Fa’afetai Lesa is an Assistant Professor of Samoan. He holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Education (PhD) in Curriculum Studies, a Master’s degree in English As a Second Language (ESL), a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Secondary Education, and an Associate of Arts (AA) in General Education. His teaching career began in Samoa in 1987 as an Elementary teacher. After the completion of his B.A in Education at the University of Hawaii in 1989, he taught for a year at McKinley High School. He was hired to teach Samoan at the University of Hawai’i in the Fall of 1989.  Since then he has taught First, Second, and Third-year Samoan classes. In addition to being the coordinator of the Samoan Language Program from 2007-2016, he has taught a load of 12 credits every semester for the last 31 years. His research work aims at the development of Samoan youth cultural identity through heritage language competency. He lives in Kaneohe Hawaii with his wonderful wife and three beautiful daughters.

faafetai@hawaii.edu
(808) 956-3556