The 8 Cultural Forces serve as a vehicle that communicates what matters in a learning space, reflecting value systems that connect to the emotional, ancestral, and identity-based cultural roots that shape how people learn and make meaning. In this session, participants will engage in an exploration of how cultural values strengthen learning environments where thinking is valued, visible, and meaningful. Through interactive provocations and a thinking routine, participants will surface the cultural values within their community, seeing how diverse backgrounds come alive through silent dialogue and shared noticing. Participants will also be guided through a novel way to use the 8 Cultural Forces framework to map their core values into actionable teaching and planning moves. This session grows out of ways the presenters have used Indigenous Hawaiian perspectives to guide their use of the 8 Cultural Forces, bringing you examples of how this work shows up in professional development sessions and instructional coaching—demonstrating a systematic, layered way of supporting teachers, leaders, and students through a cultural perspective. Whether attending as a teacher, administrator, specialist or coach, participants will leave with a tool they can immediately apply to help cultural values live—visibly and intentionally—across classrooms, staff rooms, and entire school communities.
Wednesday July 22, 2026 2:50pm - 4:15pm PDT Room 317
