TY - JOUR
T1 - “I’ll Be Right Behind You”
T2 - Native American Families, Land Debt, and College Affordability
AU - Tachine, Amanda R.
AU - Cabrera, Nolan L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Karen Francis-Begay and Gary Rhoades for their insightful comments and critiques on earlier versions of this article. A previous version of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in 2017.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2021.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Family connections are critical for Native student persistence, yet families’ voices are absent in research. Using an Indigenous-specific version of educational debt, land debt, we center familial perspectives by exploring the financial struggles among Native families as their students transition to a Predominately White Institution. Findings indicate that Indigenous families experienced fear and frustration surrounding college affordability and the financial aid process. Regardless, these Native families made extreme sacrifices in paying for college. These findings were contextualized within the economic conditions created by land theft from Indigenous peoples. Returning to land debt, we argue that institutions need to begin from a perspective of what is owed to Native peoples in their policy decisions. That is, such decisions should take account of the benefits historically accrued by institutions residing on forcibly taken Indigenous land, and then examine how that debt can be repaid by supporting Native students, families, and communities.
AB - Family connections are critical for Native student persistence, yet families’ voices are absent in research. Using an Indigenous-specific version of educational debt, land debt, we center familial perspectives by exploring the financial struggles among Native families as their students transition to a Predominately White Institution. Findings indicate that Indigenous families experienced fear and frustration surrounding college affordability and the financial aid process. Regardless, these Native families made extreme sacrifices in paying for college. These findings were contextualized within the economic conditions created by land theft from Indigenous peoples. Returning to land debt, we argue that institutions need to begin from a perspective of what is owed to Native peoples in their policy decisions. That is, such decisions should take account of the benefits historically accrued by institutions residing on forcibly taken Indigenous land, and then examine how that debt can be repaid by supporting Native students, families, and communities.
KW - Indigenous methodology
KW - Native American college students
KW - college affordability
KW - educational debt
KW - family experiences
KW - sharing circles
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109931448&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1177/23328584211025522
DO - 10.1177/23328584211025522
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85109931448
SN - 2332-8584
VL - 7
JO - AERA Open
JF - AERA Open
ER -