Kū Kahakalau, Ph.D.

Dr. Kū Kahakalau is an award-winning educator, visionary, researcher, song-writer and expert in Hawaiian language, history and culture.  Cultural practitioners and 21st century Indigenous scholars, Dr. Kū Kahakalau and her husband Nālei have spent the past three decades creating and testing various components of a Hawaiian system of education that is culturally-driven, family-oriented and place-based.  These include Kūkulu Kumuhana – intergenerational, Hawaiian language and culture immersion camps in the environment, Kanu o ka ‘Āina New Century Public Charter School, Hawai’i’s first fully accredited Hawaiian-focused K-12 public school, Mālamapōki’i, a bi-lingual 0-5 Early Childhood Program, Hālau Wānana Indigenous Center for Higher Learning, offering teacher licensing for educators interested in working with Hawaiian K-12 students, Nā Lei Na’auao, a Hawaiian-focused charter school alliance, and Kū-A-Kanaka LLC, which includes an Indigenous Research Institute, a Hawaiian Language Proficiency Testing Center, as well as Basic Hawaiian, an innovative online Hawaiian language and culture program, which balances traditional, applied learning, with the latest digital technology.  All of these programs are grounded in a highly successful, values-based Pedagogy of Aloha (love/compassion), which evolved from Dr. Kū Kahakalau's doctoral research.  This research also resulted in the emergence of Mā’awe Pono, an Indigenous research methodology already successfully utilized to measure the impact of Pedagogy of Aloha on native Hawaiian students, families and communities. The first person in the world to earn a Ph.D. in Indigenous Education, Dr. Kū Kahakalau wants to be a role model and inspiration to her daughters ‘I’inimaikalani (23) and Pōlanimakamae (21), as well as other Indigenous cultural practitioners, educators, researchers, community activists, nationalists and others, to trust in their cultural traditions and practices.  For Hawaiians, these ancestral wisdoms are contained in thousands of proverbs which make up the foundations of Dr. Kū Kahakalau’s philosophy of kū-a-kanaka, meaning “to be Hawaiian.”  This philosophy guides the daily lives of Dr. Kū Kahakalau and her tight-knit family, as they share their practices as 21st century native Hawaiians with all who want to learn.

Indigenous Education, Hawaiian Language, Hawaiian Culture, Hawaiian Traditions, Indigenous Research, Hawaiian Self-Determination, Place-based Learning, Project-based Learning, Intergenerational Learning, Pedagogy of Aloha, Hawaiian Song Composition, Hawaiian Poetry, Indigenous Worldview