The United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) Teacher Education Program released a series of videos to support program recruitment covering a wide range of topics and perspectives from current and past students, tribal elders, and education administrators. The program is funded by the American Indian College Fund through the Wounspekiya Unspewicakiyapi Native Teacher Education pilot program.

Wounspekiya Unspewicakiyapi can be translated from Dakota to describe the purpose of the project as “teaching teachers.” Through the program, partner tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) received $200,000-$275,000 over a two-year grant term to share promising practices that would serve as the basis for exploring solutions to the Native teacher shortage. Methods for addressing this issue would model Native understanding and support students through the completion of their teacher education program and state licensing process.

The video series is only one resource created as part of UTTC’s multi-faceted Dragonfly Project, operating under Wounspekiya Unspewicakiyapi, which is focused on enhancing pathways into the teaching profession for Native students by offering online courses, inclusion of Indigenous pedagogy, and preparatory materials and trainings for required Praxis and certification exams.