Program of the Year Winner Insights - University of Hawaii at Manoa

CPED Program of the Year Award Winner Insights
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa - 2017

Program of the Year 2017 winners

CPED’s Program of the Year Award (POY) is presented to distinctive and innovative programs. Explain how your program meets these qualities and the role each member in your team played in developing a program of this caliber.

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was honored to receive the CPED Program of the Year Award in 2017. We are privileged to join amazing sister programs across the country in this distinction. Our program met the required qualities by focusing on our key principles and components of our EdD program with a focus on preparing professionals as educational leaders.

Our program is designed with three years of coursework emphasizing applied research as practitioner inquiry and two key research projects: Group Consultancy Project (GCP) and individual dissertation in practice (DiP). We run a cohort model with three cohorts since the programʻs inception: 2011–14 (Cohort I: 28 students); 2014–17 (Cohort II: 25 students); 2017–20 (Cohort III: 29 students). We are recruiting for 2020-23 (Cohort IV: 30 students). Our cohorts are reflective of the diversity of Hawaiʻi.

One of the two keystones of our program is our Group Consultancy Project (GCP), which asks students to collaborate in small teams to help an educational organization or institution resolve a critical problem of practice through applied theory and research methods. The GCP problem is derived from client/community partner and our student team perform this service through the guidance of faculty member and field mentor(s)/advisor(s).

The work involves deep knowledge of interdisciplinary inquiry, collaboration, research methods,and critical and ethical reflection on matters of educational importance.  This project helps our students be “stewards of practice”—individuals who conduct research that is rigorous, ethical, and makes positive difference in the lives of individuals, families, schools, and communities; who work toward social justice and equity; and engage in reciprocated growth. Thus, our GCPs become ecological spaces of learning comprised by doctoral students and clients who collaborate in an organic practice, generate new understandings and solutions, and learn from each other.

Here is a sample listing of GCPs over the past three cohorts:

  • Defining Student Success in a Hawaiian Language Immersion Charter School
  • Papakū Makawalu and Brain Research
  • The Mililani Complex Character Education Program
  • Kānehūnāmoku Voyaging Academy
  • Evaluation of Teacher Training Program Feasibility Study for a Charter School serving Micronesian Students
  • Looping at Mililani ʻIke Elementary School
  • Awareness of the HTSB Code of Ethics Among In-Service Educators
  • Ea Ecoversity Indigenous Research Design Native Hawaiian Education-Evaluation Design
  • Transitions in Technology at Punahou School HAIS Accreditation Project

What has CPED and its Framework meant to your team and your program?

In our initial visioning for the EdD Program in 2009-2010, we contacted the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) for support and Dr. David Imig met with the planning committee and University of Hawai‘i administrators.  David provided valuable input to the committee regarding similar programs at comparable institutions, and his guidance helped direct the attention of the planning committee to some of the more notable and innovative approaches that were being explored at other universities.  The program continues to work closely with CPED by participating in the convenings and emerging initiatives.

What is your mission and vision?

The College of Education EdD program, as part of the UH system, contributes to the system’s mission of:

The primary mission of the University of Hawaiʻi is to provide environments in which faculty and students can discover, examine critically, preserve and transmit the knowledge, wisdom and values that will help ensure the survival of the present and future generations with improvement in the quality of life.

In carrying out that mission it is the basic purpose of the University of Hawaiʻi to afford all qualified people of Hawaiʻi an equal opportunity for quality college and university education at both undergraduate and graduate levels. At the only provider of public higher education in Hawaiʻi, the University embraces its unique responsibilities to the indigenous people of Hawaiʻi and to Hawaiʻi’s indigenous language and culture.

To fulfill this responsibility, the University ensures active support for the participation of Native Hawaiians at the University and support vigorous programs of study and support for the Hawaiian language, history and culture.

Our program's mission and vision are:

Mission: The College of Education EdD program, as part of the University of Hawaiʻi system, is committed to improving the social, economic and environmental well being of current and future generations.

