University of Hawai‘i at Ma¯noa NONPROFIT College of Education ORGANIZATION Educational Perspectives Educational Perspectives U.S. POSTAGE 1776 University Avenue PAID Journal of the College of Education/University of Hawai‘i at Ma¯noa Wist Hall, Room 113 HONOLULU, HI Honolulu, HI 96822 PERMIT NO. 278 Website: www.hawaii.edu/edper Hawai‘i Creole (Pidgin), Local Identity, and Schooling Volume 41 v Numbers 1 and 2 v 2008 Educational Perspectives Journal of the College of Education/University of Hawai‘i at Ma¯noa CONTENTS Dean Christine Sorensen 2 Contributors Editor Hunter McEwan 3 Hawai‘i Creole (Pidgin), Local Identity, Managing Editor Lori Ward Guest Editor Eileen H. Tamura and Schooling Graphic Designer Darrell Asato Eileen H. Tamura College Of Education Editorial Board 6 What School You Went? Linda Johnsrud, Professor Local Culture, Local Identity, and Local Language: Kathryn Au, Professor Emeritus Stories of Schooling in Hawai‘i Curtis Ho, Professor Mary Jo Noonan, Professor Darrell H. Y. Lum Robert Potter, Professor Emeritus 17 Learning Da Kine: A Filmmaker Tackles COEDSA President Local Culture and Pidgin The Journal and the College of Education assume no responsibility Marlene Booth for the opinion or facts in signed articles, except to the extent of expressing the view, by the fact of publication, 22 The “Pidgin Problem”: that the subject matter is one which merits attention. Attitudes about Hawai‘i Creole Published twice each year by the College of Education, University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa Thomas Yokota Individual copies $25.00 To purchase single copies of this issue contact 30 Pidgin and Education: A Position Paper Marketing and Publication Services, Da Pidgin Coup Curriculum & Research Development Group Phone: 800-799-8111 (toll-free), 808-956-4969 40 Kent Sakoda Discusses Pidgin Grammar Fax: 808-956-6730 Kent Sakoda and Eileen H. Tamura Email: [email protected] Address all communications regarding single copies, 44 Culturally Responsive Talk Between a Second Grade subscriptions, manuscripts, and correspondence Teacher and Native Hawaiian Children During about editorial material to Editor, “Writing Workshop” Educational Perspectives, College of Education, University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa, Wist Hall J. Timothy Rynkofs Room 113, 1776 University Avenue, Honolulu, HI 96822 55 Pidgin in the Classroom Copyright 2008 by the College of Education, Jeff Siegel University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa ‘ This publication is available in microform from 66 If Can, Can: Hawai i Creole and Reading Achievement Bell & Howell, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Kathryn H. Au Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 and in pdf format at www.hawaii.edu/edper/ International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) 0013-1849 Volume 41 Numbers 1 and 2 2008 Cover layout by Susanne Yuu Cover Illustrated by Arthur Kodani, Tropical Breeze Graphics 2 Educational Perspectives v Volume 41 v Numbers 1 and 2 Contributors Cover Illustration by Arthur Kodani, Tropical Breeze Graphics Eileen H. Tamura is professor of educational history at the University of Hawai‘i. She is the author of Americanization, Acculturation, and Ethnic Identity: The Nisei Generation in Hawaii (University of Illinois Press, 1994), and editor of The History of Discrimination in U. S. Education: Marginality, Agency, and Power (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). Darrell H. Y. Lum co-founded Bamboo Ridge in 1978, a non-profit, literary small press to foster the creation and appreciation of local literature. He has published two collections of fiction and his plays have been produced by Kumu Kahua Theatre in Honolulu. He received the Hawai‘i Award for Literature in 1996 and his doctorate in educational foundations in 1997. Marlene Booth has been making documentary films for over thirty years. She teaches at the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawai‘i. Thomas Yokota received his MEd in the Department of Educational Foundations in spring 2007. He lives with his family in Kapolei, Hawai‘i. Da Pidgin Coup members are profiled in an endnote to their essay on page 39. Kent Sakoda is a lecturer in the Department of Second Language Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa, where he teaches a course about Pidgin in Hawai‘i. He is a fluent native speaker of Pidgin. J. Timothy Rynkofs received his doctorate in reading and writing instruction from the University of New Hampshire in 1993. After retiring from the Department of Education, State of Hawaii, he held a literacy position with Kamehameha Schools from 2001 to 2006. He continues to give workshops to parents on children’s literacy development. Jeff Siegel is an adjunct professor of linguistics at the University of New England in Australia and affiliated with the University of Hawai‘i as an associate researcher. He is author of Pidgin Grammar: An Introduction to the Creole Language of Hawai‘i (with Kent Sakoda, Bess Press, 2003) and The Emergence of Pidgin and Creole Languages (Oxford University Press, 2007). Kathryn