Volume 25 Number 1
October 1985

Dr. Ruey-Lin Lin, Associate Professor of Sociology
Eastern Montana College

ONE OF the most serious problems confronting Native American leaders is that Native Americans as a whole have achieved one of the lowest educational levels among all ethnic groups and are not doing well while attending school. For example, it is reported that,

This poverty of educational achievement within the Native American sector might very well be the root of their over-all social problems in a modem industrial society.

In spite of its seriousness, the problem of Native American education has attracted little empirical analysis, particularly quantitative analysis. Most of the published findings on the subject are primarily qualitative, ethnographical descriptions in nature. In general, ethnic and racial stereotypings of the Native American people are often used in lieu of theoretical explanations for the problem. (Feagin, 1984:200; Bataille, 1981). Among the most commonly held explanations, the cultural differences between Native Americans and whites is probably the most well known and well accepted, both within and outside academia. "Cultural Deprivation," or "Vacuum Ideology," were concepts developed (by school officials in particular), the child is likely to be unprepared for the complex symbol-world of the elementary school." (Bahr, et al, 1972:138) As a consequence, the Native American student is perceived as lacking the required mental preparation for success in school. They are viewed to be less interested in schooling. Secondly, within the school environment, cultural differences between white teachers and Native American students might have created racial bias and discrimination that may also contribute to the failure of Native American students. The relationship between teachers and students in an Indian school was described as, "on the one hand, he (the teacher) regards them (the students) as incomplete beings of 'meager experience,' and on the other hand, he sees them as dirty and depraved because of 'too much of the wrong kind of experience.' . . . Basically, he does not respect them, and as the children begin to realize this, they lose their respect for him and thus the moral basis of his authority is eroded." (Wax, et al, 1964:89). Thirdly, poor self-concept of the Native American student is also attributed to be one of the causal factors of the problem. "There is much evidence that Indian students feel despair, disillusionment, alienation, frustration, hopelessness, powerlessness, rejection, and estrangement, all elements of negative views of the self." (Bahr, et al, 1972:140) Furthermore, language barrier is also often attributed to be another problem that hinders the education of the Native American student (Bahr, et al, 1972:139).

The purpose of this study is to examine the aforementioned explanations by comparing the attitude of the Native American student toward education with that of the white student. Though the studies cited were based primarily on data gathered from elementary school students and from more than a decade ago, it is assumed that these studies continue to be generalized to explain the educational problems on the secondary level. If indeed the Native American culture ill prepared their students for formal education and cultural differences created a hostile student-teacher relationship, we should expect the existence of an overall negative attitude toward education from Native American students when compared with white students. Specifically, we should be able to find that Native American students: (1) would not perceive as important the necessity of education for their future, (2) would not find courses to be interesting, (3) would not see courses as being relevant to their future, (4) would not place as much emphasis on getting good grades, (5) would spend much less time doing homework, (6) would not participate as actively in school activities, (7) would not perceive their teachers as fair, and (8) would not care as much about the opinion of their teachers. Furthermore, if indeed Native American students are more likely than white students to hold a negative self-concept of themselves, we should expect to find the Native American student to be more inclined to have a world-view and feeling characterized by: (9) hopelessness and suicidal tendency, (10) helplessness, (11) anger and wanting revenge, (12) accepting violence as solution and (13) distrust.

TABLE 1
T-test on Cultural Orientation Toward Education Between Native American
(Group 1, N= 61-63) and White (Group 2, N=352-354) Male Students

*See Appendix for detail

To carry out the study, I used data collected (April, 1984) from a delinquency research project from students (1,063) in nine high schools in southeastern Montana. In order to avoid any possible "contamination" or "leveling" effect on student attitude toward education from situational factors in the school, the comparison will be made between Native American students in schools located within or closely bordering the reservation and white students from schools outside the reservation. Among the nine schools, one school is located in and another borders on the Crow Indian reservation. Students in these two schools are grouped together as being "on the reservation." Of the total 1,063 completed returns, there were 117 Native American students on the reservation, and 705 white students outside of the reservation. Of the 117 Native American students, 64 were male, 53 were female. Of the 705 white students outside the reservation, 354 were male, 351 were female. Because the results of the t-test indicate that grade point average (GPA) is significantly (s<.001) related to student's gender and ethnic background, it was necessary to separate male from female students. In the present study, we will focus our analysis on male students.

In order to identify the differences in attitude toward education, I selected fourteen variables from the questionnaire: nine variables are related to attitude toward education and five other variables are: GPA, the perception on the necessity of education, whether or not courses are interesting or relevant, the importance of getting good grades, hours spent doing homework, participation in school activities, the importance of teacher's opinion, the perception on teacher's fairness. The second category of the variables are: suicidal tendency, feeling of hostility and revenge, violence as problem solution, feeling of helplessness, and trust. Details of the variables are attached in the Appendix.

