Creating a Landscape for Learning: Connecting Teaching and Learning at Northwest Indian College
Background: The NWIC Teaching and Learning Committee has written a chapter about the Teaching and Learning Initiative at NWIC. This chapter has been submitted for publication in an upcoming book entitled, “Where Difference is the Norm: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the Margins.”
Click here to download a pdf version of the chapter
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Creating a Landscape for Learning: Connecting Teaching and Learning at Northwest Indian College
by Cheryl Crazy Bull, Ted Williams, Brian D. Compton with contributions from Bernice Portervint, Jason Myers and Alex Prue, Sr.
“You can teach them to pull canoe or you can teach them to want to pull canoe.”- Willie Jones, Sr., Native Studies faculty and one of the founders of Northwest Indian College. A long-time canoe skipper, Willie often shares how he learned leadership and teaching through canoe pulling.
Northwest Indian College (NWIC) is a tribally chartered post-secondary institution primarily serving students from throughout the Pacific Northwest. In recent years the College faculty, administration and students have focused resources and instructional efforts on the institutionalization of a transformative teaching and learning experience for the College community. The theory behind this focus is that the improvement of faculty skills in the areas of cultural content, teaching methodologies, and content knowledge positively impacts student learning. This learning occurs in the context of the unique tribal experiences of our students and in response to the at-risk socio-economic environment from which most students come.
Over the last several years, NWIC has accessed various intellectual capacity building resources focused on the improvement of student education, interventions with cohorts of students identified as needing support, and faculty development, particularly in the areas of cultural knowledge and teaching methodologies. These resources target programming for first generation and first year students, developmental education improvements, cultural integration strategies, writing across the curriculum, distance education instructional practices, professional development in content areas and advanced education for Native faculty.
At the center of this effort is the mission of NWIC: Through education, Northwest Indian College promotes indigenous self-determination and knowledge. As a tribal college, NWIC concentrates on the creation of place-based, dynamic and academically excellent education that derives from community and individual interests and needs and which promotes the identity and value of tribal cultures and ways of knowing. Because of our large regional service area and the fact that we have students from all over North America attending our institution, we must be particularly sensitive to the diverse tribal constituencies served by our institution while supporting the priorities of our chartering tribe – the Lummi Nation. We have to promote Native education that supports each individual person’s identity while remaining committed to the life ways of each tribe. Each NWIC extended campus site focuses on its particular tribal constituency and we are especially committed to professional improvements at our main campus on the Lummi Nation where the majority of full time faculty and instructional resources reside, with resources allocated to site-based faculty where appropriate.
Throughout the process discussed in this chapter, we have sought images and tactile experiences to describe both the foundational values and the performance outcomes associated with our Teaching and Learning Initiative. One of the most descriptive images that emerged is of a kaleidoscope which was created by faculty and administrators during a work session to visually express the NWIC teaching and learning philosophy. Starting from the kaleidoscope the image evolves into a canoe with its canoe pullers representative of the journey that we are on toward improved access and increasingly culture-based education. It is a Native journey that we are all on together. The kaleidoscope is a contemporary image that merges into the dominant tribal images of the woven blanket and canoe reflective of the traditions and practices of the Coast Salish people and other tribal nations served by NWIC.
(click on image to view larger)
Most significant in the image are the diversity of shapes, the Native representations contained in each shape, and the fact that all parts are in relationship such that in a kaleidoscope the merest touch shifts the entire image while each part remains intact. What NWIC is doing with our Teaching and Learning Initiative is an assortment of “touches” ranging from the slightest shift in instructional knowledge to dramatic shifts in teaching practices. The values of diversity, culture, relationships and dynamic change are foundational and weave their way into the fabric that is the teaching and learning environment at NWIC. The images in the kaleidoscope of Grandfather’s Messenger (designed in celebration of NWIC’s 25th anniversary by Semiahmoo artist, Stan Greene), the College’s eagle logo, the NWIC Foundation’s mortarboard logo, and embracing our homes, families and traditions all reflect what students and the College brings to this educational journey.
