Using Integrated, Place-based Watershed Curriculum to Increase Teacher Self-Efficacy with Culturally Relevant STEM

This project will design and research a professional development (PD) model in which elementary teachers experience integrated, place-based, culturally sustaining STEM curriculum focused on local watersheds and grounded in local Native American cultural values and knowledge. The teachers will then design and implement their own culturally relevant STEM unit, guided by the PD, which is situated within their local watershed and Indigenous community. Few studies have examined the impact of PD that focuses specifically on such approaches on teachers’ self-efficacy in culturally relevant STEM or, further, on the impact STEM curriculum that embeds Native American values and knowledge has on student engagement and interest. The PD is designed for teachers across a range of school settings and cultural contexts in North Dakota with materials developed for their communities’ unique regions and cultures. North Dakota is home to diverse Indigenous communities, with five federally recognized tribes. The PD will include promising, but often isolated, elements of prior PD models to give teachers: a) culturally relevant pedagogy inclusive of Indigenous students, b) pedagogical content knowledge, c) a supportive professional learning community, d) place-based watershed curriculum, e) and structured time for teachers to collaborate on creating units for implementation. The project will disseminate findings to local and state school communities, the greater public, and the STEM education community via presentations and peer-reviewed publications. The project model will be shared more broadly with educators so that it may be widely used, including adapting elements of PD and integrating it in pre-service teacher methods coursework.

The effectiveness of this PD approach and its impact on students will be evaluated by exploring the following research questions: (1) How do teachers engage with STEM professional learning experiences that immerse them in the cultures of the Native American communities in North Dakota? (2) What is the impact of PD that integrates culturally relevant pedagogy and local Indigenous community connections on teachers’ culturally relevant STEM self-efficacy? (3) How do teachers integrate culturally relevant approaches and adapt them to effectively link to NGSS introduced in the PD? and (4) How does culturally responsive, place-based curriculum impact students’ attitudes, interest, and engagement with STEM? A flexible, mixed-methods research design using quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis will be used to explore teacher perceptions, experiences, changes in self-efficacy and changes in teacher practice as well as student responses and outcomes.