| This dissertation is a study of the experiences of Native Hawaiian students as they complete their graduate and under-graduate studies at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa's College of Education. It tells the mo'olelo or stories of their experiences as they become teachers. Their stories help us understand how to develop a culturally relevant teacher education program. In this study, 6 Hawaiian students tell their stories about their quest to find coherent, functional identities as Hawaiians, as women, and as teachers/professionals.; I wrote this dissertation in 3 voices: the voice of a Native Hawaiian student and researcher; the voice of a Native Hawaiian teacher; the voice of a Native Hawaiian living in two worlds, Hawaiian and Western. This dissertation is a mixture of scholarship and story, of qualitative research and lived reality. I chose storytelling, a traditional Native Hawaiian form of communication, as a means of conveying both the richness and complexity of cultural and social phenomena with which I struggle daily.; This dissertation is personal, political, and empirical. It is a story of identity and performance; of culture and social class; of gender and "Hawaiianness"; and of the link that these all have with teaching and learning. It is a story of our own experiences as Native Hawaiian students and teachers, and how those experiences have affected us, positively and negatively. Our experiences have helped me to see and understand teaching and learning in today's world. |
