Point of Entry: Crossing Borders—Both Real and Perceived—in the University

• In Event: The Spaces of Pedagogy: Reticulations of Participation, Engagement, and Action

Abstract

I recently was part of a professional development team that offered a five-weekend course focusing on using Hawaiian culture-based educational practices (HCBE) to approach Common Core curriculum. The aim of our course was to provide resources, experiences and coaching to help teachers create standards-based units using HCBE practices. In other words, we were trying to nurture cultural competence within an education system that seems to be failing our Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island students (Deschenes, Cuban & Tyack, 2013; Demmert & Towner, 2003; Demmert, 2011; Kanaiaupuni & Ishibashi, 2003). Using the culturally competent health care system definition in Betancourt, Green, Carrillo and Ananeh-Firempong (2003), the team would agree that a culturally competent educational system for our diverse student population in Hawaii should also focus on similar aims of acknowledging the importance of culture and expanding cultural knowledge. The goal of the class was to provide multiple supports to create culturally competent educators. One of the layers of support for the teachers was a classroom observation in which the teachers received feedback on a portion of their (HCBE) unit. As one of the observers, I noticed a disturbing trend. Although the teachers were displaying an expanded knowledge of Hawaiian culture and content in their teaching (e.g., using Hawaiian cultural content, sprinkling directions with Hawaiian value words, incorporating hands-on activities), I was concerned about the difference in how the teachers were speaking to and/or treating the Native Hawaiian or Pacific Island students. The teachers seemed confident in their new knowledge, but I felt that somehow we missed the mark.
The missing piece is what Tervalon and Murray-Garcia (1998) term cultural humility training. Cultural humility is a process that requires humility as individuals continually engage in self-reflection and self-critique as lifelong learners, rather than cultural competence that measures mastery (competence) in knowledge that sometimes results in stereotyping rather than creating relationships with individuals. This paper moves beyond the course to study pre-service teacher training rather than on-the-job professional development. Within the walls of academia and our set teacher preparation program, I chose to create a third space (Routledge, 1996) that enabled the students in my Introduction to Teaching class to negotiate the worlds of "me and not-me," and to seek to act upon common ground, enacting what Bhabha (1994) terms "affiliative solidarities." I grapple with the questions: What does cultural humility look like? What is the impact of cultural humility processes within the third space? What is the impact on students' interactions outside of the third space? The results of this study raise important questions regarding how to continue to support these pre-service teachers as they continue to develop and sustain cultural humility in the spaces and places provided by our teacher preparation program.

Author

• Cathy Kanoelani Ikeda, University of Hawaii - West Oahu