The culture cycle reveals that individuals are both a product of and play an important role in creating and adapting to the cultures they inhabit. For many Indigenous students, the culture of educational institutions in the U.S., reflect a set of ideas and practices about what it means to be a "good" student, the purpose of education, and the nature of the relationship between teachers and students that are experienced as a cultural mismatch between their model of self and the model prevalent in mainstream educational contexts. The first set of studies empirically tests these cultural mismatches, whereas the second set of studies builds on the strengths of Indigenous students to alleviate these mismatches and to positively influence motivation and academic performance.