In 2023, visiting scholar Dr. Christoph Kühberger immersed himself in a variety of educational settings across O‘ahu, including Hanahau‘oli School. The blog to follow provides a window into the insights he had about how educators in Hawai‘i teach critical historical concepts like “change, continuity and context,” “perspective,” and the use of “historical sources and evidence” (see The College, Career and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards) in Hawaiian history. His unique observations, awareness, and perceptions about sometimes taken for granted approaches to teaching about Hawaiian history and culture today offer progressive educators important food for thought. He provides us all with tools for examining how static historical representations of people can shape the way students make sense of their world today and see the future.
The Slow AI Framework
The Navigating AI in Education Think Tank took place over three days during the summer of 2026. On the last day, something magical happened. All the moments leading up to that day—identifying our own values, perspectives, and experiences with AI; understanding the tensions surrounding its use; hearing different perspectives; engaging in healthy push and pull; and collectively making sense of what AI is and is not—came together. As a recipient of a Hanahau‘oli School Professional Development Center Scholarship, Kate Werner thoughtfully engaged in the workshop and then shared her takeaways and reflections with us to extend to others who may be seeking to grow in their own thinking about AI and education. She beautifully describes her experience below.
Beyond the Workshop: Sustaining Social Justice Action
Progressive Education Needs Progressive Technology
Nurturing the Natural Scientist in Every Child
Inside the Professional Development Center: A Researcher’s Reflection on the Living Laboratory Model
Mission Over Content: Reflections on Authentic STEM Partnerships
The PDC had the pleasure of hosting researcher Dr. Luke Steller for an immersive school-day visit in September 2025. A science communicator and community engagement leader from Australia’s Northern Territory, Dr. Steller was exploring how STEM education can be strengthened through authentic collaboration with local communities as a Winston Churchill Fellow.
HA No Dis, All Ability
One of the greatest honors of my life has been learning, growing, and teaching at the only public high school on the rural and very Hawaiian Island of Molokai. Located in Hoolehua, Molokai High School has a predominantly Native Hawaiian student body, with approximately 76.5% identifying as Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
Noreen Varney, A Future City Unit & Lessons Learned About The Values that Guide Us in Progressive Education
Supporting Student and Faculty Well-Being and Belonging: A Campus Sensory Room
Environments shape how we think, feel, and engage more than we may realize. Have you ever walked into a space that instantly made you feel overwhelmed? Sensory regulation, or the brain’s ability to process, organize, and respond to sensory input, is essential to learning, attention, and emotional well-being.
Digital Landscapes: The Languages of Technology in the Reggio Emilia Approach
We are Federica Gallone and Federica Lentini – two educators who feel most alive when we are learning with children. Our professional lives have unfolded in early childhood settings, where relationships, curiosity, and wonder shape our days. We have worked closely with children as teachers, atelierista, and pedagogista, accompanying students’ thinking through materials, dialogue, light, and documentation.
It’s Not Just About Units and Projects, A Progressive Education Approach to Lesson Planning
“Developmentally Appropriate Yet Sophisticated”: Foundations of Concept-Based Curriculum & Instruction
As we continually explore the question of what it means to be a progressive educator, one of the answers we consistently return to is the idea that progressive education instills within the child a lifelong love of learning. John Dewey made this clear (and a central part of his text Experience and Education) when he wrote, “The most important attitude that can be formed is that of the desire to go on learning” (p. 20). In progressive spaces, we ensure this in many ways - by facilitating hands-on, student guided learning; by following children' s lead in the classroom, and, as Julie Stern writes in her text Conceptual Understanding: Harnessing Natural Curiosity for Learning that Transfers, by “respect[ing] the developmental stages of childhood with intellectual rigor” (p. 4).
A Magnanimity of Spirit: Resiliency and Inner Development for Progressive Educators
It's back to school season. At this time of the year, educators and leaders are thinking about many things: materials to buy, curriculum to plan, classrooms to prepare. But what about our inner preparation as educators? I have found over the years, in my own work and in working with teachers around the world, that it's not what we've planned, but how we've prepared ourselves that will determine our success in the classroom.
