The Influence of Persistence Factors on American Indian Graduate Students

Abstract

The underrepresentation of American Indian students continues to exist at the undergraduate and graduate levels of postsecondary education despite increases of American Indian student enrollment. The purpose of this quantitative study is to identify correlations between academic factors and graduate student persistence, as well as to understand how likely graduate degree completion is based on known academic factors for American Indian students. The analyses of the data included survey results, descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, and multivariate regression. A sample of n=63 American Indian Graduate students represented 41 tribes and villages with over 32 unique tribal languages. The respondents indicated a challenge to balance graduate school, family and cultural responsibilities, however most felt a personal responsibility to complete their graduate degrees for their communities.Although academic factors, American Indian programs, and self-awareness are not significant predictors of American Indian Graduate student persistence, the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable were statistically significant. Implications for academic institutions include strategic planning with American Indian representation throughout the entire process.Recommendations for future research include further development of measurable concepts of indigenous theories and recognition of dual conclusions for American Indian and non-American Indian researchers.

Cultural congruity and academic confidence of American Indian graduate students in STEM: Peer interactions, mentor cultural support, and university environment fit.

“…One recommendation to capitalize on the cultural environment fit is to facilitate wayfinding and transcultural socialization through learning circles on issues important to Indigenous STEM graduate students, such as managing resources and opportunities, cultural disciplinary learning, developing agency, and giving voice to Indigenous identity. This recommendation is consistent with Heavy Runner-Rioux et al (2018) who advocated for institutions to collaborate with indigenous students to create culturally responsive spaces.…”

“…In this study, cultural congruity was the extent to which individuals perceived that their culture of origin was accepted and valued in the new educational culture (Gloria et al, 2005), which is positively associated with college persistence (Heavy Runner-Rioux et al, 2018; Windchief & Brown, 2017). We recognized and agreed with the critiques to reframe socialization away from the congruence assimilation discourse as noted previously.…”

“…The theoretical stages of self-discovery and realignment of the transculturation process are based on three assumptions (Huffman, 2001(Huffman, , 2013(Huffman, , 2018. One, it is assumed that Indigenous graduate students experience self-discovery and realignment as they socialize to STEM graduate education and that Indigenous students' educational participation, development, and persistence occurs during these processes (Heavy Runner-Rioux et al, 2018). Two, students in these two stages report greater academic confidence, strong cultural identity, and knowledge and skills needed to participate in different cultural settings and reflectively engage with different aspects of their identities through the self-discovery process.…”

“…Spaces where mentors' take interest in Indigenous students' cultural backgrounds, relationships are reciprocal, and co-learning and cultural learning occur (Grande et al, 2015;Windchief & Brown, 2017;Windchief et al, 2018). Reformers also advocate that institutions collaborate with Indigenous students to create culturally responsive places where Indigenous students feel a sense of belonging (Heavy Runner-Rioux et al, 2018). The advent of these spaces provides a place where Indigenous students embrace their identities and develop knowledge and skills to productively socialize (Huffman, 2001(Huffman, , 2013 and transform as STEM professionals (Page-Reeves et al, 2017).…”

School psychologists’ supporting American Indian students on the path to academic success: a community cultural wealth approach

“…Bicultural efficacy is the belief that an individual can maintain one’s ethnic identity and still function effectively within the majority culture (LaFromboise et al , 1993). Strong bicultural identity among American Indian students has been linked to academic persistence (Chee et al , 2019), stronger overall student well-being (Heavy Runner-Rioux, 2018) and higher academic performance as measured by course grades (Kulis et al , 2016).…”