TEA Center: Reclaiming the O'odham Language

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A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to promote the advancement of intellectual leadership within TCUP institutions that will support them in addressing the scientific or engineering priorities of their tribes, communities, or broadly of the United States. Linked with this goal is the TCU Enterprise Advancement Centers (TEA Centers) funding strand, which provides support for TCUP institutions in establishing thematically based centers whose work applies the college’s STEM instruction and research capacity to realize benefits for their identified community. The O’odham Language Center (OLC), conceived and directed by personnel from Tohono O’odham Community College, directly aligns with the TEA Center concept in the significant positive impacts it will have on the Tohono O’odham Nation in reclaiming the O’odham language. Using a cross-generational approach, the OLC will strive to perpetuate the language through the delivery of language immersion programs at Head Start Centers on the reservation in a manner designed to develop the language fluency of pre-K students who are citizens of the O’odham Nation. A slate of comprehensive activities will be undertaken that includes the engagement of community instructors fluent in the O’odham language and assisting students’ families in developing their own fluency in support of the overarching goal of reclaiming their Indigenous language.The OLC will employ evidenced-based pedagogical methods in the language immersion programs while customizing the curriculum for the specific school and community settings in which activities will occur. The work will be focused initially in three Head Start Centers that have foundational elements of a language program already in place. As the instructional model is optimized over time, the work will expand to include all six of the Head Start Centers on the Tohono O’odham Nation. Instructors will advance their own expertise through in situ practice as well as professional development with linguists and language education experts. To contribute to the greater knowledge base, the OLC will disseminate its findings throughout the tribal college community, the Tohono O’odham community, its related tribes, and other Indigenous communities in Arizona and North America. Through the development of the immersion curriculum and instructional model, a wide range of resources will become available that may be used to inform language continuity efforts across tribal communities.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.