Native Hawaiians have long been underrepresented among Hawai?i's university graduates, yet there is a dearth of studies that explore factors that have contributed to these disparities. My dissertation investigated how multiple factors: prejudices among education administrators, erasures of early advocates from dominant narratives, and failures to…

Given the significance of school leaders and leadership to teaching, learning, and student success, research on school principal leadership has expanded from its foundations in Western Anglo-American nations to international, diverse, and historically marginalized contexts. However, an enduring critique and limitation of the educational leadership…

European colonization of vast portions of the world has left its mark long after the point when most societies were supposedly freed. The coloniality of power has ensured the continuing dominance of Eurocentric ideologies in the form of racism, sexism, and the marginalization of Black and Indigenous knowledge production. In this dissertation…

Globally, Indigenous people are marginalized and underrepresented in STEM professional fields in settler societies. For scholars, educators, policymakers, and the public, the most important thing is that every student has access to an equitable education. Developing curricula that are more relevant for all students and promoting meaningful science…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how Hawaiian practices influenced a student's experience in higher education. While the diversity of students in higher education was increasing and there was a need for diversity courses and activities, there was little research about the value of Hawaiian practices and what it brought to a…

This dissertation begins with a description of the territory that lies between sociocultural theory, education, and the natural world. It consists of three separate studies that all focus on moments of science teaching and learning that are intentionally situated outdoors. The second, third and fourth chapters are written as somewhat independent…

I have witnessed Indigenous students experience marginalization, being ignored, being labelled, and earning developmental designations, all as a way to continue systemically oppressing them. Indigenous students traditionally did not sit in rows, they did not compete for the highest mark, an A+ or a B. Indigenous education and learning is a…

This dissertation explores the experiences of Native American college students at a four-year institution. Additionally, institutional and non-institutional supports, strategies of resistance against oppression used by Native American college students, and examination of the role that spiritual activism plays in strategies of resistance at a…

Contemporary scholarship has provided important research regarding the effectiveness and potential for Hip Hop pedagogy to facilitate liberation among Black American learners in formal learning settings. In contrast, there is little research on rap and Hip Hop as lifelong informal transformational learning as a mode of resistance to oppression and…

This study examines the status of women of color in academe with a particular focus on Native Hawaiian women faculty. Using a qualitative narrative design, this research examined the experiences of tenured instructional Native Hawaiian women faculty (Na Wahine) at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. Two research questions guided this inquiry: 1)…

This Critical Indigenous Qualitative Research study examined the ways in which K-12 Hopi/Tewa educators and principals negotiated curriculum and pedagogy selected for Hopi/Tewa students. Specifically, the study examined: (1) how the developing theoretical frameworks of Red Pedagogy (Grande, 2004) and Tribal Critical Race Theory (Brayboy, 2006)…