Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

Publication Date

2-1-2012

Abstract

Perceived faculty discrimination and its affect on Native American college undergraduate students' intrinsic motivation was explored. The following variables were studied, perceived faculty discrimination, family support, and intrinsic motivation in an attempt to gain insight on the changing Native American enrollment rates. An interest was taken in examining perceived faculty discrimination to see if possible negative interactions, such as negative approaches and feedback, occurred during class between instructors and students. Students' perception or lack of perceived faculty discrimination was studied to observe its impact on Native American students' intrinsic motivation to learn and to see how that would impact their academic success. Lastly, family support was examined in relation to students' experiences of perceived faculty discrimination to get a sense of how the presence or absence of support influenced students' academic success. The student sample consisted of 40 University of New Mexico Native American undergraduate students enrolled in one of five introductory NATV courses for the Fall 2008 semester. The students ranged in age from 19 years old to 55 years old (M = 27, SD = 9.68). viii There were 65% females (N = 26) and 32.5% males ( N = 13). Student classification was composed of four student groups: 5% sophomore (N = 2), 10% junior (N =4), 62.5% senior (N = 25), and 7.5% other (N =3). A Pearson Bivariate Correlation analysis was conducted and the study revealed that there was no significant relationship between perceived faculty discrimination and Native American students' intrinsic motivation to academically succeed.

Keywords

Indian college students--Attitudes, Motivation in education, Discrimination in education, College teachers--Attitudes

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Degree Name

Family Studies

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

Individual, Family, and Community Education

First Committee Member (Chair)

Hossain, Ziarat

Second Committee Member

Olson, Pamela

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