Braiding Our (In)Visibility: Native Women Navigating the Doctoral Process through Social Media
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Native doctoral students are a severely underrepresented group in higher education with stagnating enrollment trends over the last 30 years when compared to other racial/ethnic groups. For Native women doctoral students specifically, they represent only 0.9% (n=119) in 2002-03 (DeVoy, Darling- Churchill, & Snyder, 2008). Connected to the lack of representation at a doctoral level, their unique intersectional experiences are largely ignored in research. Using (in)visibility, cultural integrity, and counter-storytelling, this Indigenous qualitative (e.g., sharing circles) study explores three Native women doctoral students’ documented lived experiences via social media as they navigated through the doctoral and dissertation writing process. Through scholarly personal narrative analyses of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter posts and virtual sharing circles, early career Native scholars discuss managing visibility, maintaining cultural integrity, and using social media as a means for strengthening relationships and empowering resistance to oppressive university structures. While social media was important in helping Native women doctoral students, institutions must incorporate Native culture and perspectives when seeking ways to advance Native doctoral degree recipients.
Article Details
JCSCORE (ISSN 2642-2387) provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. All content in JCSCORE is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access.
Unless otherwise noted, works published in JCSCORE are distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike License (CC BY-NC-SA). By granting a CC BY-NC-SA license in their work, authors retain copyright ownership of the work, but they give explicit permission for others to download, reuse, reprint, modify, distribute, and/or copy the work, as long as the original source and author(s) are properly cited (i.e. a complete bibliographic citation and link to the JCSCORE website), re-use of the work is not for commercial purposes, and the re-used work is shared with the same license. No permission is required from the author(s) or the publishers for such use. According to the terms of the CC BY-NC-SA license, any reuse or redistribution must indicate the original CC-BY-NC-SA license terms of the work.
Exceptions to the application of the CC BY-NC-SA license may be granted at the author(s)’ discretion if reasonable extenuating circumstances exist. Such exceptions must be granted in writing. For coordinating use permission you may either contact the author directly or email jcscore@ou.edu.
References
Brayboy, B.M.J. (2004). Hiding in the ivy: American Indian students and visibility in elite educational settings. Harvard Educational Review, 74(2), 125-152. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.74.2.x141415v38360mg4
Brayboy, B. M. J. (2005). Transformational resistance and social justice: American Indians in Ivy League universities. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 193-211. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.2005.36.3.193 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.2005.36.3.193
Brayboy, B., Fann, A., Castagno, A., Solyom, J. (2012). Postsecondary education for American Indian and Alaska Natives: Higher education for nation building and self-determination. (Research Report from ASHE Higher Education Report Volume 37, Number 5). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Periodicals Inc. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aehe.v37.5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/aehe.v37.5
Brighenti, A. (2007). Visibility: A category for the social sciences. Current Sociology, 55(3), 323–342. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392107076079 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392107076079
Brown, A. F. (2016). Indigenizing Cyberspace: The possibilities of new media technologies for Indigenous peoples. (Unpublished Masters Thesis). University of Texas at Austin. Proquest.
Deloria, Jr., V. & Wildcat, D. R. (2001). Power and Place: Indian Education in America. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing.
Deyhle, D. (1995). Navajo youth and Anglo racism: Cultural integrity and resistance. Harvard Educational Review, 65, 403-444. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.65.3.156624q12053470n
Espino, M. M., Muñoz, S. M., & Kiyama, J. M. (2010). Transitioning from doctoral study to the academy: Theorizing trenzas of identity for Latina sister scholars. Qualitative Inquiry, 16(10), 804-818. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800410383123 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800410383123
Faircloth, S. C., & Tippeconnic, III, John W. (2010). The Dropout/Graduation Rate Crisis Among American Indian and Alaska Native Students: Failure to Respond Places the Future of Native Peoples at Risk. Los Angeles, CA: The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA: www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu.
