Personal persistence,identity development,and suicide: a study of Native and Non-native North American adolescents

The cross-cultural program of research presented here is about matters of temporal persistence--personal persistence and cultural persistence--and about solution strategies for solving the paradox of "sameness-in-change." The crux of this paradox resides in the fact that, on threat of otherwise ceasing to be recognizable as a self, all of us must satisfy at least two constitutive conditions. The first of these is that selves are obliged to keep moving or die, and, so, must continually change. The second is that selves must also somehow remain the same, lest all notions of moral responsibility and any commitment to an as yet unrealized future become nonsensical. Although long understood as a problem demanding the attention of philosophers, we argue that this same paradox arises in the ordinary course of identity development and dictates the different developmental routes taken by culturally mainstream and Aboriginal youth in coming to the identity-preserving conclusion that they and others are somehow continuous through time. Findings from a set of five studies are presented. The first and second studies document the development and refinement of a method for parsing and coding what young people say on the topic of personal persistence or self-continuity. Both studies demonstrate that it is not only possible to seriously engage children as young as age 9 or 10 years in detailed and codable discussions about personal persistence, but that their reasoning concerning such matters typically proceeds in an orderly and increasingly sophisticated manner over the course of their early identity development. Our third study underscores the high personal costs of failing to sustain a workable sense of personal persistence by showing that failures to warrant self-continuity are strongly associated with increased suicide risk in adolescence. Study four documents this same relation between continuity and suicide, this time at the macrolevel of whole cultures, and shows that efforts by Aboriginal groups to preserve and promote their culture are associated with dramatic reductions in rates of youth suicide. In the final study we show that different default strategies for resolving the paradox of personal persistence and change--Narrative and Essentialist strategies--distinctly characterize Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth.     

The whys and wherefores of Native American bilingual education

Although many would agree in theory with the notion of bilingual education for Native American pupils, one must look deeper at this complex issue before a commitment is made to such a program. Bilingual programs in reservation schools and off-reservation serving a dominant Indian population make good sense and will continue to provide an important service. Not only do such programs make the transition to school easier for young Native American pupils, but also they provide an important cultural link to the child's heritage and promote positive concepts of self and build prideful identity. In urban areas, however, where approximately half of the Indian population of this country resides, it is difficult to defend bilingual programs because of the many problems involved in implementing such programs successfully. It is probable that these programs will continue to be found mainly in early childhood day care settings.     

A comparison of three Native American groups and a Caucasian group on the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test-Revised

This study compared the performance of three different Native American groups and a Caucasian group on the Minnesota Percepto-Diagnostic Test-Revised and the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills. The tests were administered to 40 Navajo, 40 Papago, 40 Hopi, and 40 Caucasian children. All of the children were in regular classrooms and none had been referred for school psychological services. The results, using a one-way analysis of variance, indicated significant differences among the four groups on the MPD-R rotation scores and two of the three configuration scores. When age was controlled, these MPD-R scores remained significant. There were no significant differences among the four groups for achievement. It was also found that the MPD-R was correlated significantly with some of the achievement variables.     

Adjustment scales for children and adolescents and Native American Indians: Factorial validity generalization for Ojibwe youths

Replication of the core syndrome factor structure of the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents (ASCA; P.A. McDermott, N.C. Marston, & D.H. Stott, 1993) is reported for a sample of 183 Native American Indian (Ojibwe) children and adolescents from North Central Minnesota. The six ASCA core syndromes produced an identical two‐factor solution as the standardization data through principal axis analysis using multiple criteria for the number of factors to extract and retain. Varimax, direct oblimin, and promax rotations produced identical results and nearly identical factor‐structure coefficients. Coefficients of congruence resulted in an excellent match to the factorial results of the ASCA standardization sample and a large, independent sample. It was concluded that for these Ojibwe students, the ASCA measures two independent dimensions of psychopathology (i.e., Overactivity and Underactivity) that are similar to the conduct problems/externalizing and withdrawal/internalizing dimensions commonly found in the child psychopathology assessment literature. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 685–694, 2006.     