In many ways we are in the early stages of implementing the Teaching and Learning Initiative and it is therefore challenging to produce longitudinal performance data that directly attributes improvements in student learning to the Initiative. As discussed throughout this chapter, we have seen clear affective changes due to the Initiative. The Initiative is viewed as emergent and transformative as part of an overall institutional commitment to a tribal and place-based educational experience.
We are a community of learners at all levels of our institution. As a result, we frequently find overlapping and interdisciplinary interests across our system. This is the nature of NWIC as a learning organization and also the philosophy behind our Teaching and Learning Initiative and how we structure academic programs to promote student learning. Our commitment to community based participatory research on the institutional level, for example, reflects our action research practice in the instructional area. A commitment to understand and act from a Native research paradigm resulted in several faculty and administrators reading the work of the Opaskwayak Cree (Manitoba) scholar, Shawn Wilson, who in his book, Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods, used storytelling and relationship as a research methodology. Wilson tells the story of his life work as a Native researcher to his sons, weaving his story throughout his discussion of his life’s research describing an Indigenous research paradigm. In this chapter, we have adopted storytelling accompanied by description as our research methodology to explore the development of the Teaching and Learning Initiative at NWIC. Brian Compton, a faculty scholar at NWIC and a member of the Teaching and Learning Committee, shares the story of his growth and development as a faculty and the impact on student directed learning while the remaining authors, all members of the College’s Teaching and Learning Committee, share their perspectives on the evolution and strategies of NWIC’s Teaching and Learning Initiative. Throughout this chapter we will use italics when we enter into Brian’s story to help the reader distinguish between Brian’s story and the descriptive parts of the chapter.
Teaching and learning, respect for diversity and a placed-based perspective have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Both of my parents were educators. As a child I grew up directly across the street from and attended a laboratory school at a university that was formerly a teachers college. Beyond being the place of my first school experience, the university was the world of many of my earliest explorations. At school I was in constant contact with innovative teaching in a diverse student and teacher environment; outside of school I explored the grounds, arboretum, greenhouse, classrooms, labs and other buildings of the nearby campus.
One of the most profound memories I have from childhood was when my family spent a summer when I was four years old in Bellingham while my father, a high school biology teacher, studied plant ecology at Western Washington University. My memories of that time in the Pacific Northwest influenced me strongly as a child and as I grew up. After returning to our family home, I never forgot the draw of the Pacific Northwest. As an undergraduate in botany I was privileged to work with an advisor and mentor who opened my eyes to the relationships between people and plants from local and global perspectives. One year I accompanied him to Ecuador where we studied botany and other topics in the Galapagos Islands and up the mountains of mainland Ecuador where I met and learned from indigenous people of that place as well as learning about Ecuador’s colonial history. He also taught me a great deal about the experiences of oppressed people, given his own experiences of oppression having come from an immigrant Italian-American family. I remember him not only for instilling within me a passion for ethnobotany, but also for how he openly embraced opportunities to interact with students and others of very diverse backgrounds, many of whom experienced personal struggles in finding their own places within academia and the world at large. Through his influence and that of my parents, I eventually learned of the works of Paulo Freire and others who wrote about the educational experiences of oppressed people.
Upon completion of my master’s degree in botany I returned to the Pacific Northwest to pursue and complete a Ph.D. in Botany at the University of British Columbia studying the relationships between plants, Native peoples and their languages of the central coast region. After completing my doctorate, I continued to teach, conduct research and do other work within and for Native communities in Canada and the United States until 2002 when I was contacted by Northwest Indian College with an offer to teach. I have been at NWIC since that time teaching in a variety of content areas from biology to Native Studies and Native Education plus team-teaching interdisciplinary courses within the College’s First Year Experience program, which helped deepen my understanding about the interdisciplinary nature of teaching at a tribal college.
