Toward Intentional Teaching: The Need For Educator Agency
Bringing Your Whole Self to the Classroom
A Native Hawaiian Perspective on Identity in Early Childhood Education
Nicol Russell
Editors’ Note
As Brian L. Wright and Mona M. Abo-Zena note in their article“ Did You Lose Your Teacher Voice? Reclaiming Educator Agency, Voice, and Choice Through a Critical Lens,” teacher voice and agency are essential for sustaining caring, equitable learning environments for all children.
Educators in different contexts experience varying supports of and challenges to their agency and voice. This impacts how they make decisions about teaching and learning. In her chapter in the upcoming NAEYC book No Single Story: Amplifying the Voices of Asian American and Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Early Educators, Native Hawaiian educator Nicol Russell offers her perspective on identity in early childhood education. She explores the concept of intersectionality and challenges stereotypes and misconceptions while also celebrating the strength that comes from navigating multiple worlds. She shares recommendations for policy and practice along with her reflections and hope for the future.
In the following excerpt, Russell writes about how her identity shapes and influences her teaching. She describes the disconnect she experiences when the early childhood education field claims to honor identity but does not make room for the identities of educators. Her story shows that more work needs to be done so that every educator has agency and voice in their setting.
Knowing and Being in Early Childhood Education
Our identities shape everything— how we speak to children, what we notice, what we celebrate, what we challenge, what we believe is possible. As a Native Hawaiian educator, my identity influences every part of how I teach, lead, and show up in community. My teaching philosophy is rooted in relationships. In Hawaiian culture, learning happens in the context of aloha( love) and pilina( relationships)— deep connections. You cannot teach a child you do not know. You cannot know a child without knowing their family, their history, their gifts. Hawaiian scholar Dr.
18 Young Children
Summer 2026