IAFOR > The IAFOR International Conference on Education in Hawaii (IICE) > IICEHawaii2020

IICEHawaii2020

IICEHawaii2020

January 10-12, 2020 | The Hawai'i Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

Held in partnership with the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, this international conference encourages academics and scholars to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum stimulating respectful dialogue, by bringing together university scholars working throughout Hawai'i, the United States, Asia, and beyond to share ideas and research at the intersection of education and sustainability. Last year the conference brought together the President of the University of Hawai’i, CEO of the East-West Center, and Superintendent of the Hawai’i State Board of Education, as well as representatives of the World Bank and UNESCO. This year promises to build on the great energy and support and be even bigger and better.

This event will afford an exceptional opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, networking, and facilitating partnerships across national and disciplinary borders.

Since its founding in 2009, IAFOR has brought people and ideas together in a variety of events and platforms to promote and celebrate interdisciplinary study, and underline its importance. Over the past year we have engaged in many cross-sectoral projects, including those with universities (the University of Barcelona, Hofstra University, UCL, University of Belgrade and Moscow State University), think tanks (the East-West Center), as well as collaborative projects with the United Nations in New York, and the Government of Japan through the Prime Minister’s office, and right here in Honolulu with the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa for this conference!

With the IAFOR Research Centre at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP) at Osaka University, we have engaged in a number of interdisciplinary initiatives we believe will have an important impact on domestic and international public policy conversations. It is through conferences like these that we expand our network and partners, and we have no doubt that IICEHawaii2020 and IICSEEHawaii2020 will offer a remarkable opportunity for the sharing of research and best practice, for the meeting of people and ideas. We expect the resultant professional and personal collaborations to endure for many years, and we look forward to seeing you in Honolulu!

The 5th IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii (IICEHawaii2020) was held alongside The 4th IAFOR International Conference on Sustainability, Energy & the Environment – Hawaii (IICSEEHawaii2020), and many of the sessions concentrated on areas at the intersection of education and sustainability. In keeping with IAFOR’s commitment to interdisciplinary study, delegates at either conference were encouraged to attend sessions in other disciplines.

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Speakers

Keynote Speakers

  • Harrie Vredenburg
    Harrie Vredenburg
    University of Calgary, Canada

Featured Speakers

  • Reed Dasenbrock
    Reed Dasenbrock
    University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA
  • David P. Ericson
    David P. Ericson
    University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
  • April Nozomi Goodwin
    April Nozomi Goodwin
    University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA
  • Ann Hartman
    Ann Hartman
    East-West Center, USA
  • Yuko Ida
    Yuko Ida
    University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA
  • Ljiljana Markovic
    Ljiljana Markovic
    University of Belgrade, Serbia
  • Janina Martin
    Janina Martin
    University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA
  • Alex Means
    Alex Means
    University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA
  • Michael Menchaca
    Michael Menchaca
    University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States
  • Nathan Murata
    Nathan Murata
    University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA
  • Deane Neubauer
    Deane Neubauer
    University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States
  • Keiichi Ogawa
    Keiichi Ogawa
    Kobe University, Japan
  • Lowell Sheppard
    Lowell Sheppard
    Pacific Solo & HOPE International Development Agency Japan
  • Ger Thao
    Ger Thao
    University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA

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Programme

  • SDGs and Education: Teacher Deployment and School Facility Installment in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
    SDGs and Education: Teacher Deployment and School Facility Installment in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
    Featured Presentation: Keiichi Ogawa
  • Climate Emergency: The Road Ahead Beyond Heroes and Villains
    Climate Emergency: The Road Ahead Beyond Heroes and Villains
    Keynote Presentation: Harrie Vredenburg
  • Culture and Society in the New Modernization Paradigm
    Culture and Society in the New Modernization Paradigm
    Panel Presentation: Ljiljana Markovic & Janina Martin
  • The Future of Liberal Education
    The Future of Liberal Education
    Panel Presentation: April Nozomi Goodwin & Reed Dasenbrock
  • Pacific Solo: A Voyage to Nemo North in the Middle of the North Pacific Garbage Patch
    Pacific Solo: A Voyage to Nemo North in the Middle of the North Pacific Garbage Patch
    Featured Presentation: Lowell Sheppard
  • Global and Educational Engagement through Innovative Technology and Pedagogies
    Global and Educational Engagement through Innovative Technology and Pedagogies
    Panel Presentation: Ann Hartman, Ger Thao & Yuko Ida
  • Education, Work, and Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
    Education, Work, and Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
    Panel Presentation: Deane E. Neubauer, David P. Ericson & Alexander J. Means

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Organising Committee

The Conference Programme Committee is composed of distinguished academics who are experts in their fields. Conference Programme Committee members may also be members of IAFOR's International Academic Board. The Organising Committee is responsible for nominating and vetting Keynote and Featured Speakers; developing the conference programme, including special workshops, panels, targeted sessions, and so forth; event outreach and promotion; recommending and attracting future Conference Programme Committee members; working with IAFOR to select PhD students and early career academics for IAFOR-funded grants and scholarships; and overseeing the reviewing of abstracts submitted to the conference.

  • Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio
    Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio
    University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, USA
  • Xu Di
    Xu Di
    University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA
  • Joseph Haldane
    Joseph Haldane
    The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan
  • Curtis Ho
    Curtis Ho
    University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA
  • Barbara Lockee
    Barbara Lockee
    Virginia Tech, USA
  • James W. McNally
    James W. McNally
    University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging
  • Alex Means
    Alex Means
    University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA
  • Michael Menchaca
    Michael Menchaca
    University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States
  • Sela V. Panapasa
    Sela V. Panapasa
    University of Michigan, USA
  • Hiagi M. Wesley
    Hiagi M. Wesley
    Brigham Young University – Hawaii, USA

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IAFOR Hawaii2020 Review Committee

  • Dr Getu Hailu, University of Alaska Anchorage, United States
  • Dr Glenda Bonifacio, University of Lethbridge, Canada
  • Professor Kenneth Hansen, California State University, Fresno, United States
  • Dr Mutala Mohammed, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research - Institute of Industrial Research, Ghana
  • Professor Cláudia Lima, Universidade Lusófona do Porto, Portugal
  • Dr Colleen Halupa, East Texas Baptist University, United States
  • Dr Emarely Rosa-Davila, Texas Woman's University, United States
  • Dr Erick Kong, California State University East Bay, United States
  • Professor Heeseon Jang, Pyeongtaek University, South Korea
  • Dr Hungche Chen, Chang Gung University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
  • Dr Joanie Crandall, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
  • Dr Kristin Palmer, University of Virginia, United States
  • Dr Leslie Scamacca, LaGuardia Community College, United States
  • Dr Maria Luz Villarante, University of Perpetual Help Philippines, Philippines
  • Dr Masako Mouri, Toyohashi University of Technology, Japan
  • Dr Matthew Motyka, University of San Francisco, United States
  • Dr Mico Poonoosamy, Josai International University, Japan
  • Professor Shih-Hsuan Wei, National Taichung University of Education, Taiwan
  • Dr Yifeng Yuan, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
  • Dr Yu-Wen Wei, Defense Language Institute, United States

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IAFOR Academic Grant & Scholarship Recipients

Our warmest congratulations go to Melo-Jean Yap, Reynold Padagas and Xiaotian Han, were selected by the conference Organising Committee to receive grants and scholarships to present their research at IICE/ICSEEHawaii2020.

IAFOR's grants and scholarships programme provides financial support to PhD students and early career academics, with the aim of helping them pursue research excellence and achieve their academic goals through interdisciplinary study and interaction. Awards are based on the appropriateness of the educational opportunity in relation to the applicant's field of study, financial need, and contributions to their community and to IAFOR's mission of interdisciplinarity. Scholarships are awarded based on availability of funds from IAFOR and vary with each conference.

Find out more about IAFOR grants and scholarships: www.iafor.org/financial-support

Melo-Jean Yap | Stuart D. B. Picken Grant & Scholarship Recipient
Matriarchs Matter: Family Influences to Scientific Thinking of Women of Color in the Community College
Melo-Jean Yap, San Diego State University, United States

Dr Melo-Jean Yap is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at San Diego State University. She studies STEM diversity, inclusion, and equity in higher education. She also recently received her first grant from the National Science Foundation for her research on women of color STEM majors in the community college.

Reynold Padagas | IAFOR Scholarship Recipient
Beyond Design Thinking Use in Conceptual Framework Development in Nursing Informatics
Reynold Padagas, Jose Rizal University, Philippines

Dr Reynold C. Padagas, R.N. is a Faculty Lecturer of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and the Graduate School of Jose Rizal University in the Philippines. His research interests are pedagogy, curriculum, assessment of student learning, education technology, private-public higher education institution complementarity, and any other nursing and health-related research undertakings.

Xiaotian Han | IAFOR Scholarship Recipient
The Associations Between the Perception of Helpfulness of Teacher Induction Programs and Anticipated First-year Teacher Retention in China
Xiaotian Han, Shanghai Normal University Tianhua College, China

Dr Xiaotian Han received her doctor of education at the University of the Pacific in Summer of 2019. She has been teaching in K-8 for five years in California (USA) before becoming an instructor in higher education in Shanghai, China. Her research interests include teacher education and secondary math education.

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Harrie Vredenburg
University of Calgary, Canada

Biography

Harrie Vredenburg is a leading scholar in the areas of competitive strategy, innovation, sustainable development and corporate governance in global energy and natural resource industries and is Professor of Strategy and Suncor Chair in Strategy and Sustainability at the University of Calgary’s Haskayne School of Business. He also holds appointments as a Research Fellow at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary and as an International Research Fellow at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University in the UK. In addition, he has taught annually at ESSAM, the European Summer School for Advanced Management since 2002.

Vredenburg was one of the visionaries who founded Haskayne's Global Energy Executive MBA and served as its Academic Director from its inception in 2010 to 2018. Students in this two year blended learning executive program live and work around the world and attend two-week intensive modules in Calgary, Houston, London, Beijing/Shanghai and Doha and between face-to-face modules do coursework online. He was also co-founder and Academic Director of the University of Calgary’s MSc in Sustainable Energy Development from its inception in 1996 until 2006.

He has authored or co-authored more than 50 frequently cited articles in leading international scholarly publications including Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, MIT Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Energy Policy, Energies, Technovation, International Journal of Economics & Business Research and Global Business & Economics Review. He has also coauthored government reports on industry regulation, innovation and competitiveness and on nuclear energy and he consults to industry. According to Google Scholar, his publications have been cited more than 5,000 times. A leading authority on corporate strategy, governance, innovation and the management of environmental issues in energy and resource industries, Vredenburg's work is recognized in academic circles, corporations, governments and non-profits.

