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

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.