MEET OUR TEAM

DR. THOMAS JACKSON

    Dr. Thomas Jackson (“Dr. J”) has been a member of the p4c Hawai’i family since 1984. He received his PhD in Comparative Philosophy from the University of Hawai’i in 1979. In 1980 he became a co-founder of the Hawai’i International Film Festival. In 1984 he discovered “Philosophy for Children” (P4C) and spent three weeks at a workshop at Montclair State University in New Jersey with other scholars from around the world. There he learned from P4C’s creator, Matthew Lipman, an inspiring approach to working with children, a provocative new way of thinking about philosophy and an exciting development in education. Since 1984 he has been passionately committed to the development of p4c in Hawai`i and around the world. In 1987 he became a full time Specialist with the Department of Philosophy, UH Mānoa and Director of the Philosophy in the Schools Project, a joint effort between the Department of Philosophy and the Hawai’i Department of Education. For 15 years the DOE funded philosophy department graduate students who worked in public school classrooms throughout the state of Hawai’i, assisting teachers in developing intellectually safe classroom communities of inquiry. The Philosophy in the Schools Project has been supplanted by the new p4c Hawai’i Center which is better able to handle the continued growth and demand for p4c. Dr. J works in classrooms with teachers and their students, regularly offers courses in p4c both on and off the UH Mānoa campus, serves on dissertation committees of students engaged in research on p4c in both the College of Arts & Humanities and in the College of Education in Hawai’i and students who come from abroad to study the p4c Hawai’i approach. Dr. J has been a conference and workshop presenter and keynote speaker locally, nationally, and internationally in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Austria and Israel.

    DR. BENJAMIN LUKEY

      Benjamin Lukey received his doctorate in comparative philosophy from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.  His interests in philosophy of disability, comparative philosophy, and philosophy for children (p4c) have developed from his broader goal of including more voices in philosophical discourse.  Since 2007, he has been part the p4c Hawai‘i initiative at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, piloting and developing a Philosopher in Residence project at Hawaii public high schools.  Dr. Lukey continues to support p4c Hawaii teachers and students at Waimanalo Elementary & Intermediate School, Kailua High School, Waikiki Elementary, Ka’elepulu Elementary, and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He is currently Associate Director for the UH Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education.

      DR. AMBER STRONG MAKAIAU

        Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau is a Specialist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UHM) College of Education Institute for Teacher Education Secondary Program, the Director of the Hanahauʻoli School Professional Development Center, Director of Curriculum and Research at the UHM Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education, and the co-director of Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy MEd Interdisciplinary Education, Curriculum Studies program. She has a BA in Psychology and Education from the University of California, Santa Cruz, a Masters in Education and Teaching from UHM, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction also from UHM. She is a dedicated practitioner of philosophy for children Hawai‘i who achieved National Board Certification while teaching secondary social studies in the Hawaii State Department of Education for over ten years. She is also an award-winning educator who achieved the Hawaii International Education Week Honolulu Advertiser 2004 Outstanding Global Educator Award, the 2005 Oceanic Outstanding Educator Award, the 2011 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching, the 2016 C3 Teachers Inquiry Design Model Challenge Award, and the 2017 National Council for the Social Studies College and University Faculty Assembly Kipchoge Neftali Kirkland Social Justice Paper Award. Her current projects include carrying out progressive, multicultural, social justice, and democratic approaches to teacher education, conducting self-study and other qualitative research, and building the progressive education movement locally, nationally, and internationally. Some of her recent publications that reflect this work are: Cultivating and Nurturing a Positive School Culture and Climate: Impacts of Philosophy for Children Hawai‘i at Waikiki Elementary School (2021); The Good Thinker’s Toolkit: Engaging Critical Thinking and Reasoning in Secondary  Education (2021); Ethnic Studies Now! Three Reasons Why Ethnic Studies Should be a Requirement for Graduation in the United States (2019), Philosophy for Children: A Deliberative Pedagogy for Teaching Social Studies in Japan and the USA (2018); A citizen’s Education: The philosophy for children Hawai‘i Approach to Deliberative Pedagogy (2017); Empowering Global P4C Research and Practice Through Self-Study: The philosophy for children Hawai‘i International Journaling and Self-Study Project (2017); From School-Culture-to-Family-Culture: Reflections on four Generations of a Deweyian Education in Hawai‘i (2015); and the C3 Teacher Brief Cultivating and Nurturing Collaborative Civic Spaces (2015).

