Dr. Camille Locklear Goins, assistant professor and project director for the First Americans' Educational Leadership (FAEL) program at UNC Pembroke and Jeremiah Moore, a UNCP and FAEL alumnus, were among the presenters at the 2021 Arts Humanities Social Sciences/STEAM & Education Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Their session entitled Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leadership: Best Practices for Addressing Equity and Diversity with STEM/STEAM Education in Indigenous Communities (Southeastern Tribal Focus) emphasized the colonial impacts on southeastern tribal communities and how this trauma infiltrated native systems of communal education. The presentation focused on maximizing student achievement in education in the K-12 model by reinforcing decolonizing instructional measures through fostering creative potentiality, cultural revitalization and curating an open demand for social justice and change.
Goins and Moore exposed participants to multimodal technology tools and provided resources and strategies for decolonizing education to provide a culturally responsive learning environment through STEM/STEAM Education. By integrating naturalized STEAM learning, creating and infusing cultural components, participants learned of ways to promote the educational advancement of Indigenous students and serve in the vein of Decolonization Theory. The focus on Culturally Responsive Leadership ensures educators under their supervision are culturally responsive and can provide equitable learning experiences for advancing educational opportunities to improve Indigenous student outcomes.
"As a member of the Lumbee Tribe, a UNCP alumna and faculty member, it was an honor to have the opportunity to present our research on a national level and to share successful education practices that we have implemented in Indigenous communities," stated Dr. Goins.
Moore agreed, saying, "Being a strong advocate for Indigenous success in education, I am completely elated to have had the opportunity to present our research and experience on a national scale. Uniquely, we were able to infuse many aspects of Lumbee culture into our presentation, focusing on kinship systems, connection to placement and our intimate relationship with the Lumber River. As well, the audience appreciated that this research was not just theoretical, but applied practice with proven results."
Moore earned a master's degree in school administration in 2020 and currently serves as a curriculum specialist with the Public Schools of Robeson County.
The 10th Annual STEM/STEAM and Education Conference promotes an academia well versed in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts, math and education, which is a vital portion of the public education agenda of the United States. In addition, the conference intends to stimulate competitiveness and our nation's future economic prosperity through encouraging and inspiring more of our best and brightest academics in the study of STEM/STEAM and education fields.
The FAEL project is funded by a five-year, $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to address the shortage of American Indian administrators in the state's public school districts with a large American Indian student population.
