Blog 1 STEMS2 Spring 2016

As a kumu at Hālau Kū Māna Public Charter School,  I am a co-teacher of Papa Hana No'eau (10th grade Hawaiian Arts Project) where we teach our 'ōpio the following:

• Malama 'aina

• 'Ohe kapala

• I'e kuku/hohoa

• Ka hana kapa

• Protocol

• Ulana lauhala

• Natural dyes

I have had a difficult time trying to decide what my research should be.  I initially wanted to research how students develop kuelana and find empowerment through a class project that they develop as a result of some of the concepts of extinction due to human activity that were explored in The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert.  Every Wednesday I am with my students all day in our Place-Based Inquiry (PBI) project.  The more we have our PBI project, the more I became interested in how our papa hana no'eau project affects my haumāna.  I want to know if "ma ka hana ka 'ike," Hawaiian proverb that says one only knows through doing and experience.  Do my haumāna value the 'ike that they are learning?  Are they developing a sense of kuleana to themselves, their 'ohana, and to the lāhui?  Are their attitudes toward their science and math education changing through the context of a place- and Hawaiian culture-based education?

As a result, I want to change the focus of my Plan B action research project.  The Selection of a Research Design discussed three types of designs; qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. I would like my project to be a qualitative action research study that analyzes how a place-based education, in the context of hana no'eau, affect how my 10th grade students view their role as a kanaka and the changes in perception and attitude toward STEM content.  I will incorporate open-ended questions (qualitative interview questions) that "...honors an inductive style, a focus on individual meaning, and the importance of rendering the complexity of a situation" (p. 4). 

I will incorporate Ethnography in my research, which according to The Selection of a Research Design, is a "...strategy of inquiry in which the researcher studies an intact cultural group in a natural setting over a prolonged period of time by collecting, primarily, observational and interview data" (p. 13). 

I may want to include a quantitative strategy of a survey research that "...provides a quantitative or numeric description of trends, attitudes, or opinions of a population by studying a sample of that population."  The population sample would be my seventeen tenth grade students where I will utilize "...questionnaires or structured intervenes for data collection, with the intent of generalizing from a sample to a population" (p. 11).  The population that my students are being a sample of is a Native Hawaiian population in a Hawaiian-focused and place-based learning environment. 

According to Review of the Literature, the literature review will share with reader "...the results of other studies that are closely related to the one being undertaken" and it "...relates a study to the larger, ongoing dialogue in the literature, filling in gaps and extending prior studies" (p. 25).  Since my focus of my research has changed, I will need to find more resources that I can use to be part of my literature review.  I will need to find resources on place- and culture-based education and hana no'eau.  Some potential resources will be the following:

• Lā'au Hawai'i: Traditional Hawaiian Uses of Plants by Isabella Aiona Abbbott.
• Kahuna La'au Lapa'au: The Practice of Hawaiian Herbal Medicine by June Gutmanis
• Ka Hana Kapa: The Making of Bark-Cloth in Hawai'i by William T. Brigham
• Ethnomathematics: Link Between Traditions and Modernity by Ubiratan D'Ambrosio
• "Ethnomathematics is imbedded in ethics, focused on the recovery of the cultural dignity of the human being." (D'Ambrosio, p. 1). 

As a result of changing my research focus, there will be a few adjustments to my unit plan.  The unit plan will have my students learning science and mathematics content in the context of hana no'eau.  Their authentic performance task will be their completed hana (i'e kuku, 'ohe kapala, kapa, dyes, lauhala).  They will also need to them plan and implement a hana no'eau workshop where they will visit Lunalilo Home and teach kupuna how to ulana lauhala apolima and/or ka hana kapa.  I will have my haumāna create a reference book/binder that will have a narrative on their experience of their various hana in their perspective, words, and pictures.  I feel that these authentic assessments will show if they have learned their hana and if they can teach others the hana that they learned in order to pass on this 'ike.

I feel it is important to gather data on the effects that PBI instruction has on students in Hawai'i, specifically Native Hawaiian students, because many of these students have not been successful in their previous public school, socially and/or academically.  I would like to research when 'ōpio come to Hālau Kū Māna and come to papa hana no'eau, does their experiences in their PBI projects develop a sense of empowerment and kuleana and does this change their perspectives of their math and/or science contents.