Teaching Pacific Islander Frameworks and Futures

• In Event: Unforgetting Ethnic Studies’ Radical Roots when Developing Curriculum on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Abstract

Purpose
This presentation explores the development of culturally grounded curriculum modules centered on Pacific Islander histories, identities, and sovereignties. Drawing from two chapters in the Foundations and Futures: Asian American and Pacific Islander Multimedia Textbook—one focused broadly on Pacific Islanders, the other on American Samoans—we offer insights from teaching with the Critical Pacific Islands and Oceania Studies (CPIOS) and Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (LESMCC) frameworks.

Pedagogical Frameworks
Pacific Islanders, as the Indigenous peoples of Oceania, are often rendered invisible in mainstream U.S. discourses on race and within AAPI narratives that claim to include them. This presentation responds to that erasure by sharing our experiences as educators and proposing future directions for Ethnic Studies in California. We offer critical entry points for students to engage with the cultural, linguistic, and environmental diversity of Oceania—home to over 25,000 islands and more than 1,200 languages. Our resources help educators teach counternarratives that challenge colonialism, militarism, and racism, while uplifting the creative, political, and spiritual practices of Pacific Islander communities.

Curriculum Sharing
We share lessons from two curriculum chapters:
1. Pacific Islanders – This chapter examines five key themes: the significance of sacred spaces; survival under U.S. and Japanese militarism; climate change and Pacific Islander resistance; and leadership in cinema, sport, and popular culture. It opens with an overview of Pacific Islander groups, political systems, environments, and migration patterns, and highlights figures such as Nancy Abouke, Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Agueda Iglesias Johnston as examples of resilience and creativity across the diaspora.
2. American Samoans – This chapter focuses on Samoan migration histories, cultural identity, and collective resistance. It invites students to analyze colonial and military connections between American Samoa, Samoa, and the U.S. and how Samoans continue to make a place for themselves and their culture today.

Learnings & Findings
Pacific Islander worldviews see land, people, and knowledge as interconnected, which help us to resist colonial narratives and sustain Indigenous knowledge systems across generations. By highlighting Pacific Islanders through these frameworks, educators are equipped with an Ethnic Studies curriculum that is reflective of our students and communities.

Reflections & Significance
Through storytelling, art, research, and community practice, we reclaim our narratives and imagine decolonial futures. Our hope is that Pacific Islander students see themselves as cultural agents of change, while non-Pacific Islander students develop empathy, respect, and solidarity. Aligned with the AERA 2026 theme of Unforgetting Histories and Imagining Futures, this work contributes to educational practices that inspire collective futures grounded in relationship and coalition building.

Authors

• Levalasi Loi-On, San Francisco State University

• Jeremiah Cho Sataraka, California State University - Bakersfield