Award Abstract # 2119573
Transformative Computational Models of Narrative to Support Teaching Indigenous Perspectives in K-12 Classrooms

Administratively Terminated Award
NSF Org: IIS
Division of Information & Intelligent Systems
Recipient: UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: August 13, 2021
Latest Amendment Date: May 1, 2025
Award Number: 2119573
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Amy Baylor
abaylor@nsf.gov
 (703)292-5126
IIS
 Division of Information & Intelligent Systems
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: August 15, 2021
End Date: April 25, 2025 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $582,983.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $582,983.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2021 = $582,983.00
History of Investigator:
  • Melissa Tehee (Principal Investigator)
    melissa.tehee@usu.edu
  • Breanne Litts (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Utah State University
1000 OLD MAIN HL
LOGAN
UT  US  84322-1000
(435)797-1226
Sponsor Congressional District: 01
Primary Place of Performance: Utah State University
2810 Old Main St
Logan
UT  US  84322-2810
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): SPE2YDWHDYU4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): ECR-EDU Core Research
Primary Program Source: 04002122DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 8045
Program Element Code(s): 798000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

This project will contribute to the national need for sharing Indigenous perspectives in US K-12 education. By providing accurate representations of Indigenous narratives within social studies curricula, this project will address misconceptions of Indigenous peoples and their communities. The project will mitigate potential impacts of misrepresentations such as cultural identity silencing, disconnection, and lower graduation rates for Indigenous students and lack of cultural competence for non-Indigenous students. Often, Tribal Knowledge Holders visit classrooms and share their histories and perspectives class by class, which has the potential to overburden Indigenous communities. Technology can support both teachers and Indigenous communities to develop sustainable processes and practices to appropriately preserve and share Indigenous knowledge, culture, and perspectives. To date, little work has examined the role of Indigenous representation in the creation of narrative technologies designed to mitigate the lack of Indigenous representation in the classroom. This project will develop emerging narrative technologies from an Indigenous perspective to support teachers and classroom learning. The broader impact of the work includes benefits for tribal communities, K-12 educators, and policymakers, and other community and education organizations that wish to expand representations of diverse knowledge, cultures, education, and computations.

The proposed work builds on existing efforts to address pressing issues of bias embedded in emerging technologies and expand current notions of how to design new forms of technology for more equitable futures. The proposed project will deconstruct and culturally reformulate the basis of emerging technologies: the underlying computational models, data, algorithms, and interfaces. The overarching research question is: What does a culturally sustaining/revitalizing computational model of Indigenous narrative(s) look like? Building on an existing partnership with the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation and K-12 teachers, the project team will use the social studies classroom as a design context to address issues of representation of Indigenous knowledge and culture via computational models. The proposed work seeks to empower Tribal members to (re)engage technologies that have historically perpetuated disparities and caused significant harm to their community to develop prototypes that represent their ways of being and knowing. The prototypes will be Tribally-created design experiences that preserve Indigenous history and effectively share it with students in fourth grade classrooms. This project will offer empirical insights for effective strategies and processes of how to engage Indigenous communities through a community-driven design methodological approach. The project has the potential to reimagine not only how models and algorithms are designed, but also who designs them. This project will inform and advance diverse fields including computer science, learning sciences, psychology, Indigenous education, teacher education, and social studies education.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Litts, Breanne K. and Alladin, J. Kaleo and Tehee, Melissa and Cardona-Rivera, Rogelio E. "Gathering as Design Process: Physical Prototyping for Culturally Sustaining Computational Technologies" Learning, Design and Technology (LDT 23) , 2023 https://doi.org/10.1145/3594781.3594802 Citation Details
Sinha, Ravi and Mensah, Phyllis Kyei and Litts, Breanne K and Cardona-Rivera, Rogelio E and Tehee, Melissa "Programming Time: Exploring Time as a Cultural Construct Across Novice Computational Platforms" , 2023 https://doi.org/10.22318/icls2023.761557 Citation Details

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