Fries-Britt, S., & Kelly, B. T. (2005). Retaining each other: Narratives of two African American women in the academy. The Urban Review, 37(3), 221-242. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-005-0006-2 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-005-0006-2
Fryberg, S. A., & Stephens, N. M. (2010). When the world is colorblind, American Indians are invisible: A diversity science approach. Psychological Inquiry, 21(2), 115-119. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2010.483847 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840X.2010.483847
Guskin, E. & Mitchell, A. (2012). Innovating News in Native Communities. The State of the News Media: An annual report on American journalism. Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Retrieved from: http://www.stateofthemedia.org/2012/native-american-news-media/
Jovanelly, J. (2013, October 8). Native American fitness community flourishes, inspires via social media. Gila River Indian News. Retrieved from:
'>http://www.gilariver.org/index.php/october-2013-grin/4050-native-american- fitness-community-flourishes-inspires-via-social-media
Kovach, M. (2009). Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press.
Lavelle, L. (2009). Practical application on an Indigenous research framework and two qualitative Indigenous research methods: Sharing circles and Anishnaabe symbol-based reflection. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8(1) 21-40. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690900800103 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690900800103
Mihesuah, D. A. (2003). Indigenous American women: Decolonization, empowerment, activism. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press.
Nash, R. J. (2004). Liberating scholarly writing: The power of personal narrative. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Nash, R. J. & Bradley, D. L (2012). The Writers Is at the Center of the Scholarship. About Campus, pp. 2-11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.21067 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.21067
Pavel, M. (2013). How institutions can support Native professional and graduate students in Shotton, H., Lowe, S., & Waterman, S. (Eds), Beyond the asterisk: Understanding Native students in higher education (pp. 125-138). Sterling VA: Stylus.
Rao, A., Stasio, F., & Clark, J. (2015, March 31). Native Appropriations and the new media. North Carolina Public Radio. Retrieved from: http://wunc.org/post/native-appropriations-and-new-media
Reddick, R. J., & Sáenz, V. B. (2012). Coming home: Hermanos académicos reflect on past and present realities as professors at their alma mater. Harvard Educational Review, 82(3), 353-380. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.82.3.g311m72q432062uq
Rothe, J., Ozegovic, D., & Carroll, L. (2009). Innovation in qualitative interviews: “Sharing circles” in a First Nations community. Injury Prevention, 15, 334-340. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/ip.2008.021261 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/ip.2008.021261
Secataro, S. (2014). Rethinking our sacred minds, hands, and hearts: One dissertation journey in Lloyd Lee (Ed.), Dine Perspectives: Revitalizing and Reclaiming Navajo Thought (pp. 19-24). Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press.
Shotton, H. (2008). Pathway to the Ph.D.: Experiences of high-achieving American Indian females (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Oklahoma. ProQuest.
Shotton, H., Lowe, S., & Waterman, S. (2013). Beyond the asterisk: Understanding Native students in higher education. Stylus: Sterling, VA.
Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Dunedin, New Zealand: University of Otago Press.
Solorzano, D. G. & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for education research. Qualitative Inquiry 8(1), 23- 44. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/107780040200800103 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/107780040200800103
Survey of Earned Doctorates (2013). Who earns a U.S. Doctorate? National Science Foundation. Retrieved from: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/sed/2013/digest/theme1.cfm and http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/sed/2013/data/tab22.pdf
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), "Fall Enrollment in Colleges and Universities" surveys, 1976 and 1980; Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), "Fall Enrollment Survey" (IPEDS-EF:90); and IPEDS Spring 2001 through Spring 2015, Fall Enrollment component. (This table was prepared October 2015.) DOI: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09528 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09528
Waterman, S. J. & Lindley, L. S. (2013). Cultural strengths to persevere: Native American women in higher education. NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education, 6(2), 139-165. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/njawhe-2013-0011 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/njawhe-2013-0011
Wilson, S. (2008). Research is Ceremony: Indigenous research methods. Nova Scotia, Canada: Fernwood Publishing.
white methods: Racism and methodology. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.