Conference: INCLUDES: Culturewise Pathways to Indigenous STEM Education

With support from the NSF INCLUDES Program, this project aims to address the significant and persistent lack of integration of local ecological knowledge with western STEM education. Neglecting Indigenous perspectives limits opportunities for Indigenous learners to pursue STEM courses and careers and creates broadening participation challenges in STEM education. To address this challenge, the project will convene a group of Indigenous academic, community, and education leaders. Over three conference phases, this group will share authentic, culturally specific examples of what works and does not work in STEM education for Indigenous learners. These discussions will help establish a vision for inclusive Indigenous education. The project will produce a compendium of learnings for dissemination in-person, in print, and online. The evaluation may reveal how conference participants and educators approach and deliver culturally responsive STEM education. The goal of the project is to gather exemplary community-driven STEM education designed for Indigenous students. During Phase I, conference participants will facilitate knowledge sharing and identify innovative strategies. In Phase II, participants will work in small groups using learnings to develop recommendations and action plans for broadening Indigenous participation in STEM. The project team hypothesizes that the Phase III dissemination of conference Proceedings can improve educator capacities to envision and enact culturally appropriate STEM instruction. In addition, these resources can contribute to systemic improvements in STEM education that foster inclusivity and broaden participation among Indigenous learners. Through these efforts, the project aims to bridge the gap between Indigenous knowledge and western STEM literacy, ultimately paving the way for increased Indigenous representation and success in STEM fields. 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.