Abstract
Indigenous students in rural Alaska hold high educational aspirations and yet few students realize their educational goals (Hamilton & Seyfrit, 1993; Kleinfeld & McDiarmid, 1986; McDiarmid & Kleinfeld, 1981). Our purpose in this study was tounderstand why so many Alaska Native students from small, isolated communities “drift” after high school, neither entering the postsecondary programs they aspire to, nor engaging in paid work. The contribution of this study is to clarify the reasons for the “educational aspirations-achievement gap,” in other words, why so many Alaska Native rural students have high educational expectations, and yet remain directionless in adult life. This is an issue on which virtually no research has been done. This paper also suggests ways that rural schools and postsecondary institutions can assist Alaska Native students in obtaining the postsecondary education to which they aspire.
Highlights
The aspirations and expectations of rural Alaska Native youth are informed by factors quite different from youth in urban Alaska
Working with rural school districts and schools, we interviewed 49 Alaska Native students (27 males and 22 females) at the end of high school when ideas about the future are most developed and when students have taken or not taken concrete steps to fulfill their educational aspirations
This study replicated the educational aspirationachievement gap found in many minority and low-income students and extended this finding to rural Alaska Native students
Summary
Many communities do not have running water or sewer systems––a cause of rampant disease, such as the highest incidence of hepatitis B in the state (Alaska Natives Commission, 2006). Few sources of paid employment are available in isolated rural villages, positions requiring postsecondary education. Most rural Native men are engaged in seasonal employment, such as construction and fire fighting. The Alaska Natives Commission (2006) reports that unemployment among Native men in one out of every eight villages is in excess of 50 % and points out that these figures are much higher than such official estimates because of the large numbers of “discouraged workers” who are not counted as in the labor force. Traditional subsistence hunting and fishing remain important economic activities and sources of status for Native men. The effects of climate change are acute in the Arctic, eroding hunting opportunities
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