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Women and Native American Students in Higher Education

EDLD 7432 History of American Higher Education L. Bell, C. Bradford, T. Powell, & C. Zhou

Women in Higher Education


History
1639-1742 Early colonial America
Girls were taught to read and write, but not allowed to attend institutions of higher education

Involvement in higher education


Women entering higher education
First boarding school established (1742) Oberlin College, first college to accept women (1833) First all-women college established, Mount Holyoke ( 1837) First women to earn degrees (1841) Women faced segregation and unfair treatment Limited curriculum offered to women

Women in Higher Education


Turning Points
1848
Seneca Fall Convention to promote education for women

1862
Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act

1908
National College Womens Equal Suffrage League

1920
Equal Rights Amendment

1964
Civil Rights Act

1972
Title IX of the Education of Amendments

Women in Higher Education


Impact of Women in Higher Education
Representation today
The number of female students in tertiary institutions has grown almost twice as fast as that of men since 1970. Women started catching up to men in North America and Western Europe in the 1970s and even surpassed male enrolment rates by the early 1980s. A similar trend occurred in the 1990s in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in Central Asia.
(Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, 2010)

Impact of Women in Higher Education


The Arab States, as well as East Asia and the Pacific regions just reached the parity line, after decades of steady growth in female enrolment. However, women continue to be disadvantaged in South and West Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa. Across sub-Saharan Africa, there are only about 62 female students for every 100 male students. In South and West Asia, there are 74 women enrolled in tertiary education for every 100 male students. When educational opportunity and resources are scarce, it seems that women are less likely to get them.
(Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, 2010)

Impact of Women in Higher Education


Women face considerable barriers as they move up the education ladder to research careers. When we look at higher education outputs the number of graduates produced the global picture shows a near balance between men and women who obtain Bachelors degrees. Then, slightly more women (56%) than men get Masters degrees. However, men surpass women in virtually all countries at the highest levels of education, accounting for 56% of all PhD graduates and 71% of researchers.
(Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, 2010)

Impact of Women in Higher Education


The growth in female enrollment partly reflects the changing values and attitudes related to the role and aspirations of women in society that are the legacy of social change and feminist movements which emerged globally in the 1960s and 1970s. Female over-representation in higher education is not reflected in the labor market.
(Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, 2010)

Impact of Women in Higher Education


Studies by the OECD and other organizations have shown that women are not on equal footing with men in terms of salaries and decision-making positions, despite having the same or better qualifications in terms of education.
(Source: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, 2010)

Women in Higher Education


Women's Colleges THE TREND:
closings and controversial shifts to coeducation

The number of women's colleges in the U.S. dropped from more than 200 in 1960 to 83 in 1993, according to a U.S. Department of Education report. Today, the Women's College Coalition lists 47 member colleges.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, collective national enrollment at women's colleges fell from about 113,000 in 1998 to 86,000 in 2010.

Women in Higher Education


Women's Colleges Started in the mid-19th century, women's colleges in the U.S. opened to level the educational playing field for women who couldn't otherwise get a college education. Recent Census figures show that more women have undergraduate and advanced degrees than men.

By 1982, women earned the majority of bachelors degrees and by 1986 the majority of masters degrees.

Women in Higher Education


Womens Colleges Women continue to remain underrepresented in key leadership positions and the STEM fields: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Even though women have been the majority on college campuses for more than two decades, they are underrepresented on coed campuses in such leadership positions as the student government association, preferring to do other student activities.

Women in Higher Education


Women's Colleges High expectations, support, presence of role models, critical mass of high achieving students, opportunities for extracurricular involvement, inclusion of women in the curriculum, and a recognition of the social realities facing women in the real world, are all traits associated with institutions that facilitate the success of their women students.

Women in Higher Education


Current Struggles/Issues Legal Battles
Achievement:
In 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court declared the school's maleonly admissions policy unconstitutional, and the South Carolina woman was allowed to enroll.

Current Struggles/Issues
Story:
The first female cadet at the Citadel, South Carolina's elite all-male military college, Shannon Faulkner, fought a legal battle against the Citadel for two years before allowed to enroll.

Link to Shannon Faulkners Story:


Click Here

Current Struggles/Issues
Other Points of Interest
Family versus Career
Women are supposed to balance family and their career

Peer Pressures Social norms Institutional Barriers Regional Difference Womens Intertwined Identities

Native Americans in Higher Education


Native Americans have the lowest participation and graduation rates today of any group of students in the United States (U.S. Department of Education). History provides clues: Posters such as the one below can be found on numerous public blogs and websites, demonstrating a continuing mistrust of the U.S. education system and curriculum.

