Global Civic Engagement as an Empowering Device for Cross-Ethnic and Cross-Cultural Understanding in Taiwan

Author(s):  
Mei-Ying Chen ◽  
Fu-hsing Su

This study observed the feasibility of a general education course in facilitating global civic engagement for twenty-six participants from a Taiwanese university. Such a commitment was considered crucial to the fostering of cross-ethnic and cross-cultural understanding of immigration and new immigrants as a global issue within the Taiwanese context. Oral presentations, film/video watching, and service learning sessions were arranged to promote critical appraisals of things, persons, and issues related to foreign ethnicities and cultures. Data of the study consisted of relevant writings produced by the participants. The results of analyses revealed that the participants developed an awareness of persons, things, and issues that were cross-ethnic or cross-cultural in nature. Consequently, they achieved attitudinal and perceptional change of foreign ethnicities or cultures or generated critical appraisals of specific things or issues. Additionally, a considerable number of them displayed motivational readiness for global civic engagement.

2019 ◽  
pp. 276-297
Author(s):  
Mei-Ying Chen ◽  
Fu-hsing Su

This study observed the feasibility of a general education course in facilitating global civic engagement for twenty-six participants from a Taiwanese university. Such a commitment was considered crucial to the fostering of cross-ethnic and cross-cultural understanding of immigration and new immigrants as a global issue within the Taiwanese context. Oral presentations, film/video watching, and service learning sessions were arranged to promote critical appraisals of things, persons, and issues related to foreign ethnicities and cultures. Data of the study consisted of relevant writings produced by the participants. The results of analyses revealed that the participants developed an awareness of persons, things, and issues that were cross-ethnic or cross-cultural in nature. Consequently, they achieved attitudinal and perceptional change of foreign ethnicities or cultures or generated critical appraisals of specific things or issues. Additionally, a considerable number of them displayed motivational readiness for global civic engagement.


2019 ◽  
pp. 517-538
Author(s):  
Mei-Ying Chen ◽  
Fu-hsing Su

This study observed the feasibility of a general education course in facilitating global civic engagement for twenty-six participants from a Taiwanese university. Such a commitment was considered crucial to the fostering of cross-ethnic and cross-cultural understanding of immigration and new immigrants as a global issue within the Taiwanese context. Oral presentations, film/video watching, and service learning sessions were arranged to promote critical appraisals of things, persons, and issues related to foreign ethnicities and cultures. Data of the study consisted of relevant writings produced by the participants. The results of analyses revealed that the participants developed an awareness of persons, things, and issues that were cross-ethnic or cross-cultural in nature. Consequently, they achieved attitudinal and perceptional change of foreign ethnicities or cultures or generated critical appraisals of specific things or issues. Additionally, a considerable number of them displayed motivational readiness for global civic engagement.


Author(s):  
Helene Krauthamer ◽  
Matthew Petti

This chapter discusses civic engagement and service-learning in higher education at an urban, land-grant, Historically Black College/University, with a particular focus on the challenges and benefits of service-learning for commuter students. After a discussion of service learning and how it exemplifies the Kolb learning model and effective educational practice, the chapter presents illustrations of civic engagement and extracurricular community-based learning in an English BA program through its two student organizations – The Literary Club and Sigma Tau Delta-Alpha Epsilon Rho. The chapter also provides an example of how service-learning has been implemented in a General Education program and specifically in a writing course. The chapter highlights the partnerships with community organizations that have developed, presents reflective testimonials about the impact of these experiences, provides recommendations for strengthening community-based learning, and concludes that service-learning/community-based learning results in a sense of community for all participants.


Author(s):  
Prasart Nuangchalerm

The environmental and cultural problems in Thailand are large and widely distributed. To address these problems, public awareness must be raised and all sectors of society must assume their civic responsibilities to assist in sustaining both our environment and the local culture. This study sought to engage undergraduate students in civic engagement projects in order to enhance their self-efficacy to address such problems through service learning experiences. One hundred and ninety six undergraduate students participated in a general education course on civic education during the first semester of 2012. This course provided students the opportunity to explore theoretical aspects of citizenship as well as the opportunity to practice community service. Such community service allows the students to experience and learn how the community members live. Data was collected by a variety of methods; self-efficacy questionnaires, student reports, journal writing and reflections, and interviews. Findings revealed that the students had high levels of self-efficacy and increased their levels of civic engagement through the community service conducted.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1329878X2110081
Author(s):  
TJ Thomson

This study uses news photographs and interviews with journalists to explore how Australia’s unprecedented 2019–2020 bushfire season was depicted for Australian and non-Australian audiences in order to extend transnational understanding of iconicity’s tenets and how news values vary across contexts. It does so first by examining the Sydney Morning Herald’s coverage over 3 months and then by contrasting this with international coverage that began in early 2020 once the issue spilled onto the world stage. Australia’s coverage focused intensely on human actors involved in the disaster while the vast numbers of affected animals were virtually absent. In contrast, international media visually depicted the disaster as an environmental and ecological issue with global consequences. The results suggest a need for a definition of iconicity that is inclusive to non-human actors and to inanimate forces that are personified. It also extends our cross-cultural understanding of the visual expression of news values.


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