NWIC Context for this Initiative
Tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are institutions established for the purpose of providing culturally relevant, integrated, place-based education to Native students that supports their identity while simultaneously ensuring the acquisition of western skills necessary for today’s modern work and community life. The formal educational experiences of most Native students rarely emerge from a foundational experience of Native beliefs and practices. With the establishment of tribally controlled education institutions comes the opportunity to provide an education grounded in Native knowledge. This is a tremendous challenge because the very structure of higher education institutions, on an academic calendar year with prescribed course delivery and predetermined curricula, is foreign to the experiential, natural and adaptive learning environments traditionally used by Native people. TCUs have to be creative in their approach to learning so students can navigate these contradictory experiences.
Embedded in the experiences of the students, faculty and administration at NWIC is a long history of attempting to adapt western educational models to achieve an education that supports self-determination for Native individuals, tribal communities and tribal governments. These efforts have evolved over time with varying degrees of success and buy-in from the faculty. The current approach has been articulated in the Woksape Oyate (The People’s Wisdom) initiative. The Lilly Endowment funded this initiative through a gift to the American Indian College Fund which was then awarded to various tribal colleges for projects to support student learning, faculty development and intellectual capacity building. NWIC uses its project resources to support its Teaching and Learning Initiative. These and other resources over the past several years combine to focus on the improvement of the student educational achievement and success primarily through the improvement of faculty skills and through the coordination of strategies institution wide.
My commitment to a culturally- and place-based science pedagogy emerged out of my earlier family and academic experiences, work with Canadian First Nations in their traditional homelands, and the intention of supporting my students’ learning. I have tried many active learning techniques and struggled with the fact that so many of my students failed to become fully engaged with coursework and all too frequently would not complete their courses. Despite some setbacks, I felt that I was aiding at least some of my students in the development of their higher academic knowledge and skills. Some of the high points I recall over the years include several very collegial discussions with students about the metacognitive aspects of our academic and personal interactions.
During the summer of 2009 I attended the 29th International Conference on Critical Thinking. While attending the conference I became very aware of the dearth of Native perspectives and contexts in the discourse on critical thinking presented there. Following the conference I began to look elsewhere for Native manifestations of experiences linked to critical thinking. I found evidence of it presented by Native authors, e.g., in the works of Michael Yellow Bird (2005, pp. 9-29) and CHiXapkaid (Pavel) and Inglebret, (2007, pp. 93-109). Other authors addressed the concept of “Indian thinking,” describing it in relationship to uniquely Native perspectives, traditions and values, as well as the physical and metaphysical world (Blue Spruce & Thrasher, 2009; Fixico, 2003). While elsewhere not explicitly labeled as “critical thinking,” this concept is implicit and embodied in a multitude of other aspects of Native thought and discourse using comparable language. Further, it may reside within a broader cultural context and may be implicit within established cultural practices.
Reflection on my prior teaching experiences in light of the framework of the Teaching and Learning Initiative helped me to put my ideas about the informative and transformative powers of critical thinking, place-based education and student-centered active learning approaches into practice in my teaching. While all of these components had been part of my prior educational experiences, the Teaching and Learning Initiative helped me to focus on each of the components and see how they could come together in relation to each other. Most importantly, I became more reflective and intentional in how I could bring all of these elements in relationship and recognize and respond to them when they emerge spontaneously in my classes, as described by Crazy-Bull (2010). I also realized that since these are the same skills I want to engender in my students I could be more intentional in helping students develop them. To that end, the students I work with also sometimes engage in a collegial approach to deconstructing curriculum that serves to further assist me in redirecting my efforts in education. This can then lead to the mutual construction and evaluation of new knowledge where students bring their diverse knowledge and skills to the emergent creation of content that may support or even transcend the original intended content, expanding awareness and understanding of both the content in the process and the process itself. And, as other faculty have found and noted, the inclusion of Native scholarship alongside standard texts and other curricular offerings allows for more continuous critical exploration of ideas that can yield far more comprehensive understanding of multiple bodies of knowledge from multiple cultural perspectives.
