IN THE HEART OF INDIAN COUNTRY: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF NATIVE AMERICAN ADULT LEARNERS AT A PREDOMINANTLY WHITE UNIVERSITY
Open Access
- Author:
- Buckmiller, Tom Mark
- Graduate Program:
- Adult Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- April 21, 2009
- Committee Members:
- Fred Michael Schied, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Fred Michael Schied, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Madhu Suri Prakash, Committee Member
John W Tippeconnic Iii, Committee Member
Melody M Thompson, Committee Member - Keywords:
- adult learner
Native American
phenomenology - Abstract:
- Native Americans are the least likely minority to enroll in public four-year institutions and the least likely to persist to graduation in those institutions. It is also well documented that being an adult learner, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, etc., presents an all-together different set of challenges, as they are often the most time-limited group of the college population. Consequently, the experiences resulting from the confluence of being both a Native American and being an adult learner at the university may not yet be fully understood. This qualitative study used a hermeneutic phenomenological design to investigate the lived experience of nine Native American adult students at the University of the Great Plains (UGP), a predominantly White university. The study sought specifically to understand what it was like, from a Native student’s perspective, to be in a cross-cultural pedagogical relationship with a non-Native instructor. The theoretical framework I used measured education against the Native concepts of sovereignty, self-determination, and decolonization. I collected data primarily through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. I analyzed data according to phenomenological procedures of data analysis, methods of reflection, and writing. The findings of this study highlight the inherent complexities of being a Native American adult learner, endeavor toward understanding that certain ways of knowing for Native Adult students are indispensable to self-education and self-determination, unravel discontentedness and decolonization at the university, and accentuate an education that is socio-culturally and politically relevant to Native adult students.