The project uses a cross-sectional and comparative research design and will generate evidence that is descriptive [design research, ethnography, observational], associative/correlational [quasi-experimental], and causal [experimental, quasi-experimental, cultural comparisons]. Original data will be collected on children attending Headstart programs on the Menominee reservation and children attending a preschool playroom at the AIC for the purpose of comparing Native American children and adults to non-Native children and adults. Data collection methods include observation [videography] and survey research [self-completion questionnaire, structured interviewer-administered questionnaire], with coding of discourse, gesture and measures of attention using NVIVO, video in a constrained play context sorting tasks, picture description and recall, probes for ecological reasoning, perspective taking and hypothesis generation and other science-related practices.
We use mixed methods and the analyses will vary across studies. For some types of data we will use cultural consensus modeling, for other standard statistical analysis such as analysis of variance and regression. Coding and establishing inter-rater reliability are key aspects of our observational studies.
