This program is for students who have a research topic (with a major focus on family) in mind, as well as for those who would like to learn how to do research in a student-centered environment. Students will be exposed to research methods, ethnographic research and interviewing techniques, writing workshops, computer literacy, library workshops, moving River of Culture Moments to documentary, educational technology and the educational philosophy that supports this program. Yvonne Peterson will offer a special series of workshops to support the particular academic needs of first- and second-year students.

We will ask students to take a very personal stake in their educational development. Within the program's family theme and subjects, students will pay special attention to what individual and group work they plan on doing, how they plan to learn, how they will know they learned it, and what difference the work will make in their lives and within their communities. Students will be encouraged to assume responsibility for their choices. Faculty and students together will work to develop habits of worthwhile community interaction in the context of the education process and liberation. The faculty are interested in providing an environment of collaboration where faculty and students will identify family topics of mutual interest and act as partners in the exploration of those topics.

In this program, students develop individual projects (with an academic focus on family) to examine what it means to live in a pluralistic society at the beginning of the 21st century. Through each student's area of interest, we will look at a variety of cultural and historical perspectives and use them to help address issues connected to the program theme.

Individual research will pay special attention to the value of human relationships to the land, to work, to others and to the unknown. Work will be concentrated in cultural studies, human resource development, and ethnographic studies to include historical and political implications of encounters, and cross-cultural communication. We shall explore Native American perspectives and look at issues that are particularly relevant to Indigenous People of the Americas.

Students whose research could be enriched by being immersed in a foreign culture will have the opportunity to live in Peru for five weeks or more during winter quarter. Our access to rural communities on the Peruvian northern coast offers students the opportunity to experience volunteer community work by learning in a safe and healthy pueblo environment. Learning about Latin America through Peru will expand the concept of Native American and Indigenous peoples.

In the fall, participants will state research questions. In late fall and winter, individually and in small study groups, students and faculty will develop the historical background for their chosen questions and do the integrative review of the literature and data collection. Ongoing workshops will allow students to learn the skills for completing their projects. Late winter and into spring quarter, students will write conclusions, wrap up print/non-print projects, and prepare for a public presentation. The last part of spring will be entirely dedicated to presentations.

Depending on their individual projects, students will develop, use and explore some of the following areas: Bloom's Taxonomy; the theory of multiple intelligence; the relationship among curriculum, assessment and instruction; expectations of an Evergreen graduate and the five foci; quantitative reasoning; self- and group-motivation; communication (to include dialogue, e-mail, resources on the Web and Web crossing). They will also develop skills in creating interactive Web pages and documentaries, as well as I-movie editing and presentations using PowerPoint.