Survey
In our survey we asked participants seven questions to which they anonymously responded. The questions asked included:
Some key findings from the survey demonstrated people’s beliefs and thoughts about the dominant narrative that Columbus discovered America, as we all attitudes towards updating school curriculum to reflect Native’s history as well.
- Who do you believe discovered America?
- At what level of education were you first taught about the discovery of America?
- What did your school teach you about the discovery of America? (Who was here first, were Pilgrims peaceful with Native Americans, etc)
- Have you ever heard Native Americans referred to as "savages" in history?
- Do you think the dominant narrative that Christopher Columbus discovered America is a harmful message? If yes, why? If no, why?
- Would you support updating current school curriculum to teach students about the genocide of Native Americans when European colonists arrived in America?
- Schools are responsible for teaching students about the counter narrative that Native Americans discovered America first and had their land stolen.
Some key findings from the survey demonstrated people’s beliefs and thoughts about the dominant narrative that Columbus discovered America, as we all attitudes towards updating school curriculum to reflect Native’s history as well.
This particular response was interesting because an option to the question included “other” where participants could write in their own response. Someone utilized this option and wrote in that “early humans” discovered America. When we go forward in gathering data, we should perhaps keep in mind what the term ‘Native Americans’ means and if it is appropriate to use here. That is, since we are addressing the discovery of America and what the country was before colonizers stole it, would the people originally here be considered “Americans,”? Or would that also subtract from their origins and own history. We will consider these thoughts going forward.
This result from the survey shows that 100% of the participants support updating school curriculum to teach students about the genocide of Native Americans when European colonists arrived in America. So even if their opinions on who discovered America differed, they all supported updating the school curriculum which is an objective our group is looking into.
This result showed that 83.3% of participants strongly agree that schools are responsible for teaching students about the counter narrative that Native Americans discovered America first and had their land stolen. This perhaps indicates that there would be more support in changing school curriculum to fit the needs and story of Natives.
The results of the two questions above were very interesting. In the First question it shows that most people that took that survey were taught using the dominant narrative. They were all initially educated to believe that the discovery of the Americas and the relationship between European settlers and Native Americans was a peaceful one. Though, when asked if dominate narrative was harmful all of the people said it was and that the education on the subject needs to changed to reflect how the events in history actually unfolded.