Key components of the Teaching and Learning Initiative
There are seven components comprising the formal NWIC Teaching and Learning Initiative:
- Development of a Native-based teaching and learning philosophy,
- Articulation of best practices in Native-based teaching and learning in a Teaching and Learning Toolkit,
- Development of a comprehensive teaching and learning website,
- Training of full and part-time faculty in best practices and methodologies,
- Incorporation of best practices into all aspects of teaching and learning at NWIC, including cultural integration in the faculty evaluation process,
- Use of classroom-based action research projects designed, implemented and assessed by faculty, the result of which are shared among faculty and, in some cases, prepared for future publication,
- Use of data and evaluation to substantiate the development of the intellectual capacity of the faculty particularly focused on improvement of instructional practices, cultural and content knowledge and the impact on student learning.
These components are especially important in light of the fact that the majority of faculty at tribal colleges are not American Indian, generally have a range of exposure to Native communities ranging from little or no experience to having lived and worked in Native communities for years, and are usually hired for their content knowledge and not necessarily for their tribal experience.
Intellectual Capacity Building
One of the most significant challenges of the Teaching and Learning Initiative is describing the ways in which our efforts have increased the intellectual capacity of faculty which then results in the improvement of student learning. NWIC defines intellectual capacity that fosters student learning as the ability of the faculty, as well as students, staff and administrators, to:
- connect to the historic and modern Native experience,
- develop inter-relationships among content and cultural knowledge,
- identify and practice effective teaching strategies,
- utilize Native critical thinking and analytical skills,
- link their personal philosophy of teaching and learning with the institutional philosophy, and
- incorporate indigenous assessment and evaluation methods.
Faculty provide insight into their understanding of the historic and modern Native experience through periodic focused questionnaires and through evaluation feedback of the workshops, speakers, and faculty in-service activities. All full-time and many part-time faculty expressed their perspectives about the teaching and learning environment at NWIC in a 2009 survey in which they reflected on their experience since October 2007. Faculty stated that, as a result of the presentations and activities, they had:
- more knowledge about specific students with whom they interact since we began this process,
- more exposure to group presentations regarding historical changes experienced by Native Americans with regard to losses, perspectives, and responses,
- increased awareness of Lummi and Coast Salish knowledge,
- greater understanding of the significance of listening in tribal learning environments, and
- more skills with educational practices that are practical (such as teaching content that can be applied to topics regarded as practical and significant by students).
Faculty noted greater personal comfort in attending community and tribal functions because the Native resource people from the College and community shared knowledge and cultural protocols. Equally important is that faculty indicated that they learn as much from students as they do from any formal or informal training at the College.
In addition to training faculty on the development and use of action research projects, faculty members have led workshops on best practices and methodologies. These presentations resulted in content for the NWIC Teaching and Learning Toolkit and faculty resource website. Pre-service and a teacher training institute have also provided concentrated opportunities for professional development. For example, in 2009-2010, pre-service training included presentations by NWIC faculty on best practices in teaching and learning, such as the use of case studies, on-line education strategies, learning styles, and classroom management, as well as a presentation on active learning methodologies. The Fall 2010 pre-service highlighted the action research projects and the use of multiple assessments to support outcomes evaluation. In-service activities throughout the academic year included one half day and one full day of training on how to design, perform and analyze classroom-based action research projects, and a three day teacher institute at the end of the 2009-2010 school year focusing on college readiness/developmental education, cultural content/integration and student motivation with high expectations.
Findings from the evaluations of the teacher institute demonstrated an overall increase in institutional participant knowledge in topical areas and indicated that expert presentations from external and internal sources are a key strategy for improving individual knowledge. Each faculty has the opportunity to share their knowledge with colleagues as expertise within the College. Also very important to the success of the teaching institute was the fact that the institute was structured using best-practices in active learning so that participants’ had opportunities during and after each presentation to dialogue with colleagues and construct shared understandings, which they could then bring home and incorporate into their teaching.