Big Ideas in Early Childhood Mathematics: Learning about Relationships Between Quantities
“It’s equal!” squealed the Kindergarten student who poured pebbles from a tall, narrow container into a short, wide container. As many progressive educators know, young mathematicians find joy when they have the freedom to explore and observe their world. They also appreciate that teachers have opportunities to leverage such moments to introduce or confirm math concepts and terms. For example, children often recognize ”same” or “different”, but they may not know how to articulate what exactly they see as the same or different. In the illustration above, the two containers might be different in height, shape, or even color. Yet when they discover that the same quantity of pebbles that filled one container also fills the other, this opens into a teachable moment about equality and proof, albeit within a context that young mathematicians can grapple with.
Teaching Democracy Now: Reflections from Scholar in Residence Dr. Diana Hess on Her Recent Visit to Hawai‘i
The excerpts above are taken from Diana Hess and Paula McAvoy’s (2015) The Political Classroom: Evidence and Ethics in Democratic Education. I first learned about the book and the study described in the publication while attending the American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual conference as a junior faculty member at the University of Hawai‘i. I was and continue to be deeply impressed with the book’s in-depth research, encompassing both qualitative and quantitative data, and its exploration of the ethical dilemmas teachers encounter when teaching about political issues.
Aloha ʻĀina Curriculum at Waiʻanae Intermediate: Connections to Progressive Education
For the past decade, I’ve dedicated myself to teaching and developing an Aloha ʻĀina curriculum at Waiʻanae Intermediate. It is my mother, Natalie Oana, who taught science through a Hawaiian lens at Hālau kū mana who inspired me to become a teacher. In my first year of teaching, when I found myself at Waiʻanae Intermediate with no curriculum, I thought back on what she taught me. I took a lot of professional development classes and began to include moʻolelo in my lessons, and began to see a considerable difference in student engagement.
Whose Bread Is It Anyway?
Ever scroll through LinkedIn and feel like it’s the movie, Groundhog Day? Same creator, same viral posts. 1,000 comments every time.
What’s his secret? AI-generated content, including his video avatar explaining the daily showcased app.
Picture an AI-assistant chef in your content kitchen, perfectly chopping thoughts, accurately seasoning sentences, and plating paragraphs in just the way your diners like it.
But how much creativity is there in the work if you’re only adjusting settings and hitting “generate” until credits run out? Did the creator infuse any of his personality to craft something unique?
From the PD to Practice: The Hidden Factors in Professional Development Success
In 2024, I completed my doctoral research publishing a dissertation titled, “Predicting Professional Development Learning Transfer with the Theory of Planned Behavior: A Non-Exploratory Correlational Study.” This study was inspired by years working with anti-bias educators around the world. In this blog I share how my recent research revealed that the successful transfer of professional development learning to classroom practice depends heavily on school culture, particularly individual and shared beliefs about teaching and learning. I also learned, that when a school's pedagogical approach aligns with the training content, teachers are more likely to implement new strategies, but culture alone isn't enough.
Revisiting the Connection Between Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences and Progressive Education Assessment Practices
At the end of the Fall 2024 semester, I was reminded of the wonderful impact that Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (introduced to me close to 25 years ago) continues to have on my teaching practice. It was the last day of class for the second cohort of our University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy masters students. In addition to the incredible amount of reading, writing, and dialogue they had engaged in over the course of the semester, the group was invited by my co-teacher (Dr. Chad Miller) and I to give a presentation of learning using a modality that would best communicate and illustrate their growth. In the presentation criteria we encouraged them to use a medium that would, “capture the spirit of who you are becoming as a progressive educator and philosopher.” It was a small parameter embedded into this end of semester assessment activity, a piece of criteria that ultimately yielded a very moving set of deliverables.