University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education (COE) Professor Margaret Maaka, Associate Professor Kekailoa Perry, and recent PhD graduate Kamuela Kimokeo are among several Hawaiʻi scholars who were invited to participate on a Presidential Panel by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Selected for their outstanding educational research, they will be recognized during the 2023 AERA Annual Meeting in Chicago, Illinois.

Annually, more than 13,000 scholars from around the world attend the AERA meeting, making it the largest professional gathering of educational researchers. Invited Presidential Sessions are reserved for scholars the AERA Annual Meeting Program Committee recognizes as authorities in their research areas.

Perry, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, will participate in an Invited Presidential Session panel with Kimokeo who earned his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction. Kimokeo is the director of the Hawaiʻi Music Institute and head of the music program at Windward Community College. Their panel is titled Whose truth matters in education research? Deconstructing, Reconstructing, and Advancing Indigenous Truths in the Pacific Region (and beyond).

Maaka, a Department of Curriculum Studies (EDCS) Professor, will serve as the session chair alongside Huia Tomlins Jahnke of Massey University who will serve as the session discussant. Perry and Kimokeo will be joined by scholars Tanya Wendt Samu of University of Auckland, Maung Nyeu of Harvard University, and Te Rina Warren of Massey University.

“The worldwide colonization of indigenous communities and their interests through education is not a singular issue but formed through multiple sites, in multiple ways, and often simultaneously,” said Tomlins Jahnke. “Education research has often been complicit in maintaining power over what ideas and findings matter and from whose perspective is prioritized in pursuing truth. Issues of race, inequality, and justice systematically impede indigenous folk from participating in the pursuit of truth through education.”

Drawing on various perspectives, this session will explore the effectiveness of approaches that position research as critical and potentially transforming for Indigenous communities that are the most impacted by imperialism, colonialism, racism, and oppression underpinning much of the miseducation of indigenous people’s experiences.

Perry will present his research on the legitimization of racism and colonial-like occupation through intergenerational miseducation in higher education, and Kimokeo will present his research on song composition and performance as educational tools of personal empowerment.

Tomlins Jahnke, a Fulbright scholar, will be hosted by EDCS from March 1–May 31, 2023. During her visit, she will conduct research on the nature of community partnerships in higher education for, with, and by indigenous peoples. She will also work with PhD students in a Hawaiian-focused cohort co-coordinated by Maaka and Laiana Wong of the UHM Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language.