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Student Research

View Sample Topics for Educational Foundations (EDEF) Master’s Projects and Doctoral Dissertations.

Master’s

The Master’s Degree requires a culminating experience that should demonstrate mastery in some aspect of your field of study. This culminating experience can be in the form of either a Plan A or Plan B.

The Plan A thesis is a scholarly contribution to knowledge. It presents research conducted by the student under the supervision of the thesis committee chair. The final submission becomes a permanent and official addition to the body of scholarship undertaken at UHM.

“Single-Sex Education for Asian American Girls’ Self-Worth” (2021) Plan A

The Plan B project should function as an opportunity for the student to look at an EDEF-related issue in-depth in a way that allows for substantive engagement with theory, policy, and/or practice. The Plan B project should have professional merit and value in the student’s area of concentration. It might involve curriculum development, original research, a portfolio or a creative endeavor

  • Understanding of Purpose, Values, and Effects of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program in Japan from Perspectives of Proponents of the IB Program
  • Teaching Strategies and Guidance at the Hawai’i Youth Correctional Facility
  • Tracing Settler Colonialism: The Beginning of Education in Okinawa
  • Back to the Future: Implications of the Smith Hughes Act in 21st Century Hawaiʻi
  • A Fourth-Grade English Language Learner Biology In-Class/Supplementary Application: Bioprentice
  • Creating a Hawaiian Studies Curriculum in Hawaiʻi’s Public School Classrooms: Sense of Belonging Curriculum Unit
  • Sabbatical programs offered by independent schools: Benefits, challenges, and tensions”
  • Reaction training: Teaching decision-making skills to performance athletes
  • University of Hawaii: The educational experience of the transfer student athlete
  • Effective COVID teaching strategies to use in the classroom
  • Understanding the educational experiences of Micronesian students and the teachers who teach them
  • More harm than good? A systematic review of non-governmental organizations’ non-formal education programs for disadvantaged youth
  • The teachers’ perspective of student-athletes in the classroom
  • Coaching goes beyond X’s and O’s: The experience of coaches implementing character and leadership development in Division 1 football programs”
  • The impact of character development programs on empathy development in elementary students
  • Weaving together the strands: Queen Emma and the Kaula of the 19th century Hawaiian education
  • Understanding the educational experience of Indonesian foreign domestic workers in Singapore
  • Creating an intellectually safe environment in a high school classroom: Curriculum unit
  • Climbing the ladder: A look into the rise of graduate assistant coaches within college football
  • Understanding how leadership change affects middle school teachers
  • Mitigating achievement pressure & navigating the college admissions process: Innovative strategies for schools and college counselors
  • Altered States of Consciousness and Education
  • Parents and Community Partnership for Improved Student Learning through Visual Arts in Elementary Education
  • The Education of Sustainable Development Laboratory: Leadership in Education Envisioned Through a Hawaiian Community Collaborative Project
  • Highly Qualified: A Critique of The ‘No Child Left Behind’ Definition
  • Learning to Serve with Service-Learning
  • When Should Bilingual Instruction be Incorporated in the Samoan Classroom Learning?
  • The Oneida Community and Education
  • Classroom Management and Subjectivity: A Genealogy of Educational Identities.
  • The Plotting Portion of the No Na Mamo: A Voyage for Education
  • The Effects of the Academic Achievement of Hawaiian Children When Provided with a Classroom Environment that Reflects their Cultural Values
  • How Effective is the “Read Well” Program for Children in Schools in American Samoa?
  • Western Missionaries and Japanese Educational Policy in Colonial Korea: A Clash of Wills.
  • Korean Educational reform under the United States Military Government in Korea (1945-1948)
  • Re-Educating the Japanese: The U.S Occupation and Postwar Japan’s First Minister of Education
  • The New Left: On Being Right
  • The Attitudes and Perspectives of Immigrant Marshallese Women in Hawai’I Towards the Education in the Marshall Islands and the U.S.
  • Post Secondary Environmental Educational, Including a Preliminary, Annotated Bibliographic Guide of Environmental Materials
  • Developing a Model for Curriculum Integration at Island Pacific Academy
  • A Buddhist Philosophy of Education
  • The Febrile Wave of Educational Reform: School Reforms in Osaka Municipal High Schools
