Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies Pedagogy

• In Event: The Impact of Ethnic Studies on Asian American and Pacific Islander Teacher Development

Abstract

This paper seeks to describe the recent growth of Pacific Studies in San Francisco through the works and narratives of instructors. It looks at the content and pedagogy of Critical Pacific & Oceania Studies and focuses on how conversations of imperialism, decolonization, and diaspora within the classroom affect instructors identities. My main research question is: What is Pacific Studies in San Francisco? I used the following questions to guide my study: How are these Pacific Studies educators shaping pedagogies in their curriculum? How do these courses impact teachers identities?

As a field in the Bay Area, Pacific Studies remains a multi-dimensional phenomenon despite often being misconstrued. A major part of the indifference is the intentional lack of awareness of the Pacific and its relationship to the U.S., including its misnomer as the mainland. Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies takes Pacific Studies and adapts it to be responsive to students in urban cities in the continental U.S. The purpose of Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania pedagogy is to free us from the confines of a knowledge system that separates us, by reminding us of what it means to relate - through the narratives of Pacific / Pasifika / Moana / Oceanic peoples. The colonial paradox of education is one way to describe how we were colonized through schooling, but our continued existence and revival of cultural knowledge and collective wealth is how we merge our worlds to decolonize. Our self-determination lies in addressing the invisibility of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders by challenging what has been written about us, writing our own stories, and living and adapting.

I use the Talanoa Research Method (TRM) to evaluate the impact of such courses at a community college and a University and argue that these programs should be supported within their respective institutions because of their contributions to Ethnic Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, Education, Pacific Studies, and support for students. I took a qualitative approach to collect data from faculty at both institutions. I also analyzed course syllabi and employed talanoas to capture students, alumni, and faculty perspectives in co-creation.

This paper presents the ways that these Pacific Studies educators are embarking on new and uncharted territories. The creation of curriculum that is interdisciplinary, provides a comparative analysis through contemporary narratives as representations of relationship building and collective agency. Throughout our talanoa, they expressed their feelings of responsibility with passion and love, and they continue to find ways to address relevant education as islander scholars. The instructors acknowledged that these spaces are political and liberatory in this current Pacific Studies movement, and that they have a responsibility to share knowledge learned. In our process of self-determination our focus is collaborative in a call for an increase in professors, courses, and connections with other programs and institutions.

Author

• Levalasi Ane Loi-On, San Francisco State University