The first ever He Aliʻi Ka ʻĀina Educator Conference was held last month, on October 10 and 11. Designed to serve as a transformative professional development opportunity for the greater community to learn more about Hawaiian Culture-Based Education (HCBE) – the initiative aimed to engage participants in learning how to integrate the principles of aloha ʻāina (love of the land) and ea (sovereignty, life) into educational practices.

Since the early 19th century, the progressive education movement has held significant space in the culture of Hawaiʻiʻs schools. This is not by coincidence or happenstance; the many intersections of progressive education principles and Native Hawaiian pedagogy and epistemology provided 19th century educators with a meaningful foundation with which to carry the burgeoning movement forward in the islands. By capitalizing on the intersections between Native Hawaiian (Kanaka Maoli) pedagogy, philosophy and epistemology, and the early (and current) principles of progressive education, educators in the Hawaiian islands were not only able to address the educational needs of their students in a culturally responsive and holistic way, but were also able to make meaningful contributions to the movement. Today, Hawai‘i is uniquely positioned to carry the progressive education movement forward, and can serve as an example of how we as educators can develop relationships with non-western pedagogies in order to better serve our students.

While on sabbatical, I have been thinking a lot about creativity and how it is valued within the Reggio Emilia schools. This concentrated focus has increased my awareness of the power of creativity as it intersects with learning, and now I see it everywhere. For example, my five-year-old son, Enzo, has a range of sticks that are personal artifacts of his day spent in the forest. Each stick has a name and purpose, along with rocks he has been bringing home to hammer and chisel, no doubt inspired by all the sculptures he regularly sees around in public. He reminds me that as Malaguzzi suggests, children have incredibly creative ways of thinking about and using materials. This creativity extends to how they wonder about the world, and there is a special freedom in the ideas of children. We must stop and pause to notice how this creative thinking lends itself to childrens’ hypotheses about how things work and connections throughout our world. 

As sunlight filters through tall glass doors, it illuminates multiple shades of blue paint in glass jars, translucent  sheets of color that dance and invite curiosity. Greenery, such as plants, trees, and flowers spread throughout the space inviting the outside in. Different shades of clay are placed in mounds on tables with natural materials beside them, ready for interpretation. The aroma of homemade bread and fresh cut fruit wafts in from the kitchen, and the art, words, photos, and other documentation of the daily lives of children who inhabit this space smile proudly on the walls. These are some of the beautiful and inviting materials, senses, and spaces I’ve observed in Reggio Emilia classrooms, artfully designed for young children. 

This winter, the north swells kicked up to historic levels, bringing waves beyond anything in living memory. They ran The Eddie on an epic day after calling it off a week earlier. The Eddie is a big wave surf competition that only goes in the rarest of conditions, massive swells with good winds. But really, The Eddie is more than a surf competition. It is a celebration of Waimea Bayʻs first lifeguard, Eddie Aikau, more than anything else. 

In the opening sentence of William Haye’s (2007) book, The Progressive Education Movement, he states, “For some time now, I have accepted the idea that a major theme in the history of education in the United States during the past century has been the ongoing debate between those who consider themselves traditionalists and those who espouse the principles of progressive education (p. xi). “ This debate and need to distinguish between what constitutes a progressive philosophy and pedagogy, compared to more “traditional” approaches to education is well-documented and has no doubt played an important role in the evolution of the American progressive education movement. It has helped progressive educators clarify and define what they mean by a “progressive education” for both the movement’s critics and followers. It has also helped to create charts like Haye’s (2007, p. ?) below, which didactically delineates the difference between traditional and progressive approaches to education.

At the end of their journey in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM), College of Education (COE), Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy, MEd Curriculum Studies program, master's candidates applied the process of philosophical reflection to explore the meaning of their experiences in the program. In collaboration with peers and professors they engaged in a creative process to “untangle” and illuminate lessons learned about progressive education during the five semesters of the program. They were asked to communicate their reflections to a wider audience via a thought provoking and artful film that could be shared with a wider audience. The overarching question guiding the reflective process and ultimately the film was: Why progressive philosophy and pedagogy?

In 2023, it is almost impossible to escape some form of the “culture wars” being waged in the “battle grounds” of classrooms and libraries. There are book challenges and bans, vocal opposition to school curricula, and the ever looming threats of misinformation and disinformation. Solutions to these problems are evasive; they cannot be addressed with a single-pronged approach. It will take the support and mobilization of an entire network–our network of progressive educators around the world “harnessing the dynamic power of progressive practice for the next generation of students, schools, and democracy” (PEN, 2023). An essential element of this network are our school librarians and the best practices of 21st-century librarianship, which are deeply rooted in a progressive philosophy and pedagogy.

