Hoʻolohe Pono: Listening to the Voices of Parents and Community to Envision a School-Family-Community Partnership at Waimānalo School

Abstract

The primary aim of this study is to promote social justice and educational equity by empowering the voices of parents and community members in a rural public-school community with a diverse minority population. The research questions focused on understanding how their perceptions, beliefs, experiences, and values influence their engagement with the local public school. Based on the values of the community and its families, I offer recommendations to improve the school’s family and community engagement efforts to support students’ academic achievement as well as their overall experience in school. This study focused on Waimānalo Elementary and Intermediate School, which is located in the culturally diverse community of Waimānalo. Waimānalo has a large Native Hawaiian population, as well as other minority ethnic groups such as Filipinos, Micronesians, and Samoans. Because the majority of Waimānalo residents and students at Waimānalo School represent these nondominant groups, particularly the indigenous people of Hawaiʻi, I used parent involvement research and critical theories, such as critical race theory, tribal critical race theory, community cultural wealth, setter colonialism, and survivance, to analyze the data. I conducted semi-structured interviews with 22 participants who reflected the diverse cultural composition of the Waimānalo community. The participants represented key stakeholder groups that are too often left out of the school improvement process, including former students and parents, current parents, current staff members, and community members and leaders. Participants varied in age, gender, ethnic and cultural background, level of involvement with Waimānalo School, and level of involvement in the community. While individual participants had different experiences and preferences for school programs and offerings, ultimately, participants shared an appreciation for the smallness and closeness of the school and community, as well as an acknowledgement and resistance toward the stigmatization of Waimānalo and Waimānalo School. The Hawaiian values of aloha, ʻohana, and kuleana were important to participants regardless of their ancestry, and there was also a shared appreciation for the Hawaiian culture and an ahupuaʻa lifestyle. The parents and community members who took part in this study favored a strengths-based approach that reflects the cultural wealth of their community and school.