Place-Based Book Club for Teaching within the Context of Hawaiʻi
The Place-Based Book Club invites new and long-standing faculty to participate in thoughtful discussions about teaching on our campus. Through engaging with carefully selected readings, participants explore strategies to better support student success and deepen their understanding of Hawaiʻi’s rich cultural landscape.
Place-Based Book Club’s Featured Book of the Spring
Kaiāulu: Gathering Tides
by Mehana Blaich Vaughan
Based on two decades of interviews with more than sixty Hawaiian elders, leaders, and fishermen and women, this book shares stories of enduring community efforts to perpetuate kuleana. A personal tribute to a community that is based not on ownership, but reciprocity, responsibility, and caring for the places that shape and sustain us all.
About the Author
Mehana Blaich Vaughan is an environmental social scientist whose work focuses on indigenous and community-based natural resource management. In addition to understanding and nurturing community care and governance of land and waters in Hawai‘i, her research, teaching and outreach are all interconnected around themes of eco-cultural restoration, ‘āina-based education, and community or collaborative management. Students in her classes participate in research projects that meet community needs, and community members help to serve as teachers.
Dr. Vaughan is a Professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. She is also jointly appointed in the Sea Grant College Program (SOEST) and Hui ‘Āina Momona, an effort to build connections between the University system and rural Hawai‘i communities to enhance community-level capacity for natural resource management. Dr. Vaughan is the mother of three children and lives on the island of Kaua‘i, where she grew up.
The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is dedicated to becoming a Native Hawaiian place of learning. The university community is made up of diverse cultural and linguistic groups who contribute to the core mission of the University to “to serve the people and places of Hawaiʻi, and our neighbors in the Pacific and Asia” (quoted from UH Mānoa Strategic Plan 2015-2025). Our faculty comes from across the globe, bringing a wealth of perspectives and often limited experience with Hawaiʻi’s unique cultural and educational context. The Place-Based Book Club fosters a collaborative exchange of ideas, empowering faculty to create inclusive and culturally responsive learning environments.
Place-based educational approaches encourage teaching and learning that are grounded in the land, peoples, history, and cultures of the place. The Place-Based Book Club will provide an open forum for deep conversations about:
- What aloha ʻāina means and how it can be implemented in teachings and learnings happening on our campus
- Hawaiʻi’s cultural heritage and how it should inform and guide our pedagogy
- How the historical and cultural underpinnings of the place (may) affect student interactions and relationships in the classroom.
The Place-Based Education Library promotes faculty awareness about teaching within the context of Hawaiʻi. Visit our Place-Based Library page for more information.
Place-Based Book Club for Teaching within the Context of Hawaiʻi is supported by Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education (POD Network) to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion across the higher education institutions. The OFDAS Center for Teaching Excellence will coordinate book clubs for Spring 25, Fall 25, and Spring 26 semesters at UH Mānoa. All faculty, staff, and campus community members are encouraged to join.