Covid-19, Stress Factors of Native American and Caucasian College Students, and Implementing Classroom Dialogues

Abstract

This article explores issues associated with the academic and greater health, relational, and financial stressors of rural, low socioeconomic status (SES), Native American college students, compared with those of regional Caucasians, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Additionally, the study considers concerns about both populations' low proclivity within the classroom for discussing students' individual and group identities, as well as their pandemic stressors and experiences, in order to seek community and provide mutual assistance regarding their academic and larger needs. Further, the study offers faculty important dialogical strategies for reaching their Native, rural, or similarly marginalized ethnic/racial minority, geographically disadvantaged, and/or low SES students during stressful periods of difficulty and epic proportion, such as the current pandemic. Utilizing an exploratory case-study design with a mixed-methods approach and a convergent-parallel strategy, the study involves 114 Native and 114 Caucasian students from a U.S. university. During the pandemic, both Native and Caucasian students surveyed reported stress levels in 12 areas affecting their educational, health, relational, and economic outcomes. As an issue, overall, Native students were affected more adversely than Caucasians by the pandemic, but both populations, suffering from stressors, might have benefited or profited more from sharing and processing their experiences within a classroom setting, if desired, and if such a forum had been made available. Nonetheless, in turn, another conflict arose as many students were also reluctant to cover the pandemic, including its effects on themselves; were fatigued of the subject; and thought their beliefs would be seen as insignificant. Accordingly, this article calls upon teachers to engage in greater efforts to support peripheralized students during perilous and monumental times, such as the current pandemic, by implementing a classroom dialogue and curriculum supporting students' academic, personal, and larger identities and needs as students wished to share them.