APCoPxICSL

Our IARSLCE APCoP X ICSL International Conference on Service-Learning has just concluded. This was a special occasion, a special place, and a special crowd. This is the first time IARSLCE has a regional conference in the Asia-Pacific Region.  This is also the first time the ICSL series of conferences join with IARSLCE, linking our region strongly with the global community in a meaningful, productive manner.  

The ICSL started in 2014, partly to encourage PolyU staff to engage in scholarly research in SL, to inform our own teaching of SL.  It has since grown into a truly international conference, focusing on the East Asia region.  

The IARSLCE, of course, is the only international organization whose primary purpose is to cultivate, encourage, and present research across all engagement forms and educational levels, since 2001.  In 2021, a discussion among members from the Asia-Pacific region led to the setting up of a community of practice.  PolyU volunteered to be the provincial secretariat. A series of webinars were arranged.  There is an overlap of members between the APCoP and ICSL, and a strong overlap of purpose.  Hence the cooperation between the two to organize this conference. 

176 people have registered for the conference. Among them, 87 are presenters, making 52 presentations of all kinds.  They come from 52 institutions in 12 countries. 

In this map members of Asia-Pacific are clustered in the middle of the world map.  This illustrates graphically why we need our own conference.  As much as we all want to participate in the IARSLCE conferences, which are usually held in USA.  It is just too far, too expensive to travel in large numbers.  

Hong Kong is the place where the SL community in Greater China meets with the global community face-to-face.  PolyU is very proud to act as the bridge.  In parallel to this international conference, there is a national China conference, that speaks Chinese as the medium.  

This crowd exemplifies the diversity of the Region: different languages, ethnic identities, cultural heritage, economic systems, political systems, even inequalities and injustices of each of our own.   Just to highlight some of this diversity,  In the Philippines, their vibrant SL is strongly motivated and influenced by the Catholic faith. They also have their own national language alongside English. In India, they have so many difference languages, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and many other languages, long history, and a very distinctive culture, which give their SL a distinctive flavour.  

Similar things are happening in other Asia-Pacific  countries and regions. Let me illustrate that diversity and some practical implications with an observation from one of our projects.  At one point, a class on SL at PolyU set up a global classroom with a class on global leadership from an university from the USA.  It was conducted using video conferencing software.  When a professor asked a question, an American student jumped in to answer.  Before he finished, another American students cut in, objecting to the first American student.  In the mean time, the HK students asked each other, “What should we say?”  After some discussions among themselves, a HK student answered, for the group.  It may be a stereotype, but it was obvious the the American students operate more individually.  While the HK students stress on the collective.  

Later, both sets of students travelled to, and met each other for a joint project in Rwanda, halfway across the world.  Some of the American students were black, and they were somewhat similar in appearance to the local people.  On the other hand, the local children call the HK students “Muzungu”! which, I was told, means white or pale people, or wanderers.  I know I am not black.  But I never imagined someone might consider me white. What other people perceive of me can be so different from my own self image.  

At one point the HK students were not happy with something that the American students did.  At first the HK students did not say anything.  When the issue persisted, they felt they cannot tolerate it, and went to their professors to complain.  We advised them to talk to the American students directly.  When the American students were told about it, they were surprised because the HK students never told them about it.  If the HK students brought this up earlier, the issue would have been resolved much earlier.  Different cultures have very different ways to interact with each other, and to handle differences and disagreement.  In many ways having differences and disagreement have to be expected, not necessarily avoided.  These can be what are sometimes referred to as “teachable moments”, where we explore, discuss and learn.

That, and other experiences in international SL, have led us to be interested in the concept of cultural identity and cultural distance, and its implications on ISL.  What matters is not so much physical distance, in terms of language, appearance, culture, economics, religion, diet, dress, and more.  Students tend to learn more when they serve in a community which is culturally distant from their own.  For example, Australia is closer, geographically, to Indonesia and other South East Asian countries, than USA, Canada, and UK.  But culturally, it is probably much closer to USA, Canada and UK.  There is reason to believe that Australian students may learn more in South East Asia than in Canda.  

Similarly, HK is close to Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar, than to Singapore or USA.  Yet culturally, particularly for young people, HK may be closer to Singapore or USA than to Indo-China.  Hence HK students may learn more in Indo-China than in Singapore.  And one does not have to go to another country to come upon such issues.  Many Asian countries are strongly multi-ethnic, such as Malaysia, Singapore, India, Myanmar, …

Cross-cultural SL provides the environment in which we learn about these issues and how to deal with them in a the real world.  Not just in the abstract in the classroom. 

 

But how pervasive are these phenomenon related to cultural identity and distance ?  Much research is needed.  On this aspect of SL and beyond.  Which we are fully capable of pursuing here in the region, if we work together.  We are hoping that APCoP can be the platform to enable such scholarly cooperation.  

We are united in a common vision: service-learning.  We believe education to be the key to building a better, more harmonious world. And service-learning as a key pedagogy to nurture the next generation global responsible citizens.  Let us work together.