Contextual identity experiencing facilitates resilience in Native American academics. Issue 3 (1st September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dvorakova, Antonie
• Is Part Of: Social science journal. Volume 55:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 346
• Page End: 358
• Publication Date: 2018-09-01
• Subjects: Socio-cultural contexts -- Identity -- Higher education -- Native American/American Indian -- Resilience; Social sciences -- Periodicals; 300.5
• DOI: 10.1016/j.soscij.2017.12.001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0362-3319

Abstract

Abstract: This article discusses the socio-cultural dynamics that interact with ethno-racial identity experiencing in a previously under-researched group. A qualitative interdisciplinary study with 40 Native American academics from 28 mainstream universities across the U.S. served as a case example with findings that contrasted with historically influential theoretical frameworks postulating identity confusion and conflicts at the intersection of one's mainstream education and profession versus one's ethno-racial community grounding. Instead of feeling pressure to identify with only one worldview, the contextual, dynamic identities associated with the inclusive and flexible self-concept of tribal participants allowed them to in turn take advantage of two divergent cultural meaning systems pertaining to their distinct socio-cultural contexts. These shifts were experienced as not endogenous but rather exogenous variables, which did not cause the historically theorized issues. Participants felt their tribal identities instead facilitated meaningful integration of the existing incongruences, which resulted in unexpectedly resilient subjective experiencing.