In June 2025, graduate students from the UH Mānoa College of Education (COE) and National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU) explored the intersections of sustainability, STEM, and culture through an immersive field study in Taiwan and Hawaiʻi.
Led by Curriculum Studies Professor Pauline Chinn, School of Teacher Education Assistant Professor Stacy Potes, and NSYSU Center for Teacher Education Director Pat Shein, participants interacted with educators, researchers, and indigenous community leaders to see how place-based education and indigenous knowledge systems shape teaching, learning, and research across cultures.
“Viewing teaching and research through this cross-cultural lens allowed us to identify similarities and differences between Taiwan and Hawaiʻi,” Chinn said. “These insights contributed to participants’ curricular and research projects that recognized how integrating culture, environment, and indigenous practices into education leads to healthier, more sustainable, and resilient communities and ecosystems.”
In Taiwan, students visited a science and technology museum, showcasing STEM education. Visits to Rukai, Paiwan, and Amis schools and villages illustrated how indigenous culture shaped gardens, arts, curriculum, and built pride in cultural identity. There were connections to Hawaiʻi in the language, canoe-building and voyaging, respect for nature, plants, and shared issues of plastic pollution.
In Hawaiʻi, NSYSU participants visited Jefferson Elementary School, performed service learning at Ka Papa Loʻi o Kānewai, removed invasive fish from Mānoa Stream, shared a Taiwan stream ecology lesson at Waikīkī Aquarium, and made lau lau at East West Center.
COE students enrolled in EDCS 433 One Ocean, One World, One Health: Exploring Sustainability, Indigenous Knowledge, and Education Across Borders. Plans for the next cross-cultural immersion with a Pacific focus are underway.