An often underemphasized and misunderstood essential element of the progressive education movement is its relationship with scientific research. The idea that teaching, learning, and schooling must be systematically studied through observation and experiment has been a defining feature of progressive education philosophy and pedagogy from the very beginning. “As much as they wore their hearts on their sleeves,” early progressive educators like Francis W. Parker, John Dewey, and Ella Flagg Young “prided themselves on their allegiance to science, culling ideas from research from all over the world and exhaustively testing their hypothesis and methods” (Little & Ellison, 2015, p.41).

“Amooooore,” (“Looooove,”) an Italian mother crooned over her child, looking at her with adoring eyes (note: this is a scene you might witness in any city, piazza, cafe, park in Italy). Every time I hear someone call their child “amore,” I can’t help but smile at the adoration Italians have for children. My husband and I have witnessed this first hand since our daughter was a baby and when we traveled through Italy with her. We felt like the red carpet was rolled out for us because we had a child. “This is NOT the experience we have had in the U.S.!” we thought, especially in airports, grocery stores, or anywhere with a line, whereas in Italy, families with young children have priority and precedence. For years I’ve wondered about the reasoning behind this wonderful cultural perspective, which I have learned can be attributed to many factors: a low birth rate (making children in Italy more rare and precious), a culture strongly tied to family and community, and one that celebrates the beauty in everything (and that takes the time to savor such things). Among them are family, food, art, architecture, and other cultural phenomena born out of the beautiful interaction between humans and the natural world.

As a part of their program of study in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy MEd Interdisciplinary Education, Curriculum Studies Program–students participate in a summer seminar with UHM philosophy professor, Thomas Jackson. The course is titled, PHIL 725: Philosophical Topics- Philosophy, Childhood, and Education. It examines issues, theories, perspectives and problems that philosophers, from a variety of cultural backgrounds and historical contexts, have tackled over the past 2500 years. The goal of the course is to provide educators with a philosophical “grounding” that promotes awareness, encourages knowledgeable reflection, and develops skills necessary for becoming a teacher-philosopher. Following is a reflection shared by UHM Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy graduate student, Michael Mendoza.

On July 25, 2022 I had the opportunity to participate in a Modern Progressive Education Panel Discussion, a component of Human Restoration Project’s first ever Conference to Restore Humanity! The conference was an international invitation for K-12 and college educators to center the needs of students and educators toward a praxis of social justice. It featured Dr. Henry Giroux, Dr. Denisha Jones, and tracks on disrupting discriminatory linguistics, ending carceral pedagogy, building for neurodiversity, and promoting childism. The purpose of the conference was to help change systems and reimagine education.

I was born and raised on the island of Kauaʻi, in the Puna district, in Kapaʻa. I grew up working on a farm in the narrow green valley at the foot of Makaleha, with Kapaʻa stream running through it. This is where I spent hours working, and avoiding working, catching opu and trapping prawns, digging fence post holes and dehorning goats, tending chickens before, during, and after the slaughter. I learned to surf at Kealia, and I fished each weekend at a place we called Bluffs. My entire childhood was surrounded by cane fields and the ever present sounds and smells of the sugar industry, ash falling on my arms regularly.

In 2019, Hanahau‘oli faculty and staff visited more than 20 progressive schools across the country. This was the ambitious Hele A‘o (Learning Journey) initiative, and the purpose was to spark new ideas, inspire innovation, and plant seeds for future growth at our beloved school. Among the key takeaways from Hele Aʻo was a desire to learn more about social justice as it pertains to progressive education. At a number of schools, Hanahau‘oli faculty and staff saw teachers referring to students as “changemakers.” They also observed language related to diversity, equity, and inclusion as a fully integrated part of progressive school curricula. Above all, the students were able to articulate ways in which they were promoting social justice, and were taking action in their communities.

This past summer, UHM Children’s Center preschool teacher, Royce Bowman learned more about p4cHI as a part of his coursework in the UHM Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy Masters program. Excited to put the progressive pedagogy into practice, Royce experimented with p4cHI in his early childhood classroom. His reflections on the experience are captured in this poem:

On July 9, 2021 a diverse panel of thought leaders came together to explore the relevance of progressive philosophy in present times. They were: Theresa Squires Collins of the Progressive Education Network and The Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, Dr. Masato Ishida of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Department of Philosophy, Chris McNutt of the Human Restoration Project, and Dr. Manulani Aluli Meyer of the University of Hawaii - West Oahu.