Identity Development and Educational Perspectives: The Indigenous Education Youth Collective

The Indigenous Education Youth Collective brings together native youth, community members, and researchers to promote identity development, community engagement, and educational imaginings to address chronic issues with college access and well-being among native youth. Grounded in Indigenous methodologies and frameworks, our findings suggest culturally relevant programming supports participants' native identity exploration, and in turn, how participants view educational spaces and their own educational pathways. Connecting native identity with college imaginings for middle- and high-school students early in their postsecondary planning may be particularly impactful. We offer additional implications for education policy and practice and for future research leveraging Indigenous approaches in collaboration with native communities.