Aloha kākou! Kourtney Kawano (she/her) is a wahine ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian woman) from the village community of Nānākuli on the island of Oʻahu. She is Acting Assistant Professor at the Berkeley School of Education.
As a settler in Ohlone territory, Dr. Kawano pays her respect to the Indigenous caretakers of xučyun by centering place-based stories and histories in her research and teaching. A critical race resistance scholar and a graduate of Native Hawaiian culture-based schooling, Dr. Kawano embraces the proverb “ʻAʻohe pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi (all knowledge is not taught in the same school)” by weaving a variety of worldviews, conceptual framings, and qualitative methodological techniques to examine how culture, Indigeneity, and race/ethnicity shape teaching and learning across p–20 schooling contexts. Her interdisciplinary scholarship and pedagogy aim to generate culturally grounded, ethical knowledge that aligns with community needs. Specifically, she engages four threads of inquiry with research collaborators and students:
1. Family-school-community relations – What ideologies and discourses are communicated and internalized across educational landscapes? What pedagogical and curricular strengths exist in Indigenous homes, schools, and communities?2. Identity formation – What are the varied, lifelong ways that Indigenous Peoples enact self-determined identities in and out of their ancestral homelands? What roles do education and schools play in shaping and stewarding Indigenous ways of knowing and being?
3. (In)equity and (in)access in education – How are issues of access and equity conceptualized and measured in educational research conducted with and for Indigenous Peoples?
4. Education for social change – What stories and discourses circulating in educational settings transmit capacities for resistance, critical consciousness, and social change among Indigenous Peoples?
Dr. Kawano’s research has been published in Review of Educational Research; AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education; and Education for Information: Interdisciplinary Journal of Information Studies. She received a 2024 dissertation fellowship from The National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation.
Dr. Kawano is a former high-school English teacher and academic coach for community college students. Additionally, she volunteers with HONUA Scholars, a nonprofit organization that provides free college and career programming to students interested in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics, medicine). Dr. Kawano received her B.A. from Dartmouth College, where she double majored in religion and government and minored in education. She earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in education from UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.
