Announcement for International Symposium on July 2, 2022
International Symposium for the 20th Anniversary of SLAN
The Future of Service-Learning in Asia: A Regional Dialogue on Networking
The Service-Learning in Asia Network (SLAN) and the ICU’s Service-Learning Center (SLC) are celebrating the 20th anniversary this year. Taking the opportunity that ICU is hosting the SLAN Business meeting this year, we would like to hold an international symposium on service-learning in Asia to reflect on our past and discuss our direction in the next 20 years to come. UNESCO published the futuristic report on education titled Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education. It also implies that common good is not singular but plural, meaning each region may have a specific context in the value and culture. How has the SLAN enhanced achievement of common good in the Asian context? How can SLAN do a better work in its networking and enriching our programs?
As the ICU is a primary host and was an initiator of SLAN, we would like to present ICU’s case and further organize a panel discussion on the direction of the SLAN and related collective action in the Asian region to enhance the role of higher education in working towards common good, in general, and quality of service-learning in particular. In 2002 the first SLAN conference focused on curriculum development, network building, institutionalization of SL. After twenty years, where are we? There is a need for further development of pedagogy, deepening quality of network, and alignment with institutional mission and goals. Among several challenges facing SLAN, the focus of the symposium is the future of SL in Asia and its networking development.
Date and Venue
Date: Saturday, 2 July, 2022
Time: 1:00-4:00pm (JST)
Mode: Hybrid (online and face-to-face)
Venue: International Conference Room, Kiyoshi Togasaki Memorial Dialogue House 2nd floor, ICU, Japan
Language: English
Note: Translation by ICU Students will be provided those participants joining face-to-face
How to Participate
Please fill out and submit the online form.
- Registration Form for attending the International Symposium for Service-Learning
Registration is CLOSED.
Notes:
For in-person attendance, we will limit the number to the first 50 participants on a first-come, first-served basis, in consideration of new coronavirus infection.
Online (ZOOM) access information will be sent separately to your registered e-mail address.
Program Timeline
12:30 Registration
13:00-13:10 Opening Remark by President of ICU, Shoichiro Iwakiri
13:10-13:35 Presentation by ICU
Past, Present, and the Future of ICU’s SL: What we learned from networking with partners in Asia
Mikiko Nishimura, Director, Service-Leaning Center, ICU
13:35-13:40 Q&A
13:40-14:20 Panel Discussion
Panel Interactive Discussion on the Future of SL in Asia (post/with Corona, with practitioners, changing socio-political context, ultimate goals/outcomes in the region)
Panel:
Carol Ma, Associate Professor, Singapore University of Social Sciences (East Asia)
Betty McCann, President, Silliman University (Southeast Asia)
Mercy Pushpalatha, Former President, Lady Doak College, India and Consultant, United Board of Christian Higher Education in Asia (South Asia)
Chair: Mikiko Nishimura
14:20-14:30 Break
14:30-14:50 Comments from SL specialists in other regions
Tim Stanton, Former Director, Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford University (USA)
Florence McCarthy, Former Special Advisor for Service-Learning at ICU (Australia)
14:50-15:35 Open Discussion
15:35-15:45 Closing Remarks by VPAA of ICU, Robert ESKILDSEN
Guest Speaker
Carol Ma, Associate Professor, Singapore University of Social Sciences
Carol Ma is known among academia and thecommunity sector as an active and passionatepractitioner of Service-Learning (S-L) and aging inAsia. Carol is the founding member of S-L at LingnanUniversity and has revitalized the Service-LearningAsia Network. As a pioneer of S-L in Hong Kong,she had set up the S-L Higher Education Network inHong Kong and was among the first to promote S-Lin Mainland China. She believes S-L can contribute toa win-win situation for all stakeholders includingteachers, students, communities, and the regions ofAsia. Carol serves as a senior consultant to conductvarious community-based research and trainings forstudents, teachers, and community partners fromTaiwan, Hong Kong, Bhutan, Philippines, Vietnam,Canada, Indonesia, Japan, etc. As an energetic andcommitted scholar, Carol has published books andarticles on S-L and aging in refereed journals andpolicy papers for global agencies, includingUNESCAP and US higher education institutions.
Currently, Carol is the senior fellow of the Centre for Experiential learning, associate professor, andHead of Gerontology Programmes (Master & PhD) at Singapore University of Social Sciences. Sheis leading the curriculum development, community engagement, and research in gerontology andpromoting transdisciplinary education to address aging issues. She has led various aging and service-learning projects, namely, the elder learning development project, the age-friendly cities project(accredited by WHO), and the intergenerational project on health & wellbeing, etc. In view of thepandemic, Carol has taken the lead to work on a project on Reminiscences in Dementia Care duringthe COVID-19 pandemic with National Archives of Singapore and Dementia Singapore.
