E hoʻi i ka piko: Native Hawaiian educators' discourse on Hawaiian education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the discourse of Hawaiian education by Native Hawaiian (NH) educators. Interviews were conducted in Hawaiian language, Hawaiʻi Creole and English with twelve NH educators on the topic of Hawaiian education. Adopting a conversation analytic approach, the interviews are seen as social interactions. The study also uses membership categorization analysis (MCA) to investigate the forms of categories that are invoked between the participants as they construct themselves and others as Hawaiian educators. Though there are many studies done by, for, and about Native Hawaiians, no previous study utilizes MCA as part of the methodology. The analysis reveals three main categories that participants elaborated: Hawaiian education is the transmission of ancestral knowledge and identity; the kūpuna, the elders, are the source of ancestral knowledge; and various membership categories are intricately intertwined in the Native Hawaiian educators' discourse on Hawaiian education. This study has implications on second language, bilingual, and language revitalization studies.