As a faculty member specializing in Pacific Islander studies, Lana Lopesi often asks her college students what they were taught about the Pacific region before coming to the University of Oregon. The answer is usually nothing or very little.
“I always think, ‘Oh my gosh, imagine if they had encountered some historical context about the region before they came here,’” said Lopesi, a College of Arts and Sciences assistant professor in the Departments of Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies and Native American and Indigenous Studies. “It’s really worrying when you think about it and know the US includes the Pacific too, not just the state of Hawaii, but also the territories over there.”
—Lana Lopesi, Principal Investigator and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies and Native American and Indigenous Studies
With a $524,000 grant from the Oregon Department of Education, Lopesi and Oregon State University researcher Patricia Fifita are working to increase information about the history and culture of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in K-12 classrooms in Oregon.
Their collaboration is creating curriculum that has not existed in Oregon before and is the first in the nation to focus specifically on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders and not an Asian/Pacific general category.
The state’s Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community has grown by 55% from 2010 to 2020, according to the US Bureau of Census Reporting. But this population’s academic performance is declining throughout the state. In 2020, 47.50% of Hawaiian and Pacific Islander high school graduates attended college, and in 2024, they decreased to 39.50%, according to the Oregon Department of Education.
Working with undergraduate students, Lopesi and Fifita conducted outreach in 2024 to the Pacific Islander community in Oregon to assess the state of their representation in public schools. They interviewed more than 100 community organization leaders, students, teachers and educators throughout the state, finding that there isn’t anything offered right now in schools.
“Pacific students feel really alienated and would really love it if there was more curriculum that was geared towards their identities,” Lopesi said.
Over time of the multi-year grant, Lopesi and the research team hope to have students in the Oregon public school system have some formal education about the Native Hawaiians and the Pacific, a region of the world that is still a part of the US but is sometimes lumped into a wider Asian American Pacific Islander category.
“We know now there's been lots of research that shows the value of ethnic studies and Indigenous studies and empowering various groups as they kind of understand history and how power works,” Lopesi said.
Developing this curriculum is supported by Oregon House Bill 3144, which passed during the 2023 Legislative Session and signed into law by Gov. Tina Kotek. The curriculum on Pacific Islander and Native Hawaiian history is part of the state’s Student Success Plan Act of 2019. The Oregon education law aims to support historically underserved students in the state, which includes creating curriculum relatable to students from racial and ethnic groups who have historically not been represented in the classroom.
“We just don't have a lot of Pacific-studies-specific curriculum or resources,” Lopesi said. “Even for teachers who are really interested, it's really difficult to find the material.”
The researchers plan to assemble various materials that teachers can incorporate in lesson plans depending on the grade, including children’s books, books about some of the 2,000-plus languages spoken in the region and geography.
When the curriculum is complete, it will be available for educators on the Oregon Educational Resources Commons. Known as the Oregon Hub, teachers can search for lessons and materials on specific topics they want to share with students.
—By Henry Houston, College of Arts and Sciences