Betty McCann, President, Silliman University
Dr. Betty Cernol McCann assumed the presidency of Silliman University on 1 June 2018 as the 13th and first woman
president of Silliman. In January 2019 to December 2021, she served as President of the Association of Christian
Universities and Colleges in Asia (ACUCA). She sits on the Board of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational
Associations (COCOPEA) in the Philippines. She is a registered psychologist with the Board of Psychology of the
Professional Regulation Commission of the Philippines and a certified specialist in social psychology (CSSP) by the
Psychological Association of the Philippines. Her professional interests revolve around higher education, servicelearning,
environment and stewardship, gender and society, participatory management and whole person education.
Dr. McCann served the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UB) in various capacities - first as
Associate Director at the HongKong-based Asian Christian Higher Education Institute in 2002-2006, then as Program
Director for South Asia, and finally as Vice President for Programs in 2007 to 2013.
Mercy Pushpalatha, Former President, Lady Doak College, India and Consultant, Former United Board of Christian Higher Education in Asia
Mercy Pushpalatha, Ph.D was the Program Consultant for South Asia Programs in the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia(from October 2018 till March 2022).She coordinated the service-learning and peace education programs, in the United Board. She is formerly the Principal and Secretary of Lady Doak College, India (2008-2017). During her tenure as principal, Dr Mercy and her colleagues introduced Life Frontier engagement -a community-based action research and experiential learning initiative into the curriculum for all the final year Undergraduate students. Among her publications in Service-Learning is the recent article Promoting Whole person Education through Service-Learning in Pre and Post Pandemic Period (2021), published in the online series of International Christian University, Japan: Service-Learning in the era of “new Normal”: Reflections in the Models of Service-Learning and Future Partnerships. She serves in the Academic Sounding Board of, UNISERVITATE, Service-Learning in Catholic Higher Education.
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Tim Stanton, Former Director, Haas Center for Public Service, Stanford University
Tim Stanton is Senior Engaged Scholar with Ravensong Associates, through which he consults on the design and development of engaged scholarship in the US, Africa and Asia. Over 30 years at Stanford University he established and directed the Bing Overseas Studies Program in Cape Town; co-founded and directed the Community
Health concentration at Stanford Medical School; served as associate director and director of the Haas Center for Public Service. He was adjunct education lecturer for Queens University, Ontario, and Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor in International Studies at Northwestern University. Prior to Stanford he directed Human Ecology
Field Studies at Cornell University.
As consultant Stanton assisted Campus Compact in organizing national faculty institutes on service-learning curriculum development, coordinated The Research Universities Civic Engagement Network (TRUCEN), and co-authored the online Research University Engaged Scholarship Toolkit. He served as academic advisor and trainer for South Africa’s Community-Higher Education-Service Partnerships (CHESP) programme. He has published numerous articles, co-authored a book, Service-Learning: A Movement's Pioneers Reflect on its Origins, Practice, and Future, and co-curated the Service-Learning History archive (https://exhibits.stanford.edu/servicelearning). He earned a PhD in human and organization systems at Fielding Graduate University.
Florence McCarthy, Former Special Advisor for Service-Learning at ICU
Florence McCarthy, has been closely associated with the Service-Learning Asia Network since 2000. She has supported the introduction of service learning in 14 institutions in 11 Asian and South Asian countries encouraging the inclusion of s-l in their institutional curriculum and practice. In the 1990’s, She was Associate Professor and Director of the International Development Education Department, Teachers College, Columbia University, and from 2000, was Visiting Professor in Management and Consultant in Service Learning, International Christian University, Mitaka, Japan. Working in South and Southeast Asia, her work focused on education and societal change, the role of women, and migration and refugee issues. During the 1980’s she worked extensively in policy areas related to decentralization, impact assessment, and to creating women’s development programs of Scandinavian nations, including women’s roles in agricultural production. The latter area was the focus of her leadership of a unit in the Policy and Planning Division of the Ministry of Agriculture in Bangladesh.
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Mikiko Nishimura, Professor, International Christian University
Mikiko NISHIMURA is a Professor of Sociology of Education and International Educational Development, Director of Service-Learning Center and Chair of Education and Language Education Department at International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to the current position, she was an Associate Specialist at Japan International Cooperation Agency, a development consultant, and an Associate Professor at Graduate School of International Cooperation Studies of Kobe University. Her primary research interests are analysis of education reforms and policies, community participation in education, gender in education, civic/community engagement and liberal arts education. She has worked extensively in education planning and research in developing countries as a development consultant and researcher. Her current research focuses on gender and community participation in schools in Kenya, Positive Deviance Study in public primary schools in Uganda, and creativity and critical thinking in Japanese higher education. Her recent publication includes Community Participation with Schools in Developing Countries: Towards Equitable and Inclusive Basic Education for All (Routledge, 2020) and Doing Liberal Arts Education: The Global Case Studies (Springer, 2019).