Au, Chief Executive Officer of SchoolRise LLC, was the first person to hold an endowed chair in education at the University of Hawai‘i. A member of the Reading Hall of Fame, Kathy will serve as president of the International Reading Association for 2009–10. Her research interests are school change and the literacy achievement of students of diverse backgrounds, and her latest book is Multicultural Issues and Literacy Achievement (Erlbaum, 2006). College of Education v University of Hawai‘i at Mänoa 3 Hawai‘i Creole (Pidgin), Local Identity, and Schooling Eileen H. Tamura Guest Editor For a century Hawai‘i Creole, better known in the islands Pidgin, its centrality in people’s lives, and its place in defin- as Pidgin, has been a subject of concern among educators ing the uniqueness of Hawai‘i. As Booth discovered, under- and the public. Attitudes toward this language have ranged standing the “thinking behind the language” is crucial to an from disdain to pride. It was once thought that eventually, understanding of a people. with decreolization, Pidgin would disappear. Yet a hundred Hawai‘i Creole is not alone as a form of nonstandard years since it was first recognized as a distinct form of English in the United States. Others include Gullah (spoken speech, it remains a primary language among many in the in the Sea Islands off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, state. To be sure, like all languages, it has changed over time. and North Florida), Louisiana Creole English, Appalachian Nonetheless, its grammatical and phonetic characteristics English, and African American Vernacular English (Sato, make it distinctive and recognizable. 1989, p. 260). Linguists have used the terms dialects, creoles, During the past few decades, many have recognized and languages interchangeably when referring to these forms the crucial impact that Hawai‘i Creole has had on people’s of speech (Sato, 1989; Linguistic Society of America, 1998). identity. As Rojas and Reagan (2003) note, language is “at The most well-known of the nonstandard languages in the heart of social life” (12) and central to self-identity, “to the United States is African American Vernacular English, our sense of who we are” (6). For many in Hawai‘i, Pidgin also called Black English, Black English Vernacular, has played that role. Ebonics, and African American English. Like Hawai‘i In this issue’s first essay, “What School You Went? Creole, African American Vernacular English has been the Local Culture, Local Identity, and Local Language: Stories subject of much discussion and criticism, and both have been of Schooling in Hawai‘i,” Darrell Lum begins with an intro- at the center of controversial school board actions (Tamura, ductory discussion of themes that emerge in the two short 2002). In 1987 the Hawai‘i State Board of Education at- stories, narrated in Pidgin, that he includes in his essay. His tempted to ban Hawai‘i Creole from the classroom. A decade stories are fitting examples of the ways in which literature later the Oakland, California school board issued a resolu- can illuminate the complexities of identity formation in the tion in support of African American Vernacular English. context of family, friends, classmates, and teachers. In this Each school board action caused a firestorm of controversy. environment, friendships and support exist alongside and Although the two school boards, each in its own way, at- intermix with conflicts, inequities, power, and resistance. tempted to help its students achieve fluency in Standard Filmmaker Marlene Booth’s essay, “Learning Da Kine: English, they approached their goals differently. While the A Filmmaker Tackles Local Culture and Pidgin,” discusses Hawai‘i school board attempted to ban the nonstandard lan- her experiences in creating her film about Hawai‘i Creole. guage, the Oakland school board embraced the existence of She discusses how she came to understand the power of African American Vernacular English at the same time that it 4 Educational Perspectives v Volume 41 v Numbers 1 and 2 sought to provide systematic efforts to help its students learn the 1990s, the important roles of Derek Bickerton and Standard English. Media commentary and public reactions Charlene Sato, and Sakoda’s introduction to the study of this expressed during the two incidents showed a general lack of language. understanding among many in the public about nonstandard Despite the scholarship on Pidgin, negative attitudes languages—despite the substantial number of studies on remain. Thomas Yokota, intrigued by these attitudes, them since the 1960s (e.g., Labov, 1969; Hymes, 1972; Sato, conducted a study that sought to understand not only what 1989; Taylor, 1998; Wright 1998; Smitherman, 2000). people think about Pidgin, but also why they think the way As the two school board controversies show, discussion they do. He learned that, among the people he interviewed, on nonstandard languages has involved two aspects—polit- most spoke Hawai‘i Creole and, unaware of its grammar, ical and educational, and the political aspect has dominated many held misconceptions about the language.