A popular teacher, he lectures in MBA, Executive MBA, doctoral, executive development and corporate directors programs. He was honoured with the 2016-2017 Haskayne MBA Society Top MBA Teacher Award, based on a vote by MBA students. He was also voted 2015-2016 Haskayne MBA Society Top MBA Teacher.

He serves as a non-executive member of the boards of directors of several publicly traded and private international energy companies. He holds the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors as a certified corporate director.

He is married to Dr Jennifer Maguire. They have three adult children.

Reed Dasenbrock
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA

Biography

Reed Dasenbrock is a Professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa who teaches courses in English, Italian, Philosophy, Honours, and Higher Education. He served as a university administrator for over 20 years, first at New Mexico State University and the University of New Mexico before serving as Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for seven and a half years. He also served as the Secretary of Higher Education for the State of New Mexico.

Educated at McGill University in Canada, Oxford University in the United Kingdom and the Johns Hopkins University in the United States, where he completed his PhD, Dasenbrock is the author or editor of eight books, more than 50 scholarly articles and nearly 50 chapters in scholarly books. He has published widely in literature and literary theory, and in more recent years has published about the nature and financing of higher education.

David P. Ericson
University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA

Biography

David P. Ericson is a Professor of Philosophy of Education and Educational Policy Studies in the Department of Educational Foundations, College of Education, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Prior to joining the Faculty of the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1992, he was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (1979 – 1992) and a professor at Virginia Tech (1977 – 1979). In the College of Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, he has served as chairperson in two departments (Department of Educational Foundations and the Department of Curriculum & Instruction), as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, and as director of the Office of International Education. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Studies in Philosophy and Education for five years.

With research and scholarly interests in philosophy of education, educational policy analysis, and comparative and international education, he has published widely on education issues, the logic of social science research methodology, and educational policy and reform issues in the U.S. and Asia. He is particularly noted for his work on the structure and behaviour of national educational systems in the U.S. and Asia. He has been a Fulbright Senior Specialist Award holder (2007 – 2012), an award that has enabled his research efforts on educational reform issues in lower and higher education in Denmark and China. Most recently, he has been researching policy issues concerning the expansion and quality of higher education in Vietnam.

Panel Presentation (2020) | Education, Work, and Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Featured Panel in Association with APHERP
Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Educational Policy: Does the Democratisation of Education in Educational Systems Fuel Economic and Social Inequality?
April Nozomi Goodwin
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA

Biography

April Nozomi Goodwin is an Academic Affairs Program Officer at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She has worked in higher education leadership for over ten years and currently manages the creation and review of academic programs, educational agreements and articulation, and policy. She holds a BA in Social Studies from Hamline University, a Master’s in International Public Affairs from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a PhD in Education from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. Her research is currently focused on liberal arts education, accreditation and applications of the Delphi method in higher education.

Ann Hartman
East-West Center, USA

Biography

Ann Hartman is dean of the East-West Center Education Program. She provides overall leadership for the Center’s graduate student programs, ensuring an enriching intellectual, social and cultural experience for students in residence at the EWC, a cooperative relationship with the University of Hawaiʻi, and international partnerships with institutions across the Asia Pacific region. Previously, she spent 15 years in the Seminars Program at the East-West Center, designing and coordinating short-term professional development and exchange experiences for journalists, young political leaders, and female entrepreneurs from Asia, the Pacific and the United States. She co-authored the book chapter, “Changing Faces Women’s Leadership Seminar: A Model for Increasing Asia Pacific Women’s Entrepreneurial Participation,” in the 2014 academic text Women and Leadership Around the World. Ms Hartman came to the East-West Center in 2002 from a career in teaching, training, and program administration. She received her master’s degree in international education from the Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst with a focus on adult, non-formal education.

Featured Panel Presentation (2020) | "Global and Educational Engagement through Innovative Technology and Pedagogies"
Yuko Ida
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA

Biography

Yuko Ida holds a B.A. in English Education from the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan. While in college, she studied philosophy as an exchange student under Dr. ʻI. Futa Helu at ‘Atenisi University in the Kingdom of Tonga. She is a 2019-2020 East-West Center Foundation Scholarship recipient and pursuing a M.Ed. in Educational Foundations at the College of Education, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. With seven years of teaching experience as a public elementary school teacher in Okinawa and Nagoya, Japan, her research interests focus on equity and social justice issues in education as well as impacts of globalization on educational policies.

Featured Panel Presentation (2020) | "Global and Educational Engagement through Innovative Technology and Pedagogies"
Ljiljana Markovic
University of Belgrade, Serbia

Biography

Dr Ljiljana Markovic is Dean, Chairperson of the Doctoral Studies Program and Full Professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. She has previously served as Vice Dean for Financial Affairs, Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade (2008-2016). She holds the positions of Chairperson of the Association of Japanologists of Serbia, Member of the University of Belgrade Council, Chairperson of the University of Belgrade SYLFF Committee, Member of the Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Bilingual Education Board, and Member of the Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Culture, Committee on Books Procurement for Public Libraries. In 2010 she received the Gaimu Daijin Sho Award from the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and in 2011 she received the Dositej Obradovic Award for Pedagogical Achievement. She is the author of a large number of publications in the fields of Japanese studies and economics.

