Characteristics of collaborative community college and tribal partnerships: a qualitative study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the characteristics of successful partnerships designed to contribute to student success at Native American-Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTIs) in New Mexico. This study examined the organizational factors that participants believe help the partnerships succeed in providing services to Native American students. Overall, this study was designed to uncover common themes and patterns across successful community college and tribal partnerships. This study employed a generic qualitative design to explore partnerships among three community colleges and the three Native American tribes they serve. Generic qualitative inquiry investigates people’s reports of their subjective opinions, attitudes, beliefs, or reflections on their experiences, of things in the outer world. It can be selected as the methodological approach when the researcher has a body of pre-knowledge/pre-understandings (categories or subcategories of information) about the topic that he or she wants to more fully describe from the participants’ perspective (Percy et al., 2015, p. 78). The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with key individuals from each community college and tribe in the identified partnerships and analyzed the data using the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) theoretical framework and the Eight I’s conceptual lens outlined by Kanter (1994). This study provides data for community college and tribal partnerships by documenting best practices in Native American student success.