A Moʻokūʻauhau Of Educational Decision-making In Hawaiʻi: Native Hawaiians In Higher Education

Abstract

Native Hawaiians have long been underrepresented among Hawaiʻi’s university graduates, yet there is a dearth of studies that explore factors that have contributed to these disparities. My dissertation investigated how multiple factors: prejudices among education administrators, erasures of early advocates from dominant narratives, and failures to evaluate and/or sustain Native-serving programs have resulted in wide disparities between the ethnic group with the smallest proportion of university graduates in Hawaiʻi (Native Hawaiian) and the one with the largest proportion of graduates (White). Consistent with Indigenous research methodologies, methods used herein involved designing inquiry that posed questions to problems for which Native Hawaiians seek solutions; privileged Native Hawaiian language, culture, and values; and incorporated Native Hawaiian stakeholders as co-researchers. To ensure access to and relevance for fellow educators, practitioners, and advocates, this dissertation generated an overview of my positionality and three articles that can be easily disseminated to and adapted by other Native communities. Most data collected came from primary sources: personal experiences, university and government archives, eyewitnesses, U.S. Census, institutional records, and participant feedback. These unique data enabled a critical review of Native Hawaiian presence at the University of Hawaiʻi as depicted in its dominant historiographies and institutional reports. Salient themes in these data suggested that endeavors to restore the presence of Native Hawaiians within UH’s historiographies, sustain effective strategies at-scale, and incorporate eradicating university degree disparities in Hawaiʻi among UH’s strategic priorities offer promising opportunities for increasing Hawaiʻi’s Native Hawaiian university graduates.