Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
New Beginnings for Wabanaki Students seeks to increase Wabanaki student participation and success in FANH and Education fields through proven, culturally appropriate pedagogies and mentoring activities.With a focus on linking Wabanaki students to educational resources and knowledge in the Wabanaki communities and at the Wabanaki Center at the University of Maine (Orono) and the University of Maine-Presque Isle, professional staff will facilitate Wabanaki student participation in recruitment and retention activities that emphasize the ongoing application of Wabanaki knowledge traditions.Ten (10) Kinep FANH and Education Ambassadors per year over three years will form the core of retention and success efforts across all Wabanaki students at the University of Maine and the University of Maine-Presque Isle.An Indigenous Wabanaki educational and non-profit, the Land Peace Foundation, will serve as collaborator on the overall grant activities, and will provide a full-time staff person for the program as part of this grant.Another Native American education non-profit, the Wabanaki Youth in Science (WaYS) Program, will coordinate and support community-based education programs to assist the Kinep Ambassadors and overall recruitment and retention efforts. Our methodology for achieving greater Native American student success is two-fold, is based on our own and other scholarship, and reflects an innovative approach: 1) A mentorship program that connects Native students to both community and university support systems and, 2) Inclusion of Wabanaki Indigenous science (IS) within a University of Maine-Presque Isle science education class.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
50%
Applied
50%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
Methodology and Program: Proposed Approach and Cooperative LinkagesOur Goals are focus on two Objectives:1) A mentorship program that connects Native students to both community and university support systems and, 2) Inclusion of Wabanaki Indigenous science (IS) within the University of Maine-Presque Isle science education class.A.Mentorship ProgramStevens et al., (2016) found that mentoring has a critical positive effect on Native American student success.Our mentoring model should be viewed as a 'peer' mentoring model in that both mentor (college student) and mentee (other college student or younger student) are learning together. Our NBTS mentoring program focuses on the establishment of a program we now call Kinap Mentors. Kinap Mentor relationships and engagement activities are at the center of our program. Each Mentor is responsible for participating in both on and off-campus programs aimed at bringing together Wabanaki cultural values, Indigenous ways of knowing, and western education--the central values of the WaYS program.Since the fall of 2021, the UMM Kinap Mentor program has engaged Wabanaki Cultural Knowledge Sharers to speak and visit campus or provide workshops. A sample of events are:?Donald Soctomah, author, filmmaker and Passamaquoddy Tribal Historic Preservation Officer - campus visit and field trip to Wabanaki petroglyphs on Machias Bay with Mentors and local high schoolers?Lisa Sockabasin, Co-Director of Wabanaki Public Health & Wellness - campus speaking visit?Osihkiyol "Zeke" Crofton-Macdonald, Tribal Ambassador for the Houlton Band of Maliseets in Maine and the Oromocto First Nation in New Brunswick Canada - campus speaking visit?Morgan Talty, citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation and author of award-winningNight of the Living Rez -reading from his novel and Q&A discussion with studentsIn our initial plan, we intended to launch the Kinap Mentor program simultaneously at both the University of Maine in Orono (UMaine) as well as at the University of Maine-Machias (UMM). However, the slow return to in-person gathering -- especially in tribal communities -- led us to focus on UMM during the first award period.Piloting the mentor program at UMM first served our team well--especially with reaching a remote academic community in an impoverished part of the state (Washington County). We have gained a sense of the capacity of student involvement in extracurricular activities and the types of activities that truly serve many Native youth in college. Students asked for outside and exploratory experiences, young speakers, and de-stressing activities.Furthering our work to engage across the state of Maine, especially to underserved locations and communities, we will now bring our lessons learned to the University of Maine at Presque Isle and by incorporating a deeper approach to Indigenous Knowledge systems and mentoring by partnering with the Land Peace Foundation,a multi-generational group of Indigenous leaders, community organizers, culture and language-keepers, educators and scholars, scientists, activists, artists, social services providers, attorneys, judges, and traditional spiritual elders.By including LPF as a partner with funding for a full-time position, we will be able to fulfill our promise for our first NBTS grant, and bring the Kinap program to UMaine, Orono.UMaine is the flagship campus for the University of Maine System, with approximately 145 Native students (University of Maine, 2024) will have a great number of Native students to engage in the mentor program. Kinap mentors there will have the opportunity to receive mentoring from a far larger pool of Native American undergraduate and graduate students involved in WaYS research projects and professional development activities. These activities will include roundtables and presentations with students and faculty involved in research projects that are positively impacting tribal communities across the state.In Orono, Mentor engagement will be enriched by a strong cohort of Native American graduate students already doing community-based research in the fields of Anthropology, Education, Social Work, Forestry, and Environmental Sciences. It will also be enriched by connection with LPF's Wabanaki Leadership Institute and Fellows, who meet regularly at the UMaine campus in Orono.Being exposed to the potential for such collaborations will guide the Mentors as they bring their educational experiences back to their own Native communities.In addition to participating in on and off-campus mentoring activities, Kinap Mentors will be required to meet with the new full-time position at LPF for life-coaching sessions every other week. In exchange for their participation in these programs, Mentors receive a small stipend of $2500/year, based on three on and three off campus activities a semester in addition to the life coaching and mentoring activities of 4 hours a month. Critical to the program success so far is the fact that staff position (now located with our Indigenous partner, the Land Peace Foundation) meets at least 10 hours a week at the University of Maine-Machias campus or in outreach with Mentors. This position will now share time at our remote Presque Isle location and our flagship in Orono.This design serves to integrate our Kinap mentors even more deeply with