Diversity, Unity, and Global Citizenship Education: A Case Study in Community Outreach Program in Indonesia

Abstract

Community Outreach Program is an established international service-learning program which has been around for 22 yr. The program offers an inter-discipline activity set in an international atmosphere to connect the academic theories with the actual social life and problems in the less developed rural community in East Java Province, Indonesia. There have been students from 16 university partners from 10 different countries ever participating in the program. Studies from the observations and opinions by the university partners claimed that COP has had an impactful outcomes in students‟ learning in the areas of diversity awareness, citizenship, and values development. The first study in 2009 on students‟ expectations in participating in COP reported that the students were aware that joining COP would expose them in diversity through working along with international friends and the community in the village. In this current study, 90 reflection books of COP 2015 Asian participants from Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Indonesia were further studied to test and evaluate how COP as a service-learning program has provided an education setting to educate caring and responsible citizens, who were open to other cultures, and respectful of differences. Students' responses affirmed the positive effects of COP on the acceptance of diversity and sense of civic responsibility.