With the support of a $1.5 million grant, a new project between KU and Haskell will advance tribal sovereignty in education by recruiting and training more than a dozen future teachers for roles in schools serving Native students.
The Southern Plains American Indian Teaching Pathways Project is a teacher training and professional development program led by multiple departments at KU and Haskell. It has been funded for a five-year term by the Office of Indian Education and the U.S. Department of Education.
Project leads will collaborate with several tribes and school districts across Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma to recruit 15 students who have attained or are finishing associate degrees. The program will fund tuition, conferences, technology and books, as well as offer a monthly living stipend, so these students can complete a bachelor’s degree and certification for elementary or secondary education through Haskell or KU.
“Upon graduation, the newly certified teachers will be required to work in Native-serving schools, where they will also receive early career mentorship from experienced teachers and cultural leaders found in the project partner network,” according to a release from KU.
Per an announcement from the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, one of the Indigenous nations partnering on the project, more than 90% of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students are in public schools. By comparison, 8% of Oklahoma’s public teachers are AI/AN. Even fewer AI/AN teachers are in the Kansas workforce at 0.01%.
The project will be led by principal investigator Alex Red Corn, a citizen of the Osage Nation. Red Corn is the director and associate professor in Indigenous Studies at KU, as well as the associate vice chancellor for Sovereign Partnerships and Indigenous Initiatives at the university.
“We’re very appreciative of this opportunity from the Office of Indian Education, which is such a critical resource for tribal nations looking to advance sovereignty in education,” Red Corn said in the release. “… We look forward to getting started recruiting folks from Native communities and offer them a funded pathway to full teacher licensure through KU and Haskell, and continuing to grow our longstanding partnership with Haskell in new and exciting ways.”
Anna Yonas and Imogen Herrick, both assistant professors in KU’s Department of Curriculum & Teaching, will join Red Corn as co-PIs, according to the release.
In addition to KU and Haskell, project partners include Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, Royal Valley Schools, South Brown County Schools, Osage Nation, Daposka Ahnkodapi (Osage Nation School), Quapaw Nation, Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, Darlington Public Schools, Umoⁿhoⁿ Nation Public School and Tribal Education Departments National Assembly.
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