Programs

Hālau Wānana Indigenous Center for Higher Learning

Hālau Wānana Indigenous Center for Higher Learning is Hawaiʻi's first Indigenous Institution of Higher Learning.   Fiscally administered by KALO, Hālau Wānana consists of four departments with more programs in development.

Hālau Wānanaʻs Teacher Education Program, which currently completing its third cohort, was developed in 2001 to license highly qualified teachers interested in teaching at Hawaiian-focused charter schools, as well as other Hawaiʻi public schools with high concentrations of native Hawaiians.  Hālau Wānanaʻs Teacher Education Program is the first true alternative State Approved Teacher Education Program (SATEP) to gain provisional approval by the Hawaiʻi Teacher Standards Board (HSTB) and is scheduled for WINHEC (World Indigenous Network of Higher Education Consortium) accreditation as an Indigenous College in 2011.

In 2006, Hālau Wānana added a Professional Development Program to offer professional development opportunities to inservice teachers interested in culturally-driven curriculum, instruction and assessment grounded in Kanu's Pedagogy of Aloha.

Hālau Wānana also includes a Curriculum and Instructional Materials Development Department to fill the void of culturally-based instructional materials.  Materials include bi-lingual books, values based multimedia Hawaiian language curricular, as well as interactive Hawaiian culture and language games and activities.

Hālau Wānana's fourth component is an Indigenous Research Institute, with over a decade of experience in measuring, documenting and disseminating the impact of Hawaiian-focused education on native student performance using innovative Indigenous research methodologies.  This research verifies that Hawaiian-focused Education with Aloha is improving native Hawaiian student performance and that Hawaiian communities can design quality models of education that are at once local and global.