Research Question:
What learning strategies are employed by Native American graduate students in order to cope and succeed in academia?

Participants:
All subjects were graduate students at the University of Utah.  They were in a Master's of Social Work Indian Education program.  All subjects were Native American women.  Eight women were from traditional reservation communities and three were from urban areas.  All women were bicultural; being aware of their cultural heritage as well as mainstream society's culture.  Three women were Navajo and the other represented Yurok, Yakima, Shoshone-Bannock, Oglala Lakota, Mandan-Hidtasa, Wasco-Delaware-Shawnee, and Yankton Dakota.  Three of the women were in their twenties and the rest were in their late thirties or early forties.  Seven had were mothers.

Methods Used:
Private interviews were used to gather data.  The interviews lasted one to two hours and the interviewer used a predesigned list of topics related to academic experience.  The interviews were recorded with audio tapes and field notes or quotes were used a primary data.  The recordings were used to verify field notes and quotations then they were given to the interviewees.

Results:
All women expressed difficulty with heavy expectations to return to their communities with the degree.  They indicated performance anxiety because of the type of writing required in academia.  For example, using impersonal language.  This was compounded by the academic language used in journals.  All preferred essay exams to true/false or multiple choice.  Some studying strategies were keeping a systematic schedule, for example, reading, exam preparation or writing and internal reflection.  All expressed a multimodal learning style:  more than one mode for remembering (listening, writing, copying important phrases, integrating it with cultural knowledge).  The findings or results are in contrast to cultural learning styles that propose Native Americans learn best with visual presentations.  It was found that the students used the ability to critically evaluate while maintaining a subjective, accepting perspective and to synthesize extensive and diverse information; taking what was practical applicable and using it or throwing out what was not useful.

Conclusions:
Instructors must be aware of these learning styles in order to better serve their students. Native American success in graduate school is not dependent on acculturation into mainstream society but upon culturally transmitted cognitive abilities.

Reflections:
I felt like someone understood the way I think and use my brain.  I felt validity in the way I do things and my ideas in connection with my own bicultural existence.