ABSTRACT
Emphasizing the holistic nature of teaching and learning informed by Pacific cultures and languages, Tolu Muliaina questions development priorities that continue to advocate and value English and French proficiency to the detriment of oral traditions of Pacific Islanders. The chapter attempts to address the dilemma between external development educational priorities and Pacific Islander aspirations to strengthen local cultures including languages and knowledge transfer. Reflecting on teaching a third-year course on Resource Conservation and Management at The University of the South Pacific (USP), Fiji, Muliaina describes the culturally informed, innovative pedagogy and practice embedded in the course which includes aligning course content and assessment regimes to the home cultures of Pacific Islander students. Muliaina also shares how resource conservation practitioners and community elders inform the learning that takes place in the course. The chapter concludes by showing the ways in which these pedagogies are enhanced when activist platforms are creating during and after the course for student to transmit their mana (knowledge, power and blessing) to the next generation of Pacific leaders.
