Creating IdentitySafe Contexts for American Indian Students

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Creating Identity-Safe Contexts for American
Indian Students
Stephanie A. Fryberg, Ph.D. University of Arizona
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• Agenda
• Introduction
• Culture and Self
• European American (middle class) cultural
  contexts
• American Indian cultural contexts
• Cultural Models of Education
• Implications for academic performance
• Enhancing Identity Safety
• The power of representations
• Models for success

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• Goals
• Have a conversation
• Provide background information
• Highlight cultural differences
• Discuss implications for enhancing feelings of
  belonging and academic success
• Strategies for Connecting with Students
• Setting up Identity-Safe Environments
• Creating inclusive environments
• Creating ME environments

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Part ICultural and SelfEuropean American
American Indian Cultural Contexts
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• Culture consists of explicit and implicit
  patterns of historically derived and selected
  ideas and their embodiment in institutions,
  practices, and artifacts.
• Cultural systems may, on one hand, be considered
  as products of action, and on the other as
  conditioning elements of further action.
• (Kroeber Kluckholn, 1963, p. 357)

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Independent Model of Self

• The natural, necessary, healthy, and good
  person
• is a bounded, coherent, stable, autonomous,
  free entity
• possesses a set of characteristic identifying
  attributespreferences, motives, goals,
  attitudes, beliefs, and abilitieswhich are the
  primary forces that enable, guide, or constrain
  actions
• is principally oriented toward independent
  success and achievement
• makes (or should make) independent, more or less
  rational choices in the pursuit of goals
• is largely in control ofand individually
  responsible for personal behaviors and
  outcomes
• gives personal beliefs and needs priority over
  norms and relationships
• strives to feel good about the self
• is active, innovative and creative
• (Adapted from Fiske, Kitayama, Markus Nisbett,
  1998)

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WHAT IS A PERSON? (Independent view of self)
Father
Mother
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Sibling
Self
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Friend
Co-worker
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Friend
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A Gathering of Wisdom Swinomish Mental Health

• Pervasive Cultural Ideas
• Individuals are inseparably connected and
  continuously interacting with family, community
  (tribe), and spirit world.
• Respect for Elders and Ancestors (part of ones
  family who has passed on) the hierarchy of
  wisdom.
• People can be seen as having their own
  individuality and unique gifts, but they are also
  seen as a reflection on their family and
  community.
• American Indians living in tribal communities
  tend to be highly responsive to the opinions of
  other tribal members. Tribal community opinion
  exerts social pressure on members of that
  community to conform to its norms and unspoken
  rules. For example

• Respect your elders
• Be loyal to your family members
• Do not stand out as different
• Value Indian tradition do not be too white.
• Contribute to the community good.
• Participate in community gatherings and events

• Share your time, your money and your possessions.
• Respect religious and spiritual leaders and
  beliefs.
• Dont be too assertive know your place.
• Recognize your relations.
• Dont hurt other peoples feelings.
• Noninterference

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Interdependent Model of Self

• The natural, necessary, healthy, and good
  person
• is a connected, fluid, flexible, committed being
  bound to others
• participates in a set of relationships, roles,
  groups, and institutions which are the primary
  forces that enable, guide or constrain actions
• is principally oriented toward the harmonious
  functioning of these social entities
• persists to meet obligations and conforms to
  expected norms and standards
• engages in self-reflection and self-criticism
• is a partner in interaction with others who are
  mutually responsible for each other and for the
  consequences of their joint behavior
• treats personal beliefs and needs as subordinate
  to norms and relationships
• tries to improve and master skills perseveres
  and endures hardship

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WHAT IS A PERSON? (Interdependent view of self)
Mother
Father
X
X
X
X
Self
X
X
X
Sibling
X
X
X
X
X
X
Friend
X
X
Co-worker
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Friend
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• Culture More than race/ethnicity
• Individual differences
• Social class, gender, parents education,
  religion
• Past experiences, family dynamics
• Being Native is more than culture practices
• History of Betrayal Mistrust
• Struggle, resistance, survival
• Social Problems
• Divorce, Single Parent homes
• Poverty
• Physical/Sexual Abuse
• Drug Alcohol Abuse

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Part IICultural Models of EducationImplication
s for Academic Performance
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Cultural Models of Education

• Historically and socially instituted sets of
  ideas about the meaning of education, about how
  to be a good student, about the role of education
  in becoming a good self, and about the nature
  of the relationship between teachers and
  students.
• Frequently practiced ways of teaching, studying,
  evaluating, and rewarding students.
• Conventional patterns of interactions between
  teachers and students.
• (Fryberg Markus, 2007)

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What comes to mind when you think of education?
European American students 7 Freedom to think
and express your own ideas in comparison to what
course material is taughtformulating conclusions
individually and applying these to your own life
in order to achieve the good life. 24 Education
is the key to a successful, happy professional
future.
American Indian students 5 I think of the
reservation because I was education on the
reservation where education was horrible. 20
Oral learning, passing down knowledge, elder to
grandchildren, parents to student.
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What comes to mind when you think of a teacher?
European American students 7 A teacher should
be encouraging and help students think for
themselves and discover their opinions. 24
Helper in quest for learning. Formally, one who
instructs/directs students learning. Someone who
makes seeking knowledge and spreading knowledge a
primary goal in life.
American Indian students 5 I think of the
White teachers back on the reservation who
thought we were all slow, so they never
challenged us. 17 I think of someone older than
me. Mostly I think of my parents and elders. I
guess they were my first teachers.
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Part IIIEnhancing Identity Safety Story time
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• As I read this childrens book, try thinking
  about what messages it conveys to girls and boys
  about...
• abilities
• earnings/wages
• roles
• prestige
• power

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Why this book?

