Our Experience
Below are selected projects and partnerships that we are currently working on. Past projects can be viewed here.
CIRES We Are Water
This collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF-DRL #1907024) created a traveling exhibit and complementary programming around critical water topics and is touring libraries across the Four Corners region that serve primarily rural, Latin(x) and Indigenous communities. Jill is leading a process evaluation and summative evaluation, in collaboration with Native Pathways, to support collaboration across diverse partners, help develop and document key measures of success, and support understanding around culturally responsive research and community engagement.
CIRCLES NSF INCLUDES Alliance
Jill is leading a process evaluation in support of a yearlong planning grant led by the University of Montana, designed to develop a cross-jurisdiction alliance of six EPSCoR (Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) state partners. The CIRCLES Alliance (Cultivating Indigenous Research Communities for Leadership in Education and STEM) is focused on building better pathways to engage Native American students in STEM fields and careers. The evaluation team has focused on understanding the extent to which partners’ perceptions of project goals align, the extent to which partners feel included and heard, and what supports are needed to create growth and sustainability of the alliance’s efforts.
Indigitize / Amazon Future Engineers
Native Pathways and Reimagine Research Group have been engaged by the Amazon Future Engineers program to conduct community-based research exploring interest, access and barriers to high-quality computer science education among Indigenous students. Using research processes that honor and value Indigenous epistemologies, the collaborative research team conducted a wise practices review (Phase 1 research) to better understand what Indigenous computer science pathways could look like by engaging 10 leaders in the field of Indigenous computer science and STEM learning in a Talk Story process focused on opportunities and barriers for Native students in the field, as well as what is needed to build CS pathways that center tribal sovereignty and Nation building. In Phase 2, the research team is conducting community-based research designed to understand wise practices in engaging Indigenous communities in computer science, particularly around building pathways for Native youth in computer science fields in ways that honor Indigenous core values and service to community (Nation building). This will include qualitative research and collaboration with approximately 2-3 communities per year, including urban, rural, and tribal communities.
Native Plants and First Foods
Through both process evaluation and summative evaluation activities, Native Pathways and Reimagine Research Group are supporting the implementation of a multidimensional and multigenerational informal learning model created for and by Coast Salish Communities. By bringing together traditional ecological knowledge with western science knowledge, the project aims to address increasing threats to Native lands and traditions in the Coast Salish region and beyond. The evaluation team will answer questions related to the learning and engagement of participants, as well as documenting key processes and components that support the development of a place-based Indigenous environmental program and community of practice.
Native Knowledge 360 (NK360) evaluation
Given significant changes in the learning landscape caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Museum of the American Indian has engaged Native Pathways and Reimagine Research Group to lead an evaluation process design to better understand how the NK360 educational initiative has evolved, and to determine the most valuable and impactful pathways forward. A literature review, environment scan with case studies, and an internal evaluation process that engages museum leadership, staff, and educators, will help the team to build a broad understanding of wise practices in digital learning, particularly in telling marginalized histories or counter-narratives, as well as to articulate organizational goals and internal staff perspectives around NK360 and visions for the future.
LIFEways: Learning in and from the Environment through Multiple ways of knowing
In support of this Research-to-Practice project’s broader aim of documenting how Indigenous ways of knowing (IWK) are currently included in outdoor learning environments, Reimagine Research Group and Native Pathways are partnering to conduct wise practices research and collaborative-process research that will then be shared and disseminated to practitioners through a community of practice (Circle of Relations) in order to strengthen the field’s capacity to center IWK in outdoor learning environments. The research process aims to document diverse worldviews around outdoor learning, or learning from the land, water, and sky, what wise practices bring together IWK and western science in outdoor learning, and what successes and barriers emerge through these processes and how partners navigate inclusion of Indigenous and western perspectives in outdoor learning.
Culturally Sustaining STEM
Culturally Sustaining STEM is a four-year Research in Service to Practice project where research and evaluation results inform the iterative development of multi-day, culturally-sustaining, informal STEM learning workshops for families in rural American communities. Reimagine Research Group is conducting a formative and summative evaluation with two primary aims: 1) to ensure the best possible implementation of the program model components around which the research will be conducted at the participating sites; and 2) to determine the ways in which research findings are understood and incorporated into programming at each site through the design-based research process.
Since we design each project to suit your specific needs and context, we recommend that you contact us for a free 60-minute consultation to discuss your research or evaluation needs and how we might best work together.