EDEF 352 History of Education in Hawaiʻi: Home

About this Guide

This research guide was created for students in EDEF 352 History of Education in Hawaiʻi. If you are a student in this class and need any further research help with the databases and search strategies listed on this page, please contact UHM Hawaiian Collection librarian Kapena Shim, kapena@hawaii.edu.

A note on keywords. Secondary and primary sources are findable in our library databases using various keywords searches. The keywords you use will greatly determine what you find and will not find. Constructing many searches using broad and narrow keywords work the best since some databases find information more effectively with broad keywords while others do not. Continue to analyze your results and search again until you find relevant results.

Secondary Sources

Google Scholar
Searches for scholarly literature across many disciplines and types of sources such as articles, theses and books. Algorithm ranks results by "weighing the full text of each document, where it was published, who it was written by, as well as how often and how recently it has been cited in other scholarly literature."

UH Mānoa's OneSearch
Searches the Hawaiian Collection's holdings for secondary academic and popular literature. It also searches for secondary literature in a massive central index of various, but not all, databases. To find secondary literature, click the link above to do an advanced search. On the advanced search page, construct a keyword search, then narrow your results down using the filters on the results page. 

ERIC via Proquest
Searches a very large index of education-related scholarly literature, including Hawaiʻi educational journals like Educational Perspectives and Kamehameha Journal of Education as well as U.S. journals like History of Education Quarterly and so many more that cover the various subfields of education like Curriculum Studies, Second Language Learning, and Education Administration.

Dissertations & Theses
Searches "more than 750,000 dissertations and theses from 1997 on have been digitized and are available for PDF download" and bibliographic citations from more than Includes bibliographic citations for the doctoral and selected master's work of authors from "more than 1,000 graduate schools and universities dating back to 1861."

Primary Sources

Papakilo Database
Searches across some unique and important collections of Hawaiian knowledge and history from various repositories such as the Bishop Museum's Library & Archives, Hawaiʻi State Archives, Mission Houses, and East Coast Repositories to name a few. The information database finds range from indexed information pointing you to primary sources, primary sources, and secondary sources. Hawaiian primary and secondary sources. The Newspaper search searches across a huge collection of Hawaiian language newspapers and issues of OHA's Ka Wai Ola o OHA.

Punawaiola
Provides online access to Hawaiʻi's legal archives of executive, judiciary, and legislative records from the Hawaiʻi State Archives. Also includes essential primary legal materials such as treaties, constitutions, early laws and statutes, session laws, and reported cases. Lastly, they have curated digital collections of materials from unique collections such as the Kahn Collection, Wainiha, and Ka Huli Ao. All these collection shed light on complex Hawaiian legal issues. 

Chronicling America
Searches across a large body of English language newspapers in Hawaiʻi from 1840-1922 that are often referred to as the "establishment" voice. These papers are chiefly the predecessors of the Honolulu-Star Advertiser such as the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, The Daily Bulletin, The Hawaiian Star, the Evening Bulletin, and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. This collection also searches across issues of Maui, Kauai and Hawaiʻi Island newspapers and some papers that represents  independent, alternative, and Hawaiian perspectives.

Hawaiʻi State Archives Digital Archives of Hawaiʻi
Searches across their indexes such as the Kalapapa Index, Name Card Index, Subject Card Index, Dewey Library Cards, and Captain Cook Collection. These index cards point to primary and secondary sources in their collection. Also searches across their photo collections. It is not clear how comprehensive the search is for the index cards and photographs. Another way to use this collection is to browse for records; however, this digital archives has a few archival records available online. To get a better understanding of the bulk of records the Hawaiʻi State Archives has, see the link below, Hawaiʻi State Archives Finding Aids.

Hawaiʻi State Archives Finding Aids
Provides online access to their finding aids for the various collections of records they have. For example, under Education, you will see a finding aid last updated in 2003 explaining all the records they have for the Department of Education.

Mission Houses Library & Archives
Provides links to search their catalog for printed materials, search their digital collections filled with "scans of original, full-text letters, journals and publications, many of which were written or printed right here Honolulu ABCFM Mission Station," and "a selection of daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, film negatives and quilts from our permanent collections." 

Papa Hoonaauao/Board of Education Biennial Reports
Provides online access to the Papa Hoonaauao or Board of Educationʻs biennial reports from 1845-1901. Reports are in Hawaiian and in English. Currently, you can browse each report or search in the collection for keywords (e.g. school names) using this link.

Kipuka
Geo-referenced databases that links property records such as the Mahele records, survey maps, and TMKs or Tax Map Keys. This database is useful to use when trying to research land ownership.

UH Mānoa's OneSearch
 OneSearch also searches the Hawaiian Collection's holdings for primary sources. The Hawaiian Collection has a very broad collection where we aim to acquire all types of publications (academic, popular, government, non-governmental organizations, trade, juvenile, and so much more) to document Hawaiʻi. To find primary sources, click the link above to do an advanced search. On the advanced search page, select "UHM Library" under "Search for:" and construct a keyword search.

Note: Primary sources can be tricky because a secondary source could be a primary source. It just depends on how you use it in your research project. For instance, if you are analyzing Hawaiian history school books in the territorial years, the school books would be considered your primary source. Yet, they are still secondary sources because they are a secondary narrative of Hawaiian history and not a primary account.

Research Projects

Ashley: Punahou/Oʻahu College and Hawaiian aliʻi role/agency in the making of the school (including land gifts, etc.)

Kauila: Saint Louis (Ahuimanu College) and Sacred Hearts: comparison as a Kingdom institution (tracking the institution changes, name, location, etc.) and Sacred Hearts established in the territory...Catholic education, etc.

Noah: Farrington High School (land and schools that were there before...proximity to Kamehameha, Kamehameha elementary pre-Farrington?) and naming practices of DOE schools

Aimee: McKinley High School, Honolulu High School, renaming, etc.

Kenzie: English literary works translated into Hawaiian such as Shakespeare, The Raven

Uʻi: agricultural education....food security, schools during the kingdom era that grew their own food and prepared for this....how this might compare to "industrial education" in other parts of the world and later that would critique such approaches to "education" for people of color/marginalized folx