The Diné Institute for Navajo Nation Educators (DINÉ)

1. Diné and other Indigenous youth, teachers, elders, and communities are rich sources and sites of knowledge.

2. Culturally responsive schooling is a best practice, and the DINÉ integrates Navajo traditional knowledge throughout all aspects of our teaching, learning, and leading.

3. Initiatives that strengthen teaching through culturally responsive professional development will in turn improve the educational attainment of Diné and other Indigenous youth, which is a necessary component for tribal nation (re)building goals of sovereign Native Nations in the U.S.

• Increased knowledge of best practices in culturally responsive curriculum development
• Completion of a published, self-authored curriculum unit for use in your classroom
• Access to colleague’s self-authored curriculum units for use in your classroom
• Networking and learning from other educators in Native-serving schools
• A stipend provided upon program completion
• Graduate course credit available, for a fee

We are no longer accepting applications for our 2024 DINÉ seminar cohorts. If you are interested in INE’s 2025 professional development seminars, please fill out this form and we will contact you when 2025 applications are available.

Participants in the DINÉ are motivated, intellectually curious teachers who want to improve their content knowledge and have high expectations for their students.

Eligibility criteria

• A full-time, fully certified K-12 teacher in a grant, BIE, or public school on or bordering the Navajo Nation
• Intend to remain in the same school district or school next school year.
• Completed at least one full year of teaching.
• Committed to attending all in-person and online meetings, including 3 Saturdays & a 10-day summer residency in 2024.
• Seeking a challenge, but supportive opportunity to learn more about a content area, and write a curriculum unit to use in your classroom
• Wanting to embed Diné culture and/or language within your curriculum
• Principal support to participate in the fellowship.

Fellows must also commit to remaining in the classroom in their current district or school on the Native Nation for at least three years. Due to the workload, first-year teachers are not typically a good fit for the DINÉ.

Expectations of accepted applicants

• Attend ALL online and in-person meetings, including the final Showcase and Open House on Saturday, December 7, 2024 in Flagstaff. Please see the DINÉ 2024 Program Calendar to ensure you can attend all online and in-person meetings. 
• Submit all writing assignments on time, including the final complete curriculum unit that meets program specifications.
• Maintain regular communication via email and/or phone with the program staff.
• Improve content knowledge in the relevant topic area.
• Grow capacity to engage students using the principles of cultural responsiveness.

Application Process

Step 1: Get your principal’s support.

You will need to confirm that your principal supports your application. Please discuss this with your principal before you apply. 

Step 2: Confirm your eligibility

Please carefully read the “Eligibility criteria” and “Expectations of accepted applicants” sections to confirm your eligibility. This includes ensuring that you can attend ALL in-person and virtual meetings. 

Step 3: Submit your application

The application is completed via Google forms, which requires you to complete and submit the entire application at one time. Please be sure you allow sufficient time to do this; we recommend approximately one hour. 

The application includes one question that should be answered in 300-600 words. The question is, “Part of the DINÉ Institute’s mission is to work with teachers who are leaders in their schools or communities. How do you demonstrate leadership in your role as a teacher?” 

It may be helpful to draft your response in a Word/Google Document (or something similar) then copy and paste your response into the application when you are ready to submit. 

Step 4: Notification of acceptance

The Institute for Native-serving Educators will inform you of your application status by March 18, 2024. If you are selected to be a fellow of DINÉ in 2024, you will receive information about this year’s seminar topics. Please be ready to choose your top two choices of seminars and a short explanation of why you are interested in those seminar topics. 

Ready to get started?

Apply to DINÉ!

Click the link above or scan the QR Code below with your mobile device to be taken to the application page.

DINÉ schedule for 2024

DINÉ Seminar Schedule 2024 Fule & Martin

DINÉ Seminar Schedule 2024 Berglund

DINÉ Seminar Topics 2024

Taking Care of the Land with Traditional Ecological Knowledge | Pete Fulé & Jon Martin | Forestry & Ecological Restoration Institute

This seminar will focus on Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), a body of knowledge, belief, and practices handed through generations about the relationships between people, animals, plants, and the environment. Traditional practices such as gathering plants for food and medicine, and interacting with fire for managing landscapes, have been important for the health and well-being of Native American communities and ecosystems, but much of the traditional wisdom and experience was suppressed or perhaps even lost due to colonial settlement. Today, many Indigenous elders, scholars, and youth are interested in restoring practices such as plant collection and fire use to benefit the land, improve resilience to climate change, and strengthen traditional ties and tribal sovereignty. Our seminar will discuss local to global examples, with readings, videos, field trips and invited guests who help us to explore TEK. Teacher Fellows will be encouraged to develop TEK curriculum materials relevant to their own tribal communities.

Click here to watch the introduction video for this seminar.

Humanities Seminar: Relationality and Kinship | Jeff Berglund

This seminar will explore the relationality of all living beings and what might be considered “relational identities.” In particular, we’ll use the concept of k’é as a means to inspire curriculum units for your classrooms, whether your focus be Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, Art, Music, or other subjects. Lloyd Lee, Diné education scholar, describes k’é as the “integral system designed to understand the relationship that Diné peoples have to one another and all living things on Earth and in the universe.” Considering the physical world and other-than-human world as kin alongside human-human notions of kinship reorients the way that we consider numerous topics from education to civic engagement to food scarcity to homelessness to bordertown violence to immigration to land management to environmental protection, among so many others.

Our common readings to kick-start this exploration will include work by Diné and Indigenous writers and filmmakers, especially works geared toward young learners. Based on interest, we may read one longer common work, the second novel by Brian Young, Heroes of the Water Monster (2023).

Educator standards resources

Teachers in this program will each write a culturally responsive, integrated thematic curriculum unit. Each unit must align to the State Standards, and each unit must also demonstrate key principles of culturally responsive schooling.

• Arizona State Standards

• New Mexico State Standards

• Department of Diné Education Standards