Identity Formation in Culture-Based Higher Education

• In Event: Indigenous Language and Cultural Revitalization and the Power of Educational Research

Abstract

Culture-based educational contexts like Hawaiian language immersion and charter schools offer settings for the (re)cultivation of Hawaiian identities. These schools transform traditional K-12 structures into rich environments that utilize traditional knowledge to help Hawaiian youth forge anti-colonial, success-based identities.

Hawaiian culture-based higher education offers similar environments for (re)cultivating cultural identities and also holds a similar promise for improving academic performance. In this study, we focus on understanding the ways in which identity is constructed and enacted by graduates from the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies (KCHS). We pay particular attention to discerning the influences this type of culture-based higher educational experience may have on identity formation especially as it relates to student success and enacting principles of lāhui/nationhood and kuleana/responsibility.

Authors

• Erin K. Wright, University of Hawaii

• Brandi Jean Nalani Balutski, University of Hawaii