Abstract
The article, “Mohala i ka wai: Cultural Advantage as a Framework for Indigenous Culture-Based Education and Student Outcomes,” by Shawn Malia Kana‘iaupuni, Brandon Ledward, and Nolan Malone, represents an important story and study in Indigenous educational self-determination. Their positioning and findings of culture as an advantage in regard to positively influencing student outcomes in schools in Hawai‘i is a story many of us in the field of Indigenous education have been waiting to hear. While qualitative research in the field has shown the benefits of culture-based education (CBE) to students’ cultural identity, self-confidence, and sense of belonging (Kawagley & Barnhardt, 2004; Kulago, 2016; Lee, 2015), there has been very limited quantitative research that demonstrates these significant connections to these areas in addition to outcomes related to college aspirations and connections to community (but see e.g., recent quantitative work on Native language and culture instruction by Van Ryzin, Vincent, & Hoover, 2016). Kana‘iaupuni et al.’s work is groundbreaking, and I titled my Commentary using phrases from their article that I believe capture the magnitude of their work for the field of Indigenous education. I explain the significance of each phrase in the sections that follow.
Cultural Advantage
Educational attainment and achievement for Indigenous students have notoriously been framed from deficit perspectives for many decades now (Lomawaima & McCarty, 2006; Tuck, 2009). To frame culture as an advantage is practically revolutionary and serves as a counternarrative to deficit-based research. Kana‘iaupuni et al.’s statement, “Reframing Indigenous identities as cultural advantage creates counterhegemonic opportunities, giving voice to the expertise of elders and other cultural sources,” illustrates the message that our stories as Indigenous people are vital sources of knowledge. Stories are our theories (Archibald, 2008; Brayboy, 2005), and as Archibald (2008) asserts, stories are our teachers. They represent our knowledge systems and our evolving cultures. In this sense, cultural advantage prioritizes our stories and knowledge and recognizes the fluidity of our cultures for informing and transforming Indigenous education.
Double Win
Kana‘iaupuni et al. posit that CBE practices create a “double win” teaching environment where CBE is in congruence with effective teaching practices. Grounded in earlier work by Beaulieu (2006), Demmert et al. (2010, 2014), and Demmert and Towner (2003), they demonstrate the direct application of CBE in schools through the components of language, family and community, content, context, and assessment. In my work and conversations with many teachers, CBE is often viewed as an esoteric concept or even as just a metaphor (Lee, 2015). Teachers are unsure how to put it into practice, signifying the lack of such focus in their teacher training programs. They see it as “teaching culture,” and it becomes a stagnant and static curricular topic. Kana‘iaupuni et al. worked collaboratively with Hawaiian scholars and practitioners to develop a Hawaiian Indigenous Education (teaching) Rubric to map tangible teaching practices that are culturally based in Hawaiian contexts, making CBE palpable and concrete to identify and to put into practice for teachers. The scope of their study (62 schools, 600 teachers, and 2,600 students) is remarkable and provides large-scale evidence of the impact and effectiveness of CBE. Their findings provide further indication and support of the role CBE can play across cultural contexts and across ethnicities, thus creating a double win for students who benefit from both CBE and effective teaching.
Rich Cultural Learning Environment
Creating a rich cultural learning environment entails much more than honoring Native peoples on a specific day, week, or month. A school that embodies the culturally based values, knowledge, and practices of Indigenous peoples throughout their mission, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and school climate is truly living culturally and creating a rich environment for learning (Lipka, 2002). Kana‘iaupuni et al. found that even among Hawaiian-language schools, there was no effect of these schools on their student outcomes unless the language was taught through culturally rich methods, such as in the immersion schools. In other words, teaching the mechanics of Native languages does not automatically infuse culture if the language is taught only as a language, like a foreign language, devoid of culture, community, and worldviews. Their findings hit home the importance of integrating Indigenous knowledges, philosophies, and practices for any schooling context in order to inspire students’ positive college aspirations, sense of belonging, self-efficacy, cultural affiliation, and connections to community.
Where All Children Blossom
In my heritage community (Diné), we value a practice called k’é, which is how a family and community support, care, love, and are responsible for one another’s well-being. K’é creates positive relationships, builds sustainable communities, and ensures cultural continuity (Lee, 2016). The Hawaiian cultural advantage framework is an example of k’é in practice in the sense that the goal of education in this framing is to create educational systems where families, teachers, and community work together so that all children blossom from the roots of their cultural homelands. The authors’ research marks the essential connections between home, school, and culture. More importantly, their research underscores our common visions and goals for all of our children to blossom.
Footnotes
T