Content area
Full Text
Introduction
Schools throughout the USA are finding effective ways to serve all students with more appropriate and successful environmental settings in which to learn. Educators are replacing the traditional face-to-face high school model with online instruction to better meet the needs of students ([19] Grier and Peterson, 2007).
In virtual high schools, technology, connectivity, and online coursework are fundamentally changing a learning environment in three important ways. First, this type of environment fosters personalized instruction in which performance is measured by mastering skills, not by the number of hours spent in a classroom. Second, content is monitored and tailored for individual students. Third, time and classroom locations do not dictate student learning ([33] Patrick, 2007; [37] Rayburn, 2011).
For Montana's Native American students, the traditional classroom-learning environment has been a poor fit ([8] Cross, 2001; [22] Juneau, 2001; [43] Szasz, 1974). This has resulted in a large academic achievement gap between Native and non-Native students ([29] Nelson et al. , 2009). Contributing factors are the high student mobility rates, lack of academic challenge, and lack of high expectations by instructors ([40] Smoker-Broaddus, 2009).
An online learning environment shows promise for those Native American students who lack interest or challenge in traditional classroom settings. Yet, scholarly research on Native American college students and online learning is limited ([12] Dobbs et al. , 2009) and research on Native American high school students and online learning is practically non-existent.
There is a significant need to study the learning experiences of Native American high school students within the context of an online learning environment. This paper describes and discusses an exploratory, grounded theory, study that focuses on understanding the successful accommodations and adjustments that Native American high school students make when adapting to an online learning environment. These findings will aid in the development of future online coursework for Native American students, as well as fill the void in existing research literature.
Background
Native Americans and academic performance
American Indian children have the poorest academic performance among US public school students ([44] Tirado, 2001). Reasons include low teacher expectations, high student mobility, lack of American Indian teachers, communication and learning differences, and cultural bias in standardized tests. Only one in five American Indian and Alaskan Native eighth grade...