Hawaii teachers to spend time in Visayas to connect better with immigrant students

he teachers will spend the summer in the Negros Oriental region — in Bohol, Dumaguete and Apo Island – to familiarize themselves the local language and history. SCREENGRAB HNN

HONOLULU – Eight teachers from Hawaii will spend a summer in the Visayan islands in the Philippines to help them relate better with their public school students.

The six-week project is funded by the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program under the U.S. Department of Education.

The teachers will spend the summer in the Negros Oriental region — in Bohol, Dumaguete and Apo Island – to familiarize themselves the local language and history.

Eva Washburn-Repollo, associate professor of communications at Chaminade University, won a $100,000 grant to fund a summer program meant to increase Hawaii’s capacity in Filipino culture-based education in K-12 classrooms.

Eva Washburn-Repollo, associate professor of communications at Chaminade University, won a $100,000 grant to fund the summer program.

She says the field trip could help narrow the cultural gap between educators and their immigrant students. About a quarter of Hawaii public school students identify as Filipino.

 “I hope that they see that I value them and that I see who they are. But I also think learning the culture and the language will help me communicate better with their families,” Kalika Ayin, Pearl City High School English learner coordinator, told Hawaii News Now.

The teachers individually hope to improve curriculum and teaching environments using lessons from the summer field exposure. They will produce lesson plans for learning indigenous languages and disseminate these plans to a wider audience.