Bringing Indigenous ideas to classrooms

MOSCOW — When University of Idaho anthropology professor Philip Stevens was teaching students from the Apache tribe a math problem, the textbook asked them to figure out the speed and distance of two boats racing from one wharf to another.

He then realized that the students did not know what a wharf was.

“I think the thing that became very apparent is that the vehicle in which they were trying to teach these mathematical concepts were embedded within a cultural understanding that wasn’t of their culture,” he said.

So, Stevens related the problem to their culture and switched it from boat races to long-distance foot races.

Now, Stevens is part of a multimillion-dollar research program with other UI researchers to help K-12 teachers from Idaho and Arizona incorporate Indigenous knowledge in their curriculum.

The National Science Foundation awarded them $3 million to select 64 teachers from regions where the Nez Perce, Coeur d’Alene, Shoshone-Bannock and San Carlos Apache tribes are located.

Those teachers will enroll in a 12-month program starting in summer 2023 in which they will learn how to apply Indigenous knowledge and practices to science, technology, engineering and math lessons.

“Helping our teachers to see differently, we think, will have kind of a cascade effect on helping our young people to do differently,” said UI professor Vanessa Anthony-Stevens, who is also part of the project.

By standardized metrics, Native American students do not score well on STEM subjects, but the two professors believe that can change if the students are taught in a way that applies to their lives.

“If we look at state standardized tests, we know we have a problem, because our Native kids are not experiencing success,” Anthony-Stevens said. “So, we need to change what’s happening in the classroom, so we’re not just beating our heads against the same wall and acting as if our kids are defective, because they’re not.”

Anthony-Stevens said this will also help prepare students to tackle real-world issues that are closely connected to Native American tribes, such as protecting natural resources.

“Our tribes are consistently involved in restoring and contributing to making their landscapes healthy again,” she said. “I don’t go to public school classrooms around the state and hear that students and citizens know that. They don’t learn that.”

Stevens also said that tribes have told him college graduates who work with them do not understand how their knowledge of science can be applied to that tribal community.

The results of this program, called Cultivating Relationships, will be shared with tribal education leaders, community members and researchers.

Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.