The Carpentries Receives a Catalytic Award for Training at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College

The Workshops and Instruction Team are thrilled to share that our project, Empowering Indigenous Research Through Open Science: Pedagogical Training at KBOCC, has received funding through the Catalytic Awards Program.

This award supports a collaboration between The Carpentries and Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC) to strengthen open scholarship at a rural Tribal College and expand equitable access to research training within Indigenous communities.

Why This Matters

Open science increases transparency, strengthens trust, and broadens participation in research. However, many rural and under-resourced institutions, including Tribal Colleges, have had limited access to formal training in reproducible research practices and open workflows.

Through this award, we will host a two-day, in-person Carpentries Pedagogical Training at KBOCC. Approximately ten faculty, staff, and students will participate in an interactive training focused on:

• Evidence-based, learner-centered teaching practices.
• Open science principles and reproducible workflows.
• Designing accessible and inclusive lessons.
• Supporting learners with limited technical backgrounds.
• Building culturally responsive instruction grounded in community values.

Building Sustainable, Community-Led Open Scholarship

This initiative strengthens internal instructional capacity so that KBOCC can:

• Offer recurring workshops without relying solely on external partners.
• Increase research confidence among Indigenous adult learners and returning students.
• Foster transparency and reproducibility in local research practices.
• Integrate open science training into the college’s Four Directions of Student Engagement framework.

Importantly, this project is reciprocal. While KBOCC builds instructional capacity, The Carpentries will deepen its understanding of the strengths, barriers, and priorities of Tribal Colleges. These insights will inform future partnerships and help ensure that open science initiatives are culturally grounded, respectful, and community-centered.

We are honoured to partner with KBOCC in this work and excited to observe the ripple effects that will emerge as new Instructors begin leading open science learning across their campus and beyond.

Stay tuned for updates as we create a momentous partnership with KBOCC.