        More from Dr. Makaiau

        Follow the work of Dr. Makaiau on Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy: A Blog for Progressive Educators, an online thinkspace, where progressive philosophers and practitioners from across the globe can connect through community and inquiry to carry out the movement’s important commitment to the intersection of democracy and education.

        DR. CHAD MILLER

          Dr. Chad Miller is the 2012 Hawaiʻi Teacher of the Year, a National Board Certified teacher, and is currently an Associate Specialist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Institute for Teacher Education. Dr. Miller also serves as the Director of Teacher Development at the University’s Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education and in this “hybrid” role, he teaches Language Arts methods courses, as well as “Philosophy for Children (p4c)” courses in the College of Education to secondary teacher candidates. He also serves as a Philosopher in Residence, where he collaborates with and supports teacher candidates and veteran K-12 teachers as they incorporate the activity of philosophy into their classroom practice through the use of the “Philosopher’s Pedagogy.” Regardless if he is thinking about the environmental implications of “driving” clouds with third graders, the cyclical nature of violence and drug abuse with sophomores in their Language Arts classes, or the value of living the “examined life” with undergraduates, Dr. Miller finds himself participating in extremely meaningful and rigorous philosophical inquiries with students and teachers each day.

          Dr. Miller received his BA in philosophy from John Carroll University and PhD in education at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His dissertation, Philosophy Goes To High School; An Inquiry into the Philosopher’s Pedagogy, examines philosophy’s absence from the American high school experience, provides a pedagogical framework to bring philosophy into our subject-centered classrooms, and analyzes the student experience when philosophy is used as an approach to teaching. Chad continues to present the findings of his work concerning philosophy’s application to classroom instruction at numerous domestic and international academic conferences.

          More from Dr. Miller:

          The Teacher-Philosopher Blog

          DR. MITSUYO TOYODA

            Dr. Mitsuyo Toyoda has been part of the p4c Hawai’i family since 2004. After completing her Masters in Philosophy at the University of Hawai’i in 2006, Mitsuyo worked on her Doctorate at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan until 2009. The focus of her research has been incorporating p4c ideas and methods into public environmental decision-making. Dr. Toyoda also coordinates the p4c Japan-Hawai’i Exchange Program in collaboration with the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education. This program, which has been held twice a year in summer since 2006, provides wonderful opportunities for schoolteachers from Japan and Hawai’i to experience the cultural diversity in education and to learn deeply about p4c Hawai’i activities. Dr. Toyoda is currently teaching environmental education at the University of Hyogo in Japan.

            DR. THOMAS YOS

              Dr. Thomas “Toby” Yos is an assistant specialist with the University of Hawai‘i Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education.  Arriving at the University of Hawai‘i in 1991, Dr. Yos studied under philosophy for children Hawai‘i founder Dr. Thomas Jackson and received a doctoral degree in Philosophy.  Since that time Dr. Yos has been working in Hawai‘i’s schools. Over the course of the past three decades he has mentored hundreds of teachers and done p4c with thousands of students.

              DR. TAMMY JONES

                Dr. Tammy Jones is a Project Coordinator for PALS/PLACES at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, supporting teachers on the Waiʻanae Coast to develop place-based curriculum. She is also the curriculum developer and co-facilitator of Try Think, a program run in the state correctional facilities and sponsored by the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities. Tammy spent the first ten years of her career in education as an English teacher and Literacy Coach at James Campbell High School in ʻEwa Beach. In 2014 she transitioned into the role of middle school teacher at the School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability (SEEQS), a public charter school focused on examining essential questions of ecological systems. Since beginning her graduate studies at UHM in 2003, Tammy has worked closely with Dr. Thomas Jackson and the Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education to promote the Philosophy for Children Hawaiʻi (p4cHI) approach to thinking and learning. She earned her MEdT in 2005 and her PhD in Curriculum Studies in 2012, both from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

                AYA WATANABE

                  Aya Watanabe is a doctoral student at the UHM College of Education, Educational Foundations. She came to Hawai’i to experience p4cHI in 2013 as her first time. The experiences transformed her life, and she is currently working with teachers at Waikiki School and Kailua High School. She also works as a connector between educators in Hawaii and Japan. 

                  SCOTT ALLEN

                     Scott Allen, known by many as “CAPT. Cloudwatcher,” is a Master’s student in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. His research interests explore how ideals of community planning and development can be combined with p4c Hawaiʻi to enrich K-12 curricula and purposively influence young people toward creating a more aware, empowered, and active citizenry—the bedrock of sound urban governance.