Weaving Indigenous Identity, Cultural Values, and Environmental Science Together for Sustainable Tribal Land Management and Resource Career Pathways

这一发展创新项目将开发和研究Wéetespeme管理计划(Wéetespeme：“我是这片土地的人”)。该项目由部落领导，支持和研究以传统生态知识、与文化相关的教育学和土地教育学为基础的气候科学学习经验。Nez Perce高中青年和大学年龄的成年人将选择特定的物种和地点；与部落资源管理办公室合作，学习监测、评估和减轻气候影响；并接受部落长老的指导，因为他们共同为当地关注的问题制定气候科学适应性管理计划。适应性管理计划可能包括以下主题：干旱和极端天气影响、动物种群和迁徙模式的转变、传统食物的种植以及重要文化遗址的管理。部落研究小组将与课程开发人员和来自爱达荷大学和西北青年服务团的土著研究生(S)合作，探索以文化认同和传统知识为中心的STEM课程如何与土著青年的身份、资源责任以及对部落内和该地区STEM职业道路的理解和兴趣相一致。作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习(AISL)计划寻求促进非正式环境中STEM学习的设计和发展的新方法和基于证据的理解。这包括为扩大获得和参与STEM学习经验提供多种途径，推进对非正式环境中STEM学习的创新研究和评估，以及加深参与者对更深层次学习的理解。该项目的课程开发方法，以及青年的身份认同和职业兴趣发展，将有助于非正式STEM学习领域对部落驱动的教育努力的初步了解，以及融合或弥合传统生态知识和西方认识方式的方法。在地球科学局(GEO)的共同资助下，该项目将进一步推动与将传统生态知识应用于地球科学有关的努力，包括土著劳动力发展机会和土著研究生的研究经验。在两年的时间里，这项研究将解决两个研究问题。1)具有文化相关性的校外课程如何以及以何种方式支持土著青年了解自己的身份、资源责任和可能的职业道路，包括部落土地上的那些？2)具有文化相关性的校外课程如何以及以何种方式发展土著青年监测和应对气候变化影响、保护、维护和恢复对其文化特性和价值观至关重要的土地关系的能力？32名大学年龄的年轻人和高中青年(每个年龄组16人)将参加Wéetespeme管理方案和研究研究。土著研究方法将指导调查和分享土著青年对自己的身份、资源责任、可能的职业道路以及在Wéetespeme管理方案活动中的学习经验的理解。两名土著研究生将在开展研究、支持部落内外的系统性影响方面发挥核心作用。方法将嵌入到学员的经验中，并将包括实地日记、适应性管理计划、故事地图和谈话圈。青年还将作为研究伙伴参与：了解研究问题，协助分析，帮助解释调查结果，并共同撰写手稿，分享他们的故事和这项工作。非正式的STEM课程将在区域内共享，使高原地区的部落能够受益于青年参与支持气候适应能力的文化相关方法。研究结果也将得到更广泛的共享，有助于形成新兴的知识库，说明在土地教育教学法和传统生态知识保管者的指导下，并嵌入非正式STEM学习经验的文化实践和价值观如何有助于土著青年的身份以及对当地有意义的环境资源和STEM职业道路的理解和投资。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。

This innovations in development project will develop and study the Wéetespeme Stewardship Program (Wéetespeme: “I am of this land”). Tribal led, the project supports and studies climate science learning experiences grounded in traditional ecological knowledge, culturally relevant pedagogy, and land education pedagogy. Nez Perce high-school youth and college-age adults will choose specific species and places; work with tribal resource management offices to learn to monitor, assess, and mitigate climate impacts; and receive mentorship from tribal elders, as they co-develop climate-science adaptive management plans for local concerns. Adaptive management plans may include topics such as: drought and extreme weather impacts, shifts in animal populations and migration patterns, cultivating traditional foods, and managing important cultural sites. The Tribal research team will collaborate with curriculum developers and Indigenous graduate student(s) from the University of Idaho and Northwest Youth Corps to explore how a STEM curriculum centered on cultural identity and traditional knowledge can align with Indigenous youths’ identities, resource responsibilities, and understanding and interest in STEM career pathways within the Tribe and in the region. As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understanding of deeper learning by participants. This project’s approach to curriculum development, and youths’ identity and career interest development, will contribute to the informal STEM learning field’s nascent understanding of Tribal-driven education efforts, and approaches to blending or bridging traditional ecological knowledge and Western ways of knowing. With co-funding from the Directorate of Geosciences’ (GEO), this project will further advance efforts related to the application of traditional ecological knowledge to the geosciences, including Indigenous workforce development opportunities and research experiences for Indigenous graduate students. Over a two-year duration, the study will address two research questions. 1) How and in what ways does a culturally relevant out-of-school curriculum support Indigenous youths’ understanding of their own identity, resource responsibility, and possible career pathways, including those on Tribal land? 2) How and in what ways does a culturally relevant out-of-school curriculum develop Indigenous youths’ ability to monitor and address climate change impacts, to protect, preserve and recover land relationships that are central to their cultural identities and values? Thirty-two college-age young adults and high-school youth (sixteen of each age group) will participate in the Wéetespeme Stewardship Program and research study. Indigenous research methodologies will guide the approach to investigating and sharing Indigenous youths’ understanding of their own identity, resource responsibility, possible career pathways, and learning experiences within the Wéetespeme Stewardship Program activities. Two Indigenous graduate students will play a central role in conducting the research, supporting systemic impacts within, and beyond, the Tribe. Methods will be embedded in learners’ experiences and will include field journals, adaptive management plans, story maps, and talk circles. Youth will also participate as research partners: understanding the research questions, assisting with the analysis, contributing to interpretation of the findings, and co-authoring manuscripts that share their stories and this work. The informal STEM curriculum will be shared regionally, allowing for Tribes in the plateau region to benefit from culturally relevant approaches youth engagement to support climate resilience. The results of the research will also be shared more broadly, contributing to the emerging knowledge-base about the ways that cultural practices and values, guided by land education pedagogy and the mentorship of traditional ecological knowledge keepers, and embedded in informal STEM learning experiences, can contribute to Indigenous youths’ identities and understanding of, and investment in, local and meaningful environmental resources and STEM career pathways.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.