THE HAWAII MULTICULTURAL AWARENESS PILOT PROJECT (HMAP)

Sheila Forman, Ron Mitchell

Hawaii, like the rest of the nation, has been going through a period of heightened interest in recovering, preserving and reviving elements of the cultural heritage of ethnic groups within the State. In the field of education, this interest is reflected in recent public and private discussions of complex issues such as bilingualism, ethnicity and the potential benefits of a pluralistic approach to instruction. Those who agree that the classroom is a place to express, understand and evaluate multi-ethnic realities in the students' environment are soon faced with the sobering realization of a major practical problem: the " melting pot" history of schooling has left little by way of instructional programs in support of multicultural education.

During the past few years, various federal funding programs have been established to assist the development of multicultural school programs. The Hawaii State Department of Education, utilizing such funding, has undertaken several major multicultural program development efforts during that period. The one described here is the Hawaii Multicultural Awareness Pilot Project (HMAP), funded under the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA). This project is being executed by the Curriculum Research and Development Group of the College of Education under contract with the Department of Education. It is now beginning its third year of operation.

HMAP is designing and pilot-testing multicultural programs which are intended to help accomplish the following: (1) enhance the students' understanding and appreciation of their own cultural heritage, (2) increase students' intercultural understanding and appreciation, (3) increase students' cross-cultural communication skills, and (4) provide students with the necessary knowledge and skills to live successfully in Hawaii's pluralistic society (including those features and institutions common to all.)

HMAP is a curriculum development project - that is, its efforts are focused on the regular instructional program and the design of particular materials, teaching and learning activities which will enhance intercultural understanding and appreciation. The developers are well aware that other approaches are also needed if the harmful effects of minority group isolation and alienation are to be eliminated in Hawaii. However, the provision of

26

multicultural curriculum materials suitable for Hawaii's unique multicultural situation seems a necessary, if not sufficient, condition for achieving that end.

So far HMAP has undertaken the development of multicultural programs or program elements at the upper­elementary, intermediate and high-school levels. The upper·elementary component consists of three U - to 16-week units developed for inclusion in the fourth-, fifth-

. and sixth-grade social studies programs. The intermediate materials are being designed to assist seventh- and eighth­grade social studies teachers to introduce a multicultural perspective in the regular social studies curriculum. The high school effort is directed toward the design of a semester's course in modern Hawaiian history which will give full play to the roles of Hawaii's various ethnic groups.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the HMAP effort has evolved as the developers grappled with the problem of representing Hawaii's unique and highly complex multicultural scene. How were so many different groups to be given adequate recognition? How were the subtleties and ambiguities of ethnicity and cultural expression in Hawaii to be mirrored? Extant programs on the United States Mainland seemed designed for highly-polarized racial and cultural situations. The outcome usually consisted of " head-on" ethnic studies programs, for example, Black Studies, Mexican-American Studies, Asian-American Studies, et cetera. Was this the best way to illuminate multicultural realities in Hawaii? HMAP developers thought not and have been pursuing a different course. The organizing themes of HMAP programs have not been ethnic groups per se, but certain cultural universals: life-cycle and community celebrations (4th­grade program), family (5th-grade program), school communities (6th-grade program), the history of modem Hawaii (high school program), and so on. The themes are, of course, rich in multicultural implications and contexts and these are exploited fully in the program materials and activities. The difference is that students encounter the multicultural dimensions in the process of studying some more inclusive entity common to all. HMAP believes this approach possesses several advantages. Underlying

cultural similarities as well as differences can be more easily stressed; simplistic cultural stereotypes can be more easily avoided. The organizing themes have an analogue in the students' immediate experience minimizing the "strangeness" of ethnic behavior and optimizing the chances for mutual sharing and appreciation of ethnic perspectives in the classroom.

A number of other program design characteristics have emerged as HMAP pursued its task. Among the more central of these are:

The interweaving of Multicultural and Living in Hawaii themes. The multicultural theme emphasizes student investigation of the different cultures of Hawaii, their unique features and values and their special contributions to the life of Hawaii. The living-in-Hawaii theme emphasizes cultural similarities; shared experiences, situations and institutions; and emerging elements of a common culture. Both thematic emphases are held to be essential for balanced multicultural treatment and realistic preparation for life in Hawaii's pluralistic society.

