Miracle Survivors (Pisatsikamotaan): an indigenous theory on educational persistence grounded in the stories of Tribal College Students.

Abstract

For the last two hundred years, higher education for American Indians has been an Anglo institution involving compulsory Western methods of learning, reoccurring attempts to eradicate tribal culture, and high departure rates for American Indian students at mainstream institutions. In direct response to this history, American Indian leaders drew upon the philosophical framework of the “self-determination” movement of the 1960s to rethink the role of higher education. These leaders recognized the importance of post-secondary education and fostered among themselves the awareness that American Indian colleges could strengthen reservation economies and tribal culture without forcing the students to accept acculturation. In 1968, the Navajo Nation created the first tribally controlled community college - now called Dine’ College in Tsaile, Arizona. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching reported in 1997, “[w]ithout question, the most significant development in American Indian communities, since World War II, is the creation of tribally controlled colleges.” The purpose of this study was to develop an Indigenous theory on educational persistence for American Indian students. This indigenous theory emerged from the stories of tribal college students, faculty, and staff. This qualitative study is twopronged: (1) what constitutes educational persistence in a tribal college setting and (2) how students believe they came to “persist” in the tribal college.