Unique issues faced by deaf individuals entering substance abuse treatment and following discharge

Several barriers can frustrate a deaf individual's intention to enter a substance abuse treatment program. Because few specialized programs work with the Deaf, it is difficult to determine the factors that influence a deaf individual's desire to maintain sobriety following completion of a residential treatment program. A sample of 100 individuals was drawn from the Minnesota Chemical Dependency Program for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals, a model hospital-based inpatient treatment program. The study participants were asked to complete pretreatment and posttreatment surveys upon admission and discharge, respectively, in addition to a follow-up survey, to help determine which background factors might be associated with different treatment outcomes for deaf and hard of hearing persons who completed treatment in the program. Results are presented for the pretreatment and posttreatment assessments, and for the follow-up survey. Study limitations are discussed and recommendations are given for future treatment programs serving deaf and hard of hearing individuals.     

Serving the distant student: Implications for external degree programming

The results of a questionnaire survey of 132 students enrolled in the University Without Walls (UWW) program at the University of Minnesota regarding how they assessed their UWW experience in general and the services provided by faculty in particular is presented. Readers will find a special focus on how local students who reside within commuting distance to campus compare with students who live a distance from campus. Comparisons are made in terms of students' frequency and mode of communication with faculty, general satisfaction with UWW, and satisfaction with faculty services. The majority of students responded favorably to the faculty with whom they worked. Implications of the study are considered for enhancing educational services for distant students.     

Conceptualizing a mentoring program for American Indian/Alaska Native students in the STEM fields: a review of the literature

In order to address the disparity of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) doctorates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), culturally congruent mentorship program development is needed. Because traditional Western academic paradigms are typically constrained to a non-Indigenous perspective, the authors question how American Indian graduate students in STEM can successfully navigate graduate education with their cultural identity intact. Our review and synthesis of the literature addresses this question by considering 60 data sources that include peer-reviewed articles, personal communication with professionals working in the field of AI/AN academic success, and professional training literature. Our synthesis demonstrates that there is a dearth of Indigenous participation in the STEM fields that needs to be addressed by instituting a bicultural paradigm. This paradigm includes incorporating traditional academic mentoring into Indigenous values and kinship structures. A conceptual model is offered that delineates information necessary to conceptualize and develop an Indigenous mentoring program.     

The Development of a Curriculum Toolkit with American Indian and Alaska Native Communities

This article explains the creation of the Growing and Learning with Young Native Children curriculum toolkit. The curriculum toolkit was designed to give American Indian and Alaska Native early childhood educators who work in a variety of settings the framework for developing a research-based, developmentally appropriate, tribally specific curriculum to use with Native children aged 0–3. The curriculum toolkit should assist Native people in preserving and maintaining their unique culture and language. Challenges specific to the implementation of an early childhood program in Indian Country have been explained. A brief historical overview of Indian education has been included. The contents of this article were developed under Grant #P116Z05-0056 from the US Department of Education. However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the US Department of Education and the reader should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.     

Native American Adolescent Career Development

Within the framework of Social Cognitive Career (SCCT; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994, 2000), this study examined the associations among career interests, career efficacy expectations, gender, and perceived parent support among Native American and Caucasian middle school adolescents. Consistent with previous research, results indicated that Native American young people had greater interests in Realistic and Conventional occupations, and in occupations that typically require a high-school diploma, a trade school certificate, or 2 years of post high-school education. However, contrary to previous findings, they had as great a range of interests in and self-efficacy expectations for Investigative, Artistic, Social, and Enterprising occupations as Caucasian adolescents, and similarly high levels of interests, efficacy, and perceived parent support for careers typically requiring 4 or more years of post-high school education.     

Collaborations across “Sister” community colleges: a strategy to strengthen programs and support student persistence

Community colleges are typically relied upon to address many challenges in United States higher education and, more recently, are under public pressure to increase student completion rates. This article presents a case study of colleagues at three Minnesota community colleges as they work together to address student and program needs. While traditionally community colleges tend to focus primarily on gaining transfer partnerships with universities, we suggest that collaborations across community college programs may be key to long-term success. If done well, such sister program collaborations can support a trajectory of programmatic strength that not only bolsters the curriculum, enrollment, and program visibility, but also ultimately supports students’ ability to complete and successfully transfer. The result, then, is that university partners are attracted and sustained by a vibrant network of colleagues and a pipeline of student support.     

