Montana Tribal College Faculty Professional Development Workshop

University Of Montana, Missoula MT

Investigators

Abstract

A goal of the Tribal Colleges and Universities Program (TCUP) is to increase the STEM instructional and research capacities of specific institutions of higher education that serve the Nation's indigenous students. Expanding the STEM curricular offerings at these institutions expands the opportunities of their students to pursue challenging, rewarding careers in STEM fields, provides for research studies in areas that may be culturally significant, and encourages a community and generational appreciation for science and mathematics education. The focus of the proposal from the University of Montana (UM) is on developing faculty at Tribal instituions,so they too will be able to support the needs of their students. In addition, through a pilot workshop UM hopes to build collaborative efforts with the Montana tribal colleges,which could provide more opportunities for tribal students to do research at UM. The University of Montana will conduct a pilot professional development workshop for Montana tribal college faculty, and establish partnerships among the seven Montana tribal colleges and UM. Addressing a request of Montana tribal college (TC) faculty for professional development, the Montana Tribal College Faculty Professional Development Workshop will host tribal college faculty members on the UM campus to investigate innovative instructional and research practices while also building a collaboration network among the TC faculty and UM faculty mentors. The workshop will divide TC faculty into research groups each working with a UM faculty member. The groups will investigate laboratory research practices that are appropriate for the TC's campus laboratory infrastructures, the needs of their students, and the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the TC faculty members. The research group model will yield a faculty network, as TC faculty learn from each other and the UM faculty partners for future research discussions and collaborations. The justification and design of the workshop is based upon recent visits to each of Montana's tribal colleges. TC faculty consistently described limitations to research practices largely inherent to their teaching demands. Commonly, TC faculty expressed the limitation in instructing large numbers of classes each semester that lead to little time for incorporating new and novel curriculum development and research into their classrooms. The time restrictions also limit their networking with collaborators and fellow TC faculty on other TC campuses.