The Native Ways of Knowing Science Teacher Training Project will establish a fully accredited baccalaureate degree program in secondary science teacher education at Turtle Mountain Community College. This program will be designed to train science teachers that will serve reservation and near reservation schools with significant percentages of American Indian students. The project has a number of elements. These include a standards based component that will prepare students for certification in North Dakota and to meet national standards; the development and implementation of Native Ways of Knowing, place based, and experiential curriculum strategies; recruitment into the program; a strong educational technology component; a job placement component; and a distance learning component.
POR Native Ways of Knowing #0503598 Native Ways of Knowing (NWOK) is a secondary science teacher education program at Turtle Mountain Community College (TMCC), Belcourt, ND, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant, originally written as a five year program (2005-2010) was extended an additional year, officially closing in July 2011. TMCC is a tribal college that is one of nine tribal institutions that provides Native American college students an opportunity to earn a Bachelor’s degree in education while remaining on their home reservation. High school science teachers are in critical shortage in ND and nationally. In some instances, students on reservations have completed their entire high school science education via correspondence. The Native Ways of Knowing project has been successful in training and placing science teachers on three ND reservations (Ft. Berthold, Ft. Totten, and Turtle Mountain). Further, the future for secondary science teacher education looks promising for TMCC as there are students who are in student teaching (n=5) and in coursework (n=3) after the closing of the grant. The development of the Native Ways project required purposeful engagement with local secondary school administrators and faculty in order to assure that the needs of the community were being addressed in the training of secondary science teachers. Consequently, research into the integration of a culturally responsive philosophy of instruction was carried out and implemented in the NWOK curriculum. Graduates from the NWOK program are highly qualified to teach four subject areas: Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Earth Science. The license conferred by the North Dakota Standards and Practices Board covers grades 7-12 in these core disciplines. Throughout the history of the NWOK grant students were encouraged and supported in undergraduate research opportunities that spanned the following subject areas: Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in neuroscience-research at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks; Water Quality Management inquiry at Wolf Creek, MT, in cooperation with Ft. Peck Community College; Radon research (testing homes on the Turtle Mountain Reservation) funded by NASA; Turtle Mountain Reservation leech survey and study of leech abnormal eye patterns under the direction of TMCC biologist Dr. Deborah Hunter; NASA Summer REU in Geospatial Technology and Climate Change; Genetics and Pre-eclampsia study funded by NIH IDeA Network of Biomedical Research directed by Dr. Lyle Best. While not a complete list, these examples describe the diversity of research opportunities offered to Native American students at Turtle Mountain Community College. In each of these research labs, secondary science students have been introduced to the realm of scientific inquiry and discovery through the active mentorship of an experienced science researcher. Relevant data describing the impact of student research upon ultimate student success in degree attainment at TMCC are as follows: 17 students participated in undergraduate research projects while supported by NWOK. Of those 17 students, 11 have gone on to graduate with their Bachelor’s degree in secondary science teacher education (one degree conferred posthumously), four more will receive their BS degree in December 2011. These data translate to an 88% completion rate for students involved in undergraduate research. There are 11 mainstream institutions of higher education within the North Dakota University System. North Dakota is also home to five tribal colleges (Turtle Mountain Community College, Ft. Berthold Community College, Candeska Cikana Community College, United Tribes Technical College, and Sitting Bull College). During the tenure of this grant TMCC has graduated more secondary science composite degree earners than any other institution of higher education in North Dakota (n=10). In many cases graduates of the Native Ways of Knowing project voiced that had the opportunity to pursue a Bachelor’s degree not existed in their Native community it was very unlikely that they would have been able to accomplish their career goal. The essence of the tribal college stems from strongly held cultural values which recognize the importance of family and relationships to the survival of the community. A common denominator among tribal colleges across Indian Country is a defined partnership between academic and sponsored programs. Support actualized by tribal colleges through private or federal means enables competent, dedicated staff and faculty to pursue academic curricula that further benefit the unique Native community served by the college. Teacher education is an excellent example of such a support program. TMCC has been a leader in the development of teacher education within the tribal college system, and was the first tribal college to offer a Bachelor’s degree in secondary science. The two most important features of this degree are the higher level of academic dedication required of those students in the program and the unique training that encompasses the Native perspective to scientific knowledge as well as the Euro-centered Western perspective of science. The melding of these two pedagogical styles leads to a deeper teacher-student relationship that embodies culturally responsive instruction.
