Mutual Help or Social Responsibility of Higher Education—A CJCU Experience

Abstract

In 2009, Typhoon Morakot caused severe damage to the mountains in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Laulong was one of the villages affected by the typhoon. While all the communities have made all the efforts to restore their infrastructure and livelihood, Laulong village has its unique mission to restore the history and culture of their own. The residents there identify themselves as “Tavorang Tribe”, whose ancestors were from other areas. After merging with other people, they are gradually losing their tribal language. They have come to realize that their traditional rituals and tribal history are at risk of extinction; thus, they have endeavored to preserve and reconstruct their heritage.
Chang Jung Christian University (CJCU) has involved in reviving these areas after Morakot. The Department of Applied Philosophy targets at this community as the educational field. The way to flip educational field requires taking students into the society. The purpose of this paper is to share the teaching experience of the past and students’ learning outcomes. It will introduce how a university tried to utilize resource from the government to work with a community while claiming to fulfill its social responsibility, but in fact, both actually received mutual benefits by executing this project.