1. Educational Materials ( = .84) Important of Equity ( = 61)
Tagler, M. J., Brown, E. A., Chambers, A. M., & Miadich, S. A. (2010, April 30). Are Attitudes Toward Sleep Related to Sleep Habits? Presentation at the 2010 meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.
Exploring Students’ Understanding of Native American
History and Culture: A Qualitative Analysis
Christopher L. Thomas1, Edwin Schupman2, Joshua A. Heath1, Alex Bourdeau1, Jerrell C. Cassady1
Purpose
Results
Discussion
Existing educational materials are limited in their ability to provide students with the necessary resources to develop a culturally accurate understanding of Native American history and culture. Specifically, recent empirical investigations have provided evidence suggesting standard educational materials often provide incomplete and inaccurate representations of Native American culture (Sanchez, 2007).
As a result, national and state education organizations have raised the call to promote more balanced and accurate educational coverage for both students and teachers, ranging from attention to “Essential Understandings” to fully developed – and culturally accurate – curricula.
To disrupt the perpetuation of stereotyped inaccuracies and support both teachers and students, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) has been developing Native Knowledge 360 (NK 360 ) – a national initiative to inspire and promote improved teaching and learning about Native Americans. The components of NK360° include the creation of high-quality new learning resources, teacher training programs, and a national network of partners.
Aligned with this nationwide educational initiative, this study was designed to assess students’ knowledge and perceptions related to Native American history, cultures, and contemporary lives.
The current study utilized a mixed-method approach to explore students’ attitudes toward Native Americans, their perceptions of current educational materials, and their conceptual understanding of Native American history, cultures, and contemporary lives.
Quantitative Analysis
To explore the underlying structure of our survey instrument, we conducted an Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) using Principal Axis Factoring with Promax rotation. EFA results revealed two subscales corresponding to general attitudes of fairness and equity toward Native Americans and perceptions of instructional materials.
Qualitative Analysis
A descriptive analysis of students’ perceptions and experiences (i.e., open-ended items) revealed the following themes:
Students understanding of Native Americans emphasized primarily historical and cultural topics.
”Every tribe bases everything they do in their environment including their culture”. – 8th grade female, Kentucky
“I have learned they were hunter gathers. This means that they hunted animals and gathered berries.” – 8th grade female, Kentucky
Students also demonstrated significant misconceptions related to reservations
“A place for Native Americans who want to still keep their tradition to live with others who want the same”. – 8th grade male, Kentucky.
“Where they built homes out of animal hide because they never let anything go to waist”. – 8th grade female, Kentucky
Students reported interest in receiving better educational materials related to the historical and cultural facts related to Native Americans.
“Where they lived and what life was like for them, also the things that they created.” – 8th grade female, Ohio.
“I think Americans should know about the American Indians culture and traditions”. – 8th grade female, Kentucky
While student surveys suggest that they hold primarily neutral and positive perspectives in attitudes focused on equity, and believed they gained reasonable knowledge from educational resources at school and extracurricular activities, a fine-grained analysis of student responses revealed a more nuanced interpretation of student knowledge and experience.
Consistent with prior research, students in the current study demonstrated an outdated and culturally inappropriate understanding of important aspects of Native American history. Perhaps more concerning, students placed little importance on learning about contemporary issues related to Native Americans.
We believe these issues are associated with the perpetuation of educational materials that provide overgeneralized and simplistic information about Native Americans – often focused on the food, clothing, and shelter of Native Peoples. The lack of quality educational materials available in schools is compounded by a lack of state standards that focus on events in Native American history that have occurred post 1900.
Using the data from this national survey, NMAI’s Native Knowledge 360 program will work to identify domains of educational needs that can be aligned primarily with national and state social studies content standards to ensure teachers have historically accurate and culturally appropriate content to support their learners’ understanding.
Question
Educational Materials ( = .84)
Important of Equity ( = 61)
Treaties from the 1800s should be honored in the U.S. today, even if that means different sets of laws for tribal members and non-tribal members.
.13
.45
It should be illegal to build new houses or stores on land that we know is a sacred place for a tribal group.
.01
.68
School textbooks have a lot of information about American Indians.
.47
-.03
I have seen videos that teach about American Indian cultures in school.
.62
.03
I have learned about what life was like for American Indians in the early years of the United States
.06
I have learned about what life is like for American Indians in the U.S. today.
.66
-.17
My school presents information about American Indian history and cultures in an interesting way.
.67
-.015
My teachers are knowledgeable about American Indian history.
.42
.25
I believe I have a strong understanding of American Indian culture.
.77
.00
I believe I have a strong understanding of American Indian history
.79
-.02
I have learned about American Indian points of view on key historical events.
.41
-.01
It is important that all students be educated on American Indian culture
.23
.37
American Indian tribes in the US today no longer have the cultural traditions that once made them unique compared to other people in the US.
.14
.05
Most American Indians believe that sports teams should NOT have Indian mascots (like Redskins, Braves).
.61
I have learned more about American Indians from groups or activities outside of school (like Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts) than in school.
.21
.04
Subscale Mean Scores (Standard Deviation)
3.21 (.70)
3.57 (.76)
Note: An item was determined to be associated with a factor if its loading was .3 or greater. Items without meaningful loadings were not used to generate subscale scores.
Procedure
Contact
Students (grades 8-12; N = 91, Female = 53%, Mean Age = 14.16, Caucasian = 78%) from middle and high school classrooms across the United States responded to:
An on-line questionnaire designed to assess their attitudes toward Native Americans, as well as their perceptions of standard educational materials.
Open-ended questions addressing primary information they have learned, their understanding of reservations, and beliefs about what people should know about Native Americans.
To analyze the open-ended responses, we established a coding scheme to identify dominant themes appearing in the data. After the main codes were agreed upon, two raters independently coded all responses ( .50). In the event of discordant coding from the 2 coders, a third trained rater resolved the conflict.
Christopher Thomas
Department of Educational Psychology
Ball State University
Affiliations
espace.bsu.edu/rds
1 :Ball State University
2 :Smithsonian’s NMAI
Tagler, M. J., Brown, E. A., Chambers, A. M., & Miadich, S. A. (2010, April 30). Are Attitudes Toward Sleep Related to Sleep Habits? Presentation at the 2010 meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association, Chicago, IL.