91̽»¨

From 2015 to 2021, 91̽»¨ offered Hawaiian Culture-Based Professional development to four cohorts of faculty, staff, and administrators, with the goal of supporting their ability to infuse Hawaiian culture, traditions, and values into their work. A total of 82 staff, faculty and administrators participated in the training and served as mentors to their colleagues throughout the college and increased the number of employees using culture and place-based educational strategies to enhance their work. The K¨±kalahale project builds on the successes of Ho?¨¡la Hou.

The K¨±kalahale Project, a US DOE Title III grant funded collaborative initiative with Kapi?olani Community College, continued the work of Ho?¨¡la Hou from October 1, 2019 thru September 30, 2025. The overarching theme of the project was indigenous education frameworks in professional development. Through the proposed goals and activities both HonCC, who served as lead, and KapCC built the capacity of their faculty, staff, and administration to develop and sustain culturally appropriate and culturally relevant strategies that kipaipai (encouraged) current and future Native Hawaiian students.

The first goal of the grant was to increase HonCC and KapCC¡¯s capacity to implement indigenous education frameworks and support student success on their campuses and the second goal was to increase access to training on indigenous education methodologies to other campuses in support of the University of Hawaii¡¯s mission to become a model indigenous-serving institution.

Hawaiian Culture & Place-Based Professional Development Activities

Over the last decade, Hulili Ke Kukui has supported the capacity of its employees to embed Hawaiian culture and place-based strategies in their work through the following activities:

Workshops & Field Trips

K¨±kalahale offers standalone workshops focused on individual topics in indigenous education (i.e. learning styles, Hawaiian language, Hawaiian values) and field trips to community organizations that help employees at Honolulu and Kapi?olani Community Colleges gain an entry-level understanding of indigenous education concepts and strategies and build partnerships and wahi pana (places of significance) to support a sense of place on each campus.

Hulili Ke Kukui has regularly offered workshops focused on individual topics in indigenous education (i.e. learning styles, Hawaiian language, Hawaiian values) and field trips to community organizations that help employees gain an entry-level understanding of indigenous education concepts and strategies and build partnerships and wahi pana (places of significance) to support a sense of place on each campus.

Cohort-Based Training

Both the Ho?¨¡la Hou and K¨±kalahale projects offered mentored yearlong in-depth training for employees who wanted to be able to implement indigenous education frameworks in their work. The training began with a two-day orientation at the beginning of the Fall semester. During the Fall semester, participants developed an implementation plan that utilized indigenous education methodologies and in the Spring semester they focused on implementation, assessment, and evaluation of their action plans. Following their one-year training, participants served as mentors to their colleagues on campus. Check out some of the past participants¡¯ projects:

E Ho?i N¨¡ Wai Cohort

Both the Ho?¨¡la Hou and K¨±kalahale projects offered mentored yearlong in-depth training for employees who wanted to be able to implement indigenous education frameworks in their work. The training began with a two-day orientation at the beginning of the Fall semester. During the Fall semester, participants developed an implementation plan that utilized indigenous education methodologies and in the Spring semester they focused on implementation, assessment, and evaluation of their action plans. Following their one-year training, participants served as mentors to their colleagues on campus. Check out some of the past participants¡¯ projects:

Train-the-Trainer Program

The K¨±kalahale Project developed a curriculum that can be packaged and delivered as a model for other campuses to replicate, providing guidance and advising to other campuses through presentations, training, and consultation, and creating a community advisory group of practitioners of indigenous education to inform best practices.

Culture & ??ina-Based Education Conference

In August 2025, the K¨±kalahale Project launched an ?Aha in partnership with Kanaeokana Network. The ?Aha K¨±kalahale was a unique opportunity for educators across Hawaii to share and disseminate information on successful strategies, lessons, assessment and evaluation models, as well as data on implemented indigenous education models. Check out this video with highlights from the ?Aha:

Hawaiian Culture & ??ina-Based Learning Resources

These are culture and place-based learning resources available online or through the 91̽»¨ library. 

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