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science from parents and elders and by exploration. There is also a shift from seeing
science as a body of knowledge in the direction of seeing science as a set of prac-
tices for learning about the world. We report the details of these results elsewhere
(Bang & Medin, in press). Finally, performance in science on standardized tests has
improved substantially since our program began. Although we cannot isolate our
efforts as instrumental to this improvement, we are nonetheless encouraged by this
development.
Perhaps our most surprising results are the shifts in goals for the people working
on our project. Our research and design teams have consisted of about fifteen com-
munity members at each site, eight part-time research assistants, five junior research
assistants (at the AIC), eight teachers, two full-time research assistants and curricu-
lum specialists, one postdoctoral fellow, three graduate students, and four PIs. Elders
and other community members have also been willing and able to participate in the
design. Of this group all but two are Native American.
CBD has had a clear impact on the adults working on the project. Two graduate
students have completed their dissertations. This contribution to the infrastructure of
science was anticipated but the following seven were not: (1) Two members of the
Chicago design team have been admitted to the Northwestern School of Education
and Social Policy PhD program. (2) One of the full-time research assistants has
enrolled in a master's program. (3) A research assistant who dropped out of school
and later earned her GED began undergraduate study in the Fall of 2007. (4) Another
part-time research assistant working toward an Associates degree transferred to a
university with the aim of going on to graduate school. (5) One of our Menominee
research assistants started college, and another, 10 years after completing her asso-
ciates of arts degree, returned to college to obtain a teaching degree. A third has
recently also returned to college after an extended time away from it and plans to
pursue graduate study in biological sciences. (6) Two other RAs in the Chicago
community have indicated an interest in applying to graduate school after they fin-
ish their bachelor's degrees. Virtually all of these community members say that
working on the project was a key factor in their decision-making. These dramatic
changes indicate a deep motivation to take ownership of schools and to assert tribal
sovereignty.
Discussion
Our previous work examined the hypothesis that there is discord between Native
American cultural ways of knowing biology and the cultural ways of knowing in
school science and that this discord is at the heart of student disengagement and
underachievement. In part, we have learned that a central feature of the discord stu-
dents experience is the lack of connections across the multiple contexts in which
students learn science. This lack of coordination manifests itself across a range
of levels, including, but not limited to, content knowledge, practices, values, and
relevance to family, community, and society at large. We continue to work with
and refine our understandings of what this discord means and what it looks like
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