Native American Experience in Higher Education
- This project studies the opportunities and obstacles that undergraduate students face as they make decisions and work to earn a degree in the major of their choice.
- Because many groups of students are underrepresented in math and science fields, we are especially interested in the factors that influence whether students are interested in and remain in these majors.
- Ultimately, we hope to inform OU and other universities about the programs and policies that are most likely to be effective in helping students succeed.
- The study began in 2013. Data collection ended in Spring 2022..
- During this time, we asked students to complete surveys about their experiences each semester. We also invited students to participate in focus groups and interviews to better understand their experience in higher education.
- In particular we are interested in whether various factors influence certain students, based on ethnicity, gender, major, etc.
- Because OU is one of the major educational institutions that grant bachelor’s degrees to Native American students, we have a unique opportunity to shed light on the challenges and opportunities experienced by Native American students.
- We hold interviews and focus groups with Native American tribal leaders and tribal college students to better understand the experiences of Native American students before they reach OU.
- We work with Native American faculty, researchers and higher education administrators. They advise us on research design decisions.
- We applied for additional funds to add a comparison group in our survey. This is why you see numbers in our preliminary findings for White and Asian students.