Bernice Portervint, Associate Dean of Academics and Distance Education, has observed some of the following changes among faculty over the last three years:
- Increased sharing of articles and websites,
- More frequent and relevant individual and group conversations about teaching and learning including faculty roundtable topics, action research projects, and training topics,
- Greater focus in curricular design on outcomes, strategies and relevant assessment approaches
- Increased use by faculty of active learning methodologies, such as case studies, group work, experiential approaches, and reflections,
- Improved formative and summative assessment including assessing student knowledge at the beginning of each course, assessing more frequently and, most importantly, building on the prior knowledge of students.
Evaluation
Student and faculty evaluations now incorporate cultural indicators, assess instructional methodologies and their usefulness, and are designed to inform a continuous improvement approach for faculty.
We recognize faculty need to discover who their students are culturally, socially and individually in order to more effectively support their learning. According to Associate Dean Portervint, a faculty member does this by using, among other strategies, the recommendations of Gregory Cajete, Tewa scholar and educator to engage in “careful observation of student compositions, informal discussion with students and family, and involvement with cultural activities within the community” (personal communication, April, 28, 2010). According to Cajete, relationship building is a key indicator for faculty and student success and includes how well faculty know the history of Native people, attend or know about ceremonial events, know something about the history of Indian education and includes the willingness of faculty to explore. Through the influences of presenters and what we have learned from our cultural educational activities, the NWIC instructional leadership revised the annual faculty self- evaluation forms and process to more fully incorporate cultural indicators. The comment section of the faculty evaluation form now includes: teaching and learning, course and curriculum development, professional development, student support, college and community service and cultural indicators. The faculty are currently vetting these changes to the faculty evaluation process.
Action research in teaching and learning projects, a key component of the Teaching and Learning Initiative, were implemented for the first time at NWIC beginning with the Winter and Spring quarters of 2010. To initiate a project, interested faculty members submit brief proposals to the Teaching and Learning Committee for review and to receive financial support. Upon completion of the research project faculty present their findings to their colleagues and provide a written report of their findings which is published on the NWIC Teaching and Learning Initiative website (Teaching and Learning Initiative, 2010).
During the Winter and Spring quarters of 2010 faculty studied a range of topics listed below. Complete reports of each project are available on the Teaching and Learning Initiative web site.
- Academic Foundation in Developmental Education: Don McCluskey
- Connecting ABE English and ENGL 100: Kathy Stuart-Stevenson, Kathy Humphreys-Shaffer
- Connecting Math 98 and 99: Nathan Hall, Matteo Tamburini
- Critical Thinking: Brian Compton
- ITV and Faculty Presence: Wayne Woods, Steve Zawoysky, Brian Compton
- Level of Competency Achievement in Chemical Dependency Studies: Cal Scheidegger
- Math on Steroids: John Frey
- Place-based Education: Emma Norman
- Student Self Assessment: Brian Compton, Ane Berrett
- Talking Circles: Rose Roberts, Cindy Dodd
- Use of Kindle and Student Engagement: Gary Brandt
One of my action research projects started as a reflection on the lack of a clearly and uniquely Native perspective available in mainstream materials on critical thinking I was aware that many students struggled to express their critical thinking in academic work but I also observed that they were very good at collaboratively describing and elaborating upon critical and cultural thinking during class sessions and guided discussions. I felt that a focus on an explicit critical thinking methodology interwoven with cultural considerations might benefit my students and our academic interactions.
Based upon readings by Yellow Bird and others as well as on discussions with my NWIC colleagues who were also performing action research projects, I began to reflect on the Lummi values listed in the NWIC catalog and how they relate to critical thinking, particularly:
Sela-lexw: Our strength comes from the old people. From them we receive our teachings and knowledge and the advice we need for our daily lives.
Schtengexwen: We are responsible to protect our territory. This means that we take care of our land and the water and everything that is on it and in it.
Xwlemi-chosen: Our culture is our language. We should strengthen and maintain our language.
Leng-e-sot: We take care of ourselves, watch out for ourselves and love and take care of one another.
