Kūkalahale Project

From 2015 to 2021, Honolulu Community College offered Hawaiian Culture-Based Professional development to four cohorts of faculty, staff, and administrators, with the goal of supporting their ability to infuse Hawaiian culture, traditions, and values into their work. A total of 82 staff, faculty and administrators participated in the training and served as mentors to their colleagues throughout the college and increased the number of employees using culture and place-based educational strategies to enhance their work. The Kūkalahale project builds on the successes of Hoʻāla Hou.

Kūkalahale is funded by a US DOE Title III grant from October 1, 2019 thru September 30, 2024. The overarching theme of this collaborative project is indigenous education frameworks in professional development. Through the proposed goals and activities both HonCC, who will serve as lead, and KapCC hope to build the capacity of their faculty, staff, and administration to develop and sustain culturally appropriate and culturally relevant strategies that kipaipai (encourage) current and future Native Hawaiian students. 

The first goal of the grant is to increase HonCC and KapCC’s capacity to implement indigenous education frameworks and support student success on their campuses and the second goal is to increase access to training on indigenous education methodologies to other campuses in support of the University of Hawaii’s mission to become a model indigenous-serving institution.

Kūkalahale Program Activities

Kūkalahale’s goals will be achieved through the following activities:

Kīpaipai Aloha Workshops & Field Trips

Kūkalahale offers standalone workshops focused on individual topics in indigenous education (i.e. learning styles, Hawaiian language, Hawaiian values) and field trips to community organizations that help employees at Honolulu and Kapiʻolani Community Colleges gain an entry-level understanding of indigenous education concepts and strategies and build partnerships and wahi pana (places of significance) to support a sense of place on each campus

Hoʻomōhalu

Kūkalahale offers introductory-level training on how to implement indigenous education strategies through a one-week symposium at the beginning of each semester that introduces participants to various indigenous education methodologies and practices that have been successfully implemented in multiple disciplines in higher education.

E Hoʻi Nā Wai Cohort

Kūkalahale offers mentored yearlong in-depth training for employees who want to be able to implement indigenous education frameworks in their work. The training begins with a two-day orientation at the beginning of the Fall semester. The Fall semester will focus on developing an implementation plan that utilizes indigenous education methodologies and the Spring semester will focus on implementation, assessment, and evaluation of the plans. Following their one-year training, participants will serve as mentors to their colleagues on campus.

Train-the-Trainer Program

Kūkalahale will create a train-the-trainer program on how to successfully implement indigenous education models successfully utilized by Honolulu CC and Kapiolani CC, which will include the development of a curriculum that can be packaged and delivered as a model for other campuses to replicate, providing guidance and advising to other campuses through presentations, training, and consultation, and creating a community advisory group comprised of practitioners of indigenous education to inform best practices.

Culture & ʻĀina-Based Education Conference

Kūkalahale will create an opportunity to share and disseminate information on successful strategies, lessons, assessment and evaluation models, as well as data on implemented indigenous education models successfully implemented by organizing an inter-campus Hōʻike (symposium/conference) to showcase work, presenting the program’s model at local, national, and international indigenous education conferences, and publishing findings in a peer-reviewed journal.

Kūkalahale Staff

Kūkalahale Student Assistants 

Kamananui Anderson
Major: Natural Science

Shu Nalo
Major: Business

Nyjon Jefferson
Major: Creative Media

Keola Basques
Major: MELE