Celebrating our Navajo Partnership

Today marks the beginning of Native American Heritage Month, when we celebrate the contributions of our Native American students, alumni, faculty, staff and trustees to the Fielding community, as well as the myriad contributions of Native Americans more broadly.

Fielding has graduated numerous Navajo students from our EdD, Leadership for Change, program, and is currently partnering with the Navajo Nation to offer graduate study to more than 20 Navajo educators who are working towards their EdD degrees at Fielding.

Window Rock, Arizona, site of the Navajo Education Conference

“These educators are advancing their knowledge of learning strategies and making positive educational change while placing Navajo values and beliefs at the center of the process,” says Barbara Mink, EdD, Department Chair, Leadership Studies. Dr. Mink also works with representatives from the Nation to plan the Navajo Education Conference, held annually at the Navajo Nation Museum in Window Rock, Ariz. The next conference will take place April 23-24, 2020, with Fielding students, alumni, and other Navajo community leaders presenting their research from all levels of education, from Head Start to college.

“This conference and partnership is positively influencing educational opportunities on the Nation,” said Dr. Mink, “and informing many other educators of the importance of Indigenous ways of knowing.”

Navajo alum Miranda Haskie, EdD, 2002, has a brand new post on the Fielding news blog about how Fielding’s pedagogy is “perfectly aligned with Navajo thought,” and how she has put her dissertation – on preserving Navajo culture – to use on other projects since graduation.

Learn more by watching these short videos from presenters at the last conference:

• Dr. Miranda Haskie discusses the research interests and passions that drew members of the current Navajo cohort

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Trustee Manley Begay, EdD explains how the conference benefits the Navajo Nation, and how Fielding has stepped up to help

• Alum Henry Fowler, EdD argues that Fielding “helps you sustain your indigenous person” by inviting students to bring the wealth of who they are to their education