Table 1 reports the results of the t-test between Native American students on the reservation and white students outside the reservation. In order to avoid the potential pitfalls of too readily accepting edmic/racial stereotypings as explanations, I deliberately set the minimum one-tailed statistical significance at the more stringent .01 level. In addition, because T value is considered to be very sensitive to whether the distribution of variance is normal or not, I have decided to report only the T value generated from separated variance estimate for the entire study. Contrary to general expectation, seven out of nine variables show no statistically significant (s<.Ol) difference between the two groups of male students (Table 1). In other words, with the exception of having a lower GPA and not seeing courses as being relevant to their future (Var4), Native American male students were equal with White male students in their concern for and motivation toward education. Compared with white students, they spent as much time doing homework; they are as likely to believe in the necessity of education; they are as likely to think school courses are interesting and to participate as much in school activities; they are as likely to care about the opinion of their teachers and to perceive teachers as being fair; and they are equally aware of the importance of getting good grades. The stereotypical explanation of cultural differences being the root of the problem in Native American education fails to gain empirical support in this study.

TABLE 2
T-test on Measures of World-View Between Native American
(Group 1, N= 61-63) and White (Group 2, N=352-354) Male Students

Table 2 reports the findings on the world-view of the youths. It is in this area that the Native American youths are significantly different from the White youths. Specifically, Native American youths are much more likely to have a worldview which questions the fundamental human relationship of trust (Varl4). They are more likely to have the feeling of loneliness and helplessness in facing their personal problems (Varl3). They are also more likely to accept violence as a solution to problems (Varl2). These findings seem to confirm previous reports that "Indian students feel despair, disillusionment, alienation, frustration, hopelessness, powerlessness, rejection, and estrangement" (Chadwick, 1972:140).

Though statistically there is significant difference between Native American and white students with regard to their individual world-view, it is doubtful that this difference alone would account for the problem Native American students encounter. In an effort to better understand the problem, we turn to the possibility of delinquency, specifically to drug use. It was reported that "the detrimental effect of drug abuse on an individual's capacity to learn and function in an academic environment is obvious. There is just no way to teach a student who is sedated, high, drunk, or a combination of all three." (Senate Subcommittee on Delinquency, Challenge for the Third Century: Education in a Safe Environment, 1977:7). It is also very true that unless a student attends school, he/she is not going to be able to benefit from instructions at school. From this perspective, it is informative to again compare Native American and white students with regard to their extent of drug and/or alcohol use as well as the extent of the problem of truancy. If indeed there is a correlation between school performance and drug use, we would expect to find a statistically significant difference in the extent of drug/alcohol use and/or truancy between Native American and white students. Specifically, we would expect to find the use of drug/alcohol and truancy to be statistically significantly higher among Native American students than white students.

TABLE 3
T-test on the extent of drug use and truancy between Native American
(Group 1, N= 61-63) and White (Group 2, N=352-354) Male Students

Table 3 presents the results of the t-test on the extent of drug/alcohol use and of truancy between Native American and white students. With the exception of variable 15 on alcohol consumption and variable 18 on the use of LSD or other hard drugs, the results of the t-test indicate that there is a statistically significant (s<.005) difference between Native American male and white male students on drunken driving (varl6), use of marijuana (varl7), drug peddling (varl9), self-perception of having a drug problem (var20) and truancy (var21). In other words, though they have not consumed more alcoholic beverages or hard drugs than white students, Native American male students are much more likely to use and peddle marijuana, to have the incidence of drunk or stoned driving, to perceive themselves as having a drug or alcohol problem, and to skip school. In particular, the extent of the difference between the two groups with regard to the use of marijuana and driving while stoned or drunk is great. On a 6-point scale, the mean score for marijuana use is 2.87 for Native American students and 0.86 for white students. For drunken driving, it is 3.10 for Native American students and 1.45 for white students. Furthermore, by their own admission, Native American students perceive themselves to have more of a drug/alcohol problem than whites. On a 5-point scale (1 for yes, 3 for possible, and 5 for no) the question of self-perceived drug/alcohol problem, the mean score is 4.16 for Native American students and 4.69 for white students.

The importance of education in a modern industrial society is beyond question. Formal learning is a necessary condition for members of a minority group to not only be able to integrate into the dominant society, but even more importantly, it is almost the only mechanism whereby one can obtain the knowledge of modern science and technology. Among the minorities in the United States, groups that are educationally successful are also successful economically. Jews, Japanese, and Chinese are the most obvious examples of the successful minority groups in this country. In contrast, groups that are educationally problem-ridden are also economically poverty-ridden. Blacks and Native Americans are the most economically as well as educationally deprived minority groups.

Table 4
One-way analysis of variance for the twenty variables by GPA
(Native American students, N=61~63

The promise of Native American education, in light of this study, lies in the finding that there is little difference between Native American and white students in terms of the orientation toward education. The attitude and learning efforts of the Native American students toward education are comparable to that of white students. On the other hand, the problem of Native American education seems to lie in the extensive and pervasive use of drugs and alcohol, particularly marijuana, among Native American students. Furthermore, a gap between ideal and reality with regard to the importance of education seems to exist in the minds of Native American students. As much as they are able to see the necessity of education for their future (a perception with regard to ideal), Native American students seem to have difficulty in relating courses taught in school to their real lives and futures (a perception with regard to reality).

