“We constantly have to navigate”: Indigenous students’ and professionals’ strategies for navigating ethical conflicts in STEMM

Abstract

This paper reports on a research project that explored ethical, cultural, and/or spiritual conflicts and the various strategies used to navigate the conflicts among over 400 Indigenous students and professionals in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine [Our initial project was conceptualized as including STEM fields (not including the final M for medicine/health-related fields). However, our work included survey respondents and interviewees in medicine/health-related fields, so our subsequent analysis and discussion uses the more inclusive acronym of STEMM.] (STEMM) fields. These navigational strategies include teaching others and leveraging their support, engaging in ceremonial practices to provide protection and correction when needed, being in the right mindset and/or acting in the right ways, and—for some—changing pathways altogether. By centering Indigenous students' and professionals’ voices and experiences, we learn how intentional, complex, and thoughtful their strategies must be.

The Role that Cultural Plays in Fostering Educational Sovereignty for American Indian Youths: A Transformative Mixed Methods Study

“…Pidgeon (2008) purported that Native languages, knowledge, and cultural traditions are elements of cultural capital for Indigenous people. The offer of cultural capital is especially significant for AI youths who are led to believe that their Indigenous knowledge (IK) is primeval (Brayboy & Maughan, 2009;Castagno et al, 2022) and that their Native languages are inferior to the dominant culture (Battiste, 2009). Bourdieu & Passeron (1977) offered a narrow interpretation of cultural capital based predominantly on a White, middle-class culture that included things innate or owned by the middle class and the accumulation of specific epistemologies, aptitudes, and adroitness deemed valuable by the dominant class.…”

Perspectives of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists on the Influence of School Connectedness on American Indian Youths

“…AI parents and their children struggle to develop a healthy ethnic identity because they receive conflicting messages about their way of knowing (Battiste, 2013;Castagno et al, 2022). The lack of legitimacy about Indigenous Knowledge (IK) (Brayboy & Maughan, 2009;Castagno et al, 2022) contributes to AIs experiencing cultural socialization based on a Euro-Western worldview . Cultural socialization is how parents and children convey messages about the importance of their ethnicity and race (Bakth et al, 2022;Byrd & Legette, 2022;Syed et al, 2018).…”