  • Should There Be Two Collective Bargaining Units for Teachings in the State of Hawaii One for Elementary Teachers and One for Secondary Teachers
  • A Study of the Sub-Department Framework in the English department at Punahou School and its Potential to Foster Teacher Collaboration and Professional Learning
  • Ponape – 1800-2000 A.D.
  • A Study of the Impact of a Health Strategies Course for Pacific Rim High School Students
  • Effects of Varying Intensity Levels of Classroom-Based Physical Exercise Programs on Student Concentration
  • An Approach to the Study of Communism and Democracy
  • Reflections of Pride
  • Classroom Teachers’ Efforts and Practices to Integrate Hawaiian Langauge and Culture in Kindergarten through Grade Two at Punahou School
  • What Justifies the Use of Corporal Punishment in the Educational System?
  • Lao Adolescents in Honolulu Schools: Factors Contributing to Their Academic and Social Adjustment
  • High School Sports Participation of Korean & Chinese English Second Language Terms
  • The Faculty and Student Participation in Revision of the Plan B Master’s Degree Program Offered by the Department of Educational Foundations
  • The Integration of Media Arts Technology and Social Studies Curriculum to Improve Critical Thinking Skills at the Elementary Level
  • An Investigation into Gregory Bateson’s Concept of Deutro-Learning as Applied to the Contemporary School Setting
  • The Impact of Goal-Setting and Work in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) on Teacher Practice
  • Supporting Students Through the Transition From Middle School to High School
  • SEF-Focused Advisories at an Independent Middle and High School
  • Searching for an Appropriate Curriculum for Saint Mark Lutheran School Early Child Learning Center
  • Boarding School Gender Policy Examining the Creation and Implementation of Gender Policy
  • Planning and Enactment of Project-Based Learning in the Elementary Grades
  • Advisory Programs in Schools
  • Recruiting and Retaining Faculty of Color in Independent Schools
  • Comics and Curriculum: Validating the Integration of Comic Books into the American History Curriculum
  • Fostering a Faculty Culture of Trust and Collaboration Amidst Major School Change
  • Creating a Japanese Language Curriculum Using ACTFL Standards
  • The Teacher Experiences & Pedagogical Challenges Related to Class Size
  • An Autoethnography Understanding Leadership in the Transition From Teacher to Administrator
  • Representing Extracurricular Activities on High School Transcripts
  • The End is the Beginning: Creating Student Agency and Autonomy Through Product-Based Learning
  • Investigating the Need for Learning Support Programs at Independent School
  • Capturing School Climate: Depicting School Culture and Factors Contributing to School Climate Through Video
  • Examining Motivations & Outcomes of a Student Volunteer Program with an At-Risk Population
  • Technology-Based Interventions for the Treatment and Care of Mental Health Issues: A Survey of Programs Utilized by the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Peer and Benchmark Institution
  • Examining Data Use in Educational Practice
  • Defeating a Global Crisis Meltdown by Understanding the Human Dimensions of Global Warming: A Case for Teaching Climate Change in the Humanities
  • Aloha Island Yoga: School of Self-Discovery
  • Facilitating Learning and Relationships Through Passion-Driven Education in the Early Childhood Classroom
  • Teaching Teachers Resilience Practices (TTRP)
  • Narrow Pathways: An Analysis of the Western Ontological and Epistemological Foundations of Community College Advising
  • A Call for an Army Pipeline Program in Order to Increase the Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Interservice Physician Assistant Program: A Systematic Review
  • Coaching Character Development
  • Desegregation in a Segregated America: Desegregation Has Not Yet Happened in the United States
  • Comparing Accommodation Documentation for Learning
  • How the Topic of Slavery is Taught at the High School Level in the United States (Hawaii)
  • Reawakening Confucian & Mencian Influence in East Asian Education: A Counterpoint to the Western European Colonial Educational Paradigm
  • E Ho’ola Hou I Na Kupono: Reclaiming our Excellence A Look Into Native Hawaiian Language Immersion Programs
  • Understanding a Dynamic Governance School Model and Its Impact on Staff Experience Through the Lens of Distributed Leadership
  • The Seen and Unseen Costs: Capitalism and Neoberalism Changing the Dynamic of Education

PhD

A dissertation is the final product of a doctoral program. It presents research conducted by the student under the supervision of the dissertation committee chair. The dissertation should exhibit originality in the sense that it does not duplicate the work of someone else. The final submission becomes a permanent and official addition to the body of scholarship undertaken at UHM.