Though Native American youths seem to have a very pessimistic, disillusioned view of the world, their pessimism and disillusionment are likely to reflect more of their experiential assessment of the world rather than of their own self. The feeling of despair and alienation is part of the consequences people often experience under the impact of social change, particularly after having experienced discrimination and oppression. An examination of the pearsonian correlation coefficients (not reported here) indicates that among Native American boys, the suicidal tendency (Varl0) is closely related to the feeling of resentment (Var11); and trust (Varl4) is related to the feeling of certainty of help (Var13).

The problem is further compounded possibly by the over-all cultural characteristics and changes within the Native American family. In an analysis of family relationship not reported here, we found that there is an "inverse" relationship between emulation of father and GPA. We found that the better the GPA, the less a Native American boy wants to be like his father. This inverse relation between rejection of father's role model and school performance indicates the existence of cultural change and conflict between the traditional Indian pattern of thinking and way of life and the pattern of thinking and way of life of the dominant society.

The "writing on the wall" seems to be clear, solving the drug and alcohol problem is the first order of business toward solving the problems in Native American education. In order to carry out effective educational reform, research efforts need to be done on the factors that contribute to the pervasive use of drugs and alcohol among Native American students.

CATEGORY 1: ATTITUDE TOWARD EDUCATION & SCHOOL

Variable 1: Your overall average grades:

- A - B - C - D - F

Variable 2: 1 believe a good education is essential for my future:

(Strongly Disagree) - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Strongly Agree)

Variable 3: 1 think school courses are interesting:

- (5) All of them - (4) Most - (3) Some - (2) Few- (1) None - (1) Don't care

Variable 4: 1 think school courses are relevant to my future:

- (5) All of them - (4) Most - (3) Some - (2) Few- (1) None - (1) Don't care

Variable 5: How important is getting good grades to you personally?

(Completely Unimportant) - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Very Important)

Variable 6: How many hours a day do you spend doing your homework?

- (1) Less than I hour - (2) 1-2 hours - (3) 2-4 hours- (4) Over 4 hours

Variable 7: Are you very active in school activities?

(Not Active At All) - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Very Active)

Variable 8: Are you very active in school activities?

(Not Active At All) - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (A Great Deal)

Variable 9: 1 believe teachers try to be fair and helpful to students:

(Strongly Disagree) - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Strongly Agree)

CATEGORY H: WORLD-VIEW

Variable 10: Do you ever feel so hopeless and helpless that you want to commit suicide?

(1) Always - (2) Most times - (3) Sometimes - (4) Rarely - (5) Not at all

Variable 11: Do you ever feel the world owes you and that you want revenge?

(1) Always - (2) Most times - (3) Sometimes - (4) Rarely - (5) Not at all

Variable 12: Violence is an acceptable solution to many problems:

(Strongly Disagree) - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 (Strongly Agree)

Variable 13: When I have a problem, I feel for sure I can count on someone for help:

(1) Always - (2) Most times - (3) Sometimes - (4) Rarely - (5) Not at all

Variable 14: In general, I trust people:

(1) Always - (2) Most times - (3) Sometimes - (4) Rarely - (5) Not at all

CATEGORY III: DRUG & ALCOHOL USES

Variable 15: Bought or drank beer, wine or other alcohol without your parent's permission?

- 0 - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - (6) More

Variable 16: Driven a car while stoned or drunk?

- 0 - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - (6) More

Variable 17: Used marijuana?

- 0 - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5- (6) More

Variable 18: Used LSD or other hard drugs?

- 0 - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5- (6) More

Variable 19: Sold marijuana or other drugs?

- 0 - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5- (6) More

Variable 20: 1 might have a problem with drugs/alcohol:

- (1) Yes - (3) Possible - (5) No

Variable 21: Skipped school?

- 0 - I - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5- (6) More

Bahr, Howard, Bruce A. Chadwick, & Robert C. Day., Ed. 1972 Native Americans Today: Sociological Perspectives. Harper & Row. Publishers, Inc.

Bataille, Gretchen 1981 "Distortions in the Image of the American Indian." In New Directions in Ethnic Studies: Minorities in America, David Claerbaut, Ed., pp. 65-75. Saratoga, CA.: R & E Publishers.

Currie, Elliott and Jerome H. Skolnick 1984 America’s Problems: Social Issues and Public Policy. Boston: Little, Brown and Company

Feagin, Joe R. 1984 Racial and Ethnic Relations. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., Second Edition.

U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Delinquency 1977: "Challenge for the Third Century: Education in a Safe Environment." Reprinted in Larry J. Siegel & Joseph J. Senna, Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law. pp. 228-233. St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Co. 1981.

Wax, Murray L., Rosalie H. Wax, & Robert V. Dumont, Jr. 1964 Formal Education in an American Indian Community. An SSSP Monograph. The Society for the Study of Social Problems.

Dr. Lin is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Eastern Montana College in Billings, Montana. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology at University of California at Los Angeles. His research area is in social change and sociology of law.