Teaching Beyond the Curriculum

Abstract

Being a citizen of one’s community, nation, and the world is vital amidst the cacophony of division and discrimination that plague our lives and society. Critical thinking skills and an appreciation for the richness of the human condition are essential in our day and age when information and stereotypes in the media are so readily accepted. History is one of the key disciplines in addressing these needs; however, history education in the Hawaiian context represents a colonized space which consistently shortchanges students. One method of decolonizing the space of history in Hawai’i is through more extensive use of family histories or mo‘okū‘auhau. Family histories include oral history which helps to engage students in a more indigenous methodology to learning as opposed to the textbook reading methodologies that are often applied in public school social studies classrooms. Family history helps in creating a more multicultural education as student narratives explore varying socioeconomic situations, cultural backgrounds, and belief systems that are not reflected in the dominant narrative told in history textbooks. Additionally, family histories play a large role in increasing the intrinsic motivation of students for learning history as they see the relevance of the skills and content that relate to their own family and place. Family history and genealogy are intimately tied to place and if we truly want our students to make any contribution to the world, they must first know their own community, identity, and history.