Intimately Biased: Creating Purposeful Research in American Indian Education with Appropriate and Authentic Methodology

Abstract

Western scholarship about Native peoples continues to dominate published works, academic departments, and projects directed from within universities and research institutions across the United States. It is clear that Western scholars have a defined purpose and research agenda. But the articulated purposes are distinct from what contemporary Native researchers and communities are proposing. I argue in this chapter that (1) all research is purposeful, and (2) purposeful research in American Indian education must be matched with appropriate and authentic research methodologies that respond uniquely to Native-defined purposes and needs.