美国新兴特许学校的现状研究

美国在20世纪70年代提出了“特许学校”的思想,在90年代初明尼苏达州率先颁布第一部特许学校法,它标志着美国的特许学校运动走上了法制化的轨道。目前,全美已有37个州和两个地区都在进行特许学校的实际与探索。     

美国早期儿童学习标准的理念与特点——以明尼苏达州3-5岁早期儿童学习标准为例

完善的早期儿童成长标准体系是促进早期教育质量不断提升的根本保证。《早期发展指标:明尼苏达州早期学习标准》将文本的概念框架转化为具体的外在行为,进而收集不同责任机构在应用标准时的真实表现证据,在此基础上观察评估儿童的各项能力发展,以此作为教师改进课程教学计划、社区完善资源服务、家庭实施科学教育以及政策制定者评估标准效果的依据。该标准具有目的呈现清晰,指标描述具体,兼顾文化差异,主体分工明确等特点,对修订与完善我国《3-6岁儿童学习与发展指南》有重要参考价值。     

Elderly African Immigrants in Minnesota: A Case Study of Needs Assessment in Eight Cities

Needs assessment is the process of identifying the gap between a target population's needs and its services. If a gap exists, a program can be designed to effectively respond to those needs. This aticle explores the needs of elderly African immigrants in Minnesota through the use of qualitative interviews. A convenience sampling was used to collect data from 200 available elderly people in eight cities in Minnesota. Data analyses revealed that 90% of them want appropriate nutrition and better delivery of services. Recommendations include support for informal caregivers like family members becuase these efforts can keep older people at home.     

典仪--印第安宇宙观的重要载体--印第安传统文化初探

印第安典仪不仅起着将印第安创世神话一代一代传扬下去的重要作用，而且通过仪式化地再现这些神话，传达出印第安民族对无尽循环之中万事万物和谐整体的信仰，从而帮助部族成员融入印第安传统，确立部族群体观念。在这一意义上，典仪是印第安宇宙观的重要载体。     

美国明尼苏达州的学业标准和考试制度

重建学业标准是美国当前以提高质量为中心的基础教育改革的重要举措，本文主要以明尼苏达州数学科为例，扼要介绍了其学业标准和基本标准测验，并简要分析了其中的特点。     

Multiculturalism Incorporated: Student Perceptions

Multicultural education has transformed higher education both in terms of research and in terms of student experiences. Given the complexity of our institutions, the overall effects of these transformations are mixed. Building on the successes and strengths of multicultural education as it is currently incorporated in institutions and programs will involve better understanding how it is perceived, positively and negatively, by those who are experiencing it first hand. In this article we seek to contribute to this reflection through a discussion of a survey of students’ perceptions of multiculturalism in a large first-year program in a research university. Patrick Bruch is Associate Professor of Writing Studies in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He received a B.A. in English from Western Michigan University and a Ph.D. in English from Wayne State University. His teaching and research focus on struggles for equality within and through higher education. Jeanne L. Higbee received her B.S. in Sociology from Iowa State University and earned both her M.S. in Counseling and Guidance and Ph.D. in Educational Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently serves as Professor and Senior Advisor to the Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota. Her research interests are related to student development and the access and retention of student populations that traditionally have been underserved in postsecondary educational institutions. Kwabena Siaka is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota.     

Improving Native American children’s listening comprehension through concrete representations

The primary purpose of the present study was to determine whether recent findings documenting the benefits of text-related motor activity on young children’s memory for reading passages [Glenberg, A. M., Gutierrez, T., Levin, J. R., Japuntich, S., & Kaschak, M. (2004). Activity and imagined activity can enhance young readers’ reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 424–436.] could be extended to the text processing of Native American children. Forty-five third through seventh-grade students with academic learning difficulties listened to four narrative passages under one of three instructional conditions: manipulate, where students moved toy objects to represent the story’s content; visual, where students observed the results of an experimenter’s toy manipulations; and free-study, where students thought about the content of the presented story sentences. Findings were consistent with the literature documenting the comprehension and memory benefits of text-relevant concrete representations, with students in the manipulate and visual conditions statistically outrecalling students in the free-study condition. In contrast to the results of the Glenberg et al. (2004) reading study, no conditions-related differences were observed on a final passage where students were instructed to generate internal visual images of story events in the absence of external visual support (i.e., when no toys were present).     

Problems of Consistent Over-, Under-, and Normal-Achieving College Students as Identified by the Mooney Problem Check List

Abstract

Sex differences and changes from kindergarten to grade 12 in days absent per year are described for a relatively complete sample of students drawn from a fairly typical, rural Minnesota county. Percentile norms for days absent per year by grade are presented separately for boys and girls. A study of chronically poor attenders is described to illustrate how such norms can be used.