• This book is an example of the messages children
  (i.e., future students) receive about what is
  possible for them and what is not.
• Despite our best intentions, faculty and
  administrators have ideas about how students
  should appear and how they should behave, and we
  unconsciously act on these ideas.
• Do not worryeven the best stereotyping and
  prejudice researchers in psychology fall prey to
  these behavior--it is, in part, the nature of how
  our brains function (social learning theory).

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Stereotype Threat Contends that.

• Stereotypes exist in the world, not simply inside
  individual minds
• Stereotypes are reflected and inscribed in the
  practices, policies, and institutions that
  comprise society
• Stereotypes are enacted in everyday,
  interpersonal behavior
• Stereotypes are powerful and influential in the
  performance of minorities

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For many non-Indians, an Indian must resemble a
historical image, one frozen in the past and in
historical archives--the noble, proud warrior
dancing about and worshipping natures
mysteries
(Trimble, 1987)
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Mascot Conditions
Condition 2 Haskell Indian Nations University
mascot Indians
Condition 1 Cleveland Indians team mascot
Chief Wahoo
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Mascot Conditions
Condition 4 Control No prime
Condition 3 University of Illinois mascot
Chief Illiniwek
Participants completed the possible selves measure
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Positive Condition
Condition 5 American Indian College Fund
Ad Have you ever seen a real Indian?
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What are Possible Selves?

• Possible selves are the selves that people would
  like to become or are afraid of becoming
• They are the cognitive manifestations of enduring
  goals, aspirations, motives, fears and threats.

• (Cross Markus, 1994 Markus Nurius, 1986
  Oyserman Fryberg, 2006)

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Identity Safe Classrooms
Identity-safe classrooms communicate to ALL
students that they belong and can succeed.

• Classrooms that promote culture-congruent models
  of education
• Classrooms free from social identity threat
  (i.e., stereotyping and prejudice)
• Classrooms that include positive and inclusive
  student representations

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Models for Success

• Does the combination of culture-congruent models
  of education and positive, inclusive
  racial-ethnic identity primes increase motivation
  and academic engagement more than
  culture-congruent models or inclusive
  racial-ethnic identity primes alone?

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Getting an education will benefit you in the
future.

Independent Model (You) Outgroup Member (EA)
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Getting an education will benefit you in the
future.

Independent Model (You) Ingroup Member (AI)
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Getting an education will benefit your tribe in
the future.

Interdependent Model (Tribe) Ingroup Member (AI)
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Primes Models for Success
Independent Model (You) Outgroup Member (EA)
Independent Model (You) Ingroup Member (AI)
Interdependent Model (Tribe) Ingroup Member (AI)
Control No Prime

• All primes were gender-matched to the
  participant.

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(You/EA) (You/AI)
(Tribe/AI)
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(You/EA) (You/AI)
(Tribe/AI)
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(You/EA) (You/AI)
(Tribe/AI)
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Models in Action? Social Representations of
American Indians
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Models in Action Classroom representations and
Student-Teacher relationships

• The greater the proportion of American Indian
  positive, inclusive representations in the
  classroom, the more American Indian students
  thought their teacher liked them and wanted to
  help them.

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Discussion

• One model does not work for allsome of the onus
  for the underachievement of American Indian
  students lies in the incongruent cultural models
  prevalent in the academic environment.
• Models for successculture-congruent and identity
  inclusive representations may promote academic
  success for American Indian students.
• Models in actioncontrolling the representations
  in the classroom can promote positive
  relationships with students.

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Implications

• School teachers and administrators can ensure
  that the existing or relevant social
  representations do not devalue or limit
  individual identity or potential.
• Efforts should be made to show ALL students in
  the classroom a diversity of positive
  representations of their group. Taking care not
  to use stereotypical representations or only
  historical representations.
• Creating and developing new and positive social
  representations may be one route to creating new
  possible future selves for students.

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WHAT CAN UNIVERSITIES DO?

• Examine the prevalent model of education within
  the university.
• Acknowledge that students come to the university
  with different expectations about the purpose of
  education, what it means to be a student, and the
  relationship between faculty and
  students--educate administrators and faculty.
• Recognize that participation in different
  cultural contexts has consequences for how
  students approach the university experience, but
  there are no hard fast rules.
• Create an environment that welcomes and values
  various social and cultural identities.

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Thank You!

• Collaborators
• Hazel Rose Markus
• Irene Yeh
• Andy Wilson
• Renn Hershey
• Alisha Watts
• Research Assistants
• Yvonne Perez
• Deleana OtherBull
• Rabiah Muhammad

University of Arizona Culture Collaboratory