1156 | 393 | Love in a Rural Village : An Action Research Study on Transforming Rural Education in Taiwan with Human Geographic Values | Yu-Chun Ku、Ming-Hung Wu、Ching-Yao Wang
This study reflects on how rural education practiced in Taiwan should proceed in the face of the changes brought by globalization. It proposes the concept of “communal voluntary activity villages” to empower children and youth living in under-resourced areas through the support of potential resources existing in their communities and takes an action research approach to explore a collaboration between a university and the community to develop alternative education programs and to enhance local primary education with real-world learning experiences outside school, including educational excursions that combine tourism resources and the kinds of “learning on the ground” that can expand the horizons of young learners._x000D_
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In term of educational outcomes, the rural areas of Taiwan are regarded as falling behind the mainstream, and the existing school education system encourages students who have academic potential to leave their hometowns to pursue their own development in bigger towns or cities. This paper is an attempt to bridge the ambiguity and gap between the “existential space” and the “topophilia” of Yi-fu Tuan, which are the main concerns of humanist geography, and to bring new possibilities and developments to the exploration of rural areas._x000D_
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This paper uses a remote and underdeveloped village in Taiwan as a research base, combining the strengths of universities and community organizations with a community renewal approach from the local economic angle. The establishment of thrift stores is used as a medium to facilitate the development of local human ecology as a model for appropriate economic development of regional governance.
Yu-Chun Ku、Ming-Hung Wu、Ching-Yao Wang
National Dong Hwa University
ID Abstract: 393