Panel Presentation (2019) | Culture and Society in the New Modernization Paradigm
Janina Martin
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, USA

Biography

Janina Martin is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Honolulu Community College and a current PhD student in the Education Foundations Global and International Education program at UH Mānoa. She instructs ECED foundational and practicum courses in the two year Associate Degree programme, as well as acts as the Director of the on-site Keiki Hauʻoli Children’s Lab Center. She currently serves as the Vice President of Public Policy for the Hawaiʻi Association for the Education of Young Children (HIAEYC) and is a member of the State Early Childhood Registry Panel. She has served in many roles in the field of Early Childhood Education for over 30 years including preschool and toddler teacher, training and coaching specialist, and program coordinator for various grants assessing quality care. Her current work is focused on the impact of asset-based narrative observations and assessments on the development of learner identities.

Panel Presentation (2019) | Culture and Society in the New Modernization Paradigm
Alex Means
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA

Biography

Alexander J. Means is Graduate Program Chair in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He is the author most recently of Learning to Save the Future: Rethinking Education and Work in the Era Digital Capitalism (Routledge, 2018); Educational Commons in Theory and Practice: Global Pedagogy and Politics (Palgrave, 2017); and The Wiley Handbook of Global Education Reform (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018). His research examines educational policy and organisation in relation to political, economic, cultural, technological, and social change.

Panel Presentation (2020) | Education, Work, and Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Michael Menchaca
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States

Biography

Michael Menchaca is Chair of the Department of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He specialises in distance education, and has designed, implemented, and coordinated online and hybrid programs for over 20 years. He serves as editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education: Technology in Education Edition. He was an IT specialist for many years in the public and private sector. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of online learning, technology integration, and social justice with technology.

Featured Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2024) | Practical Approaches to AI in Academia
Panel Presentation (2022) | Reimagining General Education Across Hawaii’s 10-Campus System: Process, Product, and Lessons Learned
Panel Presentation (2021) | Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
Nathan Murata
University of Hawaii at Manoa, USA

Biography

Nathan Murata completed his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University and joined the faculty at Chaminade University to start their special education program. He left Chaminade to pursue a position at the University of Toledo. Nathan returned to Hawaii as an Assistant Professor in the Kinesiology and Rehabilitation Science (KRS) department, University of Hawaii at Manoa. He became a Full Professor, served as Department chair and Associate Dean prior to becoming Dean of the College of Education.

He co-authored two textbooks, numerous publications and local, state, national and International presentations. He secured over $2.5 million dollars in U.S. DOE, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Programs training grants, and contracts worth over $1.5 million from the State of Hawaii, Department of Health focusing on the Hawaii Concussion Awareness and Management Program (HCAMP) in collaboration with the Hawaii Department of Education. HCAMP is the only state supported concussion awareness and education program in the country. Working within the context of Adapted Physical Education, and with the support of external partners, he organized the first Interscholastic high school basketball games featuring both students with disabilities and those who are at-risk. His program has received a State Senate resolution in 2018 from the honorable Sen. Michelle Kidani.

Welcome on Behalf of University of Hawaii at Manoa
Deane Neubauer
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, United States

Biography

Deane E. Neubauer is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He currently also serves as the Associate Director of the Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership (APHERP) which conducts a wide range of policy-focused research with a special focus on higher education. He is also currently an adjunct senior fellow of the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. Deane holds a BA from the University of California, Riverside, and MA and PhD degrees from Yale University. Over the course of his career he has focused on a variety of political and policy areas including democratic theory, public policy, elections and various policy foci, including education, health, agriculture and communication. He has held a wide variety of administrative positions at the University of Hawaii, Manoa and the 10 campus University of Hawaii system. He also has over twenty years of experience in U.S.-oriented quality assurance.

Keynote Presentation (2022) | Higher Education Across the Globe: A Time of Transformative Change

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2020) | Education, Work, and Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Featured Panel in Association with APHERP
Keiichi Ogawa
Kobe University, Japan

Biography

Dr Keiichi Ogawa is a Professor/Department Chair in the Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies at Kobe University in Japan, where he teaches human capital development, education finance/administration, and development management. He is also an Honorary Professor at Kyrgyz National University in Kyrgyz Republic. His research interest lies in economics of education, education finance, comparative international education, and public policy on the education sector.

His professional experiences include serving as Education Economist at the World Bank, Senior Advisor at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Advisor at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Consultant at the Asia Development Bank (ADB), Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), UNICEF and UNESCO, and Advisory Committee Member at the Japanese Ministry of Education (MEXT). He has also served in various graduate schools including as Visiting Professor at Columbia University and Adjunct Professor at George Washington University in the United States.

He has served as a Governing Board Member of the UNESCO IIEP, Secretary General/ Board Member of the Japan Society for International Development (JASID), and a Board Member of the Japan Comparative Education Society (JCES). He has also served as International Advisory Board for Compare (British Association for International & Comparative Education), Lao Journal of Economics and Management, and the Souphanouvong Academic Journal, as well as an Editorial Board Member for Comparative Education (Japan Comparative Education Society), Journal of Economics and Business Administration, Journal of International Cooperation Studies, Africa Education Research Journal, and the Journal of International Educational Cooperation.

He has received recognition and various awards from governments and academic institutions. He was given the Labor Medal by the Prime Minister of Lao PDR in 2018 and the Evaluation Award by the Prime Minister of Uganda in 2014. He also received shields and a certificate of appreciation for his contribution to the development of education, from the Ministry of Education in Yemen (2005 and 2009), Lao PDR (2011 and 2018), Malaysia (2016), and Saudi Arabia (2017). In addition, he received the Early Career Award from the Teachers College, Columbia University (2009); the President Award from Kobe University (2010); and the Professional Achievement Award from Hawaii Pacific University (2011).

