Tabitha Stickel, Ph.D., a post-doctoral fellow working with the Adult Literacy Research Center, wrote an Inside IES Research blog post about her work at a southwestern community college with the Diné (Navajo), the Hopi and the Ndee (Western Apache). Her dissertation examined Native American students’ experiences in an adult basic and vocational education classroom and their sense of belonging in educational spaces.
She describes her students as dedicated learners. “I had students without electricity at home who used their cell phones to access class materials, one of many such examples of the digital divide in rural areas,” she said. “I had a student who made burritos each week and sold them to raise money for a desk for her schoolwork.”