Teacher Technology Narratives: Native Hawaiian Views on Education and Change

Teacher technology narratives: Native Hawaiian views on education and change The dynamic use of technology for education and community building among Hawaiian speakers has been a widely reported phenomenon. Multiple authors, both internal and external to the culture, have provided positive descriptions of tools and applications, thus inferring a pro-technology receptiveness in the Hawaiian approach to language expansion (Hartle-Schutte & Nae'ole-Wong, 1998; Warschauer, 1998). A highlight in these studies was the successful growth and development of the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program (HLIP), the Papahana Kaiapuni, within the Hawaii Public Schools (HPS) as one of the focal points for language regeneration and technology use. However, most of the studies were done in the early years of the HLIP, without a follow-up to examine changes that might have occurred as technology has become more ubiquitous in society in general and as the immersion program has become a small but well established program within the Hawaii Public Schools. This narrative case study was undertaken to investigate the possibilities technology has opened in sustaining the HLIP and in transmitting the Hawaiian language and culture to a new generation of digital learners as seen through the stories of its teachers and past students. The narratives recorded illustrate why exploring teacher attitudes and experiences can be an effective method for understanding change processes in schools (Clandinin, Pushor, & Orr, 2007) as well as challenging others to better understand issues in the renewal of Hawaiian culture. Context and Background Hawaiian Language Immersion Program: the Papahana Kaiapuni After a century-long ban on teaching in Hawaiian, new laws in the mid-1980s made both English and Hawaiian the official languages of the state of Hawai'i. As noted by AhNee Benham and Heck (1998), the nineteenth century policies limiting educational use of Hawaiian language had the effect of silencing native voices and diminishing Hawaiian cultural continuity in parallel with related policy outcomes on other indigenous groups within the U.S. By the 1980s, Hawaiian was only spoken natively by a small number of elders who were slowly decreasing (Yamauchi, Ceppi, & Lau-Smith, 1999). With new laws in effect and pushed by community activists seeking to revive Hawaiian, the first Hawaiian language immersion "schools within a school" were established by the Hawaii Department of Education in 1986 (Ah Nee-Benham & Heck, 1998; Wilson & Kamana, 2006; Yamauchi et al., 1999). As documented by multiple writers, establishing the HLIP required extensive community lobbying to get the program started and continuous support to sustain what remains a small program within the larger and more traditional public school system (Kawai'ae'a, Housman, & Alencastre, 2007; Slaughter & Watson-Gegeo, 1988). The program has grown from two sites in 1987 to nineteen sites with a student population of about 1,500 and approximately 80 teachers on five islands. Today, HLIP students in grades K-12 are taught the traditional academic curriculum of the public schools entirely through the medium of the Hawaiian language rather than in English. As noted in the HLIP web site, Hawaiian "is the vehicle for content instruction not the subject of instruction." Starting in grade five, HLIP students receive one hour of English instruction daily. However, the pedagogical approach of the HLIP schools is distinctive from other public schools because of its emphasis on Hawaiian culture and values, often referred to as Hawaiian culture-based education (Kana'iaupuni & Kawai'ae'a, 2008). Technology and Culture in School Change General change theory (Fullan, 2006; Hall, 2010; Rogers, 2003) provided the broad conceptual framework for this narrative inquiry investigating how teachers' attitudes towards technology grew and changed. …