Manifesting the Mana of Culturally Responsive Assessments

• In Event: Culturally Responsive Assessment in Classrooms: Theory, Research, and Practice

Abstract

Schools’ ability to design and conduct culturally responsive assessments is constrained by limited tools and methodologies that reflect the worldviews and values outside those of the dominant culture. Within the context of education in Hawaiʻi, these constraints are partially attributed to the impacts of settler colonialism. This paper highlights how a network of culturally grounded schools designed assessments and frameworks rooted in ancestral wisdom while being an innovative practice toward equity for today’s students. We provide a brief history of Native Hawaiian education and the creation of Hawaiian-focused Charter Schools as a means to reclaim educational sovereignty. Within those efforts, we describe the creation of a cache of culturally relevant assessment tools that manifest the power of the individual school missions and the collective advocacy of the schools. Finally, we discuss the implications of this work on policies and assessment systems in a wider context, demonstrating how culturally relevant assessments manifest mana (power, empowerment, or authority) through a return to traditional practices in the creation of 21st-century tools for education today (Manomano, 2023).

Authors

• Chelsea Nicole Kiele Keehne, Kamehameha Schools

• Meahilahila Kelling, Ke Kula ÿo Samuel M. Kamakau Public Charter School

• Ku'uleianuhea Awo-Chun, Office of Hawaiian Affairs