Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
address them. On the other hand, we could be accused of failing to recognize the
significance of the development of tribal colleges and universities and other efforts
of tribal entities to assert sovereignty. As will be seen, however, we embrace both
perspectives.
Innovation: Partnerships and Communities
Overview.
Our project is a collaborative effort involving Northwestern University,
TERC, the American Indian Center (AIC) of Chicago, and various institutions on
the Menominee reservation in Wisconsin, including the Menominee tribal school
and the Menominee Language and Culture Commission. We began by describ-
ing our current interdisciplinary research team and then give a brief history of our
collaboration.
The majority of our research team consists of Native American educators who
have close ties to the communities being studied. Bang, Director at the AIC of
Chicago, has been a member of and working in the Chicago Indian community for
more than 12 years, and has been working with the Menominee community for the
past 7 years. Washinawatok has a lifetime of experience on the Menominee reserva-
tion, having served as Tribal Chair, as a member of the Tribal Legislature, as Dean of
NAES College (Native American Educational Services), Menominee campus, and
she has been a research partner for the past 5 years. She is currently Director of the
Menominee Language and Culture Commission and a member of the Menominee
Indian School District Board. Chapman is lifelong member of the Menominee com-
munity, has been a logging contractor, and is currently Assistant Principal at the
Menominee tribal school. Chapman has recently replaced Carol Dodge, who took
over the Menominee component of this project when Washinawatok was serving
as Tribal Chair. Medin (Northwestern) has worked with the Menominee commu-
nity for more than 12 years and with the Chicago Indian community for 7 years.
He has taught courses at NAES, Chicago campus, NAES, Menominee campus,
and the College of the Menominee Nation. More recently teachers and researchers
associated with the project have been able to receive Northwestern graduate and
undergraduate credit for courses offered by Medin at the AIC and on the Menominee
reservation.
Our collaboration has been designed to be an equal partnership. Rather than hav-
ing Northwestern University control all research funds or having Northwestern as
the primary institution issuing subcontracts to tribal entities, whenever possible we
have sought to submit grants with a single project description and three indepen-
dent budgets, independently administered. Our goal is also to match the budgetary
sharing with equal sharing in research design and evaluation, taking into account
the different skills collaborators bring to the project. Shortly, we will provide a bit
more by way of the history of our collaboration but first we briefly describe the
community component of our project.
Our project has two other crucially important goals: (1) to strengthen the
capacity of Native communities to improve student learning and achievement and
