The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) has awarded $175,000 to INPEACE through the Native Hawaiian Teacher Education & Professional Development Grant to support the collaborative work with Native Hawaiian community members working towards their academic and professional goals on a teacher career pathway.
With its purpose to increase Native Hawaiian teacher recruitment and retention in Ka Papahana Kaiapuni and/or Hawaiian Focused Public Charter Schools, OHA has provided $175,000 in grant awards to enhance our work to provide an educational pathway for individuals seeking to teach at Kula Kaiapuni or Hawaiian-focused charter schools by providing them with a pathway and the supports they need to be highly trained, highly qualified Hawaiian culture-based educators. Our goal is to foster the development of educators who have the knowledge and skills to teach in environments built upon Hawaiian language, cultural knowledge, Native Hawaiian epistemologies, and Native Hawaiian ways-of-being. We envision Native Hawaiian communities enriched by a new wave of educators that can be role models and community leaders who help support the continued efforts of our kupuna to keep, perpetuate, and protect the language of our ancestors, lands, and water.
| “Ka Lama Education Academy deeply appreciates OHAʻs confidence and selection of us as an awardee. The Teacher shortage on the Waiʻanae Coast is a well-documented challenge, the teacher shortage of kaiā ʻōlelo kumu even more severe. With this funding Ka Lama will work collectively and tirelessly to nurture and grow a cadre of highly trained and qualified Hawaiian culture-based kumu rooted in Native Hawaiian epistemology.” – Angela Hoppe-Cruz, Ka Lama Education Academy Program Director |
