An analysis of administrators' attitudes in Bureau of Indian Affairs schools toward the community education concept

Abstract

The American Indian suffers from numerous social and economic ills. In an attempt to alleviate some of these ills the federal government recently proposed a $40-million-a-year training program to develop the reservations by means of the Indian's own self-determination. Community Education is the process by which people in a community acquire knowledge and skills beyond the formal years of learning by utilizing the public school buildings and facilities as a community learning center. The purpose of this study was to determine if administrators and some teachers in the nation's Bureau of Indian Affairs schools favored the inclusion of community education into Bureau schools. A 34-item questionnaire was developed using basic concepts of community education and three items related to the inclusion of Indian culture, history, and teachers in the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. The questionnaire was sent to 391 Bureau of Indian Affairs administrators and teachers in the United States. This included a group of 29 Indian community education authorities. Two-hundred forty-nine, or 63 percent, of the respondents returned the form. The data was tabulated and analyzed for statistical significance using the IBM 365 computer at Texas A&M University. Results showed that no differences in opinion toward the community education concept existed between the various levels of administration in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There was no significant difference in attitudes toward community education between the 29 authorities in Indian community education and Indian school administrators. A significant difference in opinion was found to exist between top level Bureau of Indian Affairs administrators and Bureau teachers. The teachers' opinions toward community education was significantly different than those of the 29 authorities in Indian community education. Many significant correlations were found to exist between attitudes on community education, use of Indian language, culture, teachers, administrators, and the total scores of the three subscales of the questionnaire...