This reflection led to my action research project on critical thinking and how it relates to student engagement, as well as a clearer focus in my teaching on an explicit critical thinking methodology embedded within Native cultural values. In doing so I used the introduction of a Native axiology to help indigenize the critical thinking component and structure a learning experience based on it. This approach increased the relevance of the content for students and supported them in thinking more deeply about the meaning of the material to them.
TEACHING AND LEARNING PHILOSOPHY
The purpose of the teaching and learning philosophy statement is to articulate the restorative role of education at NWIC toward strengthening the tribal identity of our students. This purpose is embodied in the College’s cultural outcomes which are that students will demonstrate a sense of place and what it means to be a people. Emma Norman, NWIC faculty member, describes the role of place-based education as the opportunity to link the content of courses to the physical place that is their home or, for some, a connection to a tribal homeland. This connection creates a contextual experience that faculty have seen increases student engagement which enhances their learning, as noted by Cajete (1999). Place-based education is described more fully in the NWIC Teaching and Learning Toolkit available on the NWIC Teaching and Learning website.
During Summer quarter 2010 I took the ideas I had been exploring in my classes the past year to a new level in a place-, culture- and science-based approach. I integrated instruction and research in my classes, which included a research internship project and a Northwest Plants course. Some of the key components of the summer as it unfolded included:
- Integration of instruction and research efforts in the summer science internship project and Northwest Plants course;
- Focus on plant identification in unique habitats with past and current cultural and environmental significance;
- Using a methodology that would allow students to start with little or no prior botanical experience and make relevant learning gains over two months;
- Seeking a way to learn about science in local settings that would be of interest to students and which could lead them to further relevant academic work;
- Students teaching other students, especially one former Northwest Plants student, and including a student-led session on scientific poster design and critique;
- Involvement of an alumnus teaching assistant and Lummi Nation School teacher and students for some classroom and field experiences;
- Cohort development around topics of interest to students with emphasis on plants;
- Significance of Western scientific concepts and methods to questions, issues and problems of significance to American Indian and Alaska Native people;
- Aspects of natural and unnatural history (i.e., study of botanical, ecological and other topics in relation to post-contact environmental impacts on local habitats, plants, animals and people);
- Instruction presented in context of a cycle, e.g., the cycle of water as it moves throughout the land in western Whatcom County with emphasis on local primary water bodies and related aquatic habitats;
- Learning together by moving together through the natural world
- Study site selection based upon cultural, biological and ecological relevance and meaning (e.g., where origin accounts such as the story of Salmon Woman is represented by totem poles in association with ecological restoration efforts regarding salmon habitat);
- Salt marsh-inspired poetry for inspiration and reflection (Willard, 2004);
- The goal of success as defined by positive collaboration, the development of individual and collaborative student interests and activities, and on-going assessment with focus on commendations and recommendations rather than success or failure, performance or lack thereof;
- Seeking a more holistic and non-linear approach to teaching and learning; and
- Emphasis on experiential and hands-on learning supplemented by, not based primarily upon, the use of text and electronic resources when and where appropriate, interesting and productive.
As the summer progressed I noticed increased student interest and engagement as compared to previous summers. I encouraged students to journal in the field and, in particular, on the last field trip one student was taking copious notes regarding each new plant encountered, including their scientific names—much more than I typically observe and more than that student had done earlier in the summer. I think that the diversity, complexity and cultural relevance of study sites also contributed significantly to increased student interest and engagement. I also noted that student enthusiasm, energy and perseverance seemed to be generally enhanced in this process and several times during the summer the students continued to work well beyond scheduled class times. I believe it is worth noting that toward the end of the quarter students engaged in a discussion of aspects of student engagement as a reflective exercise on the summer experience and students proposed and followed through on a peer-review approach to the evaluation of final presentations with a focus on commendations and recommendations rather than a more typical ranking of student performance.
CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT THAT STRENGTHENS BEST PRACTICES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING FOR NATIVE STUDENTS
In order for faculty to create meaningful educational experiences for our students, we strive to influence the knowledge base of faculty through:
Knowledge of our institutional identity:
In order to deepen their knowledge of our institutional identity, faculty must have persistent exposure to the historical development of the tribal colleges, connecting with the founders of NWIC and those individuals who have consistently supported the College’s development and through guest speakers and discussions that contextualize the tribal college experience in relation to student learning and mainstream experiences.
Knowledge of our students’ tribal identity:
Tribal college students come from culturally rich experiences with a strong link between their identity and their place, be that their homelands or the tribal environment they choose to live in. Since the majority of faculty at NWIC is not Native, they are often without a cultural compass from which to facilitate student learning. Deliberate interactions with Native faculty, community resources, Native administrators and Native scholars help faculty connect content knowledge with cultural knowledge and supports our institutional commitment to student success.
Access to tribal ways of knowing
Students and community resources are the best source of knowledge about tribal life. There is a growing body of scholarship and research available to faculty about indigenous ways of knowing, much of it published. There are also many gatherings of tribal scholars, researchers and faculty including affinity groups and organizations that also include student participants. A significant challenge in faculty access is the varying degrees of openness each tribe has in publicly sharing their cultural knowledge. Part of NWIC’s efforts is to help faculty navigate that challenge and, in particular, to encourage their focus on student contributions to cultural integration and the importance of imparting content knowledge.
Developmental Education and College Readiness
Most of the students who enter NWIC need to take developmental education courses. Most need to take one or more math courses and many also need to take developmental English and reading. In support of the continued academic success of our students, once they proceed from developmental to college level math and English, we emphasize that faculty have the skills to continue to support student developmental needs in English, reading and math in college level courses. In addition to new strategies directed at developmental education courses, instructors in freshman and sophomore level courses are encouraged to learn reading and writing strategies, study skills, and to recognize and students with potential learning disabilities.
First Year and First Generation Students
The vast majority of students at NWIC are first generation college students, meaning that neither parent has a four-year college degree. First year students, defined as any student with fewer than 45 college credits, take a 3 quarter long series of seminars designed to build cohort relationships, leadership and problem-solving skills. In addition, all first year students take an Introduction to Successful Learning course which promotes self-motivation, goal setting and quality relationships.
Cultural Resilience
NWIC has adopted the recommendations and practices associated with the cultural resilience theory established by Iris Pretty Paint, a Blackfeet educator and scholar. Cultural resilience theory focuses on the use of traditional and familial practices to promote student success. Students adapt the teachings and traditions of their tribal life to navigate the college experience. Living as a family and community are the foundation of tribal life and NWIC has adapted this model into the context of the learning communities fostered by the College. Faculty and student services staff are trained in the model so they can guide and support students throughout their college careers.
CREATING ACCESS TO BEST PRACTICES
For many years, NWIC has strived to provide access to best practices through shared readings, training, workshops and conference participation. Limited space prevented the College from creating a faculty resource room and hindered the ability of faculty and administrators from sharing information on a timely, as-needed basis. The Teaching and Learning Committee determined that the creation of a virtual teaching and learning center was an appropriate response to shared resource needs which complements the existing acquisition of materials, workshops and conference participation. As a creative resource, the faculty homepage on the NWIC website also contains the Teaching and Learning Initiative web site and the Learning Commons as resources for sharing institutional information and as a place for faculty to share external materials. A methodologies section on the Teaching and Learning Initiative web site called the Toolkit includes a collection of faculty generated best practices. Faculty members are paid to prepare toolkit resources with the intention that faculty share what works for them in educating our students. The action research projects are supported with the same intention.
I’ve noticed that there are numerous parallels between student and faculty experiences in teaching and learning. I’ve found that sharing my experiences in teaching and learning with my faculty colleagues may result in richly rewarding as well as sometimes frustrating conversations and interactions. I believe that each faculty member must find those approaches that work for him or her, just as I have and will continue to do. In my discussions with faculty there are often differences in how we explore and reflect on methods and philosophies but I have seen that we are moving more toward seeing these differences as challenges and opportunities for collaborative discourse and growth rather than as irreconcilable conflicts.
