By Jess Sobocinski
Aloha Mai Kākou,
O Jessica Ruth Sobocinski koʻu inoa. O Portage, Indiana mai au. Noho au ma Paʻauilo Mauka, Moku o Keawe. ʻO Robert Sobocinski ke kāne. ʻO Shawn Cunningham ka wahine. Noho pū lāua a hānau maila ʻo Jessica Sobocinski he wahine.
My name is Jessica Ruth Sobocinski and I am from Portage, IN, currently living in Paʻauilo on Hawaiʻi Island. I was born in 1991 to Robert Jerome Sobocinski and Shawn Lynn Cunningham, two young college students from White, working class families. As an academically “gifted” child in Midwest suburbia, I spent a majority of my adolescence indoors reading and dreaming about being anywhere other than my hometown. While working on an internship in college at a local food hub that grew fresh vegetables for its food pantry clients, I made the connection that food, agriculture, and natural resources could serve as a tool for bringing people together to heal not only our physical bodies, but our relationships to land and one another. It was also when I learned about the integral role that the control of, and access to, land and natural resources play in both creating and perpetuating social and economic inequality. It was serving as the garden kumu and FoodCorps service member at Hōnaunau Elementary at 22 years old, where first I began to understand what it means to have a sense of place. It is where I was told my first moʻolelo (the battle of Keʻei) and place name (Pali Kapu o Keoua), and where I first began to use those place names and stories to see my place as alive on a whole other level. Since my time at Hōnaunau Elementary school, I have worked in Farm to School programs at several public and charter schools on Hawaiʻi Island; received my K-6 teaching license through Kahoʻiwai, a post-bacc licensing program focused on Hawaiian-based culturally-responsive pedagogy; and deepened my sense of place through my hula practice, mālama ʻāina, and the relationships I have formed within my community. Still reconciling my identity as a White settler, I feel a deep sense of commitment and connection to Hawaiʻi, and wish to live my life in service to its people.
In 2021, I joined the MEd CS STEMS² program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, College of Education. As I entered into my graduate school experience, I felt called to research social justice education because while oppression and injustice have always affected our students, the events of the last several years–The Mauna Kea Movement, Black Lives Matter, and the COVID-19 pandemic–have brought the impacts of racism and colonization into everyday conversation. I wanted to learn how to support our keiki in recognizing and understanding injustice; developing behaviors that promote empathy and equity; and in fostering positive relationships with their cultural and racial identities. Because I have a strong background in food education and school gardens, I wanted to explore if and how that type of learning environment could serve as a vehicle for social justice education. I had an interest in focusing on elementary, not only because it is my area of certification, but because several psychological studies have shown that children as young as five years old pick up on cultural cues and start to develop and act on biases along the lines of race, gender, class, and other demographics (Perszyk, D. & et. al., 2019).
The driving question of my research is: “What are the best teaching strategies that use Hawaiʻi-specific food, agriculture, or natural resource management themes and practices to promote social justice education in elementary classrooms?” Some might wonder why I did not simplify this question by referring to “Hawaiʻi-specific food, agriculture, or natural resource management themes and practices” as “ʻāina-based education”. Before I could try to lay claim to the term, I first wanted to learn how it is defined and used by Kanaka ʻŌiwi scholars and practitioners who do ʻāina-based learning (for more on this, I highly recommend reading Dr. Summer Maunakea’s dissertation). What I learned is that while some might use ʻāina-based education interchangeably with place-based education using ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, it carries with it a much deeper kuleana. Citing the research of Dr. Mauankea, along with Critical Indigenous Pedagogies of Place (Trinidad, 2011; Cristobal & Parker, 2018), ʻāina-based education asks us to develop a reciprocal relationship with our places, as opposed to exploitation found in colonial relationships with land, and recognize that humans are not separate from nature (Maunakea, 2019). My review of the literature also included current research on effective practices and strategies in social justice education (mahalo, Learning for Justice); various Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian value-informed educational frameworks such as Na Hōnua Mauli Ola, Nā Hopena Aʻo, and the ʻĀina Aloha Competencies; and farm to school, school garden, and place-based education. Looking across this research, I uncovered eighteen different strategies that connected all of these fields of education using Hawaiʻi-specific food, agriculture, and/or natural resource management themes and practices to promote social justice education.