Retrieved from http://espressostalinist.wordpress.com/genocide/native-american-genocide/

Native Americans in Higher Education


Pre-Colonial Self-Determination Period (before 1492)
parents and elders passed along tribal language, values, customs, stories, religion, etc., to next generation

Native Americans in Higher Education


Colonial Period (1492-1776)
Indian Colleges Locations: (Thelin, 2011, McClellan, Fox, & Lowe, 2005) Harvard William & Mary Dartmouth Purpose: (Thelin, 2011) civilize Modern photo: William and Marys old Indian School convert natives to Christianity fundraising tool wealthy English families more likely to invest in converting savages than educating colonists Outcomes: (McClellan, Fox, & Lowe, 2005) failed utterly (p. 8) 47 enrollees 4 graduates
Spanish Mission, San Antonio, 1741

Native Americans in Higher Education


Spanish Missions (Lippert, 2012) Location: West (what is now Texas) Purpose: strategic Spanish expansion plan: convert rather than conquer Indians teach Spanish language, develop loyalties to Spanish King teaching agriculture to change culture from nomad to settled (easier to monitor) Outcomes: mixed More successful than Indian Colleges, probably because missions where communal by nature European diseases (small pox, chicken pox, etc.): Killed large percentage of native population

Native Americans in Higher Education


Early U.S. Indian Relations (1776 -1830) (McClellan, Fox, & Lowe,2005)

Numerous treaties and agreements More than 99 treaties addressed education for Native Americans
September 1830
first treaty to address higher education signed with Choctaw nation no action or funding, however, until 1841

Native Americans in Higher Education


Removal Era (1830-1850)
Indian Removal Act of 1830
Mandated removal of all Native Americans east of the Mississippi River to lands in the West Many Christian missionaries also relocated in order to civilize and convert Native Americans (National Indian Education Association)

Native Americans in Higher Education


Period of Allotment and Assimilation (1880-1920)
(American Indian Relief Council) Christian boarding schools were created to assimilate Native children into American culture by erasing tribal and family relationships, language, customs, and philosophies. The idea was to replace tribal culture with American values like individualism, capitalism, competition, Christianity, and the value of material possessions.

Kill the Indian in him and save the man, motto of Col. Richard Henry Pratt, headmaster of Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, established 1879.

Before and After Photo

Native Americans in Higher Education


Period of Allotment and Assimilation (1880-1920) cont.

Boarding school survivors have reported shame upon their return because they did not know their own culture or language, nor did they feel welcome in the white communityConfused, lost, and sometimes brainwashed, survivors self-medicated with alcohol and because they were not parented, and they in turn struggled to be good parents. This set in motion a generational trauma (Bonner, Marbley, & Howard-Hamilton, 2011, p. 159).

Native Americans in Higher Education


Termination Period (1945 -1975)

Termination Policy of 1953


Purpose: eradicate Native American tribes
terminate trust agreement

cease recognizing tribes and tribal affiliations


urban relocation incentives sell off trust lands, including those rich in natural resources, to nonnatives and businesses

shift federal responsibilities to states

Native Americans in Higher Education


Indian Reorganization Act (1930-1945)
Federally designated funds for Native American Higher Education (United State Department of Education, 2011) Under the theory that Native American culture and language were inferior and stood in the way of success within white society, forced assimilation was the stated goal of government agencies and the assumed purpose of the mainstream education of Native American youth until the late 1960s (Mosholder and Goslin, In press.)

Native Americans in Higher Education


Period of Self-Determination (1965 present) (McClellan, Fox, & Lowe, 2005)
Indian Self Determination and Education Act of 1975
Tribal Colleges & University (TCU) movement

Community College Assistance Act of 1978


provided federal operating funds for tribal community colleges

Tribal College Act of 1983 TCUs gain Morrill Land Grant Status (1994)
opened door for state funding of TCUs

Goal:
preservation and respect for Native languages, cultures, etc. (American Indian Higher Education Consortium)

Good news:
graduation rates similar to rates at non-Tribal community colleges

Challenges:
funding has never equaled amount promised and is lower per student than most statefunded institutions

Native Americans in Higher Education


Period of Self-Determination (1965 present)

Source: American Indian Higher Education Consortium. http://www.aihec.org/

Tribal College Locations

Native Americans in Higher Education Today


Current Facts and Figures
4,500,000 American citizens identify as American Indian, Alaskan Native, or Native Hawaiian (National Indian Education Association & National Education Association).
These people make up 562 distinct tribes (National Indian Education Association & National Education Association).