As I and my faculty colleagues at NWIC move forward in this initiative I am reminded of the work of Deloria and Wildcat in their book Power and Place (2001) in that the nature of improving the teaching and learning environment at NWIC is an emergent process that can’t be reduced to any single set of contributors but instead is an organic process and requires the ongoing best efforts of everyone in the community.
Key Findings of the Initiative
The Teaching and Learning Committee acknowledges that there is a rich and vibrant history of education and experience at NWIC. This Initiative has been evolutionary and emergent in its contribution to this history. It is evolutionary as it builds on the knowledge, skills and abilities of our students by supporting the development of knowledge, skills and abilities of our faculty. It is emergent in that we are still gaining our understanding of what we are learning, doing and becoming with the Initiative. Tribal research and scholarship in Indian education–both our own and that of other Native scholars–contributes significantly to our capacity to understand the impact of education on our students and our institution.
Faculty dialogues about student learning and best practices in teaching have increased along with greater comfort with self-assessment and examination of the important connection between instructional practices and evidence of student learning. Foundational knowledge about the cultural and educational experience of Native people serves as the basis of our faculty/student relationships. This has evolved into greater instructional and institutional understanding of how outcomes can be used to inform teaching practices. We are increasingly more adept at navigating the challenging implications of using our own cultural outcomes that students will demonstrate a sense of place and an understanding of what it means to be a people. In the context of diverse tribal cultures and experiences and our commitment to tribal and personal sovereignty, our greater understanding of teaching and learning creates a renewed emphasis on student directed learning.
As Brian has described throughout this paper, students learn in increasingly meaningful ways when they are given the opportunity to explore the connections and relationships among people and their geographic, historical and contemporary place. Student opportunities to lead teaching, to engage in reciprocal teaching, and to explore what type of learning works for them reaffirm traditional tribal learning environments that are place-based, experiential and which honor individual experiences, knowledge, gifts and talents. Instructors have observed that students are increasingly able to deconstruct curriculum which results in redirection of the instructor’s efforts and allows for a more collegial, continuous and critical exploration of ideas that can yield far more comprehensive understanding of multiple bodies of knowledge and truly support the College’s mission of self-determination.
As a final reflection, my thoughts turn to the waters of this place; waters that may be calm or turbulent, fresh or salty, hidden away and under the surface of the earth, or present in all-encompassing torrential downpours. In all its different manifestations water remains sacred, restorative and necessary, attributes I regard as inherent to teaching and learning at Northwest Indian College.
REFERENCES
Blue Spruce, D., & Thrasher, T. (Eds.). (2009). The land has memory: Indigenous knowledge, Native landscapes, and the National Museum of the American Indian. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Cajete, G. A. (1999). Igniting the sparkle: An indigenous science education model. Ashville, NC: Kivaki Press.
CHiXapkaid (D. Michael Pavel), & Inglebret, E. (2007). Develop problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. In The American Indian and Alaska Native student’s guide to college success (pp. 93-109). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Crazy Bull, C. (2010). Cultural integration at Northwest Indian College: An experience of cultural restoration. In Ancient wisdom, modern science: The integration of native knowledge in math and science at tribally controlled colleges and universities (pp. 27-41). Pablo, MT: Salish Kootenai College Press.
Deloria, V., Jr., & Wildcat, D. R. (2001). Power and place: Indian education in America. Golden, CO: Fulcrum.
Fixico, D. L. (2003). The American Indian mind in a linear world: American Indian studies and traditional knowledge. New York: Routledge.
Teaching and learning initiative. (2010). Retrieved October 8, 2010, from Northwest Indian College website: http://blogs.nwic.edu/teachinglearning/
Willard, N. (2004). In the salt marsh. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
Yellow Bird, M. (2005). Tribal critical thinking centers. In For indigenous eyes only: A decolonization handbook (pp. 9-29). Santa Fe: School of American Research.