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The study aims to investigate Okinawan identity development among individuals who grew up in Okinawa and came to Hawai'i to study at a university or community college. The grounded theory approach was used for the qualitative inquiry. Nineteen participants were interviewed about their self-descriptions, spaces where their Okinawan consciousness was provoked and influences of activities and learning regarding Okinawa and Hawai'i on their Okinawan identities. The results pointed to three dimensions of socio-psychological processes of Okinawan identity development in Hawai'i, namely: (1) self-identification as Okinawan in Hawai'i; (2) Okinawan consciousness and identity salience; and (3) a strengthened sense of Okinawan identity. The results were used to construct and discuss the core category of "being more Okinawan in Hawai'i", subsuming all the concepts regarding self-identification, consciousness and identity as Okinawan. The study demonstrated the probability that the more frequently Okinawan international university and college students self-identified as Okinawan and the more intense their Okinawan consciousness and identity salience became, the more likely it was that their Okinawan identities became stronger. The study elucidated the socio-psychological processes of Okinawan identity development in Hawai'i by examining the history and society in Hawai'i to contextualize the empirical results.

After Japan's annexation in 1879, Okinawa came under the unprecedented influence of Japanization. This research examined how learning in Hawai'i influenced the Okinawan sense of identity of 11 Okinawan students. Grounded theory analysis of interview transcripts indicated that students became more conscious as Okinawan through encounters and interactions with local people, including Okinawans, and Hawaiians in Hawai'i, and Okinawan events and activities there. Participating in an Okinawan club at the university provided opportunities for the students to express their Okinawan identity, interact with club members, and take responsibility as representatives of Okinawa, which promoted students' Okinawan consciousness and identity salience.

Engagement is related to important student outcomes such as persistence, retention, and grades. It is key to all students' learning, but it may be particularly important for culturally diverse students who may have fewer models and other resources for keeping themselves engaged. As the institutions of higher education become increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse, instructors are challenged to engage a more diverse student population. This paper describes how three university instructors applied the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE) Standards for Effective Pedagogy to their instruction in courses of general psychology, educational psychology, and statistics in order to increase students' cognitive and social engagement. The CREDE Standards are strategies of instruction that incorporate small group discussions and making connections between students' prior experiences and abstract concepts.

This research examines some modes of Japanization through education in Okinawa where Japanese influences on education have permeated after Japan's annexation. I investigate how a book excerpt entitled "Mizu no Tozai," included in high school textbooks in Okinawa, constructs Japanese identity. "Mizu no Tozai" functions as nihonjinron discourse, which is characterized by 'Japanese culture,' 'Japanese uniqueness,' and 'Japaneseness.' The 'East-West' dichotomy, depicted in this "nihonjinron" discourse, induces students to choose 'Japan'/'Japanese culture' and become 'Japanese.' Practice sections of "Mizu no Tozai" in textbooks as well as a textbook guide operate to be complicit in this Japanese identity construction. Through a critical analysis of discourse, I reveal that the "nihonjinron" discourse operating as official knowledge, in collusion with the other discursive texts, produces a position subjected to the discourse of Japanization within which Okinawans become 'Japanese.' I problematize these discursive texts as a systematic form of Japanizing Okinawans' minds through education.