Preservice Teachers’ Perceived Ability to Teach Native American Students

The purpose of this explanatory mixed methods study was to assess preservice teachers’ perceived ability to teach Native American (NA) children and youth. Focus on NA students was needed because they have been among the nation’s worst-performing ethnoracial groups. These students have often been taught by teachers unprepared to respond to their unique circumstances and statuses. The first phase of the study involved collecting quantitative data to examine the nature of preservice teachers’ (n = 60) culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy beliefs. In this phase, a modified and extended version of Siwatu’s (2007) Culturally Responsive Teaching Self- Efficacy Scale was used to explore preservice teachers’ ability to teach NA students. The second phase involved interviewing a subsample (n = 3) selected from Phase 1 participants. The interviews examined teachers’ descriptions of culturally responsive teaching forming behaviors. Qualitative data were analyzed through the culturally relevant pedagogy continuum and TribalCrit lens, especially concerning the uniqueness of NA statuses, such as tribal sovereignty and cultural contributions. The findings were consistent with Bandura’s (1977, 1997) theorizing about the nature of self-efficacy and the factors that influenced the formations of self-efficacy beliefs. Moreover, the tenets of TribalCrit explained some of the teachers’ perceptions in connection to Bandura’s social cognitive theory. The study showed that preservice teachers did not feel confident and were not adequately prepared to teach NA students in K–12 schools. Recommendations include faculty development in teacher training programs and a preservice teacher self-efficacy intervention course for teacher education students before contacting their NA students. Other theoretical and practical implications of this study, such as teachers’ “deficit views” of NA culture, were discussed.