Ed.D. - Professional Practice
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Item Wāhine Defining College Success: The wisdom of mana wāhine at UH Maui College(2023) Naeole, Davileigh Kahealani; Kahumoku, Walter; Professional Educational PracticeItem A Radical Idea: Female Senior Student Affairs Officers and Personal Wellness(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Jerome, Allison A.; Ideta, Lori M.; Professional Educational PracticeThe culture of the student affairs profession supports a commitment to the holistic development of students, often requiring staff to be available around the clock. A Senior Student Affairs Officer (SSAO) must be prepared to address the evolving demands of student life and such attentiveness can make it difficult to disconnect from work in order to find time and energy to practice self-care. Female SSAOs contend with the added pressure of societal gender norms which often place the onus of caring for others upon women. Previous research tells us that women SSAOs are more likely than male colleagues to experience stress which can lead to burnout, feelings of inadequacy, and exhaustion. This study reveals how female SSAOs address their wellness needs while attending to the constant demands of the student affairs profession and life beyond a professional career. Utilizing a narrative inquiry approach, this study used the qualitative methods of semi-structured interviews, photo elicitation, and post-interview reflections to explore the wellness strategies of 12 female SSAOs. Through a careful analysis of the data, four themes focused on strategies emerged from the voices of the female SSAOs - connections with others, physical activity, separation from work and campus, and mindfulness. The study also exposed notable thoughts on what supports and undermines the ability of these female SSAOs to implement self-care strategies. In addition, this narrative inquiry uncovered significant findings which impacted the participants’ wellness strategies including the COVID-19 pandemic, gender, and the nature of work in student affairs. Implications for policy and practice are discussed, as well as those for future research. Recommendations for female SSAOs, student affairs administrators, supervisors, and professional associations are also included.Item An Exploration Of Equitable Math Practices In Upper Elementary And Middle School Classrooms During The COVID-19 Pandemic(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Schofield, Nicole Kathleen; Lucas, Christopher M.; Heck, Ronald; Professional Educational PracticeABSTRACTThis qualitative single-case study explored how eight upper elementary and middle school math teachers from an independent school in Hawaiʻi conceptualized equitable math practices and implemented these practices into their classrooms amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The research revealed teachers' concepts of equity included individualization, access and opportunities for learning, inclusive learning environments, and fostering a growth mindset. The implementation of equitable practices by teachers to aligning with these conceptualizations was demonstrated through strategies such as differentiated instruction, technology integration, and collaboration. Emphasized in the research was the role of the teacher in creating inclusive, supportive learning environments that embraced student diversity and nurtured a growth mindset. The study also identified challenges faced by teachers, such as access to technology, resource limitations, and the task of maintaining student engagement.Item Navigating the Voyage Within: Teacher Perceptions on Embedded Social Emotional Learning in the English Language Arts Classroom(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Tom, Matthew T.Y.F.; Murata, Nathan M.; Professional Educational PracticeThe middle school English Language Arts (ELA) classroom is a place where adolescents can articulate their experiences, empathize with characters, and process the world around them. Social emotional learning (SEL) is fundamentally woven in the fabric of English Language Arts, as an underpinning of ELA is to qualify the world and analyze it. This qualitative case study describes eight ELA teachers’ present levels of preparedness and currently implemented strategies in integrating SEL as an organically embedded component of ELA instruction at a middle school in urban Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Semi-structured interviews, a focus group, and a post-interview survey were used to garner teacher perceptions of SEL in the ELA classroom. Results indicated that ELA teachers feel SEL is a natural component of ELA instruction, strong relationships between students and teachers are important, SEL integration contributes to academic and emotional engagement, and SEL instruction has become more intentional. In addition, ELA teachers expressed interest in exploring peer mentoring systems of support and professional development on navigating contemporary issues.Item An Examination of Native Hawaiian Belonging at Leeward Community College: Applying the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments Model to an Aspiring Model Indigenous-Serving Institution(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Losch, Tracie; Wright, Erin K.; Professional Educational PracticeThe University of Hawai’i (UH) is among the many colleges and universities worldwide taking steps to integrate Indigenous people, cultures, and histories into its structure, policies, and institutional culture to close achievement gaps and empower Indigenous scholars and their communities. As one of ten campuses in the UH system, Leeward Community College (Leeward CC) acknowledges its commitment to Native Hawaiians in its mission and to support the UH system’s aspiration to become a “model indigenous-serving” institution. This qualitative, single-site case study examined Leeward CC’s campus environment concerning a sense of belonging and perceptions of Native Hawaiians and Hawaiian culture. Additionally, the study sought to identify the defining traits of a “model indigenous-serving” Leeward CC as perceived by the Native Hawaiian employees and explore potential solutions for addressing these characteristics within the college. This study used the Culturally Engaging Campus Environments (CECE) model to examine Leeward CC’s campus environment regarding belonging for Native Hawaiian students and