A Place-Based Pedagogical Action Study to Enrich Rural Sustainability: Knowledge Ties of National Taiwan University’s 10-Year Partnership with Pinglin

Shenglin Elijah Chang and Ming-Yang Kuo
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Shenglin Elijah Chang: International Degree Program in Climate Change and Sustainable Development, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
Ming-Yang Kuo: Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-25

Abstract: This study focuses on the loss of youth and talent as one of the most pressing social justice issues leading to unsustainable and inequitable development in rural communities. With the backdrop of the rapid decline in the young rural population and loss of local tacit knowledge, we question how to balance rural sustainability through place-based critical pedagogy by integrating rural societies, agri-economics, and cultural landscapes. To confront the crisis of a loss of young rural talent and local wisdom, interdisciplinary professors from the National Taiwan University initiated place-based pedagogical action research from winter 2011 to winter 2019. This interdisciplinary place-based pedagogy approach supported hundreds of students and educators by nurturing socio-cultural and economic networks that benefit both urban universities and rural communities. Using the curriculum outcomes of this study, we propose the concept of “Knowledge-Ties Youth Rural Sustainability” (KYRS). The KYRS framework addresses two questions: (1) how to bring young talent to rural everyday landscapes in order to sustain rural livelihoods, and (2) how to integrate rural tacit knowledge with contemporary sciences to create new technologies that sustain the environment. The KYRS framework serves as a pedagogical action research blueprint for university educators encountering similar rural challenges and opportunities to those faced by the National Taiwan University in Pinglin.

Keywords: social justice; social sustainability; rural communities; rural education; rural sustainability; youth engagement; talent flows; place-based critical pedagogy; action research; tacit knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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