HOW UNIQUE WAYS OF KNOWING, BEING, AND LEARNING CONTRIBUTE TO PERSISTENCE FACTORS AMONG INDIGENOUS GRADUATE STUDENTS

This chapter focuses on American Indian and Alaska Native tribal communities, as graduate student populations not often considered within the context of postbaccalaureate education. Indigenous ways of knowing allow students to tap into their cultural foundation and identify important strategies for building relationships and skill sets to successfully navigating graduate education. Navajo students have a unique cultural relationship and responsibility to their family, community, and Nation. Their cultural identity is connected to their Navajo clan relations and can be relied on when overcoming challenging experiences. American Indian and Alaska Native graduate students are cautious and wary when they enter predominantly White institutions and as they learn how to become researchers. In the classroom, pedagogically and andragogically, it is important to understand education needs to be connected to community persistence and development.