The Demise of Common Schools Attendance in the Hawaiian Kingdom-Dr. Larson Ng

March 29, 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Mānoa Campus, Zoom - https://coehawaii.zoom.us/j/94698548313

Dissertation Defense_PhD in Education; Title: The Demise of Common School Attendance in the Hawaiian Kingdom: A Historical Econometric Factor and Preference Analysis Candidate: Dr. Larson Siu Wah Moke Ng Abstract: The decline of the Hawaiian language medium schools known as the “common schools” during the Hawaiian Kingdom has been an issue that has been widely debated among education historians over the years. Although many theories have been offered, most explanations lacked sufficient quantitative evidence to support their respective views, despite the availability of quantitative data that was officially and meticulously kept by the Kingdom’s government. Consequently, using available Kingdom government documents, this research focused its efforts to econometrically investigate the major demand and supply factors that contributed to the decline of common schools attendance from 1864 to 1893 as well as determine the prevailing and/or whether any shift occurred in aboriginal Hawaiian education preferences revealed by that analysis. After reviewing the historical trends of the Hawaiian population, Kingdom schools, and government funding during this period, a correlation as well as bivariate and multiple regression analyses were employed to statistically determine the relationship and contribution of each variable. Looking at the synergistic econometric results, the aboriginal Hawaiian population was found to have the most statistically significant positive effect on common schools attendance, while the growth of the Kingdom’s sponsored English and independent schools had the most statistically significant negative effects. Government funding to non-common schools was found having a negative influence, but effect was determined not statistically significant. With respect to the question of what was or whether there was any revealed education preference shift among aboriginal Hawaiians, the specific historical trends corroborated by the earlier derived econometric results confirmed that a shift from the Hawaiian language common to English language non-common schools did occur among aboriginal Hawaiians from 1879 to 1893. The findings of this study provide useful information to better understand the decline of Hawaiian language common schools, supplies a new perspective in setting future aboriginal Hawaiian educational priorities, and offers other areas of future research.


Event Sponsor
College of Education - Curriculum Studies, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Kimo Cashman, 808-386-7751, kcashman@hawaii.edu, Dr.Ng_Dissertation Defense_Flier (PDF)

Share by email