  • Teachers as Policy Agents: Enacting the Professional Learning Communities Policy
  • Beyond the Picture Postcard: Exploring the Experiences of National Student Exchange Participants from the Continental United States to the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
  • Teachers’ Decisions on Curriculum and Instruction: Standardized and Contextualized Aspects Of Pedagogy in Diverse and Marginalized Contexts During the Era of Accountability
  • Catholic High School Students’ Perceptions of Racism
  • Montessori Education in Poland
  • The Roses of Kabul: A School Administrator’s Autoethnography Elucidating the lived experience & on the ground realities of girls’ education, school development, & adolescent trauma in Afghanistan
  • Ethnomathematics in Hawaiian schools: Analysis of a Secondary Ethnomathematics Curriculum
  • “Life in a Year”: The Intercultural Exchange Experiences of Secondary School Exchange Students and Volunteer Host Families
  • Transcending self and other through Akogare (desire)
  • Nakem Pedagogy (Soul Consciousness) and constitutive Elements of Nakem Prixis
  • All Knowledge is Not Taught in the Same School: A Multiple-Case Study on the Navigation of Personal, Cultural, and Professional Identities of Native Hawaiian Members of Hawai’is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Community.
  • Organizational culture in a non-profit animal assisted therapy organization
  • 2nd year Vietnamese heritage language learners in higher education: a case study
  • American College Students Who Chose to Study Abroad
  • Hawaiian Teenage Boys’ Perceptions of Masculinity
  • Roma Education in Post-Socialist Bulgaria: Different Accounts of Academic Underachievement
  • Identifying Factors that influence Persistence of Hawaii Students Studying at mainland Colleges: A Phenomenological Multi-Case Study of Higher Education
  • Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (United in Diversity): Nationalism, Ethnicity, and Religion in Indonesian Higher Education
  • Poor Learners, Poor Parents, Poor Equity: Media Representations of the Poor and Their Encounters with Education
  • The Relationship between English Language Education Policies and Economic Growth in Asia
  • The Ulu Lehua Program at the Wiliam S. Richardson School of Law. Policy Context and Lived Experience, a Phenomenological Case Study
  • Is the Copyright Law Reshaping Distance Education Opportunities in Community Colleges? An Academic Capitalism Perspective.
  • A Cross-Cultural Historical Analysis of Political Efforts by Persons with Disabilities in the USA and South Korea to Achieve the Right to and Equal Educational Opportunity
  • The Ethics of Care as a Framework for Higher Education Philosophy and Implemented Policy: Can Mentoring Micro Connections Produce Powerful Macro Effects?
  • “Philosophy for Teachers (p4t): A Study of the Philosophy for Children Hawai’i (p4cHI) Educational Framework Applied in Pre-Service Teacher Education”
  • The Context of Teacher Professionalism: A Case Study of Teacher Perceptions of Professionalism at the University Laboratory School.
  • Relationality in an Age of Measurable Outcomes Teaching, Tenure and Collegiality
  • A Multiple Case Study of the Role of Motivation in the Retention of Five Female Community College Students on O’ahu
  • Projecting Self and Other Through Akogare (Desire) Among Japanese University Students: The English Language and the Internationalization of Higher Education in a Changing Japan
  • The Impact of Internationalization on Teaching and Learning: A Quailtative Exploratory Extreme Case Study in a Business PhD Program at an American Public Research University
  • Reflections of Filipino Women College Graduates from Ewa Plantation Town: Family, Community, and Individual Factors that Influenced their Journey
  • The Emergence of the Laboratory Method & Displacement of Natural Philosophy by Physics in American High School Textbooks
  • “The Teacher that I Hope to Be:” A Study of Individual Pathways to Teacher Identity
  • Blacknpinay, Blackapina, and Halfricanpina: Mixed Race Black and Filipina Epistemologies and Pedagogies
  • Ho’olohe Pono: Listening to the Voices of Parents and Community to Envision a School-Family-Community Partnership at Waimanalo School
  • Academic Capitalism and the Future of Liberal Arts in Higher Education: A Policy Delphi Study
  • Ke Aloha Aina: Heaha Ia? Mapping Philosophy in Mo’olelo
  • Perception of Self and Others – A Study of College of Education Undergraduate Students’ Racial and Ethnic Biases in Multicultural Education Classrooms in Hawaii
  • Perceptions of moral development among graduate education students in the United States and China
  • A Study of Undergraduate Mentoring Via an Ethics of Care Lens
  • Study of Educational Equity in Hawaii: Examining the Distribution of Qualified Teachers and Student Outcomes
  • Teacher’s Perceptions and Experiences in Implementing “p4cHI” in Miyagi, Japan
  • How Places Teach: Space, Body, and Pedagogy
  • Troubling Paradise: Exploring the Experiences of National Student Exchange Participants
  • Transition support for Third Culture Kids: An international school case study of the development and implementation of a transition program