Current issues in Native-American education is the focus of this paper. Among the readings, several concerns emerged: the gap in educational achievement between white and non-white ethnic groups, cultural dissonance between the dominant and non-dominant culture, assimilation and integration of Native American culture, cultural perceptions of Native Americans by the "white" culture, classroom climate, and solutions.

Similar to the issues in African American education, the educational achievement gap between the performance of white students and minority students, including Native Americans, is widening (Olson, 1996). However, Ponessa (1996) reports that even though the scores for Native American lag behind scores for white students, Native American students have shown the most improvement. They have boosted their average score from 18.1 in 1992 to 18.8 in 1996 (Ponessa, 1996). No explanation was provided for this finding.

Another issue for the Native American student in the traditional educational system is cultural dissonance. Viadero describes in her article in Educational Week that white educators have underestimated the importance of culture in the learning process. Rather than validate non-traditional ways of knowing, thinking, and behaving, these students have been labeled as deficient by uninformed educators. Because white educators have experienced homogenous cultural condition, they are unable to see culture and the impact on the individual. She gives the metaphor which illustrates this principle; "It's like fish don't know there's water" (Viadero, 1996).

In the past, education believed that the job of schools was to help individuals assimilate into the predominate culture. Tierney, 1993, referred to his process as cultural genocide. Historically, education was used as a method of indoctrinating Native American children and undermining their own language, religion, and culture; thus, silencing the Native American culture. Currently, Tierney described that in the typical educational institution, Native American students become invisible because of these lingering assimilationist attitudes. As told by Tierney in the voice of Delbert Thunderwolf, we hear comments regarding this educational tendency. Thunderwolf reports that education is something that draws Native American students away from who they are and he further wants educators to be told not to try to make him into something he is not. Tierney presents this pressure as a reason many Native Americans voluntarily depart from the educational process. To become part of the campus community, the Native American student must disassociate from their traditional communities. The Native American student may be forced to choose between higher education and their tribal community (Tierney, 1993).

Rather than assimilate Giroux (Tierney, 1993) suggests that a "border pedagogy" would be a preferred educational strategy. Helping students negotiate back and forth between cultures, teaching them cultural savvy so that they can succeed in the predominate culture, but at the same time, honor and support their own cultural roots and traditions. One solution would be for Native American Educators to assist students and faculty in this endeavor. However, over ninety percent of educators are white (Viadero, 1996) which means that less than 10% of educators are “other”: Hispanic, Native-American, African-American, and Asian-American. However, much could be done to assist educators to learn different cultural styles.

Cultural differences are evident in how non-dominate cultures perceive the dominant society. Values which are prized in one culture, may be rejected in a different culture. Students may avoid behaviors which they consider "white" attitude or behaviors. For example, students may balk at time constraints because "being on time" is a white behavior. Being competitive or a high achiever, may not be desirable because it places the welfare of the individual over the welfare of the group which is alien to the Native-American culture.

All children need to be comfortable with the cultural climate in the classroom. Incorporating cultural components into teaching would benefit all students, not just the non-dominate culture groups. Certainly incorporating the Internet in the classroom would bring the world into the classroom. One Internet resource, Indian Schools, Colleges, Tribes, provides information on Indian classroom activities from kindergarten through college. It provides classroom teachers with creative strategies for including Native American content into their instruction from adopt an elder to reading a book, How the Eagle got His Good Eyes written by fifteen students who are Cree, from Manitoba Canada. Such classroom strategies would assist and empower Native American students speak in “thier own voice”.

Although resources on Native Americans was somewhat difficult to locate, several themes emerged. These concerns together with some suggestions to improve the educational environment for Native Americans have been presented.

References

Online

Indian Schools, Colleges, Tribes. Internet. 24 Feb. 1997, Available: http://indy4.fdl.cc.mn.us/~isk/schools.html.

Olson, Lynn. "Achievement gap widening, Study Reports. Education Week. Dec. 4, 1996. Internet. 20 Feb. 1997, Available: http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1996+1840+5+wAAA+%26%28african-american%.

Ponessa, Janet. "SAT, ACT Scores up but racial gap remain". Education Week. Sept. 4, 1996. Internet. 24 Feb. 1997, Available: http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1996+1290+7+wAAA+%26%28native%american%.

Viadero, Debra. "Culture clash". Education Week. April 10, 1996. Internet. 24 Feb. 1997, Available: http://www.edweek.org/htbin/fastweb?getdoc+view4+ew1996+590+0+wAAA+%26%28native%american%.

In Print

Tierney, W. G. (1993). The college experience of Native Americans: A critical analysis. In Weis, L. & Fine, M. (Eds.), Beyond Silenced Voices, (pp. 309-324). Albany: State University Press.