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Kourtney Kawano is an Assistant Professor at the Berkeley School of Education. A Native Hawaiian woman from Nānākuli, Oʻahu, she is committed to centering place-based stories and histories in her academic work, paying respect to Indigenous caretakers. Her interdisciplinary scholarship engages in critical race resistance, emphasizing the roles of culture, Indigeneity, and race/ethnicity in shaping teaching and learning from pre-school to adulthood. Dr. Kawano's research focuses on four main threads: family-school-community relations, identity formation among Indigenous Peoples, issues of equity and access in education, and the narratives of social change within educational settings. Her work has been published in several academic journals. Kawano previously served as a high-school English teacher and an academic coach for community college students, and she volunteers with HONUA Scholars, which provides free college and career programming for students interested in STEMM fields.
The Mathematics Subject GRE is required for the Fall 2026 admissions cycle. General GRE is optional.