Educational Disparities
Only 71% of Native Americans have a high school diploma, and only 11% have a bachelors degree (National Indian Education Association & National Education Association). Native Americans have the lowest level of degree attainment of all major ethnic groups in the United States (American Indian Higher Education Consortium, Institute for Higher Education Policy ).

Native Americans in Higher Education Today


Social & Economic Disparities Native American Reservations suffer from high rates of unemployment A large gap exists between the average per capita income of Native Americans and the average per capita income of the general population High rates of suicide, alcohol related deaths, and single parent households Many reservations are geographically isolated from educational opportunities

Native Americans in Higher Education Today


Tribally Controlled Colleges & Universities Grew out of the self-determination movement of the 1960s Navajo Nation founded the first tribally controlled college in 1968 - presently Dine College Today, 37 institutions exist offering certificates, associates, bachelors, and masters degrees Tribally Controlled Community Colleges Assistance Act of 1978

Native Americans in Higher Education Today


Missions of Tribally Controlled Colleges & Universities #1 Rebuild, reinforce, and explore traditional tribal cultures using uniquely designed curricula and institutional settings #2 Address Western models of learning by providing traditional disciplinary courses that are transferable to institutions

Native Americans in Higher Education Today


Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCU) Effects on Communities Preservation of traditional Native American Culture and languages Provide substance abuse counseling, nutritional counseling, child care, and other support services Establish basic education, counseling, and economic development initiatives to surrounding community

Native Americans in Higher Education Today


Difficulties Faced by TCCUs Difficulty recruiting and retaining faculty due to rural isolation, low teacher salaries, high poverty areas, and differences in language and culture Difficulty finding Native American faculty and staff due to lack of college educated population

Lack of resources to fund building facilities, hiring educators and administrators, and providing aid to students

Native Americans in Higher Education Today


Initiatives have been launched to increase the participation of Native American students in Higher Education. This video highlights an initiative in Arizona.

References
American Indian Higher Education Consortium, Institute for Higher Education Policy (n.d.). Tribal colleges: An introduction. Retrieved from http://www.aihec.org/colleges/documents/TCU_intro.pdf Ash, L. & Boyd, A. (2012, August 17). Women's colleges struggle to keep identity and enrollment. USA Today. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/story/2012-08-01/womens-collegesenrollment/57103700/1 Chang, J, Sinay, L & Clarke, S. (2009, December 8). Life after the Citadel: Shannon Faulkner reflects on her historic battle with the Elite Military College. ABC News. Retrieved from http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/shannonFaulkner-reflects-citadel/story?id=9272864#.UF84nEI9Xdl Cohen, A. M., & Kisker, C. (2010). The shaping of American higher education emergence and growth of the contemporary system (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

References - Continued
Fox, M., Lowe, S. C., & McClellan, G. S. (2005). Where we have been: A history of Native American higher education. New Directions for Student Services, 2005(109), 7-15. Lippert, J. (2012). Harvesting souls. Native Peoples Magazine, 25(2), 50.

McClellan, G. S., Tippeconnic Fox, M., & Lowe, S. C. (2005). Where we have been: history of Native American higher education. New Directions For Student Services, (109), 7-15.
Mosholder, R. & Goslin, C (In press). Native American college student persistence. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice

References - Continued
National Indian Education Association & National Education Association (n.d.). Native education 101: Basic facts about American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian education. (0907.82937.KC). Washington DC: NEA. Retrieved from www.niea.org/data/files/policy/nativeeducation101.pdf National Institute on Postsecondary Education, Libraries, and Lifelong Learning, Office of Educational Research and Improvement (n.d.). A closer look at women's colleges. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/PDFDocs/womenscolleges.pdf Thelin, J. (2011). A history of American higher education (2nd ed.). Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press.

References - Continued
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. (n.d.). Global education digest 2010: Comparing education statistics across the world. Retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/GED _2010_EN.pdf United State Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Indian Education, &White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities. (2011). Tribal leaders speak: The state of Indian Education 2010; Report of the consultations with tribal leaders in Indian country. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/indianed/consultations-report.pdf

United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2010). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic minorities (NCES 2010-015). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from www.NCES.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010015/index.asp

References - Continued
Womens education, womens empowerment. (2012, September 21). Womens History 2012 Gazette: A Gazette from the National Womens History Project: Retrieved from http://www.nwhp.org/final-2(2).pdf

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