He has worked on development assistance activities in over 30 countries and has authored or co-edited seven books and over 80 journal articles/book chapters. Many of them are issues related to educational development and cooperation in international settings. He holds his PhD in Comparative International Education and Economics of Education from Columbia University.

Featured Presentation (2020) | SDGs and Education: Teacher Deployment and School Facility Installment in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

Previous Presentations

Featured Presentation (2019) | SDGs and Education: Sustainable Financing for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia
Lowell Sheppard
Pacific Solo & HOPE International Development Agency Japan

Biography

Rookie Sailor Lowell Sheppard is about to embark on the journey of a lifetime – sailing solo across the Pacific Ocean, through the Garbage Patch, via a place he is calling Nemo North and onwards to see his mother who is isolated in a Canadian Care Facility.

Lowell Sheppard is an author, speaker, social entrepreneur, former minister, Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, husband, father, long-distance cyclist, and aspiring sailor. Lowell has spent his entire adult life working with established non-government organisations (also known as non-profit societies) and in several NGO start-ups. As Founder of HOPE International Development Agency Japan and Asia Pacific twenty years ago, Lowell has seen the growth of HOPE to be in the top 2% of charitable organisations in Japan with the coveted “nintei” certified tax-deductible status.

Lowell has served for the last twenty years as an informal advisor to companies and boards in the area of ethical decision making and thought leadership with a focus on community legacy. He has dedicated much of his life to social and environmental improvement projects.

Lowell’s PACIFIC SOLO expedition is under the umbrella of Navigate22, a sustainability and education consultancy. Pacific Solo will serve as a motif for exploration, sustainability, goal setting, and achievement.

Keynote Presentation (2021) | Resilience: One Man’s Journey Across the World
Ger Thao
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA

Biography

Ger Thao holds an MA in Education: Curriculum & Instruction, BA in Liberal Studies, and multiple subject teaching credential from California State University, Chico. She is a Graduate Degree Fellow of the East-West Center and is pursuing a PhD in Education: Curriculum & Instruction Specialization at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She has been teaching for eight years as an elementary school teacher and as an ELA Intervention Specialist/ELD Coordinator. She was a former Program Coordinator for the Hmong Language and Culture Enrichment Program (HLCEP) in Madison, WI. Her research interest focuses on multicultural children's literature and social justice in education.

Featured Panel Presentation (2020) | "Global and Educational Engagement through Innovative Technology and Pedagogies"
SDGs and Education: Teacher Deployment and School Facility Installment in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia
Featured Presentation: Keiichi Ogawa

In 2015, the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4-Education 2030 was adopted with an ambitious Target 4.2 on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), which states, "By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education”. However, despite the global commitment and established benefits of investing in ECCE, it is still a sub-sector that is seriously underfunded in the Asia and the Pacific region. Public spending is often not sufficient, and external funding is, at times, not large enough or sustainable. However, a few studies have been conducted to identify specific challenges and innovative practices for financing ECCE, considering the detailed contexts of each country.

Against this background, this study explores strategies for sustainable financing of ECCE in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, employing the mixed methods approach. In its qualitative component, semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders at central, provincial, district, and institutional levels. The key findings show that Cambodia and Laos depend on external funding, while a community preschool system is applied in Cambodia to expand access to ECCE in rural/remote areas. In Vietnam, there are some innovative practices, such as collaboration with private sector actors, in urban areas on an ad hoc basis. The study implied that, in addition to ensure adequate, efficient, and equitable funding, governments are recommended to set a framework to promote strategic engagement with the private sector in promoting sustainability in financing ECCE.

Read presenter biographies.

Climate Emergency: The Road Ahead Beyond Heroes and Villains
Keynote Presentation: Harrie Vredenburg

Youth activist Greta Thunberg and Extinction Rebellion have recently ratcheted up the state of worldwide alarm over climate change. But alarm alone does not address the climate problem.

Climate change mitigation has been increasingly framed in absolute terms, a perspective that divides the world into two camps, heroes and villains.

This is hampering progress.

The world is filled with people who care about addressing climate change but who are workers who need good jobs to support their families, governments who need tax revenues to fund services, businesses who need inexpensive energy to provide competitive goods and services, citizens of developing countries who need to rise out of energy poverty, entrepreneurs looking for technical and business model opportunities, and scientists searching for scientific and engineering breakthroughs.

These people are located in regions and countries with differing endowments of natural energy resources, differing infrastructure systems and differing vulnerabilities to climate change.

Truly mitigating climate change calls for both transformative and compensatory behaviors, technologies, and policies for a modern world that was built on fossil fuel energy.

This address will look at the global context for climate change and chart a real road ahead.

Read presenter biographies.

Culture and Society in the New Modernization Paradigm
Panel Presentation: Ljiljana Markovic & Janina Martin

Cultures and societies are changing rapidly all over the world. The fast pace of technological progress facilitated this process and contributed to its unimaginable pace. However, a development gap has actually widened between the most developed countries and those still developing over the past four decades. Our research, and this panel, seek to examine the theories of economic and cultural development, as well as the historical and currently ruling modernization paradigms and, by comparing the case study results on the experience of Japan's modernization and the modernization processes in Hawai'i and Serbia, to arrive at some conclusions as to how modernization could be a sustainable phenomenon, contributing to the overall welfare of the country and its people. Elements of modernization, such as industrial and post-industrial development, education (at all levels), its availability on an equitable basis, and the building of a fair and inclusive society, with equal chances offered to men and women, as well as to all groups living and working in the communities embraced by a developing society, shall be the topics we explore on this panel, which invites an open and broad discussion. The focus of our attention in examining the case studies shall be placed on the crucial role of the quality of education in the process of modernization.

