Outreach: Indigenous Evaluation Institute

From April 18th to 20th, 2007, by request of ROSNA Co-Director Iris PrettyPaint and the Salish Kootenai College Strategic Action Group, Missoula served as the second 'pilot' site for the Indigenous Evaluation Training Institute, following the initial pilot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. An institutional support initiative of both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), the Indigenous Evaluation Training Institute is one of eleven AIHEC initiatives aimed at promoting institutional support for American Indian students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As part of this effort, the Missoula pilot meeting focused on ways to merge traditional knowledge with western practices in the field of evaluation.

The thirty-one participants in the Missoula pilot meeting included trainers Joan LaFrance and Richard Nichols; graduate students from Montana State University-Bozeman and The University of Montana-Missoula; Tribal College representatives; K-12 representatives; and other professionals. Participants gathered ideas on how indigenous values should be incorporated in evaluation practices and how to create evaluations that are mindful of indigenous cultures and communities.

Click on the photos below to enlarge.

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