These educators handle the Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP) subjects and major subjects integrated with IKSP.
In her message, University President Eva Marie Codamon-Dugyon said that the graduates are fortunate to receive the training course among many faculty members in IFSU.
“Your designation today as IK educators equipped with training warrants you to develop and produce more instructional materials on IKSP. This will enable us to become a major institution in IK education,” Dugyon stated.
Dr. Da-Wei Kuan, Executive Director for the Center for Taiwan-Philippines Indigenous Knowledge, Local Knowledge, and Sustainable Studies (CTPILS) and Professor at the National Chengchi University (NCCU), said that they renewed their partnership with IFSU through a memorandum of understanding on May 23 this year, which made the program possible.
“Our common goal is to establish a platform to launch dialogues and knowledge sharing between two countries with local and academic scholars and to make the interdisciplinary collaboration possible,” said Kuan.
Kuan shared that Taiwan and the Philippines have many similarities in many aspects and through collaboration. He hopes that it will broaden and strengthen the network for knowledge production among the collaborative partners including the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the University of Hawaii at Manoa, NCCU, and IFSU.
“We will further show the world the importance and value of indigenous knowledge when encountering various challenges such as the challenge of climate change, the market economy, state politics, and the transition within communities,” he added.
On the other hand, Frances Tuguinay, one of the IK educators, said that the program helped her broaden her knowledge in IKSP. She also mentioned that she was able to discover old tuwali terms while doing her instructional material on 'the Ifugao Language.'
The IIKETP is one of the five program components of the CTPILS launched on July 12, 2019 at IFSU. It aims to build up a core of indigenous knowledge educators from the Department of Education and IFSU with the active participation of different indigenous knowledge holders and experts from the communities and academe.(JDP/FBR-PIA CAR, Ifugao)