educational and community-based supports.B.UMaine-Presque Isle Science Education ClassRecent research at the University of Maine (carr, 2019) reinforces the idea that inclusion of Cultural Science (CS) within postsecondary education enhances learning for Native and non-Native students. That research utilized the WaYS model by including a Cultural Knowledge Keeper (CKK) to co-teach with a faculty member at the University of Maine, Orono. Findings from this research show that the more the CKK was involved with the co-teaching, framing of the curriculum, and participation in the course, there was increased learning on the part of Native and non-Native students. This successful method will be replicated at the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI). We have chosen to focus on the inclusion of CS and values in an Education class at the UMPI. The class would be EDU 328 - Environmental Literacy. We have chosen this for several reasons. This class aligns with the co-curricular teaching of CS and WS because the goal of this course is to provide students with strategies to teach others how to become environmentally literate citizens. Environmental Literacy helps students act successfully in their daily lives with a broad understanding of how people and societies relate to each other and to natural systems, and how they might do so sustainably. Environmental literacy is fundamental to pursuits across FANH fields. It strives to provide students with the scientific principles, concepts and methodologies required to understand the interrelationships of humans to the natural world. This will be strengthened with the addition of CS and a co-curricular approach. The course encourages outdoor learning and is appropriate for pre-service teachers as well as students interested in educating the public on environmental as well as biological and ecological issues. The addition of CKKs and CS will improve outcomes for students both Native and non-Native. We will focus recruitment for this class on Maliseet and Mi'kmaq Tribal citizens who have either lapsed in their education degrees (N=14) or are currently working towards their degree in Education at UMPI (N=5). Our research at the University of Maine shows that just one class that incorporates CS and values can greatly impact both the "interest in degree completion" and "plans for career in tribal community." This is particularly salient for the two tribes in Aroostook County, the Maliseet, and Mi'kmaq, who do not have their own reservation-based schools.
Project Methods
Innovation and InclusivenessIncorporation of Indigenous Science (IS) or cultural science and cultural values into postsecondary curriculum can increase the participation of Native American students and lead to greater educational achievement and career development. This is supported by Kimmerer (2002) and others in that "traditional ecological knowledge integrates scientific and cultural concerns in a holistic manner" (p.435). Recognition of IS and cultural values associated with IS increases opportunities for productive partnerships between western educators and Indigenous people. There are several avenues with which to increase Wabanaki educational success that include strengthening university sense of community, learning outside of the traditional classroom, and incorporating a Funds of Knowledge approach.A.University CommunityA factor related to Native American postsecondary success is the connection students have with the university community. Guillory & Wolverton 's (2008) research reinforced that a sense of community for Native students, and a strong academic program from the perspective of the faculty, helped persistence in postsecondary education. Bell (2012), in her study of Native students in Maine, noted that the first-year of college was critical in Native American retention. One important aspect to aid retention the first year was a "structured first-year program that offered developmental/remedial courses." This includes "both developmental and a prescriptive academic advising session" to assist the transitional period and monitoring Native students.B.Learning Outside of the ClassroomThe WaYS program provides Indigenous science and western science opportunities needed to further the success of Native American students. Mainstream students also benefit from an Indigenous-Inclusive approach in postsecondary education (carr, 2019). Educating all college students in an inclusive, interdisciplinary manner may ultimately help shift the perspective of the dominant ideology. The idea that all would benefit from a shift in the academic educational paradigm that is more inclusive of diverse cultures is supported by a host of scientific evidence cited prior. Holoien (2013) points out that "greater diversity-related experiences are associated with positive learning outcomes for whites and people of color alike" (P. 7).WaYS provides the means to enhance science education persistence in its role of educating outside of the traditional four walls of a classroom, be it postsecondary or K-12. The opportunity to learn outside is an important contribution WaYS provides to keep students engaged. According to Stevens et al. (2016), out-of-school experiences are especially important for students who may be discouraged by school science or those who feel less skilled or have self-defined themselves as not interested in science. Often, these students are females and/or are from minority communities (Bouillion and Gomez 2001,P. 949).C.Funds of Knowledge FrameworkResearch reinforces the concept of weaving IS and values with Western Science (WS) for Native student success (Armstrong, Kimmerer, & Vergun, 2007; Bartlett, Marshall, & Marshall, 2012b; Gibson & Puniwai, 2006; Hatcher et al., 2009; Kimmerer, 2002, 2012, 2013; Marshall, Peterson, Coverdale, Etzel, & McFarland, 2014; Snively & Williams, 2008). Findings indicate that "(e)laborating on the significance of local context and geography to Native students' academic success, scholars call for embracing ways in which Native worldviews coexist with Western paradigms with regard to the interconnections among peoples and with nature" (Deloria and Wildcat 2001; Jacobs and Reyhner 2002). An additional framework that supports this and further integrates Indigenous ways of knowing is Funds of Knowledge (FK).FK theory is "that every individual is a competent, knowledgeable person with their own experiences that can be a basis for productive future learning" (Mosholder et al., 2016). This includes developing a relationship with community members as mentors for the student and the teachers. It asks teachers to become a part of the community and create a community atmosphere in the classroom that will integrate a pedagogy beyond the Eurocentric environment. Through the inclusion of mentoring relationships and out-of-school activities within the FK framework, a supportive link between traditionally marginalized funds of knowledge and academic funds of knowledge is made--contributing to the understanding how science learning involves learning to negotiate multiple texts, discourses, and knowledge (Calabrese Barton and Tan 2009).