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The Future of Liberal Education
Panel Presentation: April Nozomi Goodwin & Reed Dasenbrock

A comprehensive undergraduate experience encompasses a broad survey of the humanities, arts, social sciences, multicultural and global education, as well as mathematics, science and technology. These disciplines are essential components of a liberal arts education that prepares students with the skills and knowledge to navigate an increasingly complex and dynamic future, regardless of disciplinary major. In recent decades, decreasing enrollments and shrinking budgets have begun to threaten the very existence of many of these programs. In response, some leaders are selecting to eliminate liberal arts majors in favor of supporting career and workforce preparation programs, while others are piloting innovative curricular redesign across disciplines that coherently integrates liberal arts programs with professional and career pathways. Many are currently caught in the struggle to determine the best path forward. In this contentious financial and political environment, higher education leaders across the country would benefit from guidance to address this pressing issue. This panel will share the findings of our study which utilized the policy Delphi method to engage a panel of education experts in an iterative conversation around how to manage decreasing enrollments in liberal arts courses and programs. The goal was to generate a robust set of policy options designed to enable higher education leaders to optimally respond to the myriad internal and external threats to the liberal arts disciplines. Pedagogical considerations and policy implications will be discussed.

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Pacific Solo: A Voyage to Nemo North in the Middle of the North Pacific Garbage Patch
Featured Presentation: Lowell Sheppard

Lowell Sheppard has swapped a bicycle for a boat. Having cycled the length of Japan more than once to raise awareness and money for sustainability development causes, Sheppard is preparing for a 2-3 month solo crossing of the North Pacific, through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. He hopes to raise awareness for oceans and the increasing pollution in them. Lowell will share the thinking behind this mission and suggest concepts for individuals and organisations to consider when making strategic decisions. Lowell has recently launched Navigate22, an ethics consulting firm, aimed at helping individuals and organisations navigate the ethical complexities of the 21st Century with a sustainable 22nd Century in view.

Lowell Sheppard, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and published author, ethicist and social entrepreneur has spent a lifetime in the Sustainable Development sector. He is known by many for his work with HOPE International Development Agency over the last 40 years which has taken him to war and disaster zones and areas of extreme poverty.

He began his environmental activism in 1992 by planning a large environmental rally in Hyde Park for church groups across the UK called “Whose Earth” in the run up to the Earth Summit in Rio. He spends his time between two residences. One is a solar powered log house in central Japan and the other a 40-foot sailboat in Tokyo Bay which he is readying for his solo voyage.

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Global and Educational Engagement through Innovative Technology and Pedagogies
Panel Presentation: Ann Hartman, Ger Thao & Yuko Ida

This panel will present a unique and innovative East-West Center capacity building program for graduate student leaders from over 30 countries in the Asia Pacific/US region. The EXCHANGE, EWC Education Program’s flagship program, builds capacity on various levels using innovative technology and pedagogies. The program brings students together across cultures and disciplines each week for eight weeks, to learn from distinguished guests and one another through performance, presentations, activities and food. All of this is planned by an international team of students, including interns from the College of Education at UHM, and supported by EWC staff with the goal of connecting students to the pressing issues, innovations, cultures, and challenges of the US-Asia Pacific region and preparing them for action toward positive change.

Panelists will share their work as a team from different perspectives. Ann Hartman will discuss the program design and administration from her leadership role as the Dean. Ger Thao will share the insights as the planning coordinator/program mentor to rich and diverse international participants across national and geographic borders. Yuko Ida will examine her experiences as a curriculum developer, team trainer, and an activity leader. They will share highlights and challenges as well as possibilities of the direction for international leadership developments.

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Education, Work, and Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Panel Presentation: Deane E. Neubauer, David P. Ericson & Alexander J. Means

With an emerging new era of technology change – frequently referred to as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Work 4.0 – education institutions will face challenges unlike any that have previously confronted them. Of particular concern are how evolving developments in technology – especially in artificial intelligence, robotics, and deep machine learning – have the potential to drastically transform labour markets and upend the world of work. The papers in this panel grapple with how the technological changes associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution raise distinct problems and possibilities for the sustainability of current social and education systems. The first paper by Deane E. Neubauer, “The Challenge for Sustainability within Higher Education in an Era of Rapid Technology Change”, considers the idea of sustainability in relation to the historical functions of higher education: knowledge production, knowledge transmission, knowledge conservation and sustaining public good. The presentation explores how these historic functions may be changing within this significant period of rapid technology change. The second paper by David Ericson, “Sustaining the Tradition of Liberal Education: How Robotics and Artificial Intelligence May Save the Arts and Humanities”, suggests that the job altering impacts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution directly threatens the long held normative belief in the efficacy of education and the connection between the educational system and the social and economic system. Perhaps counterintuitively, the presentation will tease out the implications and how these changes may not only sustain liberal arts education but encourage it to flourish as never before. The third paper by Alexander Means, “Education for a Post-Work Society: Beyond Solutionism, Collaborationism, and Techno-Realism”, synthesises and contrasts various perspectives on the future of work and technology including solutionist, collaborationist, accelerationist, and techno-realist perspectives. It argues that a crucial element missing from these post-work theories is a failure to consider how a sustainable post-work society requires alternative paradigms for conceiving educational value, knowledge, and mass intellectuality.

