photo credit: Kapulani Landgraf

Associate Professor Kekailoa Perry, of the UH Mānoa College of Education (COE) Department of Educational Foundations (EDEF), was selected for the Outstanding Dissertation Award by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). His work, Hulikua: Aloha ʻĀina Theory, ʻŌiwi Guerrilla Praxis, and Pedagogy of Refusal, is a critique of the state of higher education in Hawaiʻi.  

“This award reaffirms the love and commitment of my grandparents, parents, siblings, family, and friends who have and continue to face struggles to stand up to settler-occupation oppression,” Perry said. “The award also celebrates the activist community whose tireless resistance paved the path for greater possibilities beyond the existing status quo. Finally, the award is an opening for the peace and love that should be central to the liberation of the Hawaiian people/citizens and nation.”

With the COE since 2022, Perry teaches educational foundations classes on the intersection of race and culture in education policy and emancipatory pedagogies. In a synopsis of his dissertation, he says his work confronts the academy’s misappropriation of Indigenous traditional and customary ideas and practices, resulting in a Hulikua Pedagogy grounded in Aloha ʻĀina Theory and ʻŌiwi Guerrilla Praxis.

The framework of Hulikua: Aloha ʻĀina Theory, ʻŌiwi Guerrilla Praxis, and Pedagogy of Refusal draws on ʻŌiwi knowledge and practices of refusal to expose the harmful reinterpretation and erasure of ʻŌiwi knowledge and sovereignty in higher education. The pedagogy seeks to create transforming and generative approaches while fostering genuine community engagement and transformation by challenging the facade of diversity expressed by settler-occupier policies.

“I hope education will serve our communities beyond mainstream demands and expectations,” Perry said. “Education is a tool to help us face our fears directly and courageously in order to move into healthier spaces that allow us to be pono, fail, be accountable, and embrace our freedom from settler-occupation.”

Dissertation Chairs: Margie Maaka and Laiana Wong
Dissertation Committee Members: Kapa Oliveira, Keawe’aimoku Kaholokula, Huia Jahnke, Graham Smith

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