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Rethinking Research: Higher Learning Opportunities Within Community

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Title

Rethinking Research: Higher Learning Opportunities Within Community

Abstract/Description

Scholars contend that indigenous scholars’ move to broaden research agendas not only promotes self-determination among Native peoples but furthers the work of all research traditions (Barnhardt & Kawagely, 2005; Deyhle & Swisher, 1997). This paper presents research from a preliminary study which investigates the relationship between Native American students’ participation in a CBDR project and their college level experiences. Special attention is paid to the ways in which Native students navigate between academic and community practices.

Formal schooling is a meritocratic system focused on individual success in which obtaining some type of certificate of completion is requisite. Degree systems serve in gate-keeping roles; in addition by determining participation structures they legitimate or delegitimize the contributions to thought and action of both students and communities (Mihesuah & Wilson, 2004). For many Native Americans and other non-dominant groups, attending formal education institutions poses a myriad of challenges that often disengage students. The relationship between attending college and identity is complex. For example, many indigenous students feel that in order to be successful at the university, he or she must forego or hide their ethnic identity (Brayboy, 2004; Nasir & Saxe, 2003). On the other hand, a study examining Haudenosaunee students’ college experiences found that engagement in practices and studies related to students’ culture promoted success in academic studies (Waterman, 2007). Within formal schooling systems, few options are offered to help students find roles or purpose towards working with their respective communities. One of the questions this paper addresses is how a CBDR model affects the way Native American students perceive themselves as contributors and benefactors of research.

Our project was intentionally designed to engage community in a variety of ways. One important aspect of having it located within community was that it provided students spread across the city to interact with a cohort of Native peers that they may not have otherwise had. Over the course of our research project 25 research assistants and other research staff collaborated on this project. Nine of the research staff were under-graduate students, 4 were graduate students, 11 were high school age youth and 1 person was not enrolled in schooling during the time of employment. Systematic interviews were conducted with 13 of the research staff around the following 6 major domains: attitudes towards formal education; goals and expectations for schooling and impacts on those goals/expectations through participation in project; identity and relation to schooling; familial background around schooling; and working in community. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Through grounded analysis a coding scheme was developed for overall themes across participants.

This study provides empirical evidence about the impacts of working with CBDR for Native American learners. Preliminary results suggest that most interviewees felt that their participation as researchers in their community had to some extent benefited and/or enhanced their formal schooling experiences. Community based work helps learners from non-dominant groups gain a sense of responsibility for themselves and their people and purpose in/for school achievement.

Author/creator

At conference

AERA Annual Meeting

Place presented

Resource type

Research/Scholarly Media

Resource status/form

Presentation/Poster

Scholarship genre

Empirical

Citation

Faber, L. (2011). Rethinking Research: Higher Learning Opportunities Within Community. AERA Annual Meeting 2011, New Orleans.

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Decolonizing Methodologies in an Urban Community: Ripple Effects of Community-Based Design Research [Session 49.068] Session

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