2010-2011 Scholarship Recipients - College of Education

Research Interests
My primary focus involves Native American education, the history of
which has often been tragic and frequently remains silenced. My personal
and professional goals include shifting Indian education more toward the
center of traditional educational forums. In order to achieve these goals,
my dissertation centers on comparing levels of perceived working
conditions and teacher commitment across different types of Bureau of
Indian Education funded schools. Another substantial portion of my time
is devoted to a qualitative study of former Indian Service teachers,
specifically those who worked at Intermountain Indian School in
Brigham City, Utah between 1950 and 1965.
Don Stryker
Steffensen Cannon
Scholarship
Program
Ph.D., Department of
Educational Leadership & Policy
About Don
Don has worked in education since 1988 when he became a Peace
Corps Volunteer in Guatemala, Central America. Upon returning from
the Peace Corps he moved to the Southwest and taught mathematics,
science and Spanish before going overseas to teach in Karachi, Pakistan.
After Karachi, he returned to Kayenta, Arizona on the Navajo Nation
where he taught three years before transitioning into school
administration. He moved with his family to Salt Lake City in 2003 when
his wife joined the first cohort of students in the American Indian
Teacher Training Program here at the U. Since the move to Salt Lake City,
he has worked for the Utah State Office of Education and Granite School
District.