My next step was to bring this list of strategies to the experts (practicing classroom teachers) and get an idea of:
(a) what strategies they were using
(b) which were most effective and why, and
(c) what challenges and boons exist in their implementation.
I developed an anonymous survey that presented the 18 strategies and asked the questions listed above. I had 25 participants complete the survey, all K-6 educators ranging from classroom teachers to counselors. I knew that I also wanted to learn what these strategies actually looked like in practice, so I also conducted one-hour semi-structured case study interviews with 6 of those survey participants who self-selected to participate in an interview.
Download a PDF version of the guide here.
I analyzed the data collected from the surveys and interviews, and the findings that emerged led to the development of the guide pictured above, which outlines nine strategies for using ʻāina-based learning & school gardens to promote social justice education in elementary grades. This guide also shares examples of how to implement these strategies, shared by the teachers I interviewed in my research. It includes practices that promote inclusive, culturally-responsive classroom content that honors students’ cultural and familial knowledge. It includes ʻāina-based practices that promote student-centered learning (e.g. kilo, mo‘olelo, etc.), and suggestions for using outdoor & cultural spaces to facilitate critical pedagogy and social action projects. This guide encourages teachers to incorporate classroom management strategies that incorporate community-building and restorative justice practices around food and ʻāina, while engaging ʻohana in homework, projects, and huakaʻi related to food, agriculture, and natural resources.
When I look across the best practices for social justice education, farm to school and school learning gardens, place-based and ʻāina based education, and Hawaiian values and culture-informed educational frameworks from the literature review, along with the results of the survey and case study interviews, it is clear that all of these disciplines converge around educational experiences that foster a pilina between students and ʻāina. It is also clear that ʻāina-based education has social justice education deeply interwoven into both its strategies and impact, proving its potential to improve student engagement and learning outcomes, elevate cultural and community knowledge systems, and cultivate relationships between students and their places. Overall, my research found strategies that support students in developing a sense of place through hands-on experiences related to food, agriculture, and natural resource management lays the foundation for students to cultivate and practice the knowledge and skills needed to build a just society.
Works Cited:
Cristobal, N & Parker, M.K. (2018). Cultivating Aloha 'Aina Through Critical Indigenous Pedagogies of Place. Journal of Folklore and Education 5, 199-218
Maunakea, S. P. (2019). “Nē Huli Ka Lima I Lalo Piha Ka ʻŌpū: ʻŌiwi Agency and Outcomes of ʻĀina-Based Education” (Publication No. 22615774). Doctoral dissertation, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Proquest.
Perszyk, D. & et. al. (2019). Bias at the intersection of race and gender: Evidence from pre-school aged children. Developmental Science, 22e12788. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12788
Trinidad, A. M. O. (2011). Sociopolitical Development Through Critical Indigenous Pedagogy of Place: Preparing Native Hawaiian Young Adults to Become Change Agents. Hūlili: Multidisciplinary Research on Hawaiian Well-Being, 7, 185-221
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jess Sobocinski has been involved with school gardens and farm to school education in Hawaiʻi for almost a decade, serving as an educator, curriculum creator, and program administrator. She is passionate about culturally-responsive, place-based food and agriculture education, and its role in nurturing resilient children and communities. Jess holds a B.A. in Anthropology from Indiana University and a M.Ed. from UH Mānoa. Jess currently resides on a 24-acre forest in Paʻauilo and teaches Kindergarten at Kanu O Ka ʻĀina, a Native Hawaiian-focused charter school in Waimea on Hawaiʻi Island.
