Globalization, Standardization and Social Capital: Everyday Practices of Response to Limited Access to Education
Louie Benedict R. Ignacio
Department of Political Science
University of Santo Tomas
While education and the education sector remains to acquire the biggest portion of budgets from 2018,
2019 and 2020 and spending for preparation and acquisition of education remains to be the top spending priority for Filipinos, the incidence of out-of-school youth remains to be high, the Philippines is lagging in terms of quality education across Asia, and education-market demand-connection remains to be problematic.
This reality coincides with the global demand for standards on education initiated by regional organizations such as the United Nations, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and even affiliate organizations such as Asian University Network. This demand pushes for higher educational institutions to either increase standards for admissions or even increase in tuition to pay for upgrading, development, and innovations in their offerings.
This paper looks at the various global, national and local interventions provided by different institutions to address the concern on difficult access to education. Specifically, this study is to look at the comparative struggles in different settings/countries and identify everyday practices to overcome identified difficulties. Focusing on human and social capital as theoretical framework, this paper reviews cases of varying access to public and private educational institutions in Southeast Asia. This study suggests that an individual’s social capital provide information, influence on agents, credentials, and reinforcements to be at a comparable advantage against others in acquiring quality education. This consequently leads to unequal opportunities to access quality education.
“Iskolar ng Bayan o Iskolar ng Pamahalaan?”: The Role of State-Sponsored Education in the Filipino Youth Formation
Ronald B. Bustos
Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University
Leonardo D. Buyan, Jr.
Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University
MAIN PRESENTER
Ronald Bracero Bustos is a Social Science instructor at Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University-South La Union Campus. He holds a Master of Arts in Social and Development Studies degree from the University of the Philippines-Baguio and a bachelor's degree in Secondary Education, Major in Social Studies from Saint Louis University. His research interests include gender and education, rural development, and Philippine state and politics.
In 2017, the Philippine state signed into law RA 10931 also known as the “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act.” This law aimed to provide quality education to all Filipino students as an essential condition to promote social justice and advance nation-building. However, expansion of such welfare policy can also be interpreted as an instrument of the state for social control which resonates with the claim of Joel Migdal (1988) that the state’s mobilization of its people requires high levels of social control indicated by compliance, participation, and legitimation. As such, it is argued by the paper that state- sponsored education has increasingly become a function of the state or, borrowing the words of Althusser (1971), an ideological apparatus to further its politicizing ideals. This can be manifested on how state university students develop their political consciousness in terms of their electoral choices, awareness of issues, and stand on pressing problems of today. Examination of available primary and secondary data reveals that their political consciousness is evolving and is constantly influenced by various socialization factors such as the political framework of the state, academic environment, cultural conditions, and sociological currents. As the data show an evolving trend of political consciousness among the youth, this paper hinges on building the relationship between a Duterte-led Philippine state and state-sponsored education.
Development of the Pagpapayabong Program and Its Effects to the Resilience, Well-being, and Personal Coping of Selected Filipino Youth
John Ismael J. Medina
Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas
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Marie Antonette S. Vargas
College of Science, University of Santo Tomas
MAIN PRESENTER
Mr. John Ismael J. Medina graduated with a degree of bachelor of science in Psychology (cum laude) at Far Eastern University and was one of the outstanding senior students of the university in 2016. He was the former president of the FEU Psychology Society and Psychological Societies Association on Mental Health under the Philippine Mental Health Association. He was also the executive director of the Psychological Association of the Philippines Junior Affiliates, the student arm of PAP, in the same year. He earned his psychometrician license in 2016 and took teaching units in De La Salle University-Dasmarinas in 2017. In the same year, he earned his professional teaching license.
Adolescence is one of the most crucial stages in human development. During this stage, adolescents are exposed to and immersed in a lot of life-changing experiences in which some may be psychologically disturbing or worse, mentally handicapping. The aim of this research is to develop a psychological intervention program grounded in the teaching and techniques of mindfulness and Positive Psychology. The Pagpapayabong Program is designed to promote resilience, well-being, and personal coping to selected urban poor Filipino youth age 18-25.
The study was divided into two phases: (1) Development of the Pagpapayabong program and (2) Testing the efficacy of the program. Five modules were developed in response to the four focal themes generated from FGD and individual interviews to the pilot participants. Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale (RPWBS), Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS), and Life-Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) were used before and after the implementation of the said program. A total of 20 participants were randomly assigned to the control and experimental conditions of the study. Data analysis was done by employing measures of central tendeny and variance and non-parametric test; analysis of the qualitative responses of the participants during the program implementation were also analyzed in the study to know its effectivity.
Louie Benedict R. Ignacio earned his AB in Political Science degree from the University of Santo Tomas, his Master of Arts in Sociology from the Ateneo de Manila University, and his Doctor of Philosophy in Political science, again, from the University of Santo Tomas. He has published works on urban sociology and governance, and youth and women empowerment. He has engaged both into various researches as well, both self-initiated and institution-commissioned either from private higher educational institutions or government agencies. He is a member of the Board of Directors and currently the Treasurer of the Philippine Sociological Society. He is a college teacher and researcher, was a program chair, a director for student affairs, and a college dean.
Exclusivity and Inclusivity in the Development of Philippine Sports Governing Bodies
Micah Jeiel R. Perez
Department of History, Ateneo de Manila University
This paper argues that the establishment of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) throughout in the 1990s was driven as much by a political need to distance the Ramos administration from that of Marcos as it was in pursuing the stated goals of the new institution for the good of the country.
Project: Gintong Alay (PGA) was an elite sports training program created in 1979 under the Marcos administration. Funds funneled into the program, as well as its strict and direct supervision by Michael Keon, saw the attainment of many historical sports achievements. Widespread media coverage, the popularity of its athletes, and the number of medals won all helped reinforce PGA’s place as the country’s golden age of sports. In comparison, the PSC’s mass-based sports approach stems from the “sports-for-all” philosophy of President Fidel Ramos. It aimed to “democratize” sports, moving away from PGA’s “exclusive” structure representing the monopoly of power, wealth, and influence that flourished under Marcos, and towards an inclusive policy aiming to engage the maximum number of Filipinos in sports activities, with the nation as a whole reaping the benefits of good health and good values.
Yet the PSC’s inability to recreate PGA’s success at the international level questions whether the former’s emphasis on a rhetoric of inclusivity had more to do with distancing one administration from another rather than establishing a working national level sports program within the socio-economic context of the Philippines.