A professional development program designed to promote collaboration between the teachers and Hawaiian stewards of land and culture throughout the `Ewa Moku to create ʻāina-based curriculum and learning opportunities for the youth of the region. 

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The primary outcome of the `Ewa `Āina Education Initiative was to create place-based educational resources that reflect Hawaiʻiʻs context by including participation from many perspectives.  

• Project organizers convened Teacher Leaders and land stewards to co-develop place-based resources.

• Teacher Leaders were supported and compensated to participate in professional learning communities in order to produce curriculum units and lesson plans that reflected place-based learning and the HĀ framework.

• All resources created are available for public access and use. 

• All shared lessons were field tested at least once. 

• All final resources integrate design feedback from land stewards, students, mentors and teaching peers.

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Nā Hopena A‘o (HĀ) is a Hawai`i Department of Education framework to develop the skills, behaviors and dispositions that reflect Hawaiʻi’s unique context to  honor the qualities and values of the indigenous language and culture of Hawaiʻi and is foundational to this program. Learn more​​