New certificate prepares teachers of American Indian children

Angela Jaime, Christine Rogers, Tim Rush

Marty Conrad

   The University of Wyoming has launched a distance-delivered Graduate Certificate Program for Teachers of American Indian Children. 
   Delivered through a combination of face-to-face meetings and distance technology, it is the first in-depth graduate program intended to certify that its graduates possess the attitudes, knowledge, and competence to teach Native children and youth.  Christine Rogers and Marty Conrad are the first two teachers to complete the program.
    Angela Jaime, assistant professor of educational studies, and R. Timothy Rush, professor of elementary and early childhood education, developed the curriculum in consultation with tribal leaders and educators. Jaime and Rush will share coordination of the program, which recently received official UW administrative approval.  
      UW's certificate program is the first comprehensive learning opportunity for individuals interested in understanding the unique learning needs of American Indian children.  Consisting of five three-semester-hour graduate courses, the program's target audience is teachers who were not initially prepared to teach American Indian children. 
   "On one hand, we are blazing a trail with a program of this scope and depth," Rush says. "But on the other hand, we're 80 years behind the first national call for teacher education programs to specially prepare educators to serve Native children.
   Jaime and Rush are quick to acknowledge that the new program reflects what they learned in examining scholarly recommendations and the programs of other institutions. 
   "While we now have this comprehensive program, that has come together as it has, we have learned from other colleges and universities," Jaime says. "They're just taking a different path."
   Pilot versions of the five core courses successfully drew 39 students; several students enter the program with at least two of the required courses complete. All classes will be cross-listed as American Indian Studies courses.  The regular delivery schedule of the five courses began in summer 2008. Jaime and Rush serve as the primary instructors.
   All courses will be delivered using distance technologies, including online platforms and videoconferencing. This will allow the program to reach a nationwide audience for greatest impact, Jaime says.
      "Turning it into an online, nationwide-access, distance learning experience will be key to the success of the program," she says. So is creating a model that other institutions can adopt and adapt in new ways. Replication and adaptation of the UW model will be encouraged in the interest of working together to make a lasting impact on teachers of American Indian children.
     Support for the new program has been strong. Rush and Jaime say former and present College of Education Deans Patricia McClurg and Kay Persichitte, the UW Office of Academic Affairs, Director of American Indian Studies Judith Antell, and Deans Oliver Walter (College of Arts and Sciences) and Don Roth (UW Graduate School) were enthusiastically supportive of the program as it developed.
   The program has also received support from the Northern Arapaho Business Council, the Eastern Shoshone Business Council, and public school officials of the Wind River Indian Reservation.
  "It gives us deep satisfaction to know that our community of educators did not undertake development and delivery of this program because we had to," Rush and Jaime say. "We did it because it was right."
   For more information about the program, contact Rush (307-766-5705 or timrush@uwyo.edu) or Jaime (307-766-3991 or jaimea@wyo.edu). Individuals can request application guidelines and requirements by e-mailing cip@uwyo.edu.

 

Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008