Kumu Ikeda comes to UH West Oʻahu in the Education division with 23 years of teaching experience in both public and private schools. Her career includes teaching English in grades 6-12 as well as being a secondary literacy specialist and a teacher evaluator. Her academic research is focused on Hawaiian culture-based education and Hawaiian ways of knowing in education. She is also one of the founders and the former co-director of the Lehua Writing Project out of UH Hilo. She is a mother of 3, a Puna (grandmother) of 5. Her mo'o, her grandchildren, are her why. She is working to nurture the kinds of kumu that will truly embrace the gifts of her grandchildren, and all of our grandchildren.
Ed.D. Doctor of education in professional educational practice
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, 2012-2014
M.Ed Masters in Education
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, 2008-2010
B.A. English, Education Certification in Secondary Education
University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, 1987-1991
Fall 2015-Present: Associate Professor, Secondary Education
University of Hawaiʻi West Oʻahu
Fall 2019 - Fall 2025: Director, Ho'opūliko Kumu Hou Secondary Teacher Education Pathway Project, a Title III grant
Fall 2018 - present, Dissertation chair and faculty, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Ed.D. program
- EDEF 200/201 Introduction to Teaching as a Career
- EDEF 345 Introduction to Middle/Secondary Education
- EDUC 210 Hawaiian Ways of Knowing in Education
- EDUC 410 Reading and Writing Across Curriculum
- EDML/EDSE 428 Language Arts Methods, Middle level/Secondary
- EDML/EDSE 430 Block 1 Practicum with Seminar Middle level/Secondary
- EDML/EDSE 440 Block 2 Practicum with Seminar Middle Level/Secondary
- EDML/EDSE 490 Student Teaching Middle Level/Secondary
- EDML/EDSE 492 Student Teaching Seminar Middle Level/Secondary
Ikeda, C.K., Kamai, S.H., Hayes, M.T. (2019). Kuahuokalā: Reflections on space and transformative education conversations. The Ethnographic Edge 3:1, 29-37.
Ikeda, C.K. (2018). Carving out inclusive sanctuaries for participation in higher education. Policy Futures in Education, 16:7, 866-876.
"Native Educators in Hawaiʻi Navigating their Ed.D. Journeys" chapter in Exploring the Impact of the Dissertation in Practice (2017)
2019 - 2025 Hoʻopūliko Kumu Hou Teacher Education Pathway Project, a Title III, Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian Federal grant. $2 million award to:
- increase production of secondary teachers by 20%
- expand UHWOʻs Hawaiian culture based, grow-our-own secondary preservice teacher education program
- implement, monitor, evaluate and refine the Nā Hopena Aʻo and Moenahā teaching and learning frameworks throught the HCBE secondary program
- develop, implement, moitor, evaluate, and refine a system of student support built on ʻohana practices
2022 - 2024 Hawaiʻi Pacific Foundation grant to support the Hoʻopūliko Kumu Hou program, $220,000 for program, mentor support and alumni support. $100,000 endowment for scholarships.
Ka Moʻohelu o Ke Alana: The Accounting of a Culture-Based Education Professional Development Course
Culture-based education
Makaʻāinana pedagogy
Moʻo epistemology
Social justice leadership
- Tending to loko iʻa: Creating sustainable systems of collective hope and healing, National Council for Teachers of English, November 2024, Boston, Mahalo! (co-speakers: alum - Lydia Saffery, Naturalee Puou, Coralyn Sunico, Angelo Rossetti)
- Sustainable anarchist lessons learned in teacher education. Native Indian Education Association, October 2024, Palm Springs, CA. (co-speakers: T. Bactista, J. Mareko)
- Teaching with ALOHA: Building a beloved community of learners for healing and empowered joy, Pacific Circle Consortium, September 2024, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
- Using AI (ancestral intelligence) as a disruptor to status quo in teacher education, American Educational Research Association, April 2024, Philaelphia, PA
- How to disrupt for education sovereignty, Native Indian Education Association, Albuquerque, NM October 2023
- Preparing native educators: What our seven generations of ʻohana cohorts have taught us, Native Indian Education Association, Oklahoma, October 2022
- Where the moʻo thrives: Sustainable indigenous teacher preparation, World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education, Adelaide, AU September 2022
- Using radical self honesty to move toward hoʻopono, American Educational Research Association, online, 2022
- Hulihia: Ways to educational sovereignty, Native Indian Education Association, Omaha, NE October 2021
- Hulihia: Using the pandemic as a portal for social transformation, National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, online, June 2021
- Hoʻokaulike: Balancing literacy instruction through an indigenous, Hawaiʻi focused perspective, National Council of Teachers of English, November 2020 (co-speakers: alum - Lydia Haff, Coralyn Sunico, Naturalee Puou
- The rain follows the forest: Collaboration rooted in the (k)new, Engaged Scholarship Consortium Conference, Denver, CO, October 2019 (co-speaker, Kamai)
- Kuahuokalā: Reflections on kū, National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, Portland, OR, June 2019 (co-speaker, Dr. Kamai)
- Kuahuokalā: Place and transformative education conversations, American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Canada, April 2019 (co-speakers, Drs. Kamai, Hayes)
- "Keiki are ʻOno" Association of Middle Level Educators, Hawaiʻi Summit, February 2018
- Invited Speaker, Plenary Panel: "Native Control of Native Education: Native Hawaiian researchers, research and a research agenda" Hawaiʻi Education Research Association, January 2018, Honolulu, HI
- "Unleashing the Mana of the Goddesses: Lessons from Pele and Hiʻiaka" Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, November 2017, Honolulu, HI
- "Teach for Aloha: A (K)new Framework for Change" Pacific Circle Consortium, September 2017, Hiroshima, Japan
- "E Hoʻoulu i Nā Pua o Hawaiʻi: Building Cultural Humility in Pre-service Teachers" World Indigenous People's Conference on Education, June 2017, Toronto Canada
- "Ea - Nurturing Political Pre-Service Teachers" Native Hawaiian Education Conference, March 2017, Kaneohe, HI
- "Kuahuokalā: Carving out Inclusive Sanctuaries for Participation in Higher Education" He Manawa Whenua, March 2017, Hamilton, NZ
- "Mākau Aʻoaʻo:Cognitive Coaching for Hawaiian medium mentor teachers", Invited workshop, June 2016, UH Hilo
- "Point of Entry: Crossing Borders, Both Real and Perceived in the University" American Educational Research Association, April 2016, Washington, D.C.
- New Teacher Hui advisor - open to K-12 UHWO education alumni, run by alumni for alumni 2019 - present
- General Education Committee 2020 - present; Gen Ed chair 2022 - 2024
- Oral Communicaiton sub committee chair - 2022-2022
- Search Committees, assorted as chair and member
- Arts Committee member 2020-present
- NSF Advance BRIDGE mentoring/peer coaching liaison, cohort 3, 2022
- AY 23-24 co-facilitator: Assessment Workshop using native common sense
- Organizer - Early Career New Teacher Hui conference, Sept. 2024 for all HIDOE 1st and 2nd year early career teachers in the Campbell Kapolei complex, plus all UHWO alumni
- Convener, advisor, Misinfo day at UHWO with Kapolei HS freshmen, March 2023
- Panelist, On the Horizon, UHWO Kanu Kumu o Ka ʻĀina, October 2021
- Personnel committee member or chair (TPRC, FPC, DPC) 2022-present
- Academic Grievance Committee 2021
- Faculty mentor 2020 - present