Tools for Iina (Life): The Journey of the Iina Curriculum to the Glittering World

This article presents the participatory curriculum development process and foundational Diné (Navajo) concepts that inform the Tools for Iina (Life) curriculum, designed for grades 4-6 by a group of Diné educators to strengthen resiliency by addressing children's health, relationships, identity, and sense of the future, utilizing core concepts from Diné oral tradition. Rather than develop a curriculum relying only on experts, and rather than utilize existing American Indian curricula addressing specific risk behaviors or diseases, we facilitated a dialogue with a range of community members to identify core concepts from Diné oral tradition that could provide young people with a perspective on life and its conflicts and challenges, tools for building respectful and supportive relationships, and stories to inform their sense of themselves, the Diné People, and their shared future. The Ways of Life: Iina Project will make the curriculum available in 2012. We offer reflections for other tribes interested in adopting a similar curriculum development process.