Native American Representation in Mass Media

Leavitt, P. A., Covarrubias, R., Perez, Y. A., & Fryberg, S. A. (2015). “Frozen in time”: The impact of Native American media representations on identity and self‐understanding. Journal of Social Issues, 71(1), 39-53.

Summarize.  This article takes an exploratory approach to understanding how Native American representation in mass media effects members within the community in terms of individualization, self-stereotyping, and how it impacts their experiences within professional and education environments. The authors spend time reviewing the current representation within mass media and the negative impacts that it has within the Native American community. The authors also suggest that more research be done on this topic, and that those who create media be mindful of how they are representing cultures to ensure avoidance of negative outcomes.

Evaluate. The article itself serves as an informative, yet broad literature review on the topic of Native American representation within mass media. The authors take great care in ensuring the reader is informed and has a basic understanding of this type of representation, what the situation is currently as well as areas of concern. The authors utilize appropriate source materials, which is commendable given the small amount of research that has actually been done on this topic. The authors are also good at explaining bias within their research and being candid about the lack of first-hand research that has been done.

Application. So far in my research I had not considered mass media as an area of study but after reading this article, it does give some foundation information on why Native American students may face difficulty with motivation and self-efficacy within education settings. While this was not a research study, it did get me thinking about how educational technology is a form of mass media, and that it too must create space for representation and consideration of all cultures alike. I would like to continue to find and read articles that are similar in nature to this one to better understand the effects media plays in Native American student motivation.

 

Additional Resources

Covarrubias, R., & Fryberg, S. A. (2015). The impact of self-relevant representations on school belonging for Native American students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 21(1), 10.

Guillory, R. M., & Wolverton, M. (2008). It’s about family: Native American student persistence in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(1), 58-87.

Reyhner, J., & Dodd, J. (1995, January). Factors affecting the retention of American Indian and Alaska Native students in higher education. In first annual Expanding Minority Opportunities national conference, Tempe, AZ.

Rhodes, R. W. (1988). Holistic teaching/learning for Native American students. Journal of American Indian Education, 21-29.

 

The Big Question – 2 Minute Research Topic Elevator Speech!

For my final project in my EDU 800: Educational Technology Research course, I was tasked to create a two minute video, an elevator pitch of sorts, on my research interest for the program. Below you will find my video and the three questions I hope to answer throughout my doctoral program!

https://www.powtoon.com/c/ex6yaKV9d05/1/m

Video Games, Storytelling, and Education – Oh, My!

Padilla-Zea, N., Gutiérrez, F. L., López-Arcos, J. R., Abad-Arranz, A., & Paderewski, P. (2014). Modeling storytelling to be used in educational video games. Computers in Human Behavior, 31, 461-474.

Summarize. This article explores the relationship that storytelling within educational games and student motivation. The authors created a model for educators on how to implement storytelling effectively within educational games as refer to their model as VGSCL (a reference model for educational game development incorporating collaborative activities). The authors were very mindful about trying to find balance between fun and education in terms of the games they were implementing in their study. The authors took an interesting approach to the storytelling aspect of the games, and used it as a reward in that the more students participated and completed, the more story they were exposed to which is fairly common in popular video games.

Evaluate. I felt that this was a well-rounded study in that the authors clearly defined the problem and ideas that they were going to be exploring throughout their article. The authors also created a clear framework with which their study and results were framed. The article itself was broken up into logical pieces that provided the reader with easy navigation. The authors were aware and candid about their small sample size and the age of their participants not necessarily being applicable to broader types of education. However, the authors still worked to give suggestions for broader groups of students even while admitting limited data.

Application. Storytelling plays a crucial role within Native American culture and is primarily how information was passed on throughout the generations. Considering my topic of research for my doctoral program is how to implement technology and culturally responsive pedagogy within online courses, this article was of great interest. While not all courses are appropriate for educational games, I do want to look at all options for implementing storytelling while using technology in a meaningful way. This article provided me some information on what practices are already in place and the impact they are having on student motivation.