Native American tribal governments and public educators in UT, AZ and NM have developed a new creative and accelerated means to propel forward a broad spectrum of much-needed Information Technology (IT) education and training. Their goal is to benefit adult citizenry and K-16 student populations to meet escalating college preparatory and regional/tribal workforce demands for 21st century digital job-ready IT skills. Utah Valley University (UVU), led by a team of experienced student success researchers, mentors and Native American K-12 educational specialists, have joined with global IT industry certification and training leaders to create an innovative, research-based cyber learning environment capable of realistically meeting the specific educational challenges faced by the traditionally underserved Native American communities and individuals with a 2 year integrated research and leaning project. The Native American Regional IT Industry Workforce Development Project (NA-CIT) builds upon best practices and lessons learned from a previous 2008-10 CI-TEAM demonstration project in order to accomplish its major objectives. This multi-state program, managed across institutions and a broad range of IT disciplines, deploys a synergized, culturally-relevant online delivery (Web 2.0) methodology coupled with stringent process assessment and mentored support mechanisms to maximize participant learningsuccess rates and outcomes.
A classroom and CI (hardware/software) were previously in place at the three primary training hubs: Central/Southeast Utah, Holbrook, AZ and Window Rock/Ft. Defiance on the Navajo Nation. Accomplishment of the objectives of this project portends to have far- reaching effect toward making cyber-technology more accessible to the Native American youth and young adults (age 12-50) and in opening doors for them to contribute directly to society as scientists, engineers, educators, and community leaders. NA-CIT is training between 400-500 participants over a 24 month project period.
The proposed demonstration project is: (1) Organizing and implementing a synergistic CI enabled instructional delivery support system (high-tech) with local counselors, mentors and teachers (high-touch) and students at 3 regional locations both via the internet and within technology-assisted classroom, teacher-led and peer-mentor supported environments, and (2) Assessing and evaluating the effectiveness of the above described synergistic approach in bringing the participants to a high level average validated competency within a broad spectrum of workplace ready skill-sets (from basic computer fundamentals to higher orders of competency in web-design, network administration/support and programming e.g. - MS.Net and Linux.Net). All programs are implemented with a view to extending a similar approach to possible future full degree level programs in the IT field, and to making this comprehensive learning system scalable and replicable to other Indigenous educational environments.
Broader Impacts: This implementation project will provide a model for the scientific, engineering, and technology education of many indigenous, rural, and other minority populations throughout the world that do not have easy access to learning in these fields. Because all of the instruction and proposed coursework has a sound integrated design, a positive experience with this select population will have broad implications for similarly deployed online and/or mentored classroom IT educational environments. The probability of the success of this project is enhanced by the groundwork and physical cyber-infrastructure work that is already in place and by the cooperative efforts with companies and educational experts who have already accomplished a great deal in the technical education of the students within this demographic.
Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit of this project is not so much in the development of the individual components as it is in the combining of all the components to provide an immersive learning environment with learning activities, student tracking, hands-on mentoring and assessment practices that will engages and motivates the students in the course to reach a high level of competency in the subject matter area at the completion of the coursework. The infusion of CI-enabled environments and curricula with strategies based on a Native American philosophical and cosmological paradigm that influences the way Native Americans think and learn is based on current educational research and adds to the complexity and merit of the project.
Title: Developing the IT and College Readiness Skills of Native Americans In an NSF-sponsored project, educational psychologists at the Utah Valley University working with members of the Native American community have developed techniques to recruit members of this historically underserved group and to encourage them through mentoring to achieve their training and development goals. Since the inception of the project on 10/1/10, we have enrolled over 2200 people. Almost 1700 people have reached milestones in training with 927 achieving "high stakes" IT certifications and another 892 earning certificates generated by the training software in recognition of demonstrated expertise. Of those achieving "high stakes" certifications, 663 received entry level IT certifications with 381 completing all three sections of the entry level IT certificate protocol. Another 264 achieved an advanced IT or QuickBooks certification. One hundred and seventy six of the "high stakes" certifications were achieved during the extension period. These numbers compare favorably with the goals we set when we wrote the grant and projected that we would certify 450 people with 80% of those achieving basic certifications. A secondary goal was to change the perception of the Native Americans about our institution and increase enrollment and retention. We accomplished that by developing curricula and programming that demonstrated that Native American culture and tradition are valued. During the period of the grant, the Native American student population increased 56% to 512. Year to year retention for this group increased from below 50% to 64%, about the same as the entire student body. The results are significant because Native American students are the most likely racial/ethnic group tracked in post-secondary American education to be affected by poverty and limited access to educational opportunities. In addition, they are the most likely to be required to take remedial course work and are the least likely to graduate from college. A major challenge to be overcome in accomplishing educational objectives with Native Americans is overcoming cultural incongruity (Mosholder and Goslin, in press). Until the late 1960s, assimilation of Native Americans was both the stated objective of the United States government and the assumed goal of the education establishment. Native language use and the practice of Native traditions were seen as impediments to economic development. Hence, mainstream education has been seen as the enemy by many Native American groups and they are often resistant to programs that are developed for them as opposed to with them. In addition, indigenous cultures are typically collectivist, with holistic rather than individual goals, and have world views that militate towards conservation rather than exploitation. We are guided in our work by the framework of culturally responsive pedagogy and thus assume that improving the relationship of the Native American community external to UVU will positively impact recruitment and persistence of Native American students inside the University. Free IT training and mentoring by students inside the institution serves to improve this relationship and to improve overall economic conditions. Thus, among the major activities of the grant are the development of networks characterized by cultural acceptance, social currency, and individuals willing to engage and the development of engaging curricula and mentoring processes with valued outcomes delivered within mentored learning communities. In order to obtain the resources and community connections necessary to accomplish the grant goals, we have worked with Native American student researchers to create partnerships with the Navajo Nation, the Piute Tribe, the Holbrook, Arizona school district and the software training and certification companies Certiport and Certification Partners. We have since added learning community partners in Blanding, Utah, Prescott, Window Rock and Chinle, Arizona, and Fresno California. In addition, grant funds have been used to demonstrate that UVU honors Native American traditions and values. We have developed a Native American student mentoring program and have identified and sponsored actives that celebrate Native American culture. A major breakthrough has been the development of a Program called the Champions program where mentors/coordinators (Champions) receive a stipend when their mentees (Dreamers) accomplish a prescribed level of training and/or certification. Our short term outcomes include increased understanding of the issues related to the disconnect between Native Americans and traditional Anglo-American education and new data and knowledge towards improving Native American STEM education including methods and materials used, presentations and publications. Our long term outcomes include enhanced Native American student learning and performance, improved Native American student achievement¸ and improved economic conditions in Native American communities Reference: Mosholder, R. and Goslin, C. (2013), Native American College Student Persistence, Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 15(3), 305-327.
