The p4c Hawaii Council
Introducing the Council
| CHAD MILLERIn 2000 Chad Miller graduated from John Carroll University where he played football and received his B.A. in philosophy and communications. Upon graduating, Chad enrolled in the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Masters in Education and Teaching program. During this time, Chad developed an instructional pedagogy with p4c Hawaiʻi at its foundation and continues to be the way he teaches each of his secondary English classes since 2004. Due to his and his students’ success, Chad was named the 2012 Hawaiʻi State Teacher of the Year.
In addition to teaching high school students, Chad has been a mentor teacher to pre-service and beginning teachers, most notably those students who have taken Dr. Thomas Jackson’s PHIL 492 (Philosophy with Children). In this capacity, he has mentored undergraduate and graduate students, current classroom teachers, and visiting faculty from other universities from around the world. The aim of this collaboration has been to help teachers develop a learner-centered pedagogy grounded upon community, inquiry, philosophy, and reflection. Chad, who is also a National Board Certified teacher, continues to present his research |
DR. THOMAS JACKSONDr. Thomas Jackson (“Dr. J”) has been a member of the p4c Hawai`i family since 1984. He received his PhD in Comparative Philosophy from the University of Hawai’i in 1979. In 1980 he became a co-founder of the Hawai’i International Film Festival. In 1984 he discovered “Philosophy for Children” (P4C) and spent three weeks at a workshop at Montclair State University in New Jersey with other scholars from around the world. There he learned from P4C’s creator, Matthew Lipman, an inspiring approach to working with children, a provocative new way of thinking about philosophy and an exciting development in education.Since 1984 he has been passionately committed to the development of p4c in Hawai`i and around the world. In 1987 he became a full time Specialist with the Department of Philosophy, UH Manoa and Director of the Philosophy in the Schools Project, a joint effort between the Department of Philosophy and the Hawai’i Department of Education. For 15 years the DOE funded philosophy department graduate students who worked in public school classrooms throughout the state of Hawai’i, assisting teachers in developing intellectually safe classroom communities of inquiry. The Philosophy in the Schools Project has been supplanted by the new p4c Hawai’i Center which is better able to handle the continued growth and demand for p4c.Dr. J works in classrooms with teachers and their students, regularly offers courses in p4c both on and off the UH Manoa campus, serves on dissertation committees of students engaged in research on p4c in both the College of Arts & Humanities and in the College of Education in Hawai’i and students who come from abroad to study the p4c Hawai’i approach.
Dr. J has been a conference and workshop presenter and keynote speaker locally, nationally, and internationally in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Austria and Israel. . . . . . . . . . . . . |
concerning p4c Hawai’i’s application to the classroom at international academic conferences, such as the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia’s Annual Conference, the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies’ Annual Meeting, the American Educational Research Association’s Annual Meeting, Comparative and International Education Society’s Annual Conference, the Hawaii International Conference on Education, the Hawaii Educational Research Association Annual Conference, and at the Creative Engagements Global Conference on Thinking with Children in Oxford, England. While he is proud to have presented his research at each of these venues, he is most eager to finish his current dissertation research project titled “Philosophy Goes to High School: An Inquiry to Understand the Experience of Philosophy as an Approach to Teaching.”|
DR. MITSUYO TOYODA Dr. Mitsuyo Toyoda has been part of the p4c Hawai’i family since 2004. After completing her Masters in Philosophy at the University of Hawai’i in 2006, Mitsuyo worked on her Doctorate at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan until 2009. The focus of her research has been incorporating p4c ideas and |
LYDIA SHIGEKANEAfter graduating from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in psychology, Lydia Shigekane spent ten years as a modern dancer, choreographer, performer, and teacher. She then worked as a stay-at-home mom for another decade before returning to school for an elementary teaching degree. Her work with Dr. Thomas Jackson at the University of Hawaii led her, in 2004, to Waikiki Elementary School where p4c is practiced in nearly every classroom. At Waikiki School she is engaged in p4c in its most basic form, among kindergartners who are beginning to listen and speak to each other openly, thoughtfully, and kindly. |
methods into public environmental decision-making. Dr. Toyoda also coordinates the p4c Japan-Hawai’i Exchange Program in collaboration with the Uehiro Foundation on Ethics and Education. This program, which has been held twice a year in summer since 2006, provides wonderful opportunities for schoolteachers from Japan and Hawai’i to experience the cultural diversity in education and to learn deeply about p4c Hawai’i activities. Dr. Toyoda is currently teaching environmental education at the University of Hyogo in Japan.|
DR. AMBER STRONG MAKAIAU In 1999 Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau graduated with BA in Psychology and Education p4c Hawaii proved to be an extremely successful approach to teaching and learning for Dr. Makaiau and her students. Her students consistently score well on national achievement tests, and report enjoying learning in her classes. In recognition of their combined accomplishments Dr. Makaiau achieved National Board Certification in 2006, the Hawaii International Education Week, Honolulu Advertiser 2004 Outstanding Global Educator Award, the Oceanic Outstanding Educator Award in 2005, and the 2011 Teaching Tolerance Award for Excellence in Culturally Responsive Teaching. In 2010 Dr. Makaiau completed her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Hawai‘i, Manoa. Her dissertation is titled, “Adolescent Identity Exploration in a Multicultural Community Context; An Educator’s Approach to Rethinking Psychological Identity Interventions.” It is a large qualitative study, which documents and analyzes the impact of a high school ethnic studies course at Kailua High School that she developed with fellow teacher Kehau Glassco. The course was created in response to a school-based violence prevention grant awarded by the Centers for Disease Control to the Asian Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Dr. Makaiau is most proud of the Ethnic Studies and Philosophy Student Workbook and Ethnic Studies and Philosophy Teacher Guide produced by she and Glassco. To this day, teachers and students use the curriculum at Kailua High School where ethnic studies and philosophy are required courses for graduation. Dr. Makaiau continues to present her work locally, at international and national conferences, write, and advocate for the betterment of education in Hawaii and beyond. |
DR. BENJAMIN LUKEY Dr. Benjamin Lukey has been part of the p4c Hawaii family since 2000. |
from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Deeply affected by her undergraduate fieldwork in California’s public schools Dr. Makaiau returned home to Hawaii to cultivate a teaching practice emphasizing social justice, multicultural, culturally responsive, and student-centered approaches to education. While working on her Masters in Education and Teaching from the University of Hawai’i, Dr. Makaiau was introduced to p4c Hawaii by Dr. Thomas Jackson. Attracted to the way in which the p4c strategies effectively translated her theoretical beliefs about education into actual classroom practices, Dr. Makaiau spent the next ten years teaching and researching the impact of p4c Hawaii in a secondary social studies classroom.
While completing a Masters and Doctorate in Philosophy at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, he facilitated p4c inquiries and worked with many excellent teachers at Waikiki Elementary, Hokulani Elementary, Wai‘au Elementary and Ala Wai Elementary. Dr. Lukey also spent two years facilitating p4c at Loveland Academy, working with children with autism and other developmental disorders. Since 2007, Dr. Lukey has served as the Philosopher in Residence at Kailua High School, working with English and Ethnic Studies teachers to integrate p4c Hawaii into their curricula. Having received his Ph.D. in 2009, Dr. Lukey continues to support p4c Hawaii teachers and students at Kailua High School, Waikiki School, and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.