Social Justice in Schools in Taiwan

On September 26th, I had the wonderful experience of giving a talk on social justice and community service in schools to the Phi Delta Kappa group in Taipei. This is a group of teachers, educators, counselors, administrators, staff, parents, and high school students. It was a diverse group with representatives from many local schools as well as from private schools. Part of the talk focused on work with the aboriginal communities in Taiwan and the need to enter communities in a way that "maintains the humanity and integrity of the group" (Suzuki, 2005). After the talk, a group of us went out to dinner and the conversation focused on how schools can meaningfully partner with local and international communities and create collaborations that are integrated and sustainable. All too often partnerships and engagement remain on the superficial level and do not involve authentic relationship building. The people I spoke with seemed to really care about these issues and think deeply about how to develop meaningful connections in their community service work. I was also impressed with how many people in the crowd were already doing work and supporting the Taiwanese aboriginal groups. I met four students in particular who have spent the past three summers working at a camp for aboriginal children (from all different groups). They were especially moved that they viewed their experience as reciprocal and that both groups were benefiting from the relationships created.