Page 284 - Cultural Studies of Science Education

258 S.N. Martin

space/place over time. This genealogical approach for thinking and writing about
the history of individuals in communities underscores Gruenewald’s theorization of
a critical pedagogy of place. Angela Calabrese Barton (Aikenhead et al. 2006)
elaborates and calls attention to the importance of place in “how we understand
ourselves and each other as members of a larger community, and how we situate
our practice of science and science teaching” (p. 403). Employing parts of
Gruenewald’s framework and Barton’s critique of critical pedagogy of place in my
analysis of Pauline and David’s research, I maintain there is not only a need for
individuals, such as David, to be able to recognize and evaluate their own situations
within communities, but to also expand the scope of their analyses to include an
examination of the greater connection between different people and the ecological
contexts in which all communities are rooted.
To better understand Hawaiian peoples’ relationships with place, we must con-
sider both the genealogical connections people have to places that are ancestral (such
as native Hawaiians) and generational (such as the settlers to the islands). To do so
from a critical place-based education perspective, we must focus on the historical
record of the land and its peoples. In upcoming sections, I expand on Pauline and
David’s research using Gruenewald’s (2003a, b) articulation of a critical pedagogy of
place as an analytic framework for considering the spatial–temporal–socio–histori-
cal–cultural contexts of place, especially contested spaces, like Hawaii which are
shared by indigenous people and newcomer settlers. Specifically, I seek to extend the
analysis begun by Pauline and David and move away from the singular perspective
of one person in this place to consider the situationality of larger groups of people
who share the land and resources (and educational system) by offering the reader
additional context about the peoples of Hawaii.

The Colonization of Hawaii

Hawaii has often been cited as a proud American example of a harmonious societal
blending of peoples and cultures. However, in the last two decades more researchers,
including Pauline and David, have begun to explore the negative effects colonization
has had on both the indigenous Hawaiian population, as well as the ecological health
of the islands. In his book, Race and Ethnicity in Hawai’i, Jonathan Okamura (2008)
contends that ethnicity is the dominant organizing principle of social relations in
present-day Hawaiian society, and he argues that the educational system provides a
means for subordinating some ethnic groups in relation to others. Drawing from
state and US Census statistics (American Community Survey 2008), the following
represent the current demographics of Hawaiians by ethnicity: White (27%)
Japanese/Okinawan (25%), Filipinos (23%), Native Hawaiian (20%) Chinese
1
(15%), and Korean (5%). These numbers demonstrate that Asian “settlers” make up

1 Note data reflects Census data identifying people as multiracial/multiethnic, so the sum totals to
more than 100%.