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an average of 0.48% of the doctorates awarded in Science and Engineering (NSF,
2007), The 2,000 census found that about 1.5% of the US population identified
themselves as American Indian or Alaskan Native. Thus, these figures indicate that
Native people are about 60% under-represented at the college level and 67% under-
represented at the doctoral level (even without taking into account the younger age
distribution of Native Americans).
To make these numbers more concrete, over the past 10 years a total of only
14 doctorates have been awarded to Native scholars in Computer Science, 10 in
Physics, 5 in Astronomy, 3 in Ocean Sciences, and 1 in Atmospheric Sciences (NSF,
2007); in the biological sciences, 108 doctorates have been awarded to Indian schol-
ars. Yet these numbers only represent 0.3% of the total number of degrees awarded
(NSF, 2007). These numbers represent an increase in representation from earlier
decades, albeit a minimal one.
The issue of achievement in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
fields is far more significant than just a matter of representation; it centrally involves
power, particularly in light of real socioscientific problems facing the world—such
as global warming and other environmental issues. The lack of degreed exper-
tise within Indigenous communities contributes to, and perpetuates, struggles with
sovereignty and survival, education and educational achievement, economic devel-
opment, the enhancement of community health, community-based governance of
resource management, and the cultural vitality of Native communities. In short,
Native people both on and off reservations continue to struggle for cultural and
sovereign survival. To improve the circumstances that affect Indigenous communi-
ties in ways that are likely to have a sustained impact requires that we improve the
educational experience and attainment of Native people, especially within STEM
education.
Understanding the widespread lack of achievement in STEM education and
developing possible solutions poses critical challenges, in light of cognitive sci-
ence research, and community-based research, which suggest that the problems
with achievement are more complicated than simply knowing or not knowing “sci-
ence content” (see Demmert & Towner, 2003, for a review). A growing body of
educational research is demonstrating the need to understand the complexities that
(culturally) diverse ways of knowing create for teaching and learning environments,
particularly if we are to improve school achievement for those groups of students
who have historically been placed at risk (i.e., Warren et al., 2001; Gutiérrez &
Rogoff, 2003; Gutierrez, 2006).
Challenges to and the Need for Innovation
We are far from the first to point out the under representation of Native scholars
in science and science education. But there are a number of significant barriers to
progress in addressing these issues. First of all, we are not optimistic that large-
scale studies of the correlates of achievement will provide constructive advice.
