AltaMira Press
Pages: 278
•
Trim: 6½ x 9¾
978-0-7591-1991-8 • Hardback • November 2010 • $91.00 • (£70.00)
978-0-7591-1993-2 • eBook • November 2010 • $86.50 • (£67.00)
Terry Huffman is professor of education at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon.
Chapter 1 Preface
Part 2 Chapter 1. American Indian Education Scholarship
Part 3 Chapter 2. Cultural Discontinuity Theory
Chapter 4 Reading 1. Teachers' Cultural Knowledge and Understanding of American Indian Students and Their Families
Part 5 Chapter 3. Structural Inequality Theory
Chapter 6 Reading 2. Constructing Failure and Maintaining Cultural Identity: Navajo and Ute School Leavers
Part 7 Chapter 4. Interactionalist Theory
Chapter 8 Reading 3. Ethnicity and the Concept of Social Integration in Tinto's Model of Institutional Departure
Part 9 Chapter 5. Transculturation Theory
Chapter 10 Reading 4. Transculturation Theory as an Explanation for College Persistence among Culturally Traditional American Indian Students
Part 11 Chapter 6. Continuing the Tradition
Chapter 12 References
Huffman's work provides a comprehensive, yet concise approach to examining theoretical approaches to American Indian education. What's more, the text surveys years of research and theoretical frameworks from a variety of disciplines. Because of this, the book will serve as an invaluable resource to scholars, educators, and others who seek to broaden their own horizons regarding American Indian education. Ultimately, Huffman's work opens new doors in the understanding best practices in both examining and addressing the needs of American Indian students, teachers, and communities.
— Ronald Ferguson, Ridgewater College
Huffman (George Fox Univ.) discards the older "cultural deficit" explanation used to explain the academic performance of American Indian students and examines newer cultural discontinuity, structural inequality, interactionalist, and transculturation theories. Four chapters describe, critique, and comprehensively examine the research supporting each theory follow an overview of American Indian education scholarship in chapter 1....This book gives few specific examples of how educators can improve the academic performance of American Indian students in the classroom, though all four theories along with the emerging approaches have implications for making classroom curriculum and teaching methods reflect and support the cultural/tribal background of American Indian students. A major researcher and proponent of the transculturation theory, Huffman supports the idea that American Indian students entering college with strong tribal identities can draw strength from those identities, enabling them to persevere and be successful students. Summing Up: Recommended.
— CHOICE