NSF INCLUDES Alliance: Broadening Career Pathways in Food, Energy, and Water Systems with and within Native American Communities (Native FEWS Alliance)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The Native FEWS (Food, Energy, Water Systems) Alliance is focused on innovative research and community partnerships linking two interconnected challenges: a crisis in access to food, energy, and water in Indigenous communities; and limited educational and career pathways available to Indigenous populations to address these needs. The disproportionate number of Indigenous people who have being negatively impacted by climate change, the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, and pollution on tribal lands demonstrate the urgent need for effective solutions. Currently, there are limited institutional pathways for Native Americans and other underrepresented students to pursue environmental careers. The University of California at Berkeley, University of Arizona and American Indian Higher Education Consortium will work with over 20 partners to significantly broaden the opportunities for participation and the ecosystem of research and practice training by and for Native Americans and other underrepresented student groups. A focus will be on students who possess, and those who seek, the necessary training and preparation to address these critical challenges. Through the application of culturally-relevant approaches (successfully developed and evaluated by partners at all levels of the educational continuum), the Alliance will develop curricula and mentoring guides, offer workshops, adapt and adopt best practices, and share results. These activities will enable institutions across the country to access Native FEWS educational and mentoring materials. Broadening participation will produce greater diversity of thought and generate culturally relevant sustainable solutions that are applicable to local communities yet can be used as a basis for applications more broadly.Mainstream science and technology programs have to date been ineffective in responding to Indigenous challenges at the nexus of food, energy, water systems (FEWS), and do not adequately serve or engage Indigenous communities. The result is a deepening of social alienation and professional marginalization of Indigenous youth. The Native FEWS Alliance will integrate place-based approaches to teaching and diversity with applied research and Indigenous knowledges to transform FEWS education to be more relevant to Indigenous communities. The implementation plan is designed to produce more successful recruitment, matriculation, retention, and degree attainment outcomes. By bringing together the resources, expertise and experiences of multiple educational institutions and stakeholders who all share a proven track record in widening pathways for Indigenous students, the Alliance will develop a Networked Improvement Community to achieve the following interrelated goals: Address urgent FEWS challenges in Indigenous communities; Co-develop integrated, Indigenous, place-based FEWS curricula, mentoring, and practice experiences; Transform institutional science and technology fields to be relevant and accessible to Indigenous communities; and Recruit, retain and graduate Indigenous students to pursue higher education and careers in FEWS and bring their knowledge back to their communities. Alliance initiatives will be rigorously evaluated and disseminated, contributing new knowledge to the research base of effective practices in recruiting, teaching, and mentoring Native American students and professionals, and in building ethical, effective co-designed partnerships. The forms of dissemination will include publications, case studies, curricula, guidebooks, webinars, podcasts and multimedia resources for Indigenous stakeholders and to educate the wider sustainability science communities.This NSF INCLUDES Alliance is funded by NSF Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES), a comprehensive national initiative to enhance U.S. leadership in discoveries and innovations by focusing on diversity, inclusion and broadening participation in STEM at scale and co-funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Division of Environmental Biology.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.