Roundtable Meetings on Nepal and Cambodia Study Tours as part of the Practicum for Convival Global Society

2022年5月10日更新

Scene from the roundtable meeting 1

The Global Collaboration Center conducts study tours for students interested in international cooperation and in social, economic, and political challenges in developing countries. Both undergraduate and master's students can participate, regardless of their major or study year. Up until AY2019, 160 students had participated, engaging in prior learning and then grassroots-level field learning under the supervision of teachers whose research and/or practical experience has been in developing countries. The COVID-19 pandemic led the study tours to be cancelled in AY2020 and AY2021. While it remains unclear what will happen with the pandemic, in anticipation of the resumption of the study tours, roundtable meetings were held on November 19 and November 30, 2021, among students interested in participating in a study tour and those who participated in the AY2019 Nepal and Cambodia study tours.

Scene from the roundtable meeting 2

Respecting the study tour's emphasis on learning from the field, the meetings were held in person, with due precautions taken against COVID-19 infection. Study tour participants talked about how their learning had been deepened by having the prior learning sessions to identify the research hemes then undertaking fieldwork as well as putting together reports on that fieldwork. They also described how going out into the field had enabled them to go beyond theoretical learning to experience issues firsthand. Students who had been in their first and second years at the time were now third- and fourth-year students, and from what they said and how they said it, they were clearly putting their study tour learning to use both directly and indirectly in their particular fields. I was surprised to find how well-known the study tours are, with one student even commenting that she had entered Ochanomizu because she wanted to participate in the study tour. The pandemic will hopefully be over very soon so that field studies can resume.