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Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio
University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa, USA

Biography

Papalii Dr Failautusi ‘Tusi’ Avegalio is the director of the multi national award winning Pacific Business Center Program (PBCP) and the executive director of the Honolulu Minority Business Enterprise Center (HMBEC) at the UH Mānoa Shidler College of Business. A former research fellow with the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center, Avegalio is the first native from Oceania to become a professor at the Shidler College of Business. He has consulted extensively for traditional chiefs, village councils, governments, colleges and universities, financial institutions, multi-national corporations and businesses nationally and internationally. He also has been the primary organiser of many events, such as the University of Hawai‘i Stars of Oceania to recognise the contributions of Pacific Islanders to the State, Nation and World inaugurated in 2006 with most recent event in American Samoa in 2017, and Regional & Global Breadfruit Summits in American Samoa (2013), Hawai‘i (2016), and the recent 2017 Breadfruit Summit in Apia, Samoa. Dr Tusi has a doctorate in educational administration from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He is a Polynesian alii and senior heir of the Malietoa warrior king line of Samoa holding the traditional title of ‘Papali’i’ from Savaii, Samoa.

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Keynote Presentation (2018) | "Surviving and Thriving: Education in Times of Change"
Xu Di
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA

Biography

Xu Di (许笛) is a professor in the department of Education Foundations, College of Education, University of Hawai’i-Mānoa. She is a member of the board of examiners for the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE, now Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation [CAEP]), which has provided national accreditation for teacher education programs in the United States since 2007. Her recent publications focus on bridging Eastern and Western philosophy for educational practices and include Chinese Philosophy on Teaching & Learning: Xueji《学记》 in the Twenty-First Century (2016), The Wisdom from the East: A Holistic Theory and Practice of Health and Wellness (2013), Spiritual Heritage and Education Today (2013), Taoism: Origin, Essence, and Practice (2013), and A Reading of Lao Zi for Educational Philosophers Today (2012). In addition, she published A Comparison of the Educational Ideas and Practices of John Dewey and Mao Zedong in China (1992) and various chapters and articles on teacher education, educational foundations, multicultural education, international education, and ESL education. She worked as an international consultant in teacher education and educational reforms in Central Asia and Africa for the World Bank in 2002 and 2001. She served on the Hawai’i Teacher Standard Board (2005–2008) and as the president of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) Hawai’i Chapter as well as Hawai’i state representative (2006–2008). She was a visiting scholar and research associate at the Philosophy of Educational Research Center at Harvard University (1999–2000), a visiting professor in Peking University (2015, 2011, 2009, and 1997) and in Renmin University (2012, 2014, and 2016), and an exchange professor at National Kaohsiung University in Taiwan (1998). She served as manuscript editor as well as editorial board member for Harvard Educational Review during 1988–1990. She was honored in Who’s Who among American Teachers in 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, and 2008.

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2018) | Educational Policy: Does the Democratisation of Education in Educational Systems Fuel Economic and Social Inequality?
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Aloha as a Way of Being: Hawaiian Perspectives on Learning

Joseph Haldane
The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

Biography

Joseph Haldane is the founder, chairman, and CEO of IAFOR. He is responsible for devising strategy, setting policies, forging institutional partnerships, implementing projects, and overseeing the organisation’s global business and academic operations.

Dr Haldane has a PhD from the University of London in nineteenth-century French studies (ULIP/RHUL), and has research interests in world history and politics; international education; and governance and decision making. Since 2015, he has been a Guest Professor at Osaka University’s School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), and Co-Director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre since 2017.

In 2020, Dr Haldane was elected Honorary Professor of University College London (UCL) through the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, and full Professor in the United Nations Peace University's European Center for Peace and Development in 2022. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network for global governance, he holds visiting professorships at Belgrade and Doshisha Universities where he teaches ethics and governance. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Professor Haldane has had full-time faculty positions at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, Sciences Po Paris, and Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, as well as visiting positions at the French Press Institute (Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas), and the Schools of Journalism of Sciences Po Paris and Moscow State University.

Dr Haldane has been invited to speak at universities and conferences globally, including the UN HQ in New York, and advised universities, NGOs and governments on issues relating to international education policy, public-private partnerships, and multi-stakeholder forums. He was the project lead on the 2019 Kansai Resilience Forum, held by the Japanese Government through the Prime Minister’s Office and oversaw the 2021 Ministry of Foreign Affairs commissioned study on Infectious Diseases on Cruise Ships.

Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Featured Interview (2024) | Questions of Education, Curation and Artificial Intelligence
Curtis Ho
University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA

Biography

Curtis Ho is Professor, Department Chair and Graduate Chair of the Learning Design and Technology department at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. He has been a UH faculty member for over 30 years, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in educational media research, interactive multimedia, web-based instruction, distance education, video technology, and computer-based education. He has taught courses in American and Western Samoa and Saipan, and was the first to offer a course statewide over the Hawai’i Interactive Television System.

