| Wade Cole
Stanford University
Legitimating difference: Minority-serving colleges and the institutionalization of culture
Using original data coded from course catalogs issued by a sample of tribal, historically black, and "mainstream" colleges and universities between 1977 and 2002, I examine the representation of American Indian and African American cultures in postsecondary curricula. Negative binomial regression analyses of these curricular data, supplemented by variables from Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Surveys (IPEDS), indicate that tribal colleges are much more likely to offer courses with minority cultural content than are black colleges or mainstream institutions. Moreover, descriptive analyses reveal that tribal colleges distribute cultural content much more broadly across fields of study -- including, surprisingly, the natural sciences -- than historically black colleges do. I attribute these findings to the exceptional quasi-sovereign legal status of Indian tribes: tribes, like other sovereigns, are invested with the authority to define what counts as legitimate knowledge. Minority groups without claims to sovereignty, such as African Americans, are less successful at tailoring mainstream curricular frameworks to their unique political or cultural agendas. I also find, however, that privately-controlled black colleges incorporate culture into the curriculum at rates higher than public black colleges and mainstream schools, but lower than tribal colleges. My study suggests that policymakers should bear these differences in mind when developing initiatives for minority-serving higher education. A number of studies conclude that students perform better in school when curricula resonate with their cultural worldviews or "habitus." Historically black colleges, especially those under public administration, may require special attention to implement culturally-relevant curricula.
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