Indigenous Roots Teacher Education Program
Welcome
The University of Nebraska Lincoln and its consortium partners Little Priest Tribal College and the Nebraska Department of Education have recently been awarded a four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Indian Education. The Indigenous Roots Teacher Education Program (ROOTS) prepares American Indian students interested in working with children in area schools, with opportunities to become certified elementary education and bilingual teachers employed in Nebraska’s schools that serve American Indian students. The 2016 ROOTS program proposes to serve at least 22 new UNL students.
We are currently seeking American Indian applicants with a strong desire to be a teacher and work with American Indian students in Nebraska schools and across the midwest.
Undergraduate or Initial Certification Program
The ROOTS program will recruit and train a cohort of American Indian undergraduate or post-bac students living in or near the communities of Santee, Walthill, Macy and/or Winnebago, Nebraska. Students living in Omaha and Lincoln will also be recruited to participate. Up to 14 students will be recruited to participate in the INITIAL certification program.
Additional Certification Program
Graduates who already have earned certification and are teaching in area schools will be recruited to participate in the ADDITIONAL certification program. ADDITIONAL certification will be offered in the areas of ELL and Special Education. Up to 10 students will be recruited to participate in the ADDITIONAL certification program.
More and more I have to admire resilience. Not the simplest resistance of a pillow, whose foam returns over and over to the same shape, but the sinuous tenacity of a tree: finding the light newly blocked on one side, it turns in another. A blind intelligence, true. But out of such persistence arose turtles, rivers, mitochondria, figs--all this resinous, unretractable earth. Jane Hirschfield Optimism
Changing lives in Native American communities
Indigenous people are described as having unique histories and cultures and are usually tied to specific territories. With a great respect for Native American culture in Nebraska and a goal of helping Native students earn teaching degrees, the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education developed the Indigenous Roots (ROOTS) program.