Culture and Educational Policy in Hawai`i

Culture and Educational Policy in Hawai’i: The Silencing of Native Voices. Maenette K. P. Benham and Ronald H. Heck. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998. 261 pp.

KATHRYN A. DAVIS

University of Hawai’i

kathrynd@hawaii.edu

Culture and Educational Policy in Hawai’i begins with provocative epistemological and theoretical statements of goals. In a "Note to the Reader on ‘Voice,’" Maenette Benham discusses the indigenous Hawaiian concepts of Kaona—"to tolerate ambiguity and shifting meanings in order to come to truth"—and Ha’awina No’ono’o—"sharing thoughts" (p. xvi). Benham explains that she will draw on these concepts and use her "warrior voice" to express personal views throughout the book. The authors also promise to shift "away from the structural-functional explanations that have dominated the literature on school reform, and more toward an interpretive lens, focusing on the socially constructed meanings surrounding educational policy" (p. 27). These perspectives promise interpretive, autoethnographic, and/or critical methodological approaches that would bring insight into indigenous struggles and potential for agency. Yet this promise is largely unrealized in the chapters that follow.

The book is organized into an introductory chapter intended to frame subsequent findings and discussion, four case histories that correspond to historical periods in Hawai’i from the 1820s to the 1990s, and an epilogue focusing on the theoretical significance of the study. A basic problem running throughout the case studies is a lack of focus; it is often not clear whether the authors are centering on indigenous Hawaiians, immigrants, or both (although an indigenous Hawaiian focus is implied) or how these populations influence the cultural, linguistic, and educational experiences of the other. Also, in discussing the impact of educational policies in Hawai’i, the authors tend to utilize one author or perspective (or none) per topic, for example, Banks on multiculturalism, Ogbu on involuntary minorities, Hastings on bilingualism, Tyack and Cuban on school reform. Although the work cited is important, the book would have benefited from drawing on the breadth and depth of scholarly work available. This lack of theoretical literature results in serious flaws such as in discussions of Hawai’i Creole English (HCE, known as Pidgin in Hawai’i) and local culture. The authors define HCE as "the local pidgin English dialect" (p. 148). However, this definition is inadequate and even potentially dangerous in terms of Department of Education efforts over the past century to denigrate and suppress the "pidgin dialect." The literature on HCE (e.g., Charlene Sato, "A Nonstandard Approach to Standard English," TESOL Quarterly 23[2]:259–282, 1985) explains that this variety is not a dialect but, rather, the native language of many Hawai’i residents. The language (known as a creole) evolved from a pidgin formed through interaction of plantation workers who were Hawaiian or immigrants from Asia and Portugal as well as English-speaking haole plantation overseers (Sato 1985). In addition, the authors fail to do justice to the title of the book and history of Hawai’i by inadequately identifying, describing, or in some way distinguishing among local culture, traditional Hawaiian cultural values, and the vast array of other linguistic and cultural influences within Hawai’i.

The central problem with this publication, to my mind, involves the theoretical thesis that the authors begin and end with, that is, that despite social contextual changes, "the form and structure of education remains the same" (p. 216). This thesis may be supported through analyses of the policies and practices of most public educational institutions in Hawai’i, but it is certainly not the case for the Hawaiian language immersion schools. The authors downplay this landmark event by stating that only approximately 1,000 children currently attend immersion schools. And yet the opening of Punano Leo (preschool) and Kula Kaiapuni (K–12 schools) represents a drastic political and educational shift that, despite opposition by Department of Education officials since its inception, continues to expand across the state as quickly as instructors can develop adequate Hawaiian language skills and receive teaching credentials (Sam No’eau Warner, "The Right, Responsibility, and Authority of Indigenous Peoples to Speak and Make Decisions for Themselves in Language and Cultural Revitalization," Anthropology and Education Quarterly 30[1]:68–93, 1999). The literature on indigenous language/culture revitalization often cites Hawai’i as having one of the most promising educational programs in the world. The authors also could have discovered the importance of the Punano Leo and Kula Kaiapuni schools through interviews with the founding parents and teachers as well as the numerous administrators, parents, teachers, and students involved since the schools began in 1984.

In sum, Culture and Educational Policy in Hawai’i suggests the potential contributions the history of Hawai’i can make to culture and educational policy theories. Yet this text seems to have bogged down in what the authors suggest is the complexity of economic, political, and sociocultural factors that have affected educational policies in Hawai’i. Telling part of the story in depth (e.g., the Hawaiian immersion school movement) would have been preferable. In any case, as the authors promise but fail to deliver, telling the story of education in Hawai’i cries out for an interpretive focus on the socially constructed meanings of local actors. Although Benham’s descriptions of her experiences and views as a native Hawaiian offer a great deal to the book, interviews with Hawaiians and others who have heard the stories of the past or who have played critical roles themselves in historical events would have greatly contributed to achieving the authors’ goals.

Return to the AEQ Book Reviews page
Return to the Anthropology and Education Quarterly page
Return to the CAE page
Return to the AAA homepage

American Anthropological Association
2200 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600
Arlington, VA 22201
703/528-1902; fax 703/528-3546

Updated 4/19/01