MaryJohn Pachuta-Rysak, Assistant Professor in the Literacy, Educational Foundations, and Technology (LEFT) department, has been awarded a $3,000 Pew Faculty Teaching and Learning Center (FTLC) Teaching Innovation Grant for their project, “Indigenous Methodologies and Data Sovereignty in Research-Focused Educational Foundations Courses.” The grant will help develop Indigenous methodologies, Indigenous Studies, and Indigenous education curriculum within the research-focused Educational Foundations courses Pachuta-Rysak teaches: EDF 260 (Educational Research and Assessment), EDF 495 (Capstone: Reflective Inquiry and Practice), and EDF 660 (Educational Inquiry and Evaluation).

The path to the grant began with a different project. Pachuta-Rysak had been researching external grant opportunities to support PRISM, a 2SLGBTQIA+ student organization within teacher education, and got the Dean's Innovation Grant last year. Although the student organization ultimately disbanded, the work of Dr. Sarah Chase (faculty co-sponsor of PRISM) with 2SLGBTQIA+ students entering education fields continues this year in the LEFT department. Pachuta-Rysak's interest in putting grant funding to work to increase the visibility of under-represented groups in education also continued. With guidance from Maggie Goss, who helped them learn to navigate the Pivot system and identify external funding opportunities, Pachuta-Rysak began exploring what other possibilities might be available.

Around the same time, conversations with their colleague and friend Dr. Jimmy Snyder opened the door to a new idea. Snyder, who brings expertise in Indigenous methodologies, Indigenous Studies, and Indigenous education, as well as lived experience as an Indigenous educator from the Kickapoo Nation, shared the good news of his new position at the University of New Mexico as an Assistant Professor of Indigenous Education. He connected Pachuta-Rysak with his daughter, Chamisa Edmo, member of the Navajo Nation and born Blackfeet and Shoshone-Bannock, whose graduate work focuses on Indigenous data sovereignty.

The timing was right. With the July FTLC grant deadline approaching, Pachuta-Rysak decided to move forward with an application not only because they saw a meaningful opportunity for students, but because the funding would allow them to compensate Snyder and Edmo for their expertise and knowledge rather than simply asking them to contribute their work without support.

“I thought a lot of the expertise that both Snyder and Edmo have would be perfect for my Ed Foundations 660 students in particular,” Pachuta-Rysak said.

The grant will allow Pachuta-Rysak to bring Snyder and Edmo’s expertise directly into their educational research curriculum within Educational Foundations. Snyder will help students explore foundational concepts and scholarship related to Indigenous Studies and Indigenous research methodologies. Edmo will develop a webinar focused on Indigenous data sovereignty and what it means to respect Indigenous sovereignty in an increasingly digital and AI-driven world.

For Pachuta-Rysak, the project is about more than adding “another” research approach to an existing course. They want students to understand that Indigenous methodologies can offer different ways of thinking about and living out research, knowledge, relationships and ethics.

A central theme will be the importance of relationship and reciprocity. Students will consider how researchers can approach Indigenous communities and lands with humility and respect, rather than assuming they know what a community needs or wants.

The project also reflects Pachuta-Rysak’s commitment to ensuring that Indigenous students see themselves represented in the curriculum while helping all students develop a deeper understanding of contemporary Indigenous communities, lands, sovereignty, scholarship and cultures.

“I want my students to hear from someone who has expertise in these areas, as well as experience in these areas, who can provide some of the depth that, as an outsider to Indigenous communities, I just can’t provide,” they said.

Although the initial phase of the project will focus on a graduate-level course (EDF 660), Pachuta-Rysak, along with Dr. Snyder, Ms. Edmo, and Dr. Dennis Rudnick of Metropolitan State University, Denver (CO), intend to adapt the materials for undergraduate courses, including EDF 260 and EDF 495, so that there is a learning sequence that goes all the way from early undergraduate courses to the teacher internship and getting a master's degree. Dr. Dennis Rudnick, a fellow Associate Professor of Education at MSU Denver whose teaching and research focuses on anti-oppressive identity development in teacher education, will partner with Pachuta-Rysak in implementing parts of the developed curriculum in his teacher education courses at his university as well. Pachuta-Rysak and Rudnick intend to develop a joint IRB proposal to analyze student work that comes from the implementation of the curriculum.

Their larger goal is to create progression through Educational Foundations curriculum, helping students understand how research can be used to support more just and responsive classrooms, schools, and other educational opportunities. That includes encouraging current and future educators to ask important questions about whose knowledge counts, how knowledge is produced and assessed and how research can honor the experiences and knowledge students bring from their families and communities.