employees and the college’s responsiveness to the needs of the Native Hawaiian students and employees. Faculty, staff, and students provided feedback through a survey. At the same time, interviews were conducted with Native Hawaiian employees who worked closely with Native Hawaiian students or were involved in initiatives directly related to Native Hawaiian students or employees. The data revealed that while most participants felt a sense of belonging on campus, there are disparities between Native Hawaiian and non-Native Hawaiian students and employees. Native Hawaiian employees and students are less likely to feel a sense of belonging, valued as a community, and are less satisfied than their non-Native Hawaiian counterparts with opportunities to learn about Hawaiian culture and communities or to improve or give back to the Hawaiian community. Interviewees reported a tenuous sense of belonging, noting that although they generally feel comfortable on campus, their comfort and sense of belonging are context-specific and often changed depending on location or surrounding personnel. Interviewees saw a “model indigenous-serving” Leeward CC as one that prioritizes and integrates the indigenous people, mindsets, environments, and collective wellness in decision-making, leadership, and service to the surrounding community. However, interviewees stressed that individual efforts without institutional support are unsustainable, and the vision of a “model indigenous-serving” Leeward CC is challenging without institutional support in the form of coordination, permanent positions, consistent funding, and a more holistic approach to student support.Item Ecological Approaches Towards Agentic School Environments: Narratives of Teacher Agency at DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Mandado, Ryan Canoneo; Alencastre, Makalapua; Professional Educational PracticeThis research study examines the mindsets, actions, and relationships needed to feel, foster, and further agency in education. DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach (DreamHouse) is Hawai‘i’s newest and fastest growing public school on O‘ahu. This paper shares how teachers at DreamHouse experience teacher agency in their professional work environment. Agency is ecological - defined as iterational, projective, and practical-evaluative. Iterational aspects of agency focus on lived experiences of individuals. Projective aspects of agency focuses on future-orientations and desire for new realities. Practical-evaluative aspects of agency focuses on what can be changed now to reach the desired reality for people. By understanding the ecological nature of agency, I asked, “how do teachers feel, foster, and further agency in education?” Using a dynamic narrative inquiry methodology, interviews were conducted with eleven teachers to investigate what ecological factors contribute to teacher agency. Narratives from teachers were analyzed and connected themes emerged from their ideas, thoughts, and experiences. The role of a school leader in sustaining teacher agency was also investigated in this study. The findings address recommendations for school leaders who find interest in education sovereignty and agency for their school communities. Through this research study, I have discovered that teachers experience agency when they commit to reimagining education, look at themselves as transformational leaders, and trust others to lead. To accomplish these aspects of agency, school leaders must create vulnerable spaces for their teachers, persist and navigate their teams through rapid changes, and trust their teachers to make change. I also began to understand the intentional power and potential of designing for agency and how to persist against systems that are meant to be transformed.Item “drop Out” Factors Of Students From The Federated States Of Micronesia And The Republic Of The Marshall Islands: The Stories That Have Not Been Told(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2023) Lowe, Saofai Pao; Ideta, Lori M.; Professional Educational PracticeThe high school dropout problem in the U.S. has been studied extensively; however, the dropout of English Learner (EL) students is an underreported phenomenon. This study sought to understand the lived experiences of EL students from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) who attended high school on the Westside of O‘ahu, in the state of Hawai‘i and what contributed to their decisions to discontinue their high school education. The study used a phenomenological approach (Reiners, 2012; van Mannen, 2016) to understand the participants’ experiences with the schools and data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 18 EL Indigenous alumni and elders from the FSM and RMI regions. Factors that impacted the discontinuation of high school education for EL alumni from the FSM and RMI included personal care, the impact of school personnel, language discrimination, policy inequities, and invisibility. Other themes that emerged from the participants' lived experiences included the strength of character, poverty and transience, and other forms of discrimination such as microaggression, racism, and bullying. These findings indicate the critical and most significant need for parent engagement at school, instead of parent involvement, having own-race teacher representation, a student cultural club, and culturally sustaining and translanguaging pedagogies. Other essential implications include teacher training on unconventional means of assessing EL students, adding additional years for EL students to complete their high school education, and for researchers to stop the perpetuation of deficit labels of Indigenous people in their research.Item He Au Puni Palapala: A Critical Analysis Of The Influences Of Christo-Colonization And American English Language Teaching Methods On ʻōiwi Kanaka And ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2022) Seto, Cyrus; Kahumoku, Walter III; Professional Educational PracticeThe focus of this research study centers on a critical problem-of-practice related to the authenticity of an Indigenous language during a time when many native vernaculars are quickly disappearing from use. This investigation explored historic documents–e.g., journals, sermons, letters, official communications–produced by Protestant missionaries in the 1800s to determine the degree to which Kanaka Hawaiʻi pikoʻu kanaka (Hawaiian identity) and ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) were altered. As the New England ministers and their families began arriving in Hawaiʻi in 1820, they took to developing a written form of ʻŌlelo Makuahine (Hawaiian language) to educate the native population. In the process, they utilized American-English grammar, syntax, and other literary devices as well as pedagogical approaches that they brought with them to translate and teach the Protestant Bible and Calvinist ideologies. In the push from orality to literacy, kanaka Hawaiʻi communication, epistemology, cosmology, axiology, and ontology were significantly modified. This study also explored six major Hawaiian language textbooks used to teach Hawaiian language in the last thirty years and found that some of the Christo-Colonized pedagogy and forms of literacy are currently in use to not only teach ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi but also have become normalized and accepted as authentic. This study recommends: 1) increased research to expand understanding of Christo-Colonized influences on current Kānaka Hawaiʻi thinking, communication, belief systems, and ways of being; 2) more investigation into ʻŌiwi (precontact) linguistic methodologies to refine what might be considered as authentic linguistic exchange; and 3) expand professional development for kumu of ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and pikoʻu kanaka on the multiple influences that impact Hawaiian language and identity. Key Words: Indigenous language, epistemology, ontology, cosmology; ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, ʻŌlelo, palapala; Native teaching methodology, pedagogy, Memoriter, Catechism, Lancastrian; Christo-Colonization; moʻoʻōlelo; moʻopalapala; Christianity, Protestant (Calvanist) religion, literacy, proselytization, foreign missionaries and the American Board of Christian Foreign Missions; Social Justice of Indigenous Peoples; Native indoctrination, colonization-decolonization, language acquisition, knowledge transmission; Oracy; Mānaleo; Neo-Hawaiian.Item Dr. Lui K. Hokoana: A Study Of Leadership At The University Of Hawai‘i, An Indigenous Serving Institution (an Oral History Inquiry)(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2020) Yamada, Joyce Tomoe Uyeda; Murata, Nathan M.; Professional Educational PracticeAs an indigenous serving institution, the University of Hawai‘i (UH) serves all indigenous groups including Pacific Islander groups. Continual and practical training of emerging educational leaders at the UH is critical to the ongoing success of Hawai‘i’s only public post-secondary institution. Employing the oral history methodology, I examined the leadership journey of Dr. Lui K. Hokoana as he navigated through the UH system to identify key leadership themes, trends and characteristics of an effective leader serving within the UH, as an indigenous serving institution. As a Native Hawaiian, UH leader and crafter of the UH Hawai‘i Papa O Ke Ao (HPOKA) Initiative, Dr. Hokoana presented a unique mo‘olelo (story) that I studied through the theoretical framework of Burgess’ Building My Beloved Community as a qualitative research project. I conducted a purposeful sampling of fifteen supporting participants. Of the fifteen supporting participants, eleven participated in a semi-structured interview and four participated in a focus group interview. I conducted five semi-structured interviews of Dr. Hokoana as the primary participant. Through a deductive analysis, I identified six pre-determined typologies based on the Mission of UH Maui College and the UH Hawai‘i Papa O Ke Ao Report. From the data, I identified seven emergent typologies. I summarized the data supporting the pre-determined and the emergent typologies and I identified four overall themes based on Native Hawaiian concepts presented in the data. The typologies suggested Dr. Hokoana’s leadership characteristics are kuleana, responsibility to family and community; pilina, relationships, such as mentoring, providing opportunities, having a safe environment, trusting relationships and student, employee and community advocacy; having an optimistic outlook; supported by ‘ohana values, such as ho‘okipa, hospitality and humility; addressing challenges by the support of ‘ohana values; and being adaptive to change. From Dr. Hokoana’s mo‘olelo, it was suggested that a beloved community of leaders would know one’s hua and have appreciation for one’s gifts, develop and maintain meaningful relationships through radical aloha; live and lead through Native Hawaiian values balanced within a traditional and contemporary framework; and support the notion that everyone can lead from whatever position they hold.Item A Narrative Inquiry: Decolonizing Practices With Filipino Students At A Community College In Hawaiʻi(University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2020) Batallones, Jeanne; Halagao, Patricia E.; Professional Educational PracticeThe purpose of this qualitative, narrative inquiry was to understand the experiences of Filipino students at a community college in Hawai‘i and whether decolonizing practices in student affairs fostered positive ethnic identity, student engagement and agency. The primary findings from a cross-comparative analysis of three Filipino community college students’ narratives who were exposed to decolonizing practices suggests decolonizing practices in student affairs were a promising intervention for facilitating positive Filipino ethnic identity, increasing student engagement, and agency. Furthermore, the analysis of findings suggests participation with decolonizing student activities can serve as a critical mental health intervention for Filipino students who experience shame of ethnic identity, lack of peer support, and family pressures to succeed. The educational narratives of study participants revealed their self-concept and ethnic identity were shaped by a dominant narrative where they were rendered invisibilized and marginalized. As a result of experiencing decolonizing practices, the narratives of these three Filipino community college students in Hawai‘i were powerful counter-stories of community cultural wealth that dismantled the dominant narrative. This study offers recommendations to address the need for future policy, practice, and research by: (a) decolonizing curriculum and programs, (b) decolonizing practices for academic and support services, and (c) decolonizing research.