Cross-cultural student interaction and activity. HMAP materials and activities lay special stress on multicultural classroom interaction and dialogue. They also encourage cross-cultural grouping of students in common investigations, projects and presentations. Student-to­student interaction and activity are considered to be essential conditions for achieving more positive multicultural attitudes and behaviors.

Individualization and personalization of learning. Abundant opportunities are provided for students to investigate and reach personal conclusions about their own lives and values; the cultural heritage of their own families, friends and relatives; and the multicultural experience of their immediate communities. Through investigation and sharing of such material, students will gain a better sense of who they are and how their experience relates to that of the greater community. Individualization is also encouraged through a multi-media, multi-activity approach to common learnings and the inclusion of numerous optional activities.

Localization of program materials. Every attempt is being made to make program materials and activities directly relevant to multicultural experience and conditions in Hawaii. General learnings are developed in local contexts using local data and examples. All prose selections and visual elements are designed to appeal especially to local student sensibilities, with only those elements which

can be related to local ethnic backgrounds and contemporary experience being selected.

Maximum utilization of community resource persons. HMAP seeks to expand and centralize the role of community resource persons in the schools' multicultural programs. Each school community possesses a rich assortment of such persons skilled in varieties of cultural expression and knowledgeable about past and present facets of multicultural experience. Models are being devised for the inventory, recruitment and coqrdination of such resources and their integration into the multicultural school program on a regular and continuing basis.

Multilingual access. Program materials are being translated into the various native languages represented among those groups presently immigrating to Hawaii. Multilingual versions of the student materials will insure that immigrant children have equal access to the program and are able to make special contributions to it.

HMAP program units are designed to contain all the necessary teacher and student materials for a specified interval of instruction. The programs go through piloting and field-testing in Department of Education schools and are revised on the basis of experience in those schools. All participating teachers have been provided with inservice training encompassing both the rationale and utilization of the new materials.

Preliminary evaluation data on tested programs indicate a very positive reception of HMAP materials and activities by students, teachers and principals. The derivation and application of suitable summative evaluation criteria to measure the substantive goals and objectives of the programs have been more difficult. Work is continuing on this front however, with the hope that this coming year's testing will yield some definitive results.

During the 1977 elementary field test, half-time community resource coordinators were maintained in the participating schools. Their function was to explore ways in which community resource persons could be involved and deployed as an integral part of the on-going multi­cultural instructional program. Links with key school­community individuals and organizations were developed to assist in this identification and recruitment process. The extent and variety of resulting community resource contributions to the multicultural program were generally striking. Community resource persons demonstrated many forms of cultural expression; shared their individual community experiences and memories with the children; displayed and talked about family heirlooms and

27

mementos; and generally conveyed a vivid sense of daily multicultural life in the school community past and present. The experience convinced HMAP developers that a strong community resource group can be successfully located within the school attendance area and that the effort expended pays great dividends in enhancing and personalizing the school's multicultural program.

The use of hired community resource coordinators in the schools was for exploratory, ground-breaking purposes and was possible only because of temporary federal funding. If the intensive use of community resource persons in multicultural programs is to continue, that utilization will have to be organized and managed by regular school personnel. With this reservation in mind, HMAP developers are presently compiling what have seemed to be the most productive procedures for locating. recruiting and utilizing a variety of community resources into a teacher resource manual which will accompany the instructional units. The manual will be tested in 1978, together with other HMAP materials, and will be revised on the basis of that experience.

It may be that resource potential is more difficult to tap in some school communities than in others. Various degrees of cultural conflict exist in different areas of

28

Hawaii. Recent studies have described communities in Hawaii in which linguistic, educational and class differences have alienated some groups from the schools to a marked degree. Programs must be field- tested in diverse classrooms and communities. Sustained efforts are necessary where deeply ingrained barriers exist.

The same is true for multicultural education in general. A continuing national and local orientation towards pluralism may provide a supportive atmosphere, but multicultural education will grow and develop only with systematic input and encouragement from active participants in the educational enterprise. This is an area in which Hawaii should lead the rest of the country.

Sheila Forman has a PhD in Psychology from the University of Hawaii at Mimoa and has done ex tensive work with wrious community groups, particularly with bilingual Filipino children. She is, at present, Curriculum Writer, Hawaii Cultural Awareness Project,

Ron Mitchell is Director, Hawaii Cultural Awareness Project. Prior to this, he was Asi;istant Principal, University Laboratory School, University of Hawaii at Manoa.