Delegation of Teachers from Taiwan to Visit the Uehiro Academy

In September of 2016, a group of educators from Taiwan will have the opportunity to learn about p4cHI in Hawai’i. While they are in Hawai’i the delegation will have opportunities to visit each of the p4cHI model schools, teach p4cHI lessons, and engage in professional community of inquiry with Uehiro Faculty members and p4cHI practitioners.

Annual August Uehiro Academy Teacher Exchange in Hawai’i

In August of 2016, a group of educators from Japan will have the opportunity to learn about p4cHI in Hawai’i. While they are in Hawai’i, the delegation will have opportunities to visit each of the p4cHI model schools, teach p4cHI lessons, and engage in professional community of inquiry with Uehiro Faculty members and p4cHI practitioners.

p4cHI International Journaling and Self-Study Project

In August of 2016, a team of p4cHI researchers and practitioners will begin the second phase of their international journaling and self-study project. The purpose of the project is to oinvestigate the following research question:

What leads to a pre-service/in-service teacher’s ability to truly plan and implement “inquiry” in their classroom? Is there a common developmental pathway that most teachers go through on their journey to understand and embody inquiry based teaching? 

The project will use self-study methodologies to create an intellectually safe online journaling community so that the group can collectively engage in a “systematic and critical examination of [our] actions and [our] context as a path to develop a more consciously driven mode of professional activity” (Samaras & Freese, 2006, p. 11). The participants will include six p4cHI community of inquiry practitioners from five different countries. The project will emphasize self-reflection, dialogue, professional and personal growth, and learning about the cross-cultural relationships and connections that are being made between each of the international p4cHI practitioners involved.

Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board Meeting

From July 13 – 15, 2016 Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau will participate in the Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board Meeting at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. At this meeting she will be facilitating two mini-workshops. The first is titled, “Three Strategies for Promoting Equitable Democratic Inquiry, Dialogue, and Deliberation.” The second will focus on the series of culturally responsive, multicultural, and anti-bias “Perspectives for a Diverse Hawai’i” workshops that she led with Patricia Halagao of the course pf the 2015 – 2016 school year.

p4cHI Annual Summer Exchange in Japan

In June of 2016, Dr. Ben Lukey and Dr. Chad Miller traveled with HIDOE teachers and administrators to Japan to participate in the annual p4cHI summer exchange. More information to come!

p4cHI at the 11th East-West Philosophers’ Conference

The Uehiro Academy was honored to participate in the 11th East-West Philosophers’ Conference from May 24-31st. On Thursday, May 26 Dr. Thomas Jackson, Dr. Ben Lukey, Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau, and Dr. Mitsuyo Toyoda had the opportunity to address the participants at a large plenary session. In their presentation, they gave an overview of the purpose and projects of the Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education.

On Friday, May 27 Dr. Ben Lukey, Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau, Dr. Taketo Tabata (MUE), and Soichi Kawasaki (MUE) gave a joint presentation titled, “Intellectual Safe Spaces: Philosophy for Children.” Concurrently, Dr. Mitsuyo Toyoda gave a presentation related to the comparative environmental philosophy of J. Baird Callicot.

Ka’elepulu Elementary School p4cHI Day

On May 20, Ka’elepulu Elementary School hosted their first annual p4c Day where, every teacher and all 200 students on campus were engaging in “Plain Vanilla” inquiries concerning a Pixar short film stimulus. The inquiries were facilitated by 23 Kailua High School students and the 200 Ka’elepulu Elementary students on campus were mixed to make up 10 groups of 20 students representing each grade on campus (K-6). Chad Miller, who led this project, was quoted as saying:

 “this was one of the most rewarding professional experiences of my life, largely because it was the joining of several projects I have been working tirelessly on for the past several years.”

Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teaching and Teachers Hawai‘i (ECET2HI)

The ECET 2 HI conference was born out of a desire to provide a forum for exceptional teachers to learn from one another and to celebrate the teaching profession. At this year’s ECET 2 HI faculty at the Uehiro Academy and a number of p4cHI teachers had the opportunity to give professional presentations and engage in a number of collaborative initiatives with educators from across the state. This included a keynote address from Dr. Chad Miller, a presentation on p4cHI by Chad Miller and Kiki Bush, and a presentation on Perspectives for a Diverse Hawai‘i by Amber Strong Makaiau, Patricia Halagao, and Alder Olive.

ECET2HI Handout  |  ECET PowerPoint

Social Studies International Research Exchange

From February 9 – 13, 2016 the Uehiro Academy welcomed Professors Akihide Osugi, Yoshio Sumoto, Yasuhiro Hashimoto, Tomoo Nakahara, and Noboru Tanaka. This group of esteemed educators is taking the lead in rethinking the national social studies curriculum in Japan and they were interested in seeing how p4cHI and the C3 Framework might inform their decision-making. Taketo Tabata from the Miyagi University of Education accompanied them on this important research exchange. Professor Tabata is interested in supporting the development of p4c Sendai. While they were in Hawai‘i the group got to see how p4cHI is used to teach social studies at the elementary and high school level in both public and private schools. They engaged in discussion with Uehiro Academy faculty and students such as the Kailua High School Philosurfers. They also had the opportunity to meet with HIDOE State Social Studies Specialist Rosanna Fukuda to learn how the C3 Framework is now being used to upgrade state social studies standards in the United States. The Uehiro Academy is looking forward to further developing the relationships that were strengthened on this visit and to collaborating on the evolution of social studies education both in Japan and the United States.

Announcing the “Philosurfers”

The success of the Future Surfrider Day and WE>I Day has lead to the launch of the Surfrider Philosopher in Residence Project. This innovative project “interns” upperclassmen from Kailua High School and utilizes their expertise in “doing” philosophy by placing them in classrooms to help interested teachers implement p4c Hawai‘i into their courses. This semester there are three “philoSURFERS” who are laying the foundational groundwork of the project by supporting teachers at Maunawili Elementary School, Enchanted Lake Elementary School, Ka‘elepulu Elementary School, Waimānalo School, and Kailua High School (Kailua High School’s mascot is the Surfrider and they are affectionately known as the Surfers, hence the philoSURFERS). Using student leaders to aid teachers indicates an important transformation in p4c Hawai‘i, one that recognizes the power of students to bring about meaningful change in education. In the first 13 weeks of the project, the philoSURFERS’ impact has reached four schools, 22 teachers, and roughly 560 students. Clearly, this has become one of the most important and influential initiatives of the Uehiro Academy because teachers and students, who we don’t have the resources to support, are being exposed to philosophy as a result of this project.