This study takes a transnational and collaborative approach to explore how Pacific Island educators are using web 2.0 technology to enhance instruction and facilitate culturally sustaining learning opportunities for emergent bilingual and multilingual students. It is also an analysis of the digital divide for young adolescent users due to…

The purpose of this qualitative research is to explore how the American Samoa Department of Education (ASDOE) Human Resources Management (HRM) practices of recruiting, training, employee recognition, developing employees, and work-life balance influence teachers' performance in American Samoa. Teachers play an essential role in a student's…

Contemporary societies, whether in the United States or the Pacific are overwhelmingly visual in character. Yet, schools at all levels continue to privilege written text as demonstrations of learning over any other form of communication. A visual curriculum has the potential to strengthen instruction across disciplines and offers students another…

Can acts of support and/or revival of Pacific cultures serve to educate international tourists about Indigenous cultures? This paper examines, from a postcolonial perspective and using a qualitative methodology, whether the Festivals of Pacific Arts, to which all nations send delegations, can educate visitors about Indigenous cultures of the…

The purpose of this study was to analyze American Samoa Department of Education (ASDE) and collect allocation of resources data and determine how the resources are used to increase student performance among a purposeful sample of three public high schools with similar demographics, challenges, fiscal constraints and funding sources located in the…

Since 1979, the American Samoa Department of Education and the University of Hawai'i have partnered to provide education and training for American Samoan teachers. Beginning in 2009, these efforts have focused on teachers in the middle grades. This article describes the context, program structure, and implementation of a graduate degree program in…

Until recently, the educational system has resisted orientation toward change and has represented traditionally enculturated values and cultural stability. Current perspectives, however, indicate that formal schooling is a prominent factor in societal modernization and individual modernity. Exemplifying this aspect of education is the experience…

A majority of the Samoan students in Hawaii and the mainland United States come from American Samoa, but a small number are immigrants from western Samoa, which is geographically and politically separate. The culture of western Samoa is very traditional, and Samoan families are categorized as "extended." All children are expected to help…

In spite of the changes that 100 years of Americanization have produced, the American Samoa people overwhelmingly identify themselves with their culture. They are proud to be Samoan; they are committed to the "fa'a-Samoa" or the Samoan way of life. The desire to balance American ways with the unique values that make up the Samoan sense…

Sex differences in attributions for success and failure in algebra of Samoan community college students were examined and compared with attributions of a large group of mainland U.S. students. study included the Mathematics Attribution Scale: Algebra Version (MAS), which assessed students' attributions of achievement in algebra to their effort,…

Population and language dominance data were gathered on Samoans from New Zealand to the West Coast of the United States, in order to assist educational programs in coordinating the development of classroom and teacher training materials and programs for Samoan students. It is hoped that by pinpointing locations where Samoans are most likely to be…

The impact of the western educational model and the use of English on the language and traditional behaviors of young people in American Samoa was studied. Results from a 1973 study were compared with results collected in 1987 using the same instrument to measure changes in language and culture-related behaviors. A survey of nearly 190 American…

This study sought to address concerns that high levels of literacy in both English and local languages are not being attained by children in U.S.-affiliated Pacific entities served by Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL). The study was designed to answer the following question: Do classroom language use and instructional practices…