Culturally-based Ethical Barriers for American Indian/Alaska Native Students and Professionals in Engineering

Prior research suggests various reasons for the paucity of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) people in engineering fields, including academic deficiencies, lack of role models, and minimal financial support to pursue a college education. One potential reason that has yet to be explored relates to the cultural and spiritual barriers that could deter AI/AN people from feeling a sense of belonging in engineering fields. These barriers may create obstacles to progressing through engineering career pathways. Our research investigates the range and variation of cultural/spiritual/ethical issues that may be affecting AI/AN people’s success in engineering and other science, technology, and mathematics fields. The work reported here focuses on findings from students and professionals in engineering fields specifically. The study seeks to answer two research questions: (1) What ethical issues do AI/AN students and professionals in engineering fields experience, and how do they navigate these issues? , and (2) Do ethical issues impede AI/AN students from pursuing engineering careers, and if so, how? We distributed an online survey to AI/AN college students (undergraduate and graduate) and professionals in STEM fields, including engineers, in the western United States region. Our results indicate strong connections to AI/AN culture by the participants in the study as well as some cultural, ethical, and/or spiritual barriers that exist for AI/AN individuals in the engineering field. The AI/AN professionals had less concerns with respect to activities that may conflict with AI/AN cultural customs compared to the students, which may be a result of the professionals having gained experiences that allow them to navigate these situations. Overall, our research offers insights for policy and practice within higher education institutions with engineering majors and/or graduate programs and organizations that employ engineering professionals. Introduction Facing a unique combination of cultural and socio-economic barriers, American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) are the most underrepresented racial/ethnic group in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) in the United States (U.S). The proportion of AI/AN students drops dramatically at each higher level of degree attainment. The drop in AI/AN students in STEM has resulted in substantial disparities in the number of scientists and engineers of AI/AN background, and a scientific and engineering workforce that has correspondingly low representation within tribal communities. Native Americansa are the most underrepresented ethnic group in biomedical and behavioral sciences [1]. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the overall percentage of baccalaureate degrees obtained by AI/AN undergraduates has decreased from 2009 at 0.68 to 0.34 percent of the entire U.S. population in 2018 [2]. This is not surprising as there has been a decrease in STEM degrees awarded to Native American students since 2008, as shown in Figure 1. Obstacles contributing to the low retention and graduation rates for AI/AN students, in general, have been studied [3], [4], [5], [6]; these include inadequate academic preparation; cultural differences; vague constructs of educational or a In this paper, AI/AN, Indigenous, and Native American are used interchangeably. These terms are used in different cultures to denote peoples who are indigenous to the land. vocational goals; insufficient financial aid; discrepancies between high school, community/tribal college, and university environments; prejudice; and social isolation. With respect to engineering degrees awarded to AI/AN students in 2018, the percentage of AI/AN students receiving a bachelor’s degrees in engineering was 0.3% [7]. However, the U.S. Census in 2017 estimated the AI/AN percentage of the U.S. population was approximate 2% [8]; thus, the number of AI/AN recently trained engineers is approximately 10 times smaller than the overall AI/AN U.S. population. As with AI/AN students in general, a recently published study on barriers facing Native American undergraduate students in Arizona cites perceived lack of jobs on the reservation and being underprepared academically for college [9]. Under-studied barriers in AI/AN education, particularly with respect to STEM programs, include cultural and spiritual factors that could exclude AI/AN people from engineering fields. One study of 96 students surveyed at Haskell Indian Nations University found that 38% of those surveyed would choose not to pursue a science major if they suspected that doing so would require them to disobey an important tribal taboo [10]. In our study, we also postulate that some standard practices in STEM may be considered as spiritually taboo by some AI/AN people. Further, the perceived non-acceptance of religion and spirituality within the scientific and engineering communities can accentuate the cultural differences between AI/AN people and STEM educators and professionals [11]. The following are some examples of cultural and spiritual taboos for some AI/AN people that conflict with STEM practices: viewing of unique astronomy related events such as eclipses or meteor showers, archaeological field work of suspected Indigenous burial grounds, surveillance or dissection of specific animals, examination of human cadavers, genetics research, investigation of weather events such as lightning strikes, and assigning monetary worth to natural resources [12], [13], [14]. These cultural and spiritual taboos vary with respect to tribe as well as the extent that AI/AN people engage traditional practices. The overall goal of this research is to investigate if cultural and spiritual taboos constrain recruitment and/or retention of AI/AN people in STEM. The investigation presented here is part of a larger study that seeks to answer two research questions pertaining to AI/AN students and professionals in STEM: (1) What ethical issues do AI/AN students and professionals in STEM fields experience, and how do they navigate these issues? (2) Do ethical issues impede AI/AN students from pursuing STEM careers, and if so, how? This paper reports the results specifically for AI/AN students and professionals in engineering degree programs and professions.