Co-Primary Investigator, National Science Foundation, Robert Noyce Research Grant,
Track 4 grant- Sufficient Compensation for Retention and Equity (SCORE), 2020-2025;
$799,815. With SCORE, we seek to understand how high-need schools succeed in retaining
STEM teachers. SCORE applies a mixed-methods research design exploring two overarching
research questions: (1) what influences STEM teacher retention in high-need schools
and (2) how does compensation encourage STEM teachers to stay? We have developed datasets
including teacher pay scales and benefits negotiated in collective bargaining agreements;
individual teacher certification, salary, and employment records over two decades;
and district, school, and community characteristics for all teachers and schools in
Alaska. We are developing models that use the data we have compiled to predict turnover,
and will conduct case studies in schools that realize better-than-expected STEM teacher
retention.
Principal Investigator, Arctic Futures Makers Project, 2015-2016; $51,250. Designed,
coordinated and facilitated two-day scenarios workshop with high school students from
all ten villages of the Northwest Arctic Borough (NWAB), Alaska. Produced and presented
reports, with student-participants, to the community and councils of Kotzebue and
NWAB.
In my research, I research the role of education in community resilience. Specifically,
how different modes of learning and success can be facilitated in rural and largely
Indigenous communities. Many varied factors impact students’ lives during the high
school years so that success in schooling outcomes cannot be used as the sole educational
predictor in assessing a community’s resilience. I am considering resilience as a
community’s ability to rebound in the face of perturbations. In Alaska, as well as
across the Arctic, changes related to climate and resource exploitation, as well as
historical and present culture shifts and dynamics related to modernization, add to
the pressures of remote communities. For such communities learning among youth is
generally in two modes – one considered Indigenous and primarily grounded in Indigenous
knowledge, culture, languages, land, connectedness, and subsistence practices. The
second is the Western mode of education that takes place in a public school system.
The dislocation of youth in communities has paralleled a decrease in high school graduation
rates partly because these two modes of learning remain disconnected. This context
is further problematized by a rapidly changing climate in the North that challenges
the knowledge of elders and others with traditional knowledge concerning the land
and seascapes.
In brief, my research is directed at understanding the role of rural schools in regional
resilience in Arctic Alaska and more specifically: (1) How do schools serve as a
tool of governance and what does this mean for rural, largely Indigenous communities?
(2) What would be the best method to help communities deliberate about the future
of community resilience, in particular the role educational practices play? (3) How
might communities draw on both Indigenous and Western modes of learning to plan for
the future and create capacity for successful lives of the youth as integral parts
of community resilience?
My research has included qualitative interviewing and conducting scenarios development
workshops, honing these skills and expertise through my work with the Northern Alaska
Scenarios Project and the Arctic Futures Makers project. This development and refinement
will likely continue in my role as a research contributor and scenarios development
workshop coordinator with the recently funded National Science Foundation, Robert
Noyce Research Grant, Track 4 grant- Sufficient Compensation for Retention and Equity
(SCORE), 2020-2025, researching teacher retention and mobility, as well as the factors
impacting these aspects across the state of Alaska. I think the connections and collaborations
possible amongst Arctic communities could be impactful and lead to greater understanding
and adaptation in educational systems, and therefore sustainability in circumpolar
communities. I think the connections and collaborations possible amongst Arctic communities
could be impactful and lead to greater understanding and adaptation in educational
systems, and therefore sustainability in circumpolar communities.
I am passionate about each and every student in our school systems having the opportunities
and resources to reach their full potential. I am passionate about play, about love,
about Humanity and how we present and treat each other on this Earth. I am passionate
about legacy. I am passionate about leaving this place better than when I found it
and each day becoming better than when I woke up. I'm passionate about being fuller
everyday in a world where openness can sometimes seem like a very far off place. I'm
passionate about people: the people I care about, the people I know, and the people
I will never meet. I'm passionate about sport, play, and fun: Go ‘Stros, Go Dodgers,
Go Trojans. I'm passionate about sharing that love of sport with my son, Wulfric.
I'm passionate about teaching, learning, education, growing, and the pursuit of lifelong
learning, recognizing the luxury of what that is and that all folks don't have access
to the luxury of lifelong learning when working just to survive. I'm passionate about
recognizing my privilege and power and using those to leverage and to amplify other
human beings to realize the potential and success that they would like to realize.