Vision: We envision educational leaders who work collaboratively, apply research and theory, reflect critically and ethically, and utilize broad, interdisciplinary perspectives to recognize, create, advocate, implement, evaluate, and enhance spaces of social justice across Hawaiʻi and beyond.

 How do you apply the CPED Framework to your EdD program?

The cornerstones of this EdD are grounded in the principles of the CPED Framework:

  • Is framed around questions of equity, ethics, and social justice to bring about solutions to complex problems of practice;
  • Prepares leaders who can construct and apply knowledge to make a positive difference in the lives of individuals, families, organizations, and communities;
  • Provides opportunities for candidates to develop and demonstrate collaboration and communication skills to work with diverse communities and to build partnerships;
  • Provides field-based opportunities to analyze problems of practice and use multiple frames to develop meaningful solutions;
  • Is grounded in and develops a professional knowledge base that integrates both practical and research knowledge, that links theory with systemic and systematic inquiry;
  • Emphasizes the generation, transformation, and use of professional knowledge and practice.

We seek growth of our students through six Student Learner Outcomes:

  • Praxis Wisdom: the aptitude to resolve a problem of practice—an ethical, equity, and/or social justice issue impacting a community. Actions are conducted in a Pono way (e.g., righteous, morally right, appropriate) to improve the well-being of self and others.
    • Academic Wisdom: The ability to apply skills, knowledge, and disposition—writing, research, scholarship, time management, continual improvement, reflection, others—to successfully navigate this doctorate program.
    • Collective Wisdom: The capacity to willingly contribute to the betterment of self and others.  Relationships are built and strengthened, knowledge, ideas, and thoughts are shared and received, and individuals contribute to the well being of the team.
      • Social Justice Wisdom: The facility to seek and apply appropriate ways to treat (human) beings with dignity and respect as well as practice forms of decision making that preserve the basic rights, liberties, and entitlements of all individuals and groups. 
      • Innovation Wisdom: The talent to view problems and solutions through multiple, varied ways, capitalize on new ways of thinking and working to problem-solve, and articulate and sustain innovation.
      • Spiritual/Inner Wisdom: The gift to understand, respect and take responsibility for upholding multiple ways of being, knowing, believing, and valuing through service to others, integrity, inspiration, compassion, sensitivity, reflection, resilience, and conscious, efficacious  action.

Why is it important POY programs, like yours, demonstrate evidence of quality, continuous improvement, and meaningful impact on their students’ practices and communities?

The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is the flagship, doctoral granting, Carnegie I/Research Intensive campus of the 10 campus system. As such, the program has a responsibility to ensure its quality and continuous improvement.

To do so, we have undergone an intensive re-examination of our mission, vision, cornerstone outcomes, program design and assessment to prepare for possible expansion. 

The year-long process included:

  • Stakeholder input from 19 faculty and staff, 8 current students and graduates, and 4 community members in three work groups—Curriculum, Governance/Policies, and Operations
  • Recommendations from working groups discussed with the college’s administrators

Of 13 recommendations submitted by the work groups, eight have been executed or are currently in process.  In addition, the program’s redesign is being shared with faculty and staff, current students, and a number of graduates to ensure that our program community understands where this EdD is headed and why.

What leadership roles have members of your team held in the CPED consortium and what have these roles meant to developing a quality EdD program for scholarly practitioners?

Currently, the Dean of the College of Education at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa serves on the CPED Board of Directors and Deans Council. The Program Co-Coordinator is a member of the CPED Delegates Council.

What is one useful thing you would tell CPED members wanting to apply for Program of the Year?

We would encourage all colleagues to apply! We often know that we do good work, but we understand that it is often culturally difficult to toot our own horn. An application and recognition pays tribute to the students, faculty, mentors, curriculum designers, community members, etc., who are the program.

Such a recognition honors them and their incredible work. There is no better than feeling than to pay homage to them via the Program of the Year Award!

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