In this edition of Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy: A Blog for Progressive Educators the editors feature a team of Punahou School high school students who are spearheading Kids Voting Hawai‘i. In preparation for the USA’s 2024 General Election, we were interested in learning more about this youth-driven civic education initiative as it exemplifies the power and potential of a 21st Century progressive education. John Dewey (1980) asserted that “democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife” (p.139) and the Kids Voting Hawai‘i team demonstrates how youth can take the lead in applying modern-day technologies and communication systems to provide the next generation with real world civic education experience. Also recipients of the 2024 Hawai‘i Social Justice Educator Award, enjoy learning from this group of teams in their responses below. 

Hanahau‘oli School continues to strengthen its role as a leader in the progressive education movement by increasing its capacity as a “living laboratory,” which facilitates the “scientific” study of teaching and educational excellence. In partnership with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, College of Education, the living laboratory at Hanahau‘oli builds on the school’s already established Professional Development School (PDS) model (Goodlad, 1984) to promote the “simultaneous renewal of schools” and the “education of educators.” This partnership creates a school culture characterized by inquiry, systemic exploration, creativity, and data-driven discovery for the purpose of learning more about ourselves, one another, our place (environment), and the art of teaching (design, instruction and assessment). The living laboratory at Hanahau‘oli helps to increase the school and university’s prominence as sought after destinations for educators, researchers, scholars, and innovators who want to collaborate on educational improvement and the creation of a better future society. 

Hawaiʻi is a truly unique and special place. Those fortunate enough to live here have a kuleana (responsibility) to care for the ʻāina (land), to support their kaiāulu (community), and to respect the host culture and Native Hawaiian people. But how does one truly learn about this special place, its culture, and its people? While signs, flyers, and public service announcements offer some insight, these touchpoints often remain superficial. To cultivate a deeper understanding and appreciation, it is essential to implement culture-based and place-based education in our schools.

Early in 2020, I enrolled in Leaders of Social Justice in Education: Theory to Practice, a course taught by Dr. Amber Makaiau, Dr. Patricia Halagao, and Dr. Ger Thao. This course was offered through the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) at Mānoa College of Education (COE) in collaboration with the Hanahauʻoli School Professional Development Center as part of an initiative to advance social justice education in Hawaiʻi. This initiative, the Social Justice in Education Project, aims to grow local educators’ capacity for educating children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy, and is made possible by the generosity and support of Jana and Howard Wolff.

In 1937, Louisa Palmer wrote to the Hanahau’oli School community:

Progressive education..is a moving, dynamic, changing education – not a theory or a system proved and therefore static, but a living thing, growing, continuously having to change because of the three great changing elements with which we deal – children, environment and civilization or culture. This should not indicate instability or following fads, nor change of fundamental principles. But it does indicate a readiness to accept a new viewpoint when the need for it arises; it does indicate watching life and children alertly – not passively as so much former education has done (Palmer, 1937).

Talofa lava, ‘o Kiara-Jeané Kamāli‘i Alcaide ko‘u inoa. Ako ay isang guro sa DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach Public Charter High School. Hi, my name is Kiara-Jeané Kamāli‘i Alcaide. I teach at DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach Public Charter High School. I write this blog to share that despite the number of current efforts that are being made in the United States to restrict what students learn about the diverse history of this country – I am proud to be the first public charter school teacher in the state and country at-large to teach a Filipino history course to my students next fall. Part of a larger project aimed at integrating Filipino history and culture into the K-12 American school system, I am part of an inaugural cohort of teachers who are now being prepared to be instructors for this course. In this blog, I reflect on what this experience means to me both professionally and personally. 

In this post we share a glimpse into the impact studying philosophy can have on mental health and well-being. Dr. Sophia Stone provides candid and emotional insights into the hardships she faced as a young woman and how philosophy, and incorporating philosophy in people's lives, came to be her calling. In reading about the work she conducts through Wisdom's Edge, it is our hope you will find empathy, curiosity, inspiration, and your own healing. Content warning: this blog discusses mental health issues, eating disorders, and drugs, which may be difficult for some readers.

In 2018, Hanahau‘oli School launched The Entering Teacher Cooperative (ETC). Documented in a previous blog, this program was designed to on-board and orient new faculty and staff to the Hanahau‘oli School community. Deeply grounded in the school’s progressive philosophy and pedagogy, the year-long ETC experience aims to provide newcomers with a physical, intellectual, and emotionally safe space to make sense of and reflect on their first year at the school. To accomplish this goal, ETC participants are not only introduced to foundational knowledge that is needed for teaching and working at a progressive school, they also create a professional community of inquiry where regular opportunities for collaborative and purposeful dialogue support the development of relationships and deep understanding.

Recently, I spent some time in the Po‘e Ka‘ahele (fourth and fifth-grade) classroom at Hanahau‘oli School. The teacher shared with her students: “Today, we are learning more about a volunteer project we are working on to clean up the Ala Wai Canal.”  She further described how the project involved making mud balls called, “Genki Balls,” out of dirt and “good” bacteria. When the Genki Balls are dried and thrown into the canal, they sink into the sludge at the bottom and release the bacteria, which will “eat” the sludge and make the Ala Wai cleaner for fish and humans. (It is fascinating to see how groups of people can work together to make the world a better place. If you want to learn more, click here.)

My journey at Hanahauʻoli School started over 30 years ago. I was hired as the school’s Science and Computer Teacher. Five years into my time at Hanahauʻoli, I took a year’s sabbatical and completed my Master’s of Education with a focus in Educational Technology. I returned to teach in the multiage second and third grade class for two years. Then I became the Technology Coordinator. Several years later I moved to being the school’s Technology Integration Specialist where I worked more with teachers, guiding them with integrating technology (projects) into their curriculum. Eventually, I decided to step back into the classroom and taught in the fourth and fifth grade multiage class until our Head of School asked me to facilitate a new endeavor for our 106 year old progressive school – The Collaborative Studio. In this blog I share a brief history and introduction to this new makerspace and the ways it helps Hanahau‘oli students explore, experiment, create, collaborate, and learn by doing. 

In a previous blog post, I introduced readers to H.S. Townsend, Hawai‘i’s Inspector General of Schools from 1896 - 1900, and the tremendous contributions he made to the progressive education movement in Hawai‘i and beyond. This included sharing about Townsend’s The Progressive Educator newspaper, which was distributed monthly from 1893-1899, “one for every teacher of printed record in the Hawaiian Islands” (p.30). At the time, the newspaper provided cutting edge progressive education articles and resources. It also served as a foundation for the “Teachers’ Reading Clubs,” which were established “in nearly [every] school district” (p.31) across the nation. Townsend’s strategy was to provide educators with stimulating content that was both philosophically and practically relevant to their work in schools, and then the teachers could apply what they read to the development of their own progressive philosophy and pedagogy as they implemented new practices in their schools and classrooms and engaged in meaningful professional discussion and reflection with their colleagues. There is no doubt that Townsend’s little but mighty newspaper transformed public education in Hawai‘i at the time it was in circulation.