[quote=Beckee]
I wonder what "indigenous students" means. Is there any evidence that having white teachers is the cause of any group's undperformance?
At one school where I taught in Hawaii, 3/4 of the kids had some Native American ancestry. Any other ethnic group were potentially interlopers, though ethnic groups like the Portuguese, Filipinos, or Japanese were more accepted, since their ancestors had labored in the sugar cane plantations and had some history in the islands beyond Voltaire's description:
"History contains little beyond a long list of those who have accommodated themselves with the property of others."
But indigenous would also include the First Nations who were in North America before the Europeans arrived and started planting flags all over the place.
One of the major problems in getting native students--even gifted students--to achieve academically is that education tends to contain some heavy value judgments and other content that make it seem like you have to assimilate to succeed. Many indigenous people do not want to assimilate to the ways of invaders.
http://honoluluweekly.com/cover/2006/10/break-point/Some of us gifted heirs of invaders do not particularly want to assimilate, either.