Curtis Ho received his PhD in Educational Technology from Arizona State University where he served as instructional designer. He has consulted for public and private schools, financial institutions, and higher education. For several years he directed the Office of Faculty Development and Academic Support for the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus. He has presented extensively at national and international conferences at locations including Beijing, Copenhagen, Eskisehir, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Lugano, Rome, Kumamoto, Kyoto, Melbourne, Montreal, Osaka, Panang, Taipei, Takamatsu, Tokyo, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Professor Ho was a Principal Investigator, Co-Principal Investigator and Project Director for three US Department of Education grants totalling over 9.8 million US dollars. He is a co-organiser of TCC Worldwide Online Conference, an executive committee member of E-Learn, Association for the Advancement of Computers in Education, and is also past-President of the Pan Pacific Distance Learning Association, a chapter of the United States Distance Learning Association and of the Pacific Association for Communications and Technology, a chapter of the national Association for Educational Communications and Technology.

Featured Panel Presentation (2022) | Building Back Better

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Independence & Interdependence
Featured Panel Presentation (2017) | Educating for Change: Challenging and Preserving Traditional Cultures
Barbara Lockee
Virginia Tech, USA

Biography

Dr Lockee is Professor of Instructional Design and Technology at Virginia Tech, USA, where she is also Associate Director of the School of Education and Associate Director of Educational Research and Outreach. She teaches courses in instructional design, message design, and distance education. Her research interests focus on instructional design issues related to technology-mediated learning. She has published more than 80 papers in academic journals, conferences and books, and has presented her scholarly work at over 90 national and international conferences.

Dr Lockee is Immediate Past President of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, an international professional organisation for educational technology researchers and practitioners. She earned her PhD in 1996 from Virginia Tech in Curriculum and Instruction (Instructional Technology), M.A. in 1991 from Appalachian State University in Curriculum and Instruction (Educational Media), and BA in 1986 from Appalachian State University in Communication Arts.

James W. McNally
University of Michigan, USA & NACDA Program on Aging

Biography

James W. McNally is the Director of the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive containing over 1,500 studies related to health and the aging lifecourse. He currently does methodological research on the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data and has been cited as an expert authority on data imputation. Dr McNally has directed the NACDA Program on Aging since 1998 and has seen the archive significantly increase its holdings with a growing collection of seminal studies on the aging lifecourse, health, retirement and international aspects of aging. He has spent much of his career addressing methodological issues with a specific focus on specialized application of incomplete or deficient data and the enhancement of secondary data for research applications. James W. McNally has also worked extensively on issues related to international aging and changing perspectives on the role of family support in the later stages of the aging lifecourse.

Dr James W. McNally is a Vice-President of IAFOR. He is Chair of the Social Sciences & Sustainability division of the International Academic Advisory Board.

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Featured Presentation (2017) | Methodologies for the Collection of Comparative Community Level Public Health Data: Obtaining Powerful and Statistically Meaningful Findings for Small Populations
Alex Means
University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, USA

Biography

Alexander J. Means is Graduate Program Chair in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He is the author most recently of Learning to Save the Future: Rethinking Education and Work in the Era Digital Capitalism (Routledge, 2018); Educational Commons in Theory and Practice: Global Pedagogy and Politics (Palgrave, 2017); and The Wiley Handbook of Global Education Reform (Wiley-Blackwell, 2018). His research examines educational policy and organisation in relation to political, economic, cultural, technological, and social change.

Panel Presentation (2020) | Education, Work, and Sustainability in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Michael Menchaca
University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, United States

Biography

Michael Menchaca is Chair of the Department of Learning Design and Technology at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He specialises in distance education, and has designed, implemented, and coordinated online and hybrid programs for over 20 years. He serves as editor for the IAFOR Journal of Education: Technology in Education Edition. He was an IT specialist for many years in the public and private sector. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of online learning, technology integration, and social justice with technology.

Featured Panel Presentation (2025) | TBA

Previous Presentations

Featured Panel Presentation (2024) | Practical Approaches to AI in Academia
Panel Presentation (2022) | Reimagining General Education Across Hawaii’s 10-Campus System: Process, Product, and Lessons Learned
Panel Presentation (2021) | Post-pandemic Online Education: Moving from Crisis Intervention to Optimal Experience
Sela V. Panapasa
University of Michigan, USA

Biography

Dr Sela V. Panapasa studies family support and intergenerational exchanges among aged Pacific Islanders living in the US and Pacific region. Her work examines changes in elderly living arrangements and headship status in response to demographic and socioeconomic change. Her interests include family demography, race and ethnicity, measuring health disparities and comparative studies.

Previous Presentations

Panel Presentation (2021) | Cultural Resilience
Featured Panel Presentation (2019) | Independence & Interdependence
Keynote Presentation (2018) | Anticipating Educational Needs That Ensure a Diverse, Equitable, and Inclusive Workforce for a Changing U.S. Population
Hiagi M. Wesley
Brigham Young University – Hawaii, USA

Biography

Having been in the classroom at elementary school, junior and senior high school, and university levels, as well as an administrator at all levels, Dr Hiagi M. Wesley is passionate about student learning and academic success. He has a special interest in how different indigenous cultures affect the academic success of students.

His current responsibilities in leadership and teaching have been in the Hawaiian and Pacific Islands Studies programs at Brigham Young University – Hawaii, USA. He strives to apply effective pedagogy for student learning, in his role as Associate Dean in the College of Arts and Humanities, as he provides services in the area of curriculum development.

His educational background includes a Master’s degree and Supervisory Certificate in Secondary School Administration as well as a Doctorate of Education in Higher Education Administration. Other training includes an ESL certificate as well as Diversity and Sensitivity credentials.

Previous IICEHawaii Presentations

Featured Presentation (2018) | Pacific Indigenous Perspectives vs Global Ways of Learning