilitate the data collection and interpretation of survey findings, national engagement surveys along with governmental datasets can make steps forward toward enhancing data sovereignty efforts. Therefore, we echo the call for tribal involvement and selfdetermination in all aspects of the quantitative data process to reflect Indigenous students' lived experiences (Lopez, 2020a).…”

“…As the dominant narratives in the literature either render Indigenous peoples invisible or paint deficit-oriented portraits of their educational attainments, it was critical to tell a story, albeit quantitative, of cultural strengths and how forefronting these assets at TCCs can affect relatively distal outcomes such as their academic performance. Another contribution of our study was an initial attempt to address some challenges associated with Indigenous quantitative methodology identified by Lopez (2020a): "(a) small sample sizes, (b) self-identification of Native American identity, (c) generalizability, and (d) lack of relevant variables" (p. 752). Although self-identification of Native identity and generalizability to 574 federally recognized tribes will continuously be an empirical challenge, surveying a large number of tribal colleges with high proportions of Indigenous students and a fairly robust representation of TCUs within the boundaries of the U.S. mitigates some of these challenges.…”

“…One of Tribal-Crit's primary tenets is the acknowledgment of the colonization of Indigenous cultures and identities (Brayboy, 2005). Thus, against the backdrop of historical, assimilationist policies, and centuries of social and academic marginalization affecting Indigenous peoples, it is imperative that conducting quantitative research on Indigenous students amplifies their voices and uses variables relevant to their experiences (Lopez, 2020a).…”

“…Many prior studies have historically embodied a deficit-oriented approach and emphasized the underachievement of Indigenous college students. Often propagated by non-Native researchers, the dominant narratives that characterize Indigenous populations highlight the prevalence of suicide, drug and alcohol use, or poor health outcomes (Lopez, 2020a). Settler colonialism in education has contributed to a harmful narrative of Indigenous people, culture, and knowledge as inferior to the dominant White majority (Brayboy, 2005).…”

On the impossibilities of advancing racial justice in higher education research through reliance on the campus climate heuristic.

“…Furthermore, some scholars (Garcia et al, 2018) have used labels such as "QuantCrit" and/or "critical quantitative intersectionality" to describe the explicit use of CRT in their quantitative methods (Sablan, 2019). Two examples in contrast to a climate metaphor include the work of Jameson Lopez, who advocates for data sovereignty as fundamental to understanding and supporting Native American students' persistence in higher education (Lopez, 2020a(Lopez, , 2020b. The second is the work of Ezequiel Dixon-Román, who interrogates current quantification practices (particularly when creating and using algorithms) to uncover alternatives that address issues of race and power (de Freitas & Dixon-Román, 2017;Dixon-Román, 2017).…”