Place and culture-based professional development: cross-hybrid learning and the construction of ecological mindfulness

This paper approaches mindfulness, an awareness of internal and external realities, as a culturally-shaped habit of mind. Findings of a cross-cultural study and popular sayings that reflect America’s cultural orientation to consumption and competition are contrasted with findings from Hawaiian language newspapers, traditional cultural practices, and Hawaiian sayings that indicate an orientation to ecological mindfulness that increased the resilience of fragile social ecosystems. Marginalization of indigenous culture, language, and knowledge and cultural differences between teachers and indigenous students are proposed as a contributing factor to lower science performance of Native Hawaiian students in mainstream schools. Two professional development projects designed to reduce conflicts between culture and science instruction are presented. Findings from these projects suggest alignment of science inquiry with indigenous cultural knowledge and practices oriented to sustainability supports the development of teachers’ ecological mindfulness as indicated by increased awareness of, interest in, and incorporation of place and culture-based based resources into their instruction. Teacher feedback indicates that mapping technologies that enable teachers to visualize and integrate indigenous place-based Hawaiian knowledge with science inquiry are promising instructional strategies.