This study examined the experiences of a diverse group of K-12 educators in Hawai?i, exploring the factors that shaped their orientation towards social justice education (SJE) and their definitions and conceptualizations of SJE in their work as educators. The framework of settler colonialism highlighted the fact that there can be no social justice…

This study applied Kingdon's (2003) Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) in conjunction with Kanaka 'Oiwi Critical Race Theories (Wright & Balutski, 2015; Salis Reyes, 2018) to contextualize the creation of the Hawaiian, Asian, and Pacific Issues (HAP) general education requirement at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UH Manoa), a large, public,…

This research study makes a significant contribution to understanding the experiences of Native Hawaiian students in higher education and their college choice process. Research and literature focused on or inclusive of Native Hawaiians in higher education is scarce and limited (Reyes, 2018), so there is very little known about how Native Hawaiian…

Introduction: The purpose of the study was to identify effective teaching strategies to bridge the gap between theory-based and practical-based approaches to teaching a history curriculum. Methods: A qualitative exploratory case study was used. Twenty educators who taught history in K-12 classrooms participated in the study. Semi-structured…

Purpose: This article demonstrates the reach of Tuhiwai Smith's ideas across Pacific research. It discusses the theoretical and practical influence of her seminal work "Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples" through "holographic epistemology", an indigenous way of viewing knowledge.…

In this study, I investigate the construct validity and fairness pertaining to the use of a variety of Englishes in listening test input. I obtained data from a post-entry English language placement test administered at a public university in the United States. In addition to expectedly familiar American English, the test features Hawai'i,…

In this Brief Report, we describe an evaluation of and revisions to a rubric adapted from the Jacobs et al.'s (1981) ESL COMPOSITION PROFILE, with four rubric categories and 20-point rating scales, in the context of an intensive English program writing placement test. Analysis of 4 years of rating data (2016-2021, including 434 essays) using…

While teachers and schools across the country actively work to impart curricula that is relevant and meaningful to their students, the written standards and reading lists too often represent a Eurocentric perspective and reinforce inequities perpetuated by the status quo. Too frequently, teachers are inadequately supported with or provided…

As a way to develop a more somatic response to race and the legacy of injury and violence towards the first peoples of the Hawaiian nation, this paper's aim is to draw a connection between the early writings of American women to Hawai'i and my own positionality as a feminist scholar in present day Hawai'i. Using a feminist, postcolonial lens, I…

Three colleagues critically reflect on their experiences as educators, curriculum designers, leaders, and activists who set out to apply social justice education and transformative leadership scholarship to the creation of a Leaders of Social Justice in Education course. They begin with their background, the diverse change agents selected to build…

In this article, the author offers the genealogy of his articulation of an emerging pedagogical praxis. He offers, through his discussion of "Nakem" Pedagogy, the profound realization that comes from one's story--a story in itself, not simply a story as a tool or medium, but a story as empirical evidence of one's ontological becoming--an…

Strikingly brutal racial violence has occurred repeatedly in recent decades worldwide. Racial and ethnic biases have become critical and urgent topics in multicultural societies because they impact racial violence (Lawson, 2015; Park, 2017). Simultaneously, when students and teachers have biased perceptions toward others, it interferes with their…

Engaging in critical dialogues in language classrooms that draw on critical pedagogical perspectives can be challenging for learners because of gaps in communicative resources in their L1 and L2. Since critically oriented classrooms involve discussing social issues, students are expected to deploy "literate talk" to engage in critiquing…

This study reports on the value of community-based learning for the preparation of EdD graduates as practitioner researchers. To provide insights about the conditions that facilitated or constrained the development of inquiry abilities, the study applied a qualitative research approach examining the perceptions of 14 doctoral students who…

The last decade has seen a significant increase of international student mobility and a growing popularity of secondary school exchange programs in the United States and around the world. Drawing upon culture learning theory, the purpose of this study is to understand the impacts